Echoes (3 page)

“That’s right. Anyone would have done the same thing. It’s no big deal.”

“It’s a huge deal.”

“If you say so. I saw someone in trouble and I tried to help. I disarmed the woman and she and the man ran back to their car, or wherever they came from.”

I shook my head. “No, you fought with them. You—you
stabbed them
.” I whispered it. “And then they—”

“And then they what? Then they disappeared in a flash of fire?”

“Yes!”

“Come on, Olivia. That sounds kind of crazy, don’t you think? I probably wouldn’t share that theory with anyone. Wouldn’t want to spend your summer vacation locked up in a mental ward, would you?”

That was why I hadn’t told anyone yet. I knew how insane it sounded. “I don’t understand why you won’t tell me the truth. It’s obvious you know more than you’re letting on.”

“You’re entitled to your opinion, of course. It’s time for me to go now.” He eyed me. “Are you going to try to stop me?”

“I might.”

“People are going to start gossiping. The popular Olivia Hawthorn cornering the loser Ethan Cole after first class. It’s fairly scandalous.”

I stared at him incredulously. “You think this is funny?”

“Hilarious, obviously.” But he wasn’t smiling.

“I nearly got stabbed in the heart and you’re trying to pretend it was nothing.”

“I do that a lot.”

“What?”

“Pretend.” There was a bitter edge to his voice. “Okay, listen to me, Olivia, and please try your best to hear me. What happened last night was nothing. You don’t owe me anything for it. You don’t have to talk to me, be nice to me, or even acknowledge my existence. Got it? All I want you to do is forget about it. Go back to your regularly scheduled life. Can you do that?”

I gripped my binder tighter to my chest. “You’re saying that you want me to leave you alone.”

“Pretty much.”

I moved a step closer to him and I noticed that his expression soured and he pressed further back against the wall as if to try to escape me. He didn’t like being around me, that was obvious. Maybe it was because I’d ignored him and made him feel like a loser for so long, even though it hadn’t been on purpose. It wasn’t as if he’d made much of an effort to come out of his shell all of these years.

The bell rang for next class and the remaining kids in the hall scattered.

“Well?” Despite working very hard at keeping space between us, he hadn’t broken our staring contest. I continued to gaze into his eyes hoping to see the truth down in those coppery depths. It was surprisingly difficult to look away.

“Right,” I finally said. “You want to go to class.”

“That would be nice.”

“Not until you tell me why those people caught fire and disappeared.”

He hissed out a frustrated sigh. “Olivia—”

“I know what I saw. And I know you know more than you’re letting on, otherwise you’d be as shocked at what happened as I am. And you’re not shocked at all. This is major, Ethan. And we’re in this together now.”

He pushed at his hair again as if it was being as much of a nuisance as I was. “Just let it go.”

“Even if they were purposely lit on fire, they’d leave a body behind, a burned up husk or something. But there was nothing. And there was no smell, either. A burning person would have, like, a cooking meat smell.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Morbid.”

“But there was no body. No smell. Just a mark on the ground, as if they’d vanished into thin air.”

“Well...it was really dark last night. And you
had
been drinking.” He shrugged as if that explained everything.

I looked at him with surprise. “How do you know that?”

His gaze moved to my mouth for a second. “I could smell the strawberries and vodka. It must have been a good party.”

Frustration sparked inside me again that he continued to deny everything no matter how hard I tried to get the truth out of him. “One weak drink means nothing.”

“If you say so.”

“What does
Upyri
mean? I—I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere before.”

His jaw tightened. “I don’t know.”

“The woman, she said that my death would mark a new beginning for the Upyri. What’s an Upyri?”

“No idea.” He now spoke through clenched teeth. When he attempted to move past me I didn’t try to block him. “Just do me a favor and don’t talk to me again. Let’s get things back to normal between us.”

The rubber soles of his sneakers squeaked against the shiny linoleum floor as he walked away from me.

“Not going to happen,” I called after him. “I’ll see you later, Ethan!”

When his shoulders visibly stiffened I couldn’t help but grin a little at the reaction. But my grin quickly faded when I realized I wasn’t any further ahead than I was last night in my search for answers.

