Destiny (Vanish Book Four) Read online

  “I had a dream last night. I haven’t dreamt or even really slept in a long time.”

  “And…”

  “It’s not a big deal; I just thought you might want to know…”

  “Come on Dante, what is it?”

  “I know who killed me,” he mumbled. “It was Joe.”

  “You mean Joe, Ann’s Joe, Joe?” I stuttered.

  “Uh, yeah, that Joe.”

  I had so much to say and so much on my mind. I hadn’t seen him since I came from the future, but I had no doubt that he was just as evil. This left me wondering where he was.

  “I haven’t seen him since….”

  “We killed him?” he said.

  “Yeah,” I mumbled.

  “What about Skylar?” he said it as if the name burned his tongue.

  “No, I haven’t seen him either.”

  “Okay,” he said, sounding relieved.

  “Do you know why he killed you? I mean I know Joe was Joe, but—”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said in a dull tone.

  I turned toward the mirror and put my hand in my pocket. I took out one of the potions. I went to go take off the top, but before I could, a horrific scene overtook my vision.

  The first few seconds weren’t bad; it was the woman from the house I was just at. She looked into the mirror. She had her makeup perfect, and she was wearing a very elegant dress. It was obvious that she had somewhere important to be, someone important to meet, or both. The look in her eyes showed excitement, and a little bit of nervousness—she didn’t have long to feel either.

  A man came up behind her. He was wearing all black, and his hoodie and facemask were all that I could see, nothing identifiable. I could tell by the look in his eyes, he would not show any mercy. I could feel my eyes, shutting tight, squeezing, hoping not to see what was going to happen next, but I could still see everything. He tied her up in a chair, and walked away, but I knew he would be back.

  Then, somehow, the vision shifted over to a clock, it said it was six thirty. That had to be close to what time it was now. If I could just snap out of it, I could make my way over to her house and help. I saw him walk back into the room; he didn’t seem like he was in a hurry, he was going to let her sweat.

  Before I could see anything else, I was back to reality and thankful. I jumped up.

  “I need to go,” I exclaimed.

  As I stood up, he grabbed my arm and pulled me onto his lap.

  “I miss you,” he said, with weary eyes. He touched my cheek and kissed me. “I’ll see you later?”

  “Yes,” I promised as I stared into his dark-brown eyes, but I didn’t have the time for this. Nor did I have the time to say anything about how weird Dante was acting.

  Before I got up to go out the door, Violet barged in. She stared with anger in her eyes, before she finally spoke.

  “The police are outside; they want to have a word with you,” she said as her eyes flickered between us. My eyes darted to the clock. It was seven thirty. “We’ll talk about this later.”

  I hoped this would be quick. I needed to get over to that house, I could always tell the police, but I wasn’t quite sure they could deal with what was going on over there. If it had anything to do with what was stashed in the attic, they might be dealing with something very out of their league, and so might I.

  “I’ll be right back,” I smiled at Dante as I got up.

  The walk from my bedroom to the front door was a long one. I was sure I couldn’t be in any trouble, but that left me with the question—what did they want?

  I opened the door and peeked out, “yes?”

  “I’m afraid we’re going to have to take you to the station for questioning,” the officer said in a stern voice.

  “What’s this about?” I asked.

  “You were at the scene of a murder.”

  Chapter 3: Interrogation

  As I sat in a room with my hands cuffed behind me, crazy thoughts tore through my mind. Were they referring to the woman from my vision, or could it have been something else? No one had answered any of my questions, and I wasn’t quite sure why I was the one with handcuffs. Did this murder have something to do with…me? I gulped. I couldn’t be responsible for someone’s death—at least not someone who was a good person. The officers walked into the room.

  “Hello, I’m Officer Stewart, and this is Officer Rowley.”

