Destiny (Vanish Book Four) (14 page)

He put his hands around my waist and pulled
me closer. I could feel the electricity from his touch, going up
and down my back. I moved closer to him, and the electricity was
everywhere, soon I noticed a soft white light radiating from us. I
closed my eyes as he ran his fingers across my cheek, afterwards it
was tingling.

He leaned down to kiss me, touching his lips
to mine just enough to tease me. I stood up on my tiptoes and
kissed him back, this time for real, but only for a few seconds,
and then I pulled away. I smiled at him, teasing him back, watching
him to see what his next move would be. He put his hands on the
small of my back and kissed me, while making me walk backwards
until I was up to a tree. Then he grabbed my hands, and pinned them
above my head. This time as he brought his lips to mine, I couldn’t
pay attention to the feelings rushing through me, or how much I
loved him in this moment. The lights overhead started flickering,
the more passionate his kiss became, the more the lights flickered,
until they exploded.

He stopped and looked around, and then we
both looked up to the sky. The stars had gotten brighter, brighter
than I’d ever seen them before, and soon, three shooting stars
passed by. I smiled at him, and he brought his lips back to
mine.

When I opened my eyes, I saw a bright light
coming from my house.

“Hey, what is that?” I asked as I started
moving forward. “Oh my God!”

The house was on fire, and I didn’t see Rose
or Violet. Sienna and Hazel were still inside, too.

We ran into the house. It was already filled
with smoke. I pulled my shirt up and covered my mouth with it,
then, I ran into the kitchen. Violet and Rose were passed out, tied
up to chairs.

Then, I saw Sienna and Hazel. Hazel looked
distraught—like she had nothing to do with this—but Sienna kept
moving forward.

I knew I needed to get Rose and Violet out,
but I also knew who started this fire, and they would not get away
with it.

I ran over to Sienna and pushed her into the
flames. Hazel looked back, shot me a dirty look and ran out the
door.

I ran over to Violet and Rose. Dante had
already cut them loose. Dante carried Violet out, and I dragged
Rose. We laid them down out on the lawn. Dante called 9-1-1, and as
we waited, Sienna ran out, still on fire, but she didn’t look in
pain. Her eyes looked red—she looked like pure evil.

“This isn’t over; you haven’t seen anything
yet, and by the way, I remember everything, and I’m sure he does,
too,” she closed her eyes, the fire extinguished, and she ran off
into the woods.

“What the hell was that?” I choked.

“An extremely pissed-off member of the
Alliance,” he said as he stared forward, watching her run into the
woods.

The firefighters and ambulances came. Violet
and Rose were still not responding when they were rushed away.
Elizabeth and George went with them, while Dante and I stayed
behind. I knew I would need to go to the hospital, but I couldn’t
look at their faces. I let them stay in the fire while I went off
to get Sienna, but all that accomplished was pissing the Alliance
off even more.

I heard a loud blast coming from deep within
the forest, miles away. Dante and I stood up, and as we did, a blue
explosion lit up the sky. Then, an electric blue shockwave went
over us, knocking us to the ground. I got up and looked in the
direction it was heading, but it looked like it went on for
miles.

When the air cleared, everything was
shimmery, like it was covered in a sparkly dust. I knew in my heart
that the explosion came from the shed where Dante, Rose and Violet
were imprisoned. I knew in my heart that it didn’t kill my father.
Without a doubt, I knew that the words Sienna spoke were true. This
wasn’t over. No, this was just the beginning and before whatever
was to come, we had truly seen nothing.

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I walked through the doors of the hospital,
tears still fresh on my cheek. Elizabeth and George had returned
last night. They told me I should go to see Violet and Rose as soon
as possible. I knew my fear and anxiety were showing clear as
day.

I heard the beep of monitors as I walked down
the halls. I was headed for the ICU. The shallow breaths that were
all that I could take were only making me dizzier. I needed to
appear calm, but I was anything but and still, I only had myself to
blame.