I turned in the opposite direction to head to second period and was surprised to see a girl sitting with her back against the lockers on the other side of the hallway. She had jet black hair cut bluntly to her chin and a bright pink streak in her long bangs, pale skin, purple lipstick, and black eyeliner. She blew a large bubble with her gum and it popped.

Her name was Bree Margolis. We’d been best friends through elementary school, but went our separate ways in seventh grade. She didn’t like me anymore. The feeling was completely mutual.

Lately, she liked to talk crap about the more popular kids. She thought she was being anonymous, but we all knew who was responsible for the gossip she spread school-wide. I’d been one of her many victims. She’d tried to start a rumor about me last year that I was easy. That rumor was a total lie.

“What?” I asked without trying to sound the least bit friendly.

She pulled the earphone out of her left ear. “Hey, Olivia. How’s it going?”

“Fantastic.” My eyes narrowed. “Were you listening to music or eavesdropping just now?”

“Eavesdropping.” She wound the cord around her iPod and tucked it into her black backpack. “It’s kind of a hobby of mine.”

Yeah, no kidding. She had to get her dirt from somewhere.

My chest tightened at the thought that someone like Bree had overheard us. “You should learn to mind your own business.”

“Nah, boring.” She blew another big bubble until it popped, and then took a moment to tuck the gum back in her mouth. “He’s kind of hot, don’t you think?”

“Who, Ethan?”

She nodded. “But you probably wouldn’t notice that. He’s totally not your type.”

I glanced both ways along the empty hallway. “You’re late for second period.”

“I’m not going today.”

“You’re not going to class?”

“No. I hate math.” She shrugged. “So why bother?”

“Great plan.” I smiled thinly. “Good luck with your GPA.”

She snorted. “I see not much has changed. Still neurotic about everything that happens and what people will say if you don’t pretend to be as perfect as possible at all times.”

I ignored her commentary. Everyone was entitled to their opinion. Even if they were trolls from Hell.

The sleeves of her long sleeved black T-shirt were rolled up enough that I could see some disturbing ink on her arm. “Is that a pentagram?”

She rubbed the tattoo. “Yup.”

“Worshipping Satan now, Bree?”

She grinned. “You’re so clever. That’s me. A big ol’ Satan worshipper. Actually, FYI, the pentagram is a symbol of protection against evil, not devil worship.”

“If you say so.”

“I do.”

I had better things to do than talk to Bree. “Anyway, it’s been super fun catching up with you. Bye, now.”

“I heard what you said. About somebody trying to kill you, but they burst into flames and disappeared.”

I froze, and then glanced over my shoulder to see her expression had grown more serious.

“Best convo I’ve overheard in ages,” she continued. “It’s been so dull around here lately. Just prom, boys, prom, prom, party, prom. Blah.”

“Nothing happened.” The lie tasted bitter leaving my mouth. “So don’t bother starting any rumors about it.”

She gave me a withering look. “Were you being serious or were you just messing around just now? Was it really the
Upyri
?”

My body felt tense and a sick feeling of panic swirled in my stomach. “Mind your own business.”

“I know about the Upyri, Olivia. I told you about them ages ago. Don’t you remember that?”

Oh, hell.
That
was where I’d heard the word before. Bree had always been obsessed with the supernatural world. Her oddball parents were just as wacky as she was. I remember once her mother had insisted on reading my Tarot cards.

“I don’t remember anything.” I’d blocked most of it from my mind, but I did remember her telling me something, which was why it triggered something in me when I heard it again.

Her penciled-in brows drew together. “Tell me more about what happened.”

I shook my head. “Forget it. This has nothing to do with you.”

Bree glared at me. “And here I was trying to help. Should’ve known not to bother. After all, we’re not friends anymore.”

“Things change. Don’t take it personally. Just like I won’t take it personally that you tried to spread rumors about me being a slut. I guess that was your revenge, right?”

An edge of actual pain slid behind her dark-rimmed eyes as she pushed herself up to her feet. “Whatever, Olivia. I took the hint long ago and left you the hell alone just like you wanted me to.”

“It’s ancient history. Let it go.”

