Destiny (Vanish Book Four) (2 page)

“Fine. Take whatever you want. In fact, you
would be doing me a favor if you would just take it all.”

“And how am I supposed to do that?” I
wondered.

His plan was great, albeit kind of obvious. I
don’t know how I didn’t think of it in the first place.

I walked down the stairs from the attic. I
had two vials in my jacket pocket, the rest I would come back
for.

“Are you done? Is it gone?” The woman
demanded.

“No, I’m going to have to come back, and I’ll
need the house empty.”

“Why?” She asked confused.

“This ghost seems… angry. He won’t hurt you,
I can promise that, but I will need to come back.”

“When, when can you come back?”

“How does tomorrow sound?” I asked.

“Tomorrow is perfect; I’ll be gone all day.
Here’s an extra key,” she said as she dug through her purse. “Oh,
and how much do you charge?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I mumbled as I headed
toward the door.

Even though the boxes upstairs didn’t belong
to her, I still felt like she was giving me more clues to what
really went on with the Alliance. After all, she didn’t have to
call me, and that was payment enough.

I got inside the car that Rose and I shared
and took a deep breath. This could be a good thing; I wanted to
help people, and now, I could.

I drove the ten miles back to my house and
stopped in the driveway. Dante was sitting on the dock, staring out
into the water. Instead of going inside, I went to join him.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing, how about you?”

“I was helping someone. If I tell you where I
was, I need you to promise not only, not to tell anyone, but also
that you will accept it.”

“I promise,” he said, but he didn’t sound too
sure of that.

“There was a woman, she had a ghost in her
house, and she needed help to get it out.”

“Scarlett, you know that wasn’t a good idea,
and that’s exactly why you wouldn’t tell me. You knew that I
wouldn’t think this was a good idea.”

“And why not? The Alliance is gone, Dante.
Now we can be free to use our powers however we deem fit and this
is what I need to do. What is the point of having powers, if not to
help people without them? What’s the point in all of this, if not
to make things better for ourselves and others?”

“That’s very noble. But you need to realize
that every time you let someone in on your little secret, you run
the risk of there being consequences, not just for you but the
people you help as well.” He looked down to the ground, then his
eyes shot back up to look into mine. “How did she find you?”

“I—I put out an ad,” I explained, but his
expression turned from curious, to furious. “It was very vague; all
it said was that if you hear noises at night to call me. Hell, I’ll
probably get some calls from people whose houses are infested with
rats. Only the ones who are dealing with that type of thing, will
have a second thought about it. Not to mention, the fact that I
first put it out months ago, and she’s the first person to
call.”

“Fine,” he said through clenched teeth. “How
did it go?”

“Great. There were old books and potions,
things that were tied to the Alliance. I’m going back tomorrow to
take all of it.”

“The Alliance? No, I don’t have a good
feeling about this Scarlett; it could be a trap.”

“It doesn’t actually belong to the woman who
lives there, and it would be so dangerous if she found that stuff.
I dropped one of the potions on the floor, and it burned a hole
right through it.”

“Fine, but be careful,” he mumbled.

“I will,” I promised. “Come on, let’s go
inside.”

I led him through the door and up the stairs
to my bedroom.

“Isn’t your mom home? You know she will kill
me if I—“

“She’s not home, and even if she was I’m an
adult now; I think it’s alright if you come up to my room.”

“You do remember the last time, don’t
you?”

Of course I did, Dante and I were hanging out
up in my room. We were listening to music and talking about
everything imaginable, but it was all innocent, which made the
anger that ensued from Violet all the more aggravating.

“Just come on, she can’t tell me what to
do.”

“She’s your mom.”

“Yeah, and that’s why I wanted to get to know
her. That doesn’t mean she has the right to tell me what I can and
cannot do. In fact, we are the ones who cleaned this house up, and
let
her
live here, not the other way around.”

“You know she’s going to get angry,” he
cautioned.

“Fine, if you’re that worried about it, let’s
go.”