  Yep, I was definitely going to look crazy. My hands were shaking, and I felt like I was going to puke. This couldn’t be; it just couldn’t. My heart felt like it was going to explode. I couldn’t believe who was standing in front of me, the man Dante and I had just been talking about—Joe Rowley.

  “So, you were at Ms. Winter’s house this afternoon?”

  “Yes,” I said, balling my trembling hands into fists behind me.

  “How did you know her?”

  “I didn’t,” I mumbled.

  That was it, I was going to look insane. I didn’t even know the woman’s name before, and even with the Alliance gone, I couldn’t tell them what I was doing there.

  “So why were you there?” Ah, the dreaded question.

  “I was doing a job… she asked me to help her clear out some boxes,” I lied.

  “Why would she ask a stranger? There was no sign of forced entry at the house….”

  “I don’t know; I really don’t, but she asked me, and when I left she was very much alive.” I waited for them to reply, or ask another question, but they didn’t. “Do you have any evidence that I did it? Am I under arrest?”

  “No, you’re free to go,” Officer Stewart said. “You’re sure you don’t have any information about this?”

  “No.”

  I really didn’t. I could tell them the man was wearing a mask and a black hoodie, but would that really be a breakthrough? Maybe in one way—they would assume I was there.

  “Scarlett,” Joe said in a voice that almost sounded like we were old friends. “Don’t think we’re done here. We’re going to be keeping an eye on you.”

  “You mean the police?” I asked.

  “No,” he whispered, winked and got up and walked away.

  I sat down outside in front of the police station. I called Dante to come pick me up. It was eight thirty by the time he arrived, and I was happy to get out of there.

  “So what was that about?” he asked.

  “The woman, the one with the ghost. She died—she was murdered, and I’m pretty sure they think I did it.”

  “They let you go, that must be a good thing, right?”

  “I have a bad feeling, Dante. Joe was there, he questioned me, it seemed like he knew something.”

  “This isn’t good; he knows where you live now,” Dante said, sounding a little more worried about that than he should have.

  “Maybe he came back with Ann and Debby,” I speculated.

  “Maybe you should go visit Ann,” he suggested.

  “She doesn’t remember anything,” I sighed. “And if she did, she wouldn’t tell me.”

  “I’m sure it’s nothing. The Alliance is gone; we have nothing to worry about. Let’s go to the movies or something, get your mind off of this.”

  “That sounds great.”

  We saw some action flick. I’d wanted to see it for some time, but ten minutes in, my eyes left the screen. I stared down at the floor thinking about what had happened. I found a truck load of Alliance crap in some lady’s attic, and less than two hours later, she’s dead. I’m brought in as a suspect—I can only assume—and I’m questioned by Joe, of all people.

  I had a very familiar feeling in my gut—the desire to run. I wasn’t sure if I would ever feel safe if I didn’t feel safe when the Alliance was gone. Would I always feel the need to run?

  Dante put his arm around me, and I laid my head on his shoulder. It was almost as if happiness radiated from him, and soon I felt almost calm. I focused on that for a while, it soothed me, and I started feeling a little better.

 
Before I knew it, the movie was over. We walked out the doors of the theater. The parking lot was empty, which was weird. I looked around, but I couldn’t see anyone. Then, as I looked forward, an old woman bumped into me.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “I know your deepest darkest fears,” she said. “But compared to reality, they are nothing.”

  “What?” I whispered, breathlessly.

  “There’s still someone out there watching you,” she said.

  “How do you know this?” I asked with skepticism.

  “You may think you did a good thing, and in some ways, you did, but the aftermath of this is far worse than the Alliance watching over everyone’s shoulders.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “You’ve given people—some of them far worse than the Alliance as a whole—the opportunity to make their own Alliance. Everyone wants to be in charge; that will never change.”

  “Well, thanks for the warning, but I don’t see much coming of this.”

  “Believe what you want, but that won’t keep you safe. It’s your responsibility to take the next steps on this; you’re going to have to cut people from your life, and let new people in. Someone was hiding behind the Alliance; ruling from afar, they still had to follow the rules though, but now all bets are off.”