“I have.”

“Doesn’t sound like it to me.”

She blew out a breath and studied the ground for a moment, before returning her attention to me. “The Upyri were here in Ravenridge before, but they haven’t been seen for a hundred years. If what you’re saying is true, it sounds like maybe they’re back. Trust me, that’s not a good thing.”

I swallowed hard. “Wait, Bree, how do you—?”

“Bye.” She started walking away.

“Bree!” I called after her. “Wait!”

She looked over her shoulder. “By the way, I don’t gossip or spread rumors. Never have. I think you’re thinking of your best friend forever, Helen. Total survival tactic to try to pin it on me, though. I guess I can kind of respect that.”

Then she was gone, leaving me standing in the hallway all by myself.

Helen said I ignored broken things hoping they would magically fix themselves. But some of the things I wanted to ignore weren’t broken, they were new and shiny and spectacularly ugly.

“You won’t believe what Bree Margolis said to me,” I told Helen in Art class. We were making paper mache sculptures. Mine was supposed to be a tower from a fantasy novel I’d read, but it was turning out to be disturbingly phallic-looking since I lacked any fraction of artistic talent.

“What?” Helen’s sculpture was of an eagle and she was so far along that she’d started to paint it.

“That she has nothing to do with spreading any rumors about anyone, including me. She said it’s...” I hesitated. “That it’s somebody else.”

Helen’s lips thinned as she dabbed highlights on the eagle’s wing with white paint. “What a liar. I overheard her with one of her friends talking about you. It’s definitely her. Who else could it be?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s not like anyone even cares.”

The idea that Helen was actually the one spreading cruel and untrue gossip around school made me want to laugh. Bree
was
a total liar. Even when we’d been friends she liked to make up fake stories to get herself out of tight situations. Definitely a talent, but not one I had to admire her for.

Just like what she’d said about the Upyri. She’d seen a good opportunity to scare me, that was all. I was already scared enough as it was and that little exchange hadn’t helped one bit.

The rest of the day dragged until it was time for World History. When Ethan showed up he didn’t even look in my direction once, despite my trying desperately to get his attention. When the bell rang, he was gone and this time I was too slow to catch up to him.

Peter was waiting for me at my locker when I arrived.

“Hey, beautiful. Want a ride home?” he asked.

This was surprising. He normally spent time with his buddies after school. Football, basketball, whatever was in season. I got the weekends. They got the weekdays.

“You don’t need to suck up to me,” I told him. “I said I forgive you for the pool thing.”

“I can’t just be a nice guy? Or would you rather walk?”

I wasn’t complaining. A chauffeur would really be nice right about now.

“Do you want to go to the mall?” I asked.

He slid his arm around my back and directed me to the door. “Sorry, but right after I drop you off I have plans with the guys.”

He had the grace to look guilty. He was trying to get on my good side again by offering the ride. Nice to know he cared.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll just keep avoiding my mother.”

“You’ll become a pro at it.”

“I think I already am.”

Peter dropped me off in my driveway and I went inside. I tried to avoid my mother who was lurking in the kitchen when I got home, and I attempted to remain calm and think about things that didn’t include fire and death. I ended up watching a lot of television and going to bed early.

In my nightmares I was running very fast, but knew the creatures chasing me would catch me and devour me. I woke up and turned on all the lights, as if that would help, and spent the rest of the night tossing and turning. What seemed bad during the day turned into a true horror movie in the middle of the night.

A hundred years, Bree said. Whatever this Upyri was, it hadn’t been around for a hundred years.

But it was here now.

My fear was here to stay, and it was eating away at me like acid. I had to find out whatever I could on my own and then make my decision about what was true and what were lies.

On Wednesday, I ate lunch with Helen and Peter and everyone else, but my mind was a million miles away. I scanned the cafeteria for Ethan, but he was nowhere to be seen. He hadn’t been in class this morning. If he was purposefully trying to avoid me, he was doing an excellent job.

“Hello?” Peter said after last class. I leaned against my locker, staring off into the distance, lost in my thoughts. “Earth to Olivia, come in, Olivia.”

Helen rolled her eyes. “Don’t bother. I think her brain’s gone on vacation.”

