Chosen (Book #4 of the Vampire Legends) (10 page)

Chapter
14

Rachel hovered
over her old house in Pennsylvania watching and waiting to see what was going
on below. It was evening time and her family station wagon was parked in its
usual spot in circular the driveway. She saw the kitchen light on and shadows
walking around inside. She couldn’t make out who it was, but assumed it was
either her mom, dad or Marc. She knew it wasn’t Sarah because she was in
college and wouldn’t be home until Christmas.

She lowered her
body so that she could see into the window of her old bedroom to see if was
still hers. When she peered inside though, she didn’t recognize it. Her old
wall paper was torn down and replaced with a simple green and white stripe. Her
old paisley curtains replaced with simple white sheers and her shag carpet torn
up and only the wood floors were left exposed. It was not hers anymore. She
didn’t know whose it was, but knew that none of here stuff was inside. It
looked empty as if it were a guest room or something. She flew by Marc and
Sarah’s old rooms and they were left perfectly preserved as she’d remembered. Not
one thing out of place, not one thing had changed since their move. She
wondered if her parents really thought she was dead? She then flew by her
parents room, hiding behind a tree so that if they were inside they wouldn’t
see her. She couldn’t imagine what would happen if they saw her flying in the
air. They’d surely lose their minds, she thought to herself. Their room was the
exact same, too. They’d moved everything back in and put it back in its proper
place just as she’d remembered. Everything was there, even down the little
leather bunny rabbit they put on their bed each morning after making it.

So why wasn’t her
room put back together? She thought to herself. And where were all of her
things? She quickly landed in the woods behind her house and crept to the
windows of the basement to look inside. She wondered if perhaps her stuff was
in storage boxes in the basement. She looked though all four sides of the
house, but saw nothing. None of her stuff was there. She hoped and prayed that
they didn’t throw it out or donate it.

She then heard a
noise coming from outside her house and then heard her dad’s voice. “Marc! Come
out here and give me a hand with the groceries.”

“But Dad, I’m
busy!” Marc yelled back.

“I don’t care
what you’re doing. Get your lazy butt out here now and help out around here for
Christ sake! Do you think you can just show up back home after all this time
and not help out!?”

“Fine!” Marc
yelled.

Rachel quickly
ran behind their detached garage to take cover. She couldn’t let them see her
or sense that she was there. Her father had a keen sense about him and could
always tell when he was being watched or followed. Once he avoided being mugged
because he sensed the guy coming behind him and scared him away.

As she stood
there behind the garage watching her family, she spotted something inside the
side window of the garage. It was a tall stack of cardboard moving boxes with
things written on the side in black sharpie. She couldn’t make out what they
said, but she saw her name of a few of the boxes.

This is it! She
thought to herself. This is where my stuff is!

Rachel moved
quietly around the side of the garage to the side door. She knew her parents
never locked the garage door since it was detached from the house so she’d be
able to get inside that way. The leaves crunched under her feet as she walked
slowly toward the door. She kept one eye on her father and brother as she did
this so that if they turned she could quickly duck down. Then, she stepped on a
branch, cracking it in half. Both her brother and father turned quickly and
Rachel dropped to the ground to hide.

Phew, she thought
to herself. That was a close call.

“Marc, did you
hear that?” her father asked.

“Yeah! What was
it?” Marc answered.

“Sounded like
someone’s in the bushes?” her father said.

“Go check it
out!” Marc said. “I’ll follow you.”

“Good idea!” her
father said.

Rachel couldn’t
believe her ears. Were they really going to search the property? Was she going
to get caught? She quickly launched her body into the air and onto the roof of
the garage. She knew they would never think to look on the roof. She lay down
on the roof so as not to draw attention to herself by standing on top of it.
She was safe there. She heard her father and brother rumbling around below her
searching for what could have made that noise. Then, their footsteps drifted
off into the distance as they continued searching.

Rachel stood up
and then jumped back to the ground, creating another loud stir. She hoped that
nobody heard that but her and thankfully, nobody came after her.