“I need to talk to you,” he blurted.

“About?”

“I had a dream last night. I haven’t dreamt
or even really slept in a long time.”

“And…”

“It’s not a big deal; I just thought you
might want to know…”

“Come on Dante, what is it?”

“I know who killed me,” he mumbled. “It was
Joe.”

“You mean Joe, Ann’s Joe, Joe?” I
stuttered.

“Uh, yeah, that Joe.”

I had so much to say and so much on my mind.
I hadn’t seen him since I came from the future, but I had no doubt
that he was just as evil. This left me wondering where he was.

“I haven’t seen him since….”

“We killed him?” he said.

“Yeah,” I mumbled.

“What about
Skylar
?” he said it as if
the name burned his tongue.

“No, I haven’t seen him either.”

“Okay,” he said, sounding relieved.

“Do you know why he killed you? I mean I know
Joe was Joe, but—”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said in a dull
tone.

I turned toward the mirror and put my hand in
my pocket. I took out one of the potions. I went to go take off the
top, but before I could, a horrific scene overtook my vision.

The first few seconds weren’t bad; it was the
woman from the house I was just at. She looked into the mirror. She
had her makeup perfect, and she was wearing a very elegant dress.
It was obvious that she had somewhere important to be, someone
important to meet, or both. The look in her eyes showed excitement,
and a little bit of nervousness—she didn’t have long to feel
either.

A man came up behind her. He was wearing all
black, and his hoodie and facemask were all that I could see,
nothing identifiable. I could tell by the look in his eyes, he
would not show any mercy. I could feel my eyes, shutting tight,
squeezing, hoping not to see what was going to happen next, but I
could still see everything. He tied her up in a chair, and walked
away, but I knew he would be back.

Then, somehow, the vision shifted over to a
clock, it said it was six thirty. That had to be close to what time
it was now. If I could just snap out of it, I could make my way
over to her house and help. I saw him walk back into the room; he
didn’t seem like he was in a hurry, he was going to let her
sweat.

Before I could see anything else, I was back
to reality and thankful. I jumped up.

“I need to go,” I exclaimed.

As I stood up, he grabbed my arm and pulled
me onto his lap.

“I miss you,” he said, with weary eyes. He
touched my cheek and kissed me. “I’ll see you later?”

“Yes,” I promised as I stared into his
dark-brown eyes, but I didn’t have the time for this. Nor did I
have the time to say anything about how weird Dante was acting.

Before I got up to go out the door, Violet
barged in. She stared with anger in her eyes, before she finally
spoke.

“The police are outside; they want to have a
word with you,” she said as her eyes flickered between us. My eyes
darted to the clock. It was seven thirty. “We’ll talk about
this
later.”

I hoped this would be quick. I needed to get
over to that house, I could always tell the police, but I wasn’t
quite sure they could deal with what was going on over there. If it
had anything to do with what was stashed in the attic, they might
be dealing with something
very
out of their league, and so
might I.

“I’ll be right back,” I smiled at Dante as I
got up.

The walk from my bedroom to the front door
was a long one. I was sure I couldn’t be in any trouble, but that
left me with the question—
what did they want?

I opened the door and peeked out, “yes?”

“I’m afraid we’re going to have to take you
to the station for questioning,” the officer said in a stern
voice.

“What’s this about?” I asked.

“You were at the scene of a murder.”

As I sat in a room with my hands cuffed
behind me, crazy thoughts tore through my mind. Were they referring
to the woman from my vision, or could it have been something else?
No one had answered any of my questions, and I wasn’t quite sure
why I was the one with handcuffs. Did this murder have something to
do with…me? I gulped. I couldn’t be responsible for someone’s
death—at least not someone who was a good person. The officers
walked into the room.

“Hello, I’m Officer Stewart, and this is
Officer Rowley.”

Yep, I was definitely going to look crazy. My
hands were shaking, and I felt like I was going to puke. This
couldn’t be; it just couldn’t. My heart felt like it was going to
explode. I couldn’t believe who was standing in front of me, the
man Dante and I had just been talking about—Joe Rowley.