I blinked as their voices finally got through to me. “Yeah, sign me up for Florida, please. I’ll leave tonight.”

“Is there something wrong with you this week?” Peter asked.

“Nothing’s wrong.” I cleared my throat and grabbed my bag out of my locker. “I’m fine.”

“No she’s not fine,” Helen said. “But she refuses to tell me what’s bothering her.”

“Nothing’s bothering me,” I insisted. I didn’t want to tell them anything, but I was failing miserably at acting normal.

“We’re still okay, right?” Peter said. “You’re not thinking about ditching me on Saturday night, are you?”

That got my attention. My gaze snapped to his and I realized he was grinning.

Okay, he was trying to be funny, not serious. As if I’d dump him right before prom.

“Strange,” I said, shaking my head. “I keep forgetting about Saturday.”

Peter and Helen exchanged a glance.

“Now I know what’s wrong with her,” Helen said. “Her brain’s been abducted by aliens and taken to another universe. Do you need a ride, Liv?”

“No, I’m fine, thanks anyway. I need to stop at the library downtown on my way home.”

“The library? Who goes to the library anymore?”

I didn’t flinch. “I do.”

“Why?”

“My phone’s acting glitchy this week so it would take forever to search for anything. And my mother’s always on the computer and getting it away from her would require actually speaking to her.”

“The library,” Helen said. “Fun, wow. I think I’d rather watch paint dry.”

Normally, I’d agree. But I hadn’t been lying. I’d dropped my phone last week and ever since, it hadn’t been working properly. My father always went to the library downtown to do research. He was the editor for a local magazine and liked to do things, as he said, “old school.” I didn’t want to use the library in the school, either. Not nearly enough privacy.

Or
, a little voice reminded me,
you could just ask Bree about your little research project. She might be able to tell you exactly what you need to know.

Well, that wasn’t going to happen, at least, not yet. If this didn’t work, then I wouldn’t be left with many choices, especially if Ethan kept dodging me.

I stayed with another group of kids walking home from school until I got to the library and I found a computer in a private corner. I didn’t have tons of research to do. Just one very specific word that had burned itself into my brain ever since Monday night.

I already had a foggy idea of what I’d find, but I needed to know for sure. What I’d heard from Bree years ago was still in my head, distant memories that haunted me like ghosts, from her and her family who embraced all things strange.

My hands were cold as ice as I phonetically typed it in to the search engine: U-P-I-R-I.

And hit enter.

There were a bunch of webpages listed, some of them in different languages and some about video and role playing games. But it didn’t take very long at all until a couple words immediately stood out from the rest of them and my breath caught.

Upyri.

Upyr.

Vampyr.

Vampire.

Upyri
was another term for vampire—a vampire that was actually a disembodied wraith that could possess a human corpse. It had to then drink blood in order to survive.

Did that mean the old man and the woman had been vampires?
Actual
vampires?

It was impossible. Just doing a quick internet search didn’t mean anything. A word was just a word. Vampires didn’t exist in real life.

Feeling stunned and sick to my stomach, I quit the browser and pushed back from the computer. This little research trip had proven one very important thing to me, something I think I already knew.

Bree had definitely been trying to mess with me. She’d taken my fear and uncertainty and twisted it into something ridiculous just to scare me more than I already was.

Vampires. Right.

The only person who could help me was Ethan. I was going to find him and demand he tell me the whole truth about what happened Monday night.

I didn’t want to be afraid of something that might not even exist. There had to be a reasonable explanation for everything. More reasonable than tales about blood-drinking vampires who hadn’t been seen for a hundred years.

I headed to the exit feeling stronger than I had before.

It only lasted a few moments.

Upyri.
The woman with the knife had said that word. It had definitely been
that
word. She’d said my death would mark a new beginning for the Upyri.

And then she’d tried to kill me.

My anger faded, leaving only the sick feeling in my gut. What I’d seen the other night had been impossible to believe—normal human beings didn’t spontaneously combust like that. Normal human beings didn’t completely disappear leaving a burn mark behind as the only sign that they’d ever been there in the first place.