  “What are you talking about?” I demanded.

  “Change is coming, embrace it.”

  “Hey, what are you doing?” Dante asked from behind me. He stood there with the car door open, waiting for me to get in.

  “I was talking to—” I turned toward the woman, but she was gone. All that remained was a vial. It looked exactly like the ones I took from the woman’s house. It was filled to the top with a bright pink liquid. I picked it up and put it in my pocket.

  I turned around and got into the car. The theater was about five miles from home. The entire time, there was a black SUV behind us. Their windows were tinted so dark, I couldn’t see inside. Dante didn’t seem to notice them, but I’d been watching since we left the parking lot. It could just be a coincidence, I told myself, but when they turned into our neighborhood, I really started to worry. No one here had a car like that, and I knew that for a fact. When they followed us all the way to my driveway, I was frozen with fear.

  “What’s wrong?” Dante asked.

  “Haven’t you noticed? Someone has been following us.”

  He looked behind us, and I could tell by the look on his face, that he was afraid, too.

  “We’re going to hurry up and get inside the house, okay?”

  “Yeah,” I nodded.

  “One, two, three, go.”

  We both opened our doors and ran to the house. They didn’t get out of the car; they just sat there. Rose and Violet were asleep. I thought it would be better not to wake them unless something was actually going on.

  “How didn’t you notice?” I asked Dante.

  “I—I don’t know; I was thinking about other things,” he answered.

  “Like what?” I wondered.

  “Nothing,” he snapped.

  I flinched. Dante never talked to me like that. Sure, he would get angry at times, just like anyone else, but Dante never said anything to me with that kind of anger.

  “Will you stay?” I mumbled, sounding something like a helpless five-year-old girl. “Please.”

  “Of course,” he said in a nicer tone. “I wouldn’t leave you here right now even if you wanted me to.”

  I went back to the door and peeked out. It didn’t look like they were doing anything. Even though they had only been out there for a minute, I wondered how long it would be until they did something. I looked away for a second and when I looked back, a man and woman were getting out of the car. They came up to the door and knocked.

  We had two options. Ignore it and hope they went away, or answer the door and hope this didn’t end badly. They looked innocent enough, but why did they follow us? Dante opened the door, and I stood behind him.

  “Yes?” Dante said as he opened the door.

  “You dropped this in the parking lot… at the movie theater,” the woman said to me as she held up my purse.

  I moved in front of Dante and grabbed the purse.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “We’re sorry if we scared you, following you home and all,” the man said.

  “No,” I lied with a smile on my face. “Thanks again.”

  “No problem,” the woman said, and they were off.

  I closed the door and leaned up against it, letting out a deep sigh. We overreacted; we must have looked insane.

  “Let’s go sit on the beach,” I said as I opened the door.

  “Okay,” he replied.

  As we sat there watching the moon’s reflection on the surface of the lake, I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. In all honesty, I hadn’t felt right since the day we conquered the Alliance. It was almost as if coming back to life left me empty inside, and I didn’t feel alive at all.

  “What’s wrong?” Dante asked.

  “It’s nothing. I was just thinking about….” I stopped and thought about how to word this. The day we took down the Alliance was technically the day that Dante and I started dating. If I said since that day things didn’t feel right, I knew he would take it personally. “Ever since we died, I’ve felt strange.”

  “I know what you mean. I haven’t slept in what feels like forever.”

  I thought for a moment, I hadn’t been sleeping lately either. I hadn’t really noticed the strangeness of it because I was never tired.

  “Do you think something went wrong? Maybe we didn’t do it right, maybe there’s something that you’re supposed to do when you go back into your body.”

  “I don’t know,” he sighed.

  “Let’s just forget about it, I’m sure it’s nothing.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” he agreed. “I was thinking, maybe we could go camping. We can invite everyone to come along.”