“So, you were at Ms. Winter’s house this
afternoon?”

“Yes,” I said, balling my trembling hands
into fists behind me.

“How did you know her?”

“I didn’t,” I mumbled.

That was it, I was going to look insane. I
didn’t even know the woman’s name before, and even with the
Alliance gone, I couldn’t tell them what I was doing there.

“So why were you there?” Ah, the dreaded
question.

“I was doing a job… she asked me to help her
clear out some boxes,” I lied.

“Why would she ask a stranger? There was no
sign of forced entry at the house….”

“I don’t know; I really don’t, but she asked
me, and when I left she was very much alive.” I waited for them to
reply, or ask another question, but they didn’t. “Do you have any
evidence that I did it? Am I under arrest?”

“No, you’re free to go,” Officer Stewart
said. “You’re sure you don’t have any information about this?”

“No.”

I really didn’t. I could tell them the man
was wearing a mask and a black hoodie, but would that really be a
breakthrough? Maybe in one way—they would assume I was there.

“Scarlett,” Joe said in a voice that almost
sounded like we were old friends. “Don’t think we’re done here.
We’re going to be keeping an eye on you.”

“You mean the police?” I asked.

“No,” he whispered, winked and got up and
walked away.

I sat down outside in front of the police
station. I called Dante to come pick me up. It was eight thirty by
the time he arrived, and I was happy to get out of there.

“So what was that about?” he asked.

“The woman, the one with the ghost. She
died—she was murdered, and I’m pretty sure they think I did
it.”

“They let you go, that must be a good thing,
right?”

“I have a bad feeling, Dante. Joe was there,
he questioned me, it seemed like he knew something.”

“This isn’t good; he knows where you live
now,” Dante said, sounding a little more worried about that than he
should have.

“Maybe he came back with Ann and Debby,” I
speculated.

“Maybe you should go visit Ann,” he
suggested.

“She doesn’t remember anything,” I sighed.
“And if she did, she wouldn’t tell me.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing. The Alliance is gone;
we have nothing to worry about. Let’s go to the movies or
something, get your mind off of this.”

“That sounds great.”

We saw some action flick. I’d wanted to see
it for some time, but ten minutes in, my eyes left the screen. I
stared down at the floor thinking about what had happened. I found
a truck load of Alliance crap in some lady’s attic, and less than
two hours later, she’s dead. I’m brought in as a suspect—I can only
assume—and I’m questioned by Joe, of all people.

I had a very familiar feeling in my gut—the
desire to run. I wasn’t sure if I would ever feel safe if I didn’t
feel safe when the Alliance was gone. Would I always feel the need
to run?

Dante put his arm around me, and I laid my
head on his shoulder. It was almost as if happiness radiated from
him, and soon I felt almost calm. I focused on that for a while, it
soothed me, and I started feeling a little better.

Before I knew it, the movie was over. We
walked out the doors of the theater. The parking lot was empty,
which was weird. I looked around, but I couldn’t see anyone. Then,
as I looked forward, an old woman bumped into me.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“I know your deepest darkest fears,” she
said. “But compared to reality, they are nothing.”

“What?” I whispered, breathlessly.

“There’s still someone out there watching
you,” she said.

“How do you know this?” I asked with
skepticism.

“You may think you did a good thing, and in
some ways, you did, but the aftermath of this is far worse than the
Alliance watching over everyone’s shoulders.”

“How do you mean?”

“You’ve given people—some of them far worse
than the Alliance as a whole—the opportunity to make their own
Alliance. Everyone wants to be in charge; that will never
change.”

“Well, thanks for the warning, but I don’t
see much coming of this.”

“Believe what you want, but that won’t keep
you safe. It’s your responsibility to take the next steps on this;
you’re going to have to cut people from your life, and let new
people in. Someone was hiding behind the Alliance; ruling from
afar, they still had to follow the rules though, but now all bets
are off.”