The Gathering Darkness (30 page)

“Ah, yeah. I guess we sort of like each other.” “Like” was an understatement, but it was all she needed to know. “But I swear nothing happened.”

“I believe you,” she said still smiling as if she was enjoying the gossip.

“Thanks. I think I’ll go and lie down now.”

“Okay, let me know if you get hungry.”

“Oh,” I turned halfway up the stairs. “Why was Maggie here earlier?”

“She stopped by for a visit.”

“Does she do that a lot?”

“Rarely. She was really bragging you up,” Aunt Rachel said proudly.

“Yeah, I bet,” I mumbled.

I took a couple Tylenol then crashed on top of the covers. I was as tired physically as I was mentally. For some reason, my heart still ached. Maybe I was broken beyond repair.

I didn’t remember falling asleep, but when I opened my eyes again, I was bathed in a warm, beam of rare sunlight. My clothes from the day before were still on, and someone had pulled a quilt up over me. I yawned, stretched, and rolled over to check the time. It was 7:30 a.m. I couldn’t help wonder why Marcus hadn’t called me the night before. I shoved the gnawing twinge of fear out of my head and got up.

The hot shower felt good. I dressed in sweats and a T-shirt and went down to the kitchen for a bowl of cereal. Uncle Edmund’s sandwiches were the last thing I’d eaten, and I was starving.

I wanted to call Marcus, but it was just after eight. A small jolt of excitement shot through me when I realized he might have sent me a text, so I put my bowl and spoon in the dishwasher and ran upstairs to check my cell phone for messages.

“Where is it?” I said to myself, annoyed after spending a half-hour checking every possible spot in my room that my cell phone could be in. In the middle of my room, I stood with my hands on my hips in thinking mode, when Sammy walked in, still in her pajamas.

“Are you looking for this?” she asked casually, holding my phone out to me. After a brief pause, I snatched it from her hand.

“What are you doing with my cell phone, Sammy?”

“I found it.” Her sweet voice was obviously phony.

“On my night table?”

“No,” she said in a saucy tone “It was in the washroom.”

Maybe it was or maybe she was lying, I had no way of knowing. “Get out of my room. You’re not welcome in here anymore,” I said bitterly.

With a smirk on her face, she turned to leave.

“Oh, and I remember the past,” I said, confronting her like I’d confronted Maggie.

She turned to look at me; her smirk was replaced with a frightening scowl.

“That’s right,
Emma
, I know who you are. I know everything.” Then I felt a longing for the old Sammy and softened. “I’ll fix things this time, and hopefully everything can go back to normal.”

A sharp, unrecognizable laugh burst from her. She whirled around and left the room. I sighed and checked my phone for messages. There weren’t any. Something was up. Marcus would have at least sent me a text, unless he’d fallen asleep too. Hopefully that was what had happened.

A soft knock came at my door. I opened it apprehensively. Aunt Rachel stood in the hallway.

“I heard you get up. Are you feeling better today?”

“Um, yeah, all better.”

“That’s great. Marcus said you were feeling better before he left.”

“What?” I was sure my face looked as shocked as it did confused.

“Last night, when Marcus came to see you. I think he really cares for you, Brooke.”

“Marcus was here, last night?” My mouth hung open in surprise.

“My, my, you must have been sick. Don’t you remember him tucking you in?”

A warm, fuzzy feeling gushed through me in the form of relief. “Oh, right. I remember.” I nodded, keeping up the act.

“Okay, well, Jim and I will soon be leaving for the day. His receptionist is sick. I’ll be filling in for her. Call my cell if you need anything,” she said, then turned and walked away, stopping at Sammy’s bedroom door.

I closed the door and walked to the bed, falling back against it. With a rare smile on my face, I wrapped the quilt around me that Marcus had covered me with.

I remembered taking Tylenol and lying down, and that was the extent of my memories. Pain meds always made me drowsy.

It was just after nine now. I couldn’t refrain from calling Marcus any longer.

“Hello?” he answered.

“Hi, you weren’t sleeping were you?”

“I’m so happy to hear your voice, and no, I wasn’t sleeping. Actually, I’ve been dying to call you, but I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Oh, I’ve been awake for a while, and I was dying to call you, too. I wish I’d been awake last night when you were here.”

“It doesn’t matter. I was just happy to be there. Did you get my message?”

My smile grew. He
had
left me a message. “Nope. I lost my phone and found it in Sammy’s hand. She must have erased it.”

“I wanted to know if you wanted to spend the whole day together, doing whatever you like.”

“Oh yeah, it’s Saturday.” I’d lost track of time. “That sounds awesome. What do you wanna do?”

“I don’t know. We can drive to Boston if you want.”

That tempted me enough to sit up. “Wow, I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I really don’t want to go to Boston right now. Hey, don’t you have a soccer game today?”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t going to go.”

“I think you should go. I’ll come too.”

“Well, if you’re up for it.”

“You have to be there for the team.”

“They’ll live without me, but you talked me into it. Why don’t I pick you up around eleven and take you out for lunch before the game?”

A rush of excitement shot through me. “Okay, it’ll be like a date.”

“You sound happy.”

“Well, at the moment, I am.”

“Good, see you soon.”

I kissed into the phone and hung up.

Suddenly aware of how I was dressed, I ripped the wet towel off my head, threw it on the floor and hurried to my closet. Forgetting for a moment about the dark side of my life, I got ready for my day with Marcus.