She crept back
towards the door of the garage and then slowly turned the gold door knob as the
door creaked open. How she wished she carried WD40 in her pocket as the hinges
were so creaky that she was sure her whole family would come running outside to
see what was going on. She quickly darted inside and hid behind some boxes that
were stacked in the corner. She knelt down and waited there in silence to see
if anyone was coming after her to find out what all the ruckus was about.

After about five
minutes of waiting, she figured nobody was coming so she stood up and headed
towards the box that said her name on it. It was like finding the best
Christmas present ever. All her stuff was still there, in boxes, properly
labeled and organized.

She looked at all
the labels and thought her best bet would be to look in the box that said toys
and miscellaneous things. She opened the box and rummaged through it, lifting
up old dolls, CD players, Lego’s, My Little Pony dolls, and a few stuffed
animals. She wasn’t yet at the bottom, but she hadn’t come across the kaleidoscope
yet. She hoped that it would be in this box and figured her parents would
probably classify it as a toy. They didn’t know it was much much more than a
toy to her, they didn’t know that the kaleidoscope had changed her life
forever.

She continued to
dig through the endless box of toys but was still unable to find the kaleidoscope.
She couldn’t understand it. There was everything under the sun in that box
except her precious kaleidoscope. She couldn’t understand it.

Then she looked
at the other boxes and started digging through them. She was becoming more
unsuccessful as the minutes went on and still, no kaleidoscope. She was
beginning to wonder if they threw it out, or put it elsewhere in the house. Or
maybe, they sold it in a garage sale. All these ideas were flooding her mind
and making her even more upset. She couldn’t bear the thought of never finding
the kaleidoscope again.

Then, she came
upon a box that said, Rachel’s school stuff. There were only two boxes left to
sort through until she’d have to give up. She opened the box slowly and started
lifting up various school related items. This exercise was like taking a
journey through her past. She felt a bit nostalgic for the days that had gone
by and wished for a second she could still have a use for these things. She
lifted up her old notebooks, her pens, pencils, and her Filofax. She pulled out
old notes that her friends had written her and she even found her old AHS
school schedule. Then, she saw her LeSportSac back pack. She picked it up to
put it aside and continue searching, but it felt heavy to her. It was heavier
than she’d remembered it feeling. She opened up the front zipper and pulled out
her diary. She couldn’t believe it. She’d missed her diary so much but couldn’t
remember where she’d put it. She quickly removed it from the backpack and put
it in her new leather messenger bag that she carried across her body. She then
opened up the large zip pocket and she couldn’t believe her eyes. It was a true
miracle. There in all its glory, shining brightly was the kaleidoscope. She pulled
it out and it was exactly as she’d remembered. It was perfect and now she knew
she would be able to find the Red Amulet. She put the kaleidoscope to her eye
in hopes of seeing the answer, but she saw nothing. It was like looking into a
black hole. She shook the kaleidoscope and then looked through it again.

Nothing.

She couldn’t
believe it. All of this for a blackened blurry vision of nothing. She couldn’t
believe it. Her heart sank in her chest and she knew it was over. She knew she
would never find the Red Amulet, and she knew she would never save Benji.
Thinking about this brought tears to her eyes. She slunk down to the ground,
holding the kaleidoscope in her hand and cried.

Then she heard a
noise coming from outside of the garage. She couldn’t believe her ears. How did
she not hear them before. She had no warning, no time to hide. She heard the
door creak open and they walked in as she was sitting there, crying on the
floor. She didn’t know what to do and the only thing she could do was look up and
acknowledge what was about to happen. She’d been caught.

“Rachel?” her dad
said in surprise.

“Dad!” Rachel
replied.

“Rachel? Is that
really you?” Marc said, looking down at her.

“It’s me. I’m
back,” Rachel said, still clutching tightly to her kaleidoscope.

“What are you
doing here?” her dad asked in an angry voice.

Rachel didn’t
know what to say or do. She knew her dad was going to let her have it. There
was nothing she could do to stop him. She could see the anger in his eyes as
his face got redder and redder. All of a sudden she’d wished she’d never come
for her kaleidoscope. She knew it was all a big mistake.