I came to the ICU, and pushed the button next
to the door. A young doctor came to let me in. When he saw me, he
knew exactly who I was here to see. He smiled at me solemnly, and
then led me to Rose’s room.

She lay still in the hospital bed as the
monitors beeped. She didn’t stir, and she didn’t wake. She hadn’t
awakened as of yet, and no one was saying much of anything about
that. A cry escaped my lips, and I put one hand over my mouth and
wiped away the tears. I sat down and stared at her. I should have
saved her. I should have pulled the both of them out of that fire
the moment I saw them, but hate and anger clouded my common
sense.

She looked beautiful as she lay there. That
was not to say she got out of the house unburned. If she didn’t
make it… it killed me to say those words, it made my stomach churn,
but unfortunately, I knew that was a possibility. I would find
Sienna, I would find my father, and I would kill them both. Hazel
might just get some mercy. I got up from the chair next to her, but
before I could walk out the door, I had to stop and stare.

“I love you, sis,” I whimpered. My lip
trembled and fresh tears came streaming down.

I kissed her gently on the forehead and then
went to go see how Mom was doing. I slowly walked through the door
and sat down next to her. She turned toward me as much as she
could. She had burns on her neck, feet and legs. Rose definitely
got the worst of it, but Violet inhaled a lot of smoke.

“Hey, sweetie,” she strained to say.

“Hey, Mom, how are you feeling today?” I
asked.

“Oh, you know,” she avoided my question, but
she smiled at the fact that I called her ‘Mom.’

“This all began because of that stupid curse,
I don’t even understand what the point of any of it was. Who cares
if one person is good and the other evil? What difference should
that make to their child? Who would even care enough to do
that?”

“Your Grandmother,” she sighed. “On your
dad’s side.”

“What? I don’t understand. Why would she put
a curse on her own granddaughter?”

“To prevent him from doing this, to prevent
you from ever coming into existence, I thought if I gave you
up—”

“I don’t understand what the big deal is. If
they
would have left me alone, none of this ever would have
happened.”

“Scarlett, my family—our family has always
respected the Alliance out of fear, but that never stopped us from
being their biggest enemy. We were on the exact opposite side of
the spectrum. We helped people escape them. You are one of us, but
you are also part of them, and that makes you powerful. She knew
that you would either be the one to lead them or the one to bring
them down for good.”

“So, what does the curse have to do with
anything? What does the curse have to do with stopping that?”

“I guess she hoped that your father wouldn’t
have the heart to put his daughter through that, but he never
cared. He only sees you girls as pieces in his little game.”

“Didn’t she know that before?”

“I guess she wanted to believe that he was
better than that, she was a horrible woman, but that’s not to say
that she didn’t have some heart left.”

“So, why Skylar?”

“I don’t think there is any answer to that,”
she sighed.

“Okay, get some rest.” I leaned over her and
kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll be back tomorrow, okay?”

“Alright, I’ll see you then,” she smiled.

As I got up, she smiled and closed her
eyes.

“Mom?” I said as I turned back around before
walking through the door.

“Yes, honey?”

“I love you, and I’m sorry.”

“I love you, too, and you have nothing to be
sorry for.”

I would have argued, but it wouldn’t have
made a difference, and she didn’t need that, definitely not right
now.

I walked out of the ICU, went down the
elevator, then through the halls as fast as I could. Once I made it
outside, I fell to my knees. I knew now, what seemed to be only a
very small part of the story. I also knew there had to be more to
all of this than what she knew.

I didn’t want answers; I didn’t need to know.
I knew the one who had the real curse in all of this was Skylar. I
knew we would have to hide. I knew eventually I would have to kill
my father and my sisters. I got up, shook my head and continued
walking to the car.

I drove all the way back to the neighborhood;
it was quite a long drive. The hospital closest to Sunny Bay was
obviously not well equipped for burn victims.

