Betrayal (Vanish Book Two) (6 page)

“Yeah,” I said, feeling weak.

He carried me through the room filled with
guests over to the kitchen. He set me in a chair and brought me a
cold cloth for my head.

“I’m really sorry,” he said as he sat next to
me.

“For what?” I asked.

“Everything, not meeting you sooner,” he put
his hand on my cheek.

“Why do you have to do this?” I asked. “I
thought you liked Annabelle.”

“I did, but…” he sighed. “Okay, I heard you
and Dante talking. I heard him tell you about finding that special
someone who has powers and just knowing. I saw the way you were
when you met me, and I know how I felt. I know how you feel when
you’re around me.”

I shook my head. “You followed us? You were
with Annabelle when we left.”

“I wasn’t following you. I just found you, I
guess. That’s all I heard then I—”

“I don’t know what mystical thing you think
happened when we met, but I can assure you, if you really did feel
something, you were the only one.” I stopped. “I don’t want to do
this. I don’t have a family anymore; you’re one of the only friends
I have, please.”

“Cooper, get over here. We need to talk.
Now,” I heard Elizabeth yell.

I tried to hold it in; I closed my eyes and
just focused on breathing for a moment. It didn’t work; I jumped up
and ran to the bathroom.

I sat on the floor, still feeling nauseous.
Tears streamed down my cheeks; I wished they would stop. I got up
and found a bottle of mouth wash, and I swished it around in my
mouth for a few minutes. Then, I wiped the mascara from my face and
returned to the party.

“There she is,” Elizabeth said with
enthusiasm, sympathy.

“Hey,” I faked the best smile I could.

“This is Scarlett,” she said to the couple
she was talking to.

“Amanda,” the woman said as she shook my
hand.

“Ben,” the man said as he smiled.

Elizabeth pulled me aside.

“Everyone will be staying at least tonight in
the other four houses and in the apartments. You can meet them all
tomorrow if you don’t feel up to it right now, who knows, they
might stay longer than that,” she offered.

“Cooper told you what happened?” I
assumed.

“I’m sorry Scarlett,” Elizabeth said.

“Did they come back to the party?” I
wondered.

“No. I haven’t seen them, but like I said,
you can meet everyone tomorrow,” she explained.

Then I realized something was up. “What’s
going on Elizabeth?” I demanded.

“Oh, it’s really nothing.” She seemed
nervous.

“Please,” I begged.

“Fine,” she exhaled. “Come on.” She dragged
me into the other room.

“Something is going on. Something major. I
don’t know what, exactly, but it’s going to change everything.
We’re safe here… for now, but—” she broke down into tears.
“Scarlett, I’m afraid.”

“What do you know, Elizabeth?” I pleaded.

“The Alliance, they’re watching us. They will
find a way to come here.”

“Why? I—” The dizziness was coming back.

“They’re coming for you.” She put her hand on
my shoulder. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t take the
scared-stiff, shocked look off of my face. I turned around and
walked out the doors.

I walked as fast as I could into the woods,
somehow managing to walk somewhat graceful in the heels. I needed
to leave, that was certain, if what Elizabeth said was true—and I
had no reason not to believe her—I was endangering everyone around
me. I ran into the woods, not going in any particular direction; it
didn’t matter either way I would reach the end sometime.

The woods didn’t frighten me as much as they
used to, as much as they should, I had more important things to
worry about. I walked forever, unable to see much in front of me.
The glow from the trees wasn’t bright enough to show me where I was
going. I stepped on something, then I bent over to pick it up; it
was a lighter. I checked to see if it worked, it did. I held onto
it, in case I needed it. I hoped if I changed my mind, I would be
able to find my way back, but I couldn’t change my mind, not now.
Everyone around me would be in danger. I didn’t know how long it
would take for the Alliance to find me, but until then I would be
alone.