“What do you mean
you’re back?” her dad snarled. “Do you think it’s funny to leave for a year and
then come back and say, “I’m back!”’

“I, um…N, N, No,”
Rachel stuttered.

“I can’t even
believe this,” Marc said. “We thought you were dead!”

“Dead?” Rachel
questioned. “Me dead!” she let out a little laugh.

“You have no idea
the trouble you’ve brought our family, Missy,” her father said.

“I’m sorry,”
Rachel said. “But I don’t know why you’re so angry with me. I didn’t do
anything to you.”

“You didn’t do
ANYTHING!” her father screamed. “That’s exactly it. You DISSAPPEARED!”

“I had to,”
Rachel said vaguely. “Trust me.”

“Did you not stop
for one second to think about how that affected your family? Did you?” her
father yelled. “You have no idea the toll it took on us. Especially your
mother.”

“Did you even
hear what happened to Mom?” Marc asked.

Rachel couldn’t
imagine what it could be and said, “No.”

“Well, to be
honest, I don’t even think you’re worthy of knowing,” her father said.

“Worthy of
knowing where my own mother is?” Rachel questioned.

“Yes. You
probably wouldn’t even care anyway,” her father remarked.

“Tell me,
please,” Rachel begged. “I must know.”

“She’s not well,”
Marc said. “She’s not well at all.”

“What do you
mean?” Rachel asked in worry.

“She got very
ill. She fell into a deep coma and she’s in the hospital now,” her father said.

“Coma?” Rachel
asked, devastated. “But I don’t understand.”

“She couldn’t
take it anymore. She got sick from worrying about you and then once everyone
started talking about your death, she tried to kill herself, too. She overdosed
on pain medication and just about died herself. She lapsed into a coma and has
been like that ever since,” her father sighed.

“How long?”
Rachel asked in fear.

“It’s been a
while now. Almost five months,” Marc added.

“Five months!”
Rachel exclaimed.

“Why didn’t I
know about this?” Rachel asked.

“Probably because
you didn’t come back to us,” her father said. “You don’t seem to care about
anyone else but yourself these days. It serves you right really. What’s
happened to your mother is all your fault. Imagine if she’d died. How would you
have felt?”

“But, I …I,”
Rachel said. “I didn’t do anything. Really, it wasn’t my fault. Stop blaming me
for something I didn’t have control over!”

“Control over!”
her father yelled. “You’re the one who left!”

“Dad, please.
Please. You have to understand. I had to go. Things changed for me. You have to
believe me. But now I’m back, but only for a short time,” Rachel said.

“Yeah, why did
you come back here anyway?” Marc asked. “And how did you know we were here.”

“I went back to
Bedford and the guy who lives in our house told me you’d moved. So, he gave me
your phone number and it was the same as before, so I figured you’d just moved
back to our old house. And I was right. Here you are!” Rachel said.

“So why did you
come back here?” her father asked.

“I had to come
back for my kaleidoscope,” Rachel said.

“What?” Marc
said.

“What kaleidoscope?”
her father asked.

“This one,”
Rachel said, holding it up in her hands.

“What’s that dumb
thing?” Marc asked, laughing at her. “Why would you ever come back for a dumb
toy?”

“Shut up, Marc!
It’s not a toy. It’s much more than that,” Rachel said. Then she realized she’d
never convince him it was magical so she stopped trying to defend herself and
just let him think whatever he wanted.

Then, Rachel
noticed it. There was something missing on her kaleidoscope. It was the golden
flower knob that fit onto the side of it. How did she not realize that before?
she thought to herself. It’s the piece that holds the top and the bottom of the
kaleidoscope together. She knew it felt a little loose, but didn’t stop to make
sure all the pieces were together. Then, she wondered where she’d put the flower
knob. She remembered taking it off one day before she’d left to be with Benji
because she didn’t want anyone looking in her kaleidoscope and finding her. She
didn’t want anyone else to use it.