When I reached my street, I saw Elizabeth was
waiting next to a moving truck while Cooper, Dante and George all
brought out boxes and furniture.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I walked up to
Elizabeth.

“We’re going back. We thought it was safe,
but it isn’t. I can’t believe my sister kept these secrets from
me.”

“She never meant for any of this to happen,
and neither did I.” I looked up, trying to keep the tears from
escaping. I’d been crying too much these past few days.

“Everything is going to be fine. They won’t
be able to get to us there, that’s for sure.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled, but I wasn’t so sure.

“We’re all packed up,” George called
over.

“Wait. There was something that I wanted to
check,” I said as I ran toward the burned house I once called
home.

“Wait Scarlett, I don’t think it’s safe to go
in there,” Elizabeth said, but I ignored her.

I walked through the door, there was garbage
everywhere, or so it seemed. The smell of smoke was still fresh,
and almost everything had been ruined.

I ran down the stairs to the basement.
Everything was black; the fire had definitely spread down here. But
there was a circle of untouched shelf space, and sitting there, was
the box I grabbed from my room. I closed my eyes and sighed. Inside
this box, were a few mementos I’d saved as well.

In front of me, a woman appeared. She was not
just any woman…. It was the woman from the movie theater parking
lot.

“Who are you?” I wondered.

“A miserable old woman who was wrong all of
her life,” she muttered.

“Wrong, wrong about what?”

“About what was right, about what I really
wanted.”

“Why did you help me?” I wondered. “How did
you know I would need that potion?”

“Like I said, I was wrong about what was
right, and I was just trying to correct it.”

“Correct it…” I whispered to myself.

“I wasn’t the one who made the Alliance, that
was my great-grandfather, but all I wanted was to—to keep it going,
to do what I had learned all my life.”

“You’re my… grandmother?”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “But do you see what a
mess this has become?”

“You’re the one who made this curse,” I
snapped. “How? Why? Why me? Why not them? You punished me for
something I had no part in, something I couldn’t have prevented
even if I wanted to.”

“My son…your father, he has gone too far. I
see that now, in my mind all of the people I hurt deserved it. They
knew the rules; they broke them. Maybe I was wrong about that, but
I can see that he is going to take this as far as he can. Ruling
the Alliance wasn’t enough for him. Now, he’s set his sights on the
world, but don’t think he has given up on you, not yet.”

“And what am I supposed to do? Why am I the
one who needs to figure everything out?”

“Because like it or not, you hold the key to
everything. You and your sisters, but you’re the one who will
ultimately make or break the Alliance.”

“I can’t take this anymore,” I cried. “I am
not what everyone thinks I am. I can hardly figure out my life,
powers and everything else aside. How am I supposed to be the one
to change things?”

“You already have. You’ve changed me, you
truly have. I will help you as much as I can.”

“How have I changed you?”

“I’ve watched you, and I realized—what’s the
worst that could happen if our secret was exposed? That is one
thing that is hard to foresee, but I know it can’t be as bad as
this mess that I’ve made. I tried to leave you the potion in that
box, but it seemed like that was the only one missing.”

“Wait, you tried what?” I said, confused.

“The old witch that the boy in the attic
spoke of was me.”

I had no time to question her—as if any
question I would have asked would have been coherent—she was gone
before I could even process the information handed to me. She lived
in the house before Mrs. Winter, which made her murder all the more
coincidental. Could it have been me who brought on her death, or
was it only the place she had chosen to live?

I walked back up the stairs, watching my
step, trying not to trip on piles of debris. I carried the box that
had miraculously avoided the flames, and I put it in the back of
the moving truck. Dante could tell that something wasn’t right, but
he understood that right now, nothing was right, and he knew not to
ask. He wrapped his arms around me, and my face was buried in his
chest. He smiled down at me with just the slightest glimmer of pain
in his eyes. My suffering hurt him deeply.