M
arcus picked me up in the truck. After a pleasant lunch at a seaside restaurant, he drove us to the soccer field. Amy and Christy were on the bleachers waving frantically at me when I got out of the truck.

“Good. You’ll have friends to sit with,” Marcus said as he heaved his gym bag over his shoulder.

He offered to walk me to the bleachers, but I brushed him off. After a lengthy kiss and a couple of teasing shouts from Amy and Christy, Marcus left me to go to the locker room to change. As I walked to the bleachers to sit with my new friends, I felt as if I belonged somewhere again.

The day was moving along beautifully.

“Hey girlfriend.” Amy greeted me, smiling hugely. She moved over a space, offering me the spot between her and Christy.

“Hey, nice T-shirts,” I said, complimenting them on their skimpy, Deadwich Ravens tees.

“We’ll have to get you a Ravens shirt for the next game,” Amy suggested.

“That’d be cool,” I agreed.

I scanned the bleachers hoping no one noticed.

“Don’t look back, but the three witches are sitting at the top left corner,” Amy said.

“Huh?” I jumped in my seat and did exactly what she’d told me not to do. I looked back.

There they were, three of the seven Ravenwyck witches. Amy had no idea how accurate she’d been in her name-calling.

Even though I knew something was up with Sammy, Megan and Robyn, looking upon the three of them for the first time, knowing what they really were, sent a cold shiver across my skin, leaving goose bumps behind on this blistering hot day. As if they sensed my stare, all three of them glared at me at the same time with definite malevolent intent. With the back of my goose bump-covered arm, I wiped sweat beads off my forehead.

“Geez, are you alright?” Amy asked. “You’re as white as a ghost.”

Her voice brought me back to my senses. I faked a smile.

“Which reminds me, I haven’t seen you since the dance. What happened?” As Christy asked, a sly grin spread across her face.

I sighed at the lie I was about to tell. “Um, I didn’t feel very good, so I left early. I needed yesterday off to recover.”

“It doesn’t look like you’re over whatever it was you had,” Christy said.

Amy ignored Christy’s comment to me and nudged me in the arm. “We heard you spent the night in Marcus’ boathouse.”

Her and Christy’s smirks and raised eyebrows told me they’d already had their minds made up as to why I’d spent the night at the boathouse. I knew there was no point in protesting the issue. But just the same, I felt my cheeks warm knowing what it was they thought.

“She’s not touching that one, Amy,” Christy said, then winked at Amy.

I didn’t comment. They both giggled. I blushed further, feeling shamefully proud.

“Do you know how many girls would trade places with you in a heartbeat to spend a night there?” Amy said, linking her arm through mine.

“With either brother,” Christy added.

“Seriously,” Amy said.

I laughed inwardly at the irony. If only they had insight into my twisted existence, none of them would want to trade places with me. But I wouldn’t give up any of it, not if it meant that Marcus wouldn’t be in my life. As long as we were together I could endure whatever horrors awaited me.

The crowd began to cheer—finally something to draw Amy and Christy’s attention away from me. The Deadwich Ravens jogged onto the field, followed by their rivals; the Ipswich Vultures. I searched the blue and white jerseys until I found number fourteen.

Amy and Christy babbled back and forth about how cute the Ipswich guys were. Apparently, Amy had gone out with one. I totally ignored them. Tall, dark and handsome, number fourteen was the only guy who grabbed my attention. Although, I couldn’t ignore Evan, no matter how hard I tried.

His laughter resonated above everyone else’s on the field. Not to mention, he was obnoxiously animated, elbowing his buddies, perhaps a little too hard. His friends played along with his antics, though, as if he was Deadwich’s greatest gift and they were satisfied to be a part of his entourage.

“Whoa, check out number fourteen, girl,” Amy said, elbowing me playfully.

“Yeah, he’s pretty hot,” I said gushing.

“Evan too,” Christy added, sounding appalled that we would leave him out.

It was hard not to scowl as I said, “Yeah, him too.”

I hoped that one day I could see the cuteness in Evan again, but right now, any good attributes he’d once had were lost somewhere deep inside the evil Evan. And just like the evil Sammy, I wasn’t sure if they would ever surface again.

The whistle blew. The captains shook hands with the coaches and referees and the players assumed their positions on the field. Ipswich Vultures had the kickoff.

After a couple of good plays by Ipswich, they scored the first goal. Marcus and Evan played offence together; Marcus as the lead striker, Evan as a midfielder. Although it was the first game I’d watched them play, I would have to be blind not to see the tension between the two brothers.

Instead of passing Marcus the ball, Evan would greedily keep it and try to score himself, but Marcus caught a pass from Dave and scored the first goal for the Ravens, tying the game 1-1.

It was apparent that the Ravens’ coach noticed Evan’s behavior, because he pulled him from the field and made him sit the rest of the first half out.

“What’s with Evan?” Amy asked, looking at me. “Aren’t Marcus and Evan getting along? I mean, yeah, they hardly spoke to each other in school all week, but can’t they just get along for the game’s sake?”

I shrugged. “You know more about their relationship than I do.” Then in Marcus’ defense I added, “I think it’s more Evan than it is Marcus, though, don’t you think?”

“You’re right. Evan’s been acting like a jerk lately,” Amy said.

“Seriously, It’s hard to believe they’re twins,” Christy added.

I let out a long, slow breath. The sun had grown even hotter, if that were even possible. Or was it just me? With the back of my hand, I continually wiped sweat from my forehead. I rummaged through my purse until I found a clip and pulled my hair back into a ponytail.