Up ahead, there was a sign posted on a tree.
I lit the lighter to get a closer look. It was a shrine or memorial
of some kind. There were teddy bears and candles in a circle around
the tree. A necklace hung from one of the lower branches. I held
the pendant in my hand to get a closer look. It lit up so bright,
no matter how far I was from the house, they could probably see it,
like a spotlight in the sky. I let go; I was a little startled, but
I was still curious.
What would happen if I put it on
? I
took it off the branch holding it by the chain, making sure not to
touch the pendant. I put it around my neck and the second I did it
felt like it was a part of me. It lit up again, but it dimmed. When
I turned toward the sign that I hadn’t yet read, I saw the name
Scarlett. I jumped back.
There must be thousands of people named
Scarlett,
I thought to myself. However, when I saw the date
written underneath, it was harder to deny.

October, 28, 1993- September, 7, 1996

My birthday, but I didn’t die on September,
7, 1996.
You’re being crazy,
I told myself,
it’s just a
coincidence, a huge coincidence.

The necklace stopped glowing, then there was
a sudden bright burst of light, and I was surrounded by what I
could only hope was hundreds of ghosts. The only other thing it
could be was the Alliance. I wasn’t excited about either.

“You can see us,” one woman said.

Yes, I could. It was obvious now. They were
ghosts, but why couldn’t I see them before? And why were there so
many?

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“Evil spirits can come here, there’s nothing
stopping them like the living, but this is the one place that
they’re scared to go. That doesn’t stop all of them, but we’re
safer here,” one of the ghosts explained.

“I wouldn’t think anything could hurt you,
you’re ghosts.”

“You have a lot left to learn—”

“And not much time to learn it,” I
interrupted.

“What do you mean?”

“The Alliance is after me,” I answered.

“You’re safe here, from them at least. Well,
besides one loophole….”

“What’s that?” I wondered.

“Evil spirits will sometimes take over the
bodies of innocent people. Like I said, nothing can really hold
back bad
spirits
,” the ghost asserted.

“Wait, what are you saying? They possess
them?” I asked.

“No, they kill them, or wait for them to die
and take over their bodies completely.”

“Most of the time,” another one spoke up.

“There’s one of them among you,” a man said
in a nervous tone of voice.

I looked through the crowd and for an
instant, I saw an unmistakable face.

Someone came up behind me and put a bag over
my head. They carried me away without trouble, even though I kicked
and screamed and clawed at them. I kicked them pretty hard, and
they dropped me. I took the bag off my head and looked up in
horror.

“What the hell?” I screamed.

“Don’t make this difficult Scarlett. One way
or another, you’re coming with us,” Grace said.

“What? Where?” I asked, terrified.

“We haven’t exactly decided yet. Keep your
power or turn you in to the Alliance. Decisions, decisions,” Dante
laughed.

“Dante, how could you do this to me?” I
cried.

He didn’t answer. He walked back over,
getting ready to drag me off again. I kicked him in the shin as he
walked over, and then I got up and went invisible. I ran faster
than I’d ever run before. Soon, I saw the lights hanging off the
trees in the distance. I thought about screaming, but that could
either help or hurt me.

When I made it to the door, I ran inside and
locked it. I noticed Cooper wasn’t there, so not wanting to disrupt
the party, I ran towards Cooper’s room. Before I got to his door, I
went visible with ease, and ran in.

“Cooper,” I sobbed. “I think Grace and Dante
want to kill me.” Before I knew it, I was hugging him. He pushed me
off of him. “What’s wrong?” I wondered.

“Nothing, you should go,” he snapped.

“Did you not hear me? Dante and Grace are
after me,” I cried.

“Just go. Go tell my mom or something, I
don’t care, just leave me alone.”

“I don’t understand, what is this about?” I
demanded.

“Just leave. Maybe someday you’ll find out,”
he looked uncomfortable, and it seemed like he was mad at himself.
His eyes focused on the necklace I found in the woods.

“Please just tell me what I did, and then
I’ll leave,” I promised.

“I should have known,” he looked down.
“Scarlett,” he whispered to himself. “But how would I have known?
For all I knew—” he looked back up at me and stopped; it seemed as
though he had forgotten I was there.

“I don’t care if you want me to leave, I
will, just please tell me what I did.”