  “That sounds great, actually.”

  “Alright, we can let everyone know in the morning. Maybe we could leave tomorrow if that works for everyone.”

  “I don’t know what they have going on, but maybe.”

  “Well I think I might head home, maybe try and get some sleep.”

  “Yeah me, too,” I sighed. I didn’t feel tired at all.

  Chapter 4: Camping Trip

  In the morning, Dante went over to Cooper and Lily’s. I went over to see Grace, and she went with me over to see Annabelle. They were both excited to go camping and wanted to leave right away.

  Then, we went over to Jackson and Rachel’s. They weren’t home and wouldn’t be for at least two days; they were staying out of town with family. Allison was over at Cooper and Lily’s, and she was also excited to come along.

  We thought about waiting for Jackson and Rachel, but since we weren’t sure when they would be back, we decided against it.

  Everyone went home to pack up some things. Cooper and Lily had two tents that they brought along; Annabelle had a tent too. Dante and I packed some chairs, bug spray and a few other things. Rose still wasn’t sure if she wanted to come along or not, so when I was finished packing, I went upstairs to ask her. She sat there for a few moments, deep in thought. Then, she snapped out of it and said yes.

  Dante drove his car with me, Rose, Annabelle, and Grace. Cooper took his car, Allison and Lily rode with him. Cooper led the way, he said there was an amazing spot in the woods, and it wasn’t too far from Sunny Bay.

  It took us about an hour to drive there, and another half hour to walk to the spot, but once we reached it, it was more than worth it. Wild flowers grew throughout the grass, and the sun shined through a break in the trees. About one hundred feet from where we set up camp, there was a waterfall over a beautiful, crystal clear lake.

  It was so peaceful, even if there would have been noise, the waterfall blocked it out. It was pretty obvious that we were the only ones around. Sur
ely, if someone else was, they would have heard the waterfall and came to witness its beauty.

  We set up all three tents; Lily, Annabelle, Rose and Grace offered to take a tent together. That left one for Allison and Cooper and one for Dante and I. Annabelle’s tent was much bigger than the two Lily and Cooper brought, so the girls took that one.

  Everyone took turns using the tents to change into bathing suits. By the time we were all ready, the lake was in the shade, and the sun burst through the trees just inches away from the shore.

  As we headed for the water, an uneasy feeling came over me. A vision took over, and I could no longer see what was happening in front of me. Only what was happening in my mind.

  It wasn’t a vision really, more of a flashback. I was underwater, and my lungs were fighting for air. I began to feel weak; I could feel the life rushing out of me.

  Then, it fast forwarded to me being alive again. Instead of being relieved and happy that we were winning the fight against the Alliance, I still felt only weakness. I wondered if I didn’t notice it before because of the rush from defeating the Alliance.

  Then in slow motion, knife in hand, I stabbed Nurse Debby. Slowly, I started feeling stronger, and soon I was back to feeling normal. It didn’t last though, because not too long after that, I felt better than I ever had before.

  When I could see what was going on around me again, I was on the ground. Dante was next to me with his hand on my forehead.

  “Are you alright? You just fell, and you weren’t responding.”

  “No, I’m fine,” I answered, but honestly, the same weak feeling I had in the flashback, was all that I felt right now.

  He went to help me up, but instead of pulling me up onto my feet in one quick motion, he struggled. He looked embarrassed. I shifted my feet so they were flat on the ground and the next time he tried I pushed up off of my feet.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he explained.

  “It’s fine,” I smiled.

  Everyone else went swimming, after the flashback I couldn’t. Dante and I changed back into our clothes, and then decided to walk around. This place was beautiful. We hiked up to the top of the waterfall. Then, we walked around until we ran into the first people we’d seen since we arrived. They looked about our age, another observation I made: they looked like trouble. Their muscles bulged out from their too-small shirts, and it looked like one of them had a gun stuffed into their pants.