Destiny (Vanish Book Four) (15 page)

He led me over to his car and opened the
passenger door for me.

“I know it’s going to be a little further to
the hospital now,” he mumbled. “But I’ll go with you to see your
mom and Rose as many times as you’d like.”

“Thanks,” I smiled at him. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” he smiled back over.

Though neither of us had much to smile about,
just being near him made me able to bear this. I had to believe
that something good could come of all of this. I had to believe
that everything would be okay.

I closed my eyes and thought of the woman who
apparently, was my grandmother. She helped me; she gave me the
potion, but she also gave me the curse. I didn’t quite understand,
not yet, but someday, I hoped that I would.

I unrolled the window and felt the breeze
sweep my long hair out into the wind. I put my arm out the window
and felt the cool breeze. I closed my eyes and tried to clear my
mind. Being worried sick about Rose wasn’t going to do a damn thing
to help her. I feared in the end, she would be another victim added
to my ever-growing body count. I could have saved her, instead, I
went in for another kill—and I failed.

The drive didn’t seem to take long. When I
was lost inside my head, thinking about all of these terrible
things, time seemed to fly by.

Soon, we were parked on the dirt road, just
in front of the tree with the star carved into it.

I took a deep breath as we got ready to walk
into the forest. A lot had happened since we were here; a lot of
people had died at my hands. I walked into the forest, waiting for
the worst—waiting to burst into flames. Nothing happened. The trees
lit up, the wildflowers that I’d never witnessed here, lit up as
well. This place was beautiful. It was filled with so many
beautiful memories, and almost as many horrific ones. The leaves
from last fall crunched under our feet as we made our way up to the
house.

We stopped at the door and waited for George
and Elizabeth to arrive. Elizabeth was driving the moving truck,
and she dodged trees all the way up to the house. When she got out
of the truck, Dante gave her a high-five. Though we’d seen her
drive a Hummer through here, it was still impressive.

We started grabbing boxes and taking them
into the house. I didn’t have much, nothing really, aside from the
one box. So I helped them get all of their stuff inside.

Once we had unpacked all of the boxes besides
mine and Dante’s, George and Elizabeth pulled us aside and said we
could take the guest house.

I closed my eyes, and blood-covered walls
were all that I could see. I could hear myself screaming Dante’s
name, over and over again. When I opened my eyes, I saw that Dante
was carrying two big boxes stacked up on each other. We walked over
to the house, and I sighed before we walked in.

“Is everything okay?” Dante asked.

“Bad memories,” I mumbled. I would have
thought he would have been just as upset by this, if not more.

“We’re going to be okay,” he promised.

We walked through the doors. The guest house
didn’t look like it used to, another thing that must have changed.
I couldn’t believe something so small could make me feel so much
better.

I sat down on the black leather couch, and
Dante made a fire in the fireplace. Then, he sat down next to me.
Though the room was different, the couch was in the exact same
place—this was where we spent our last night together. I didn’t
want to think about that. I couldn’t keep holding on to the pain in
my past, especially things like this, things that didn’t really
matter. Nothing bad would happen to Dante here. We would be
fine.

“So do you think everyone is really safe in
that neighborhood? I mean, I don’t think my dad would personally go
after them, but I don’t think he would think twice about killing
any of them if it came down to that.”

“I can’t say for sure, but there isn’t enough
room here for the whole neighborhood. They know what happened; they
know that it wasn’t just some mysterious explosion.”

“I guess you’re right,” I sighed.

I grabbed the remote and turned on the TV;
the local news was on. Dante went to grab the remote to change the
channel, but I pulled it away.

“Police are saying there may be a serial
killer in the small town of Sunny Bay. The usually quiet town has
seen a sky rocketing of murder cases in the area,” the woman said.
“Residents are being asked to be in by nine o’clock, and not to
travel alone. The police have no leads, but all of the murders
appear to be connected. The police are not excluding the
possibility that there is a group behind the attacks.”