“You didn’t do anything. Thank God you didn’t
want to do anything; I don’t think I could live with myself,” he
said under his breath.

“What are you talking about?”

“Please just leave. I can’t look at you.” He
looked disgusted.

“Fine,” I said.

I walked out the door and turned around to
shut it. The moment the door was closed, someone put their hand
over my mouth. They dragged me into George and Elizabeth’s room
across the hall. Then they pulled me out a sliding glass door, and
over to the house. When they got me inside, they threw me down on
the floor.

“First, you’re going to call Elizabeth and
tell her that we need to leave. Tell her something happened at my
house,” Dante said. “And then you’re going to go to the car without
a fight.”

“Why are you doing this Dante?” I pleaded for
an answer.

“He never cared about you,” Grace
laughed.

I got up and went to run out the door, but
Dante grabbed me by my hair and put a knife to my throat. How had
he been in on this the entire time? I really thought he had cared
about me.

“Give me the necklace,” Dante demanded. “We
can take her powers and kill her here, and then we’ll decide what
to do with them.” Grace handed him a necklace, but before he could
get it around my neck, someone came up behind them, and hit them
with something.

I turned around and there stood Dante, in his
underwear, with a broken chair in his hands. I looked around the
room; I wasn’t quite sure what was going on.

“Dante?” I asked as tears streamed down my
face.

“Scarlett, meet Skylar,” he said as he
motioned to the man, lying knocked out on the floor.

“What— what happened? Why are you only
wearing boxers?”

“Well, I thought the call was from my mom,
but apparently Skylar escaped and stole her phone. He came here to
pretend to be me, and he stole my clothes.”

“What do you mean Skylar
escaped
?”

“We had him locked in our basement. We
thought he had something to do with Grace’s disappearance. Not to
mention the fact that I needed him out of the way for me to be able
to pretend I was him, the only other choice would have been to kill
him.”

“So he’s evil, isn’t he? How could he come
here?”

“I don’t know. It wasn’t him that tried to
kill Grace,” he pointed out.

“Yeah, but he just tried to kill me,” I
argued.

“I don’t know,” he sighed.

“We need to call Elizabeth,” I said as I ran
over to the phone.

“What about her party, are you sure we should
interrupt? I think we can handle this by ourselves…” he
pondered.

“What are you planning to do?”

“I don’t know, I guess we tie them up. Keep
them in the basement until tomorrow morning, then we’ll see what
George and Elizabeth say.”

“Do you know what powers Skylar has?” I
asked.

“No,” he replied.

Skylar jumped up and ran out the door, as we
tried to follow him, something stopped us from going out the door.
I didn’t see anything until we ran into it, and then it lit up
blue. By the time we got past it Skylar was long gone. We searched
around the outside of the house, forgetting about Grace, and when
we returned she, too, was gone.

“We need to tell Elizabeth,” I urged.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll call her. Go make
sure all the doors and windows are locked.”

“Okay,” I said as I ran to the front door,
and locked it.

I went to every last window and made sure
they were all locked. Then, I got the back door and the balcony
doors, just in case.

When I came back down stairs, Dante was
sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. I sat down next to
him.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.

“Tell you what?” My mind was a blur; I could
hardly concentrate on anything.

“That the Alliance is coming.”

“We already thought they were after us,
remember? And I’m sorry if I forgot to mention it with everything
else going on.”

“You’re safe as long as you’re here,” he
assured. It sounded more like he was trying to convince himself
rather than me.

“I don’t know that, Skylar came here without
a problem, and as long as I’m here no one is safe,” I
protested.

“Are you insane? You can’t leave—“

“I have to. I don’t know what’s going to
happen tomorrow, and I need to confront my mom.”

“Wait, so you’re telling me that you’re going
to risk your life so you can confront your mom?” he said in
disbelief.

“I need to do this… while I still can,” I
explained. He gave me a dirty look. “What? You don’t think I
deserve answers? You don’t think I deserve to know why she did what
she did?”

“Grace just tried to kill you, and now you
need answers as to why your mom tried to kill her?”