Gravity, a young adult paranormal romance (33 page)

"I should have known," he said, shaking his
head and laughing grotesquely. "Daddy's little girl."
 

"You're Hugh's friend," I said, my breath
hitching in my chest. My scalp stung as he continued to yank at the
roots of my hair. It felt like he was pulling clumps of it out.
"Doesn't that matter? I thought you cared about me."

The most horrible, twisted look appeared on
his face.

"Friend? He's on the other side in this. There
are no friends, when the Master comes to earth. Hell is closer than
you think, Ariel."

He raised the gun with his free hand, pointing
it at my face as I sputtered nonsense.

"You're not going to shoot me," I said, more
of a plea than a sure statement anymore.

"Are you so sure about that? Because this
looks like a gun in my hand. And I don't think anyone would miss
you too badly. You're always just sitting there, coasting through
life like it owes you. Well, think of this as your just
reward."

I was fully convinced that he had lost his
mind. And now I was going to die for it.  

"And I will have a seat on the throne when
that day comes," Warwick said, cocking the gun and reading his
finger on the trigger. "He promised me a seat."

"Drop it!" said a voice to my right as another
gun appeared and pressed against Warwick's temple. "You don't want
to die today."

I don't want to die
today.

Warwick dropped both me and his gun, and I
fell to the floor, my arms flailing above me like I was falling off
a cliff. My feet scrambled for purchase but found nothing. I fell
with a heavy thud onto the hard ground, feeling my body instantly
bruise. The roots of my hair stung.  

I saw four policemen standing behind my
would-be murderer. Warwick looked at them, dropped his gun, and
attempted a smile.

"Gentlemen!" he said cheerfully, "You
interrupted us. I was just informing her..."

"Shut your mouth," said one of the officers
sternly. He spun Warwick around forcefully and grasped his wrists,
hooking handcuffs over them.

Another officer came over and knelt beside me.
"Are you alright, miss?" he asked.

I couldn't catch my breath. All I could see
was the barrel of the gun in front of my face, the imaginary bullet
travelling a pathway through my skull to destroy my brain. My
finger reached out and pointed to the area where the girls' bodies
were wrapped up as they led Warwick away.

"Aw, no," the man muttered under his breath,
and went over to the sleeping bags. "Mike, come over and look at
this."

I stood without realizing I was doing it, and
walked beside them. Someone stood behind me, but I couldn't tell
who it was.  

"You need to stay back," the second officer
said.

"My friend...my friend Jenna," I stuttered,
aware that my face was twitching and I would probably have a
nervous breakdown any moment. "I need to know if it's her. If she's
dead. Please."

I watched as they slowly unzipped both
sleeping bags, even though my stomach rolled and I wanted to run,
to see anything but the shriveled bodies in front of me. Alyssa was
still wearing her blue raincoat, even though her flesh was mostly
gone, revealing a smiling skull beneath. The other girl I didn't
recognize at all, but I assumed it was Susan, the girl who went
missing at the dance. Beside the filthy sleeping bags, a purplish
blur of soap remained on the concrete from where Warwick had been
scrubbing.

Strong hands grasped my shoulders, and I
turned around, not knowing who to expect. Henry stood there, his
hair for once a mess, his face blotchy with tears. I fell into his
arms with a gasp of relief and he hugged me tightly. I just wanted
to disappear inside of him and pretend the world stopped. Tears
rolled off of his cheeks and pattered the top of my
hair.

"This is too much," he said softly. "This is
too much. I didn't know. Are you okay?"

I didn't feel okay. I didn't feel anything at
all. "I'm alive," was all I could say.

My parents were speechless as they drove me
home from the police station. Claire kept turning around and
looking at me. I stared straight ahead, more tired than I had ever
felt in my life. Hugh especially seemed drained. It was
understandable, considering he had just found out his best friend
was not only a kidnapper, but a murderer. Who also almost shot his
only daughter.  

School shut down for a week to help assist in
the police investigation. McPherson had supposedly been visiting
his sick mother, and was quite surprised when he came back and saw
the drama that unfolded in his absence. I didn't know what I would
do with all the time off, and I hated the idea of having to sit
around and think about things.