“In related news,” the man began. “Officials
still haven’t found the source of Thursday’s explosion in Sunny
Bay, but they believe that it was accidental. If you have any
information on either of these stories, please call—”

I turned off the television. I didn’t know
who the murderers were, but I had an idea. My father and sisters
were no longer afraid of being caught. They had much bigger plans
now.

Dante put his arm around me and pulled me
close. I was so happy to have him back. It wasn’t that I needed
him, not as a boyfriend, not at all. That wasn’t to say that I
wasn’t head over heels in love with him, but it was more than that.
He was my best friend, and I couldn’t imagine life without him.

I closed my eyes, but instead of darkness, I
saw my father and my sisters sitting in a circle in their living
room. They had the glass bowl in front of them, and the picture was
already fully developed. I was walking through the glowing
forest—they knew where I was. Could I be so stupid to think that
they wouldn’t figure out a way to come here?

My eyes popped open, and I looked around the
room in a daze. I hadn’t paid attention to much in that vision,
only the fact that they were watching me. I jumped up and paced
around the room.

“What’s wrong?” Dante asked.

“They’re watching me,” I mumbled.

“You’re safe here, Scarlett.”

“You weren’t safe here; we’re not safe here,”
I argued. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t let anyone else get
hurt.”

“Honestly, I don’t have the first clue of
where to begin,” he sighed. “We need to be ready, though I’m not
totally sure how to do that. Then, we need to find your father and
kill him.”

“Yeah, I know. I just have a really bad
feeling about all of this. Your mom, Grace, everyone we left behind
could be in danger.”

“Everyone…” he mumbled. I turned toward him
and for one moment, we shared an intense look.

“Rose,” I whispered.

I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it
before. He had tried to use her to get to me once, and I had no
doubt in my mind that he would do it again. This time I knew he
would be smarter about it. He would keep her, the third piece to
his puzzle.

I threw on a black hoodie and gathered my
hair into a bun, then I put the hood up, and we were both running
out the front door.

We ran through the trees so fast I couldn’t
even see where I was going, but I knew I was headed in the right
direction. When we finally made it to the car, we both jumped in.
Dante started the car, spun it around and began driving down the
winding road at about seventy miles per hour. I held on, trying not
to let him see my fear. A part of me was afraid we would die in a
fiery wreck before we made it to the hospital.

He pulled up to the front doors of the
hospital, and I jumped out. I ran through the doors, and people
looked at me, alarmed, but I had no time to slow down. I knew when
my father, and my sisters saw that I had traveled this far away
from the hospital, they would take their chance.

I ran to the door, and my heart slowed down
just a bit when I saw Rose lying in her hospital bed. I went over
to her and sat down. It didn’t look like her condition had changed
much. Then, I noticed a piece of paper rolled up and stuck behind
her ear. I pulled it out slowly—it was from my father.

We’re far past trying to
reason with you Scarlett, you betrayed us. So let me make you a
deal. You come to us tomorrow night at midnight. We’ll meet in the
parking lot of the old abandoned factory on Grove Street. Come
alone, and I won’t kill every-single person you’ve ever cared
about. If you don’t, I’m starting here, with Violet and
Rose.

I dropped the paper to the floor. My hands
were shaking, and I couldn’t breathe. I had no other options; I
would have to do this. I picked the paper up and crumped it into a
ball, and then I stashed it away in my pocket.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to
you,” I whispered to Rose. “Not again.”

“She’s okay,” Dante sighed as he walked
through the door.

“Yeah, she is.”

“Did something happen?” he asked as he stared
at my face.

“No, nothing at all. I just hope she’ll be
okay.”

I went to visit Violet, after all, it might
be the last time I would see her. She was fast asleep, and I didn’t
want to disturb her. Dante grabbed my hand, and we walked back out
to the car.

He drove slowly the whole way home. He kept
asking me every few minutes, if I was sure that I wanted to leave,
that I didn’t want to go back. I told him no, that I knew they were
safe—for now. He didn’t question me and for that, I was
grateful.