The idea that something like the Upyri could exist, could actually be here in Ravenridge—every part of my sensible and logical side wanted to fight it. I’d wanted to learn the truth and deep down I’d known that truth might be hard to accept.

Ethan hadn’t wanted to tell me anything at all about what had happened, but he’d tolerated my questions. Then when I’d specifically mentioned the word
Upyri
, he’d walked away from me. I didn’t understand why he’d want to keep something like that from me, waving it off as a figment of my imagination or the result of a couple ounces of vodka consumed at a birthday party. If the Upyri had targeted me, if they’d known my name in particular, then I needed to know why and how I was supposed to protect myself if more of them came after me.

My brain ached from trying to sort through what I’d seen and read. It was far fetched and made me want to throw up, but maybe—just maybe—it was true.

As I pushed though the side exit of the library, somebody grabbed me from behind. All my thoughts shut off except for one—fight for my life. I dropped my backpack and I fought against whoever it was, wrenching my body from side to side, using every ounce of strength I had, but it wasn’t nearly enough to help me break free.

“Your fingernails are very sharp, Olivia. You don’t want to hurt me, do you?” The male voice seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

I tried to scream for help, but he clamped his hand over my mouth and dragged me across the small, empty parking lot. He pulled me down a short flight of stairs, which led into a large park.

Finally, the man let me go in a shaded, grassy area. Nobody else was around, but I could hear the hum of traffic on Main Street just past the thick line of trees. It was hot out and sweat dripped steadily down my back.

Now I recognized him. He lived a couple doors down from us and ran the local used book store. My mom used to talk to him all the time when she took me in with her to buy her secondhand romance novels—Mr. Watkinson. I’d liked him. When I used to have my stand out in front of our house as a kid he always bought a glass of lemonade and told me to keep the change from a five dollar bill.

Other than being dragged into the park by him against my will, there was another reason I didn’t relax even a fraction at seeing it was him. It was a conversation I’d heard between my parents this morning.

My father said it before he left for work and my mother had been making breakfast. I was trying to slip past the both of them and out the front door without being pulled into yet another family conversation.

“I just heard from John across the street. Mr. Watkinson had a fatal heart attack.”

“What?” she exclaimed. “Oh, that’s horrible! He was such a nice man!”

He nodded.
“Only sixty-three years old. Such a shame.”

Mr. Watkinson watched me carefully from six feet away. He looked so normal. Healthy.
Alive.
Which would be extremely difficult to do if he’d died from a heart attack.

I wanted to deny it, to find any other answer, but my mind kept coming back to what I’d just read on the Internet.

“What do you want?” I demanded as fiercely as I could despite the tremble in my voice.

“Olivia, dear, you look terrified.”

I struggled to breathe. “I don’t typically have conversations with dead people.”

He smiled and wrinkles fanned out from his eyes. “As you can see for yourself, I’m very much alive. A single day can change a great deal.”

“What do you want?”

“That’s a very complicated question.” He straightened his navy blue tie. “I didn’t want to do this alone, but I’m having difficulties finding my friend again.”

“What friend?”

“The one from the other night. She’s missing.”

This only made me more confused as I remembered the old man who’d seemed weak and pale, but whose grip was like an iron vise. “But that wasn’t you. That—that was somebody else. A father and daughter.”

“Yes. They were in a car crash. She was driving. She’d had one too many glasses of wine before getting behind the wheel.”

I was so confused. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. What do they have to do with you?”

“She’s my companion, has been for a very long time. I am...” He frowned. “It’s difficult for me to focus. So many new memories to sort through. Hard to find my way, especially without her to help me.”

I gaped at him. “That old man wasn’t you.”

“A different shell, yes. But it was still me. Just because our bodies are destroyed, doesn’t mean we truly die, Olivia.” He smiled then. “Do you know that Charles Watkinson lost his wife twenty years ago to breast cancer? He was devastated and never recovered, never remarried. His memories are quite a distraction.” He pressed his hands to either side of his head, his pleasant expression fading. “Fighting the echoes only makes them stronger.”

It shouldn’t be possible, but...it was.

He’d been the old man the other night, but that body had burned up, been destroyed.