There had been no sign of Jenna in that
horrible basement. Just more confirmation that everyone had been
right and she had abandoned me. I started compulsively checking my
email, wondering if I'd get a note from her. No note ever
came.   

Theo came over and we had a sleepover in the
living room, with me on my unusual couch and Theo on the recliner
beside me. We didn't talk much, but it was nice to have the
company. Theo fell asleep early, the princess comforter on top of
her tucked under her chin.

Even though I was groggy, it took me a long
time before I drifted off to sleep. I didn't dream.

Chapter 23

Theo and I hung out for the next week, not
doing much of anything. I had hoped that Henry would have visited
me or let me know how he was doing, but I didn't hear from him. I
tried calling him twice, but his phone was off. I was too drained
to analyze his up and down evasiveness — I figured that avoidance
was just how he dealt with things.

It was strange being back in school, like it
had been on the first day. Like sleepwalking. Maybe things would
get better now, I thought. I rounded the hall to go to homeroom
when I stopped dead in my tracks.

Henry and Lainey were in the hallway, talking
intimately. Her hands were grasping the lapels of his shirt. As I
stood there, she reached up and kissed him on the lips. My throat
ran dry, tasting betrayal. Lainey broke it off, smiling brightly
and waved him goodbye as she sauntered off to class.

I walked up to him, my legs barely able to
support me in my shock. After all that we'd been through, all that
we'd seen...

"What the hell was that?" I demanded.
 

His voice was flat as he looked into my
eyes.

"Lainey and I are together now, Ariel. I'm
sorry."

Without another word, he turned and walked
away from me. It felt as though he might as well have thrown a
punch at my stomach.  

"I am done with boys, forever. There is too
much drama," I told Theo later in Gym. "I think we've been through
enough of that lately."
      

We were performing belly dancing to an
instructional DVD, while Coach Fletcher updated charts on the
sidelines. Lainey looked so incredibly smug; it took everything I
had not to track down a tennis ball.

"It is time for thirty cats," I
said.

"I wouldn't go that far yet," Theo said,
laughing gently. She rotated her hip in a circle, but she went a
bit too far, wobbling and falling into me. We sat on the floor
laughing, as the rest of the class turned to look at us.

I didn't notice Nurse Callie come into the
room. I was paying too much attention to our clumsiness. Laughter
was a release. 

But I saw her now, as she and Coach Fletcher
came over to where Theo and I were getting up. Coach's face was
more serious than usual, which was saying something for someone so
humorless.

"Ariel, I'm here to take you to the office,"
Nurse Callie said.  

I looked between their faces. "Am I in
trouble?" I asked.

"No, honey," Callie said. She was very quiet.
"Don't worry about changing. Just come with me."

I looked back at Theo, her frown mirroring my
own. Everyone in class was still looking at us, the joyous belly
dancer on the television unaware that she was dancing alone.
 

I walked with Nurse Callie to the office. It
had already been a surreal nightmare of a day. How could anything
else go wrong? The universe couldn't be that unfair.

Hugh and Claire were standing in front of the
reception desk when Callie and I arrived.

"Everyone looks so serious," I said, trying to
break the ice. They just looked at me solemnly.

"What are you doing out of work, mom? Did
something happen?" I realized she didn’t correct me. This couldn't
be good. They looked at each other. No one was telling me anything,
and fear began to creep up on me.

"Tell me what it is," I said, panic rushing
inside my chest.  

But some part of me knew.

I had known the words were coming all
along.

"They found Jenna," Hugh said, his voice
cracking. It struck me as funny. She'd always driven him nuts.
"She's dead."

The entire world shrunk down to the badly lit
office. Everything I'd done and every word I'd said in the last few
months. A distracting prickle hit the back of my eyes. I wiped off
my cheek, and my hand glistened.

I was crying.

About the Author

Abigail Boyd (she prefers that you
call her Abbey) has been writing ever since she can remember, and
there was always a ghost in the story. In between watching Mystery
Science Theater and making concoctions out of crackers, she is now
pursuing her dream of making a living writing young adult
fiction.
Gravity
is her first novel.

Look for the second book in
the
Gravity
series,
Uncertainty
, coming soon.

Learn more at:

www.boydbooks.com

abigailboyd.blogspot.com

on twitter @boydbooks