We made it home, and he lay down on the
couch. I stood over him and looked down into his eyes, when his
brown eyes turned green.

“We’ve taken on another one of your powers,”
Skylar said. “I don’t think Dante knows, just me.”

“What power, what are you talking about?”

“I saw something today, as he was heading up
to their hospital room. I saw the note Scarlett.”

“You saw?” I said, dumbfounded.

“I saw,” he repeated.

“Well, what do you think I should do, huh?
Everyone I know could die if I don’t go.”

“Yeah, I know that, too. I saw the note,
remember?”

“I have to go alone. You’re going to have to
let this go, Skylar.”

“Yeah,” he cleared his throat, “I know that,
but that’s not the only thing I saw….”

“Well, what is it?” I wondered.

“You’re going to die. They’re going to get
your powers, and then they’re going to kill us all anyway.”

“No,” I barely whispered. “No. What should I
do Skylar? Please tell me what I should do, because I honestly
don’t know.”

“Kill them,” he said simply, as if it was the
easiest thing in the world. “I don’t know if anyone should go with
you, I don’t know how that would work out. But I do know that you
can’t tell Dante, he will stop you.”

“How am I supposed to keep this from
him?”

“I’ve been saving up my time,” he answered.
“I need to go now, but tomorrow night, I’ll take over.”

“Okay,” my voice trembled.

His eyes turned back to brown, and I knew I
had to get my head straight. I wiped the tears from my eyes and put
on a fake smile.

“What did he do?” Dante asked.

“Hey, hey, Skylar has helped us out so much,
don’t you even try and—”

“I was joking,” he laughed. “Seriously
though, what’s wrong?”

“I’m just worried about Rose,” I sighed.

Before he could question me more, there was
frantic knocking at the front door. I got up and ran to the door.
When I opened it, Grace was standing there with mascara running
down her face. She looked at me and smiled a little.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as I wrapped my arms
around her.

“I—I can’t. I can’t say it, because if I say
it…” she trailed off as new tears darkened her already
mascara-covered cheeks. “If I say it, then I won’t be able to
pretend it isn’t true.”

“Tell me Grace. I don’t think I’ve ever seen
you this upset.”

I led her over to the couch and went to get
her a glass of water. Then, I sat down next to her, with my hand on
her shoulder.

“With everything that’s happened, my mother
decided it was finally time to come clean.”

“About what?”

“My dad… might not be,” she shook her head as
more tears ran down. “He might not be my real dad.”

“What?” I blurted.

“Yeah, that’s what I said. That’s about all I
could say to my mother after that.”

“So what did she tell you?”

“She said there’s a chance that a man named
Charles might be my father, she didn’t tell me his last name.”

“I’m so sorry, Grace,” I whispered.

“Do you think I could stay here?” she
asked.

“Of course,” I said.

Dante went upstairs to give us some room.
Grace and I made some popcorn, huddled up under a blanket, and
watched horror movies all night. It was a lot like the old days,
and for a while, I forgot about all of my problems. Once Grace fell
asleep, however, they all came rushing back to the front of my
mind.

It was eleven o’clock in the morning. That
left roughly thirteen hours until my meeting with the Alliance. I
got up off the couch and went to go check on Dante. He hadn’t come
down since we started watching movies.

When I reached the top of the stairs, there
was nothing but dead silence. I peeked inside each room, unsure of
which he would have decided to go in. After I opened every last
door, one thing was abundantly clear—Dante wasn’t here. Where had
he gone? What was he up to?

I had no choice but to go out and look for
him. I always expected the worst, and this time was no different. I
tried to keep my mind clear until I could find out what exactly was
wrong.

I walked through the trees toward the house.
Then I went to the apartments. Still no Dante.

As I stared in front of me, I noticed that
the air looked thick. It moved like the air over a barbeque on a
hot, summer day. I started to get dizzy, so I looked in a different
direction, but it was the same. I couldn’t tell if I was seeing
things, or if it was actually there, but if it was there, what
was
it?