Escaped the Night (4 page)

I couldn’t
pay
attention
to the movie
because
I kept
thinking about
the board
’s
warnings
in spite of myself
.
Vampires we
ren’t r
eal, were
they?
W
ho
was Daray
?
W
as he really looking for one of us?
Every on
ce in a
while I
glance
d
over
toward
s
the window.
Was something out there
?

My mind
finally started
slowing
down
from
the thousa
nd
questions racing through it.
I
felt
tired
from
lazing
around on the couch and
looked
over
at
the clock. I
t was just after one o’clock a
.
m. No wonder I was starting to fade.

Before I knew it,
Ginata
was
waking
me up
and
tell
ing
me to head upstairs
. She was
ca
lling it a night
.

I
glanced
back
over at the clock
and i
t was
now
almost
two a.m. I let out
a big yawn
as I reached
down
and
grabbed
my pillow
.
I
followed
Ginata
sleepily
upstairs.
On the way to her room we
stopped
for
some
extra
blankets
and pillows
from
the hall closet
.
With loaded arms
,
we made our way to her room
and
I created
my makeshift bed on the floor
. A few moments passed
and I was in dreamland.

I slept
soundly.
I was
so
comfortable
wrapped up in
all my blankets and pillows.
Surprisingly,
I
never
w
oke
up
even
once during the entire night.
No dreams
intervened
to conquer my mind as I had expected
.

I
woke up to
bright
sunshine
filling
Ginata’s
room. The dark s
hadows
were
no more than
a distant memory.
I
checked
my cell
phone
;
it was just after eleven
.

Ginata was still sleeping. I stood up and
leaned
over
her to try and
gently
wake her when
suddenly
her eyes
shot open. She h
ad
a strange look on her face, but
b
efore I could
ask
,
she
promptly
sat upright.
“I’m starved. Let’s eat!”
S
he
hopped out of bed without so much as a stretch.

I
decided to
let it go and
simply
followed her
downstairs. We walked into
the
kitchen
, which was
also
bright
from
the
beaming
sunshine.

“Good morning
girls
!
”
Ginata’s
mom
smiled warmly
as she greeted
us
.

“Good morning.”
We each
took a seat.

“
Since
it’
s almost lunchtime
sleepyheads
, what do you say a
bout brunch?” she asked
cheerfully
.

“Brunch sounds great
,
” I replied back. Just at that moment, my stomach
growled
loudly.
We all giggled.

As
Ginata’s mom
started preparing our meal. She asked, “
So
…
what’
d you
two
get
up to last night?”

Ginata spoke up first
. “
Oh
mom,
you know
,
the same as usu
al. Played
around
with some make-up
and gossiped.
Later on
we pigged out and
ended up watching
a movie.”

Her mom
focused back on the food
and
Ginata shot me a look
,
warning
me not to let her
in on any o
f our scary encounters
.

I nodded
.

“Sounds like y
ou girls had a good time
.
A
ny
big
plans for today?”

I shrugged
. I didn’t really
care what we did
.
I always enjoyed myself around them. They were truly happy people and the h
appy rays (as I liked to call them
) always rubbed off
.

“No plans yet
.
” Gina
ta
answered
.

“I was going to head out later
on
with
your fath
er. We planned to
take
Berkley
for a good
long
walk. Perhaps you girls
would like
to join us?”

Ginata looked over at me. I nodded. A
walk was always a good thing. Especially
after all this food
we were
about
to
eat
. W
e were
really
going to need the exercise.

“Great! It’s settled
!
”
Her mom
exclaimed.
“He
will be home about two
, t
ry to be ready by then and we can go from there.”

After
brunch
we headed upstairs to get re
ady. As per
usual, I
wore a
black
sweater and a pair of
old
beat up
blue
j
eans
.

Ginata
,
on the other hand
,
looked like a
summer
flower with her brightly colored
pink
sequ
in
top. The sunlight hit her
shirt
and it glittered like thousands of spark
l
ing diamonds.

The front door opened and a male voice called
out
. “
Hello,
I’m home…
who
’s happy to see me?”

I grabbed my stuff and w
e
headed downstairs to meet up with her parents
.
Berkley
was already in
the f
r
ont foyer, his tail
wagging
. He knew
we were going for a walk and his patience or bladder wasn’t going to hold out much longer.

While Ginata’s dad drove us out of the city, I watched
as
the
buildings eventually ga
ve way to maple, birch and evergreen trees. About thirty minutes later, we stopped on the outskirts
of a thick
forest.
Berkley
began panting with
excitement and took off like a shot when Ginata’s dad took off his leash.

Ginata’s dad said, “
Look at him go. H
e knows his way around here like the back of his paw.”

I listened to
Berkley
tromping through the fo
rest
as we walked
.
He would co
me back
, run ahead, then come back,
a
s
if
he was our scout, letting us know
it was safe to proceed.

Ginata’
s
parents
walked
just
up ahead of us, hand in hand.

We walked
up a small hill.
To my surprise
just on the other side was a beautiful creek
running
t
hrough the vast forest.
It sparkled
as the sun
hit
its
little
rushing
r
apids
.

Berkley
ran
into the water
at full speed
. He swam
back and forth
a number of
times and a
fterwards
would
walk
up, stan
d
beside us and sha
k
e
,
sending a
spray of water sailing through the air. We all ran
trying
to dodge
him
, but
Berkley
liked his
game
. He’d shake off
the water
and
he
ad directly back into the creek
only to
chase us down again
.

It had been a long, exhausting but exhilarating day.
Which helped push
the previous night’s events
and other worries to the back of my mind.

“
Ginata, w
e’ll drop you and
Berkley
off
first,” her mom said, “so
you can give him a b
ath. He smells
kind of
funky. We’ll
take
Shanntal home and then your father and I will pick something up for dinner.
It’s getting pretty late
already
.
”

“Okay,” Ginata said. A few minutes later we
pulled into her driveway. “Come on, boy,”
Ginata
opened
the
back
door. “Talk with you later,” she
said to me. I waved and we were
on our way to drop me off at
home
.

We
were
about to pull
up into my driveway
when
I was overcome with an uneasy
sensation.
Something wasn’t right. It was
a family
custom to leave the outdoor light on until everyone was home
, safe and sound
,
and
i
t
wasn’t on.
Why didn
’t they have the light on for me
?
My dad’s car was parked in the driveway right where it
belonged
.

As we pulled
the
entire
way
up
, the lights from the
vehicle
lit up
the front of
m
y house. Ginata’s
dad
let out a
gasp and j
ust as he did
,
I noticed
the deep
claw marks
all along the garage,
l
e
a
d
ing
straight
to
my
front
door
, which
was
kicked in.
Panic rushed over
me
.
Holy
…
what
happened here?

He
ordered us to call the police
, lock
the doors and stay inside no matter what.
He
walked up to
wards
my house.
Ginata’s mom
reached back and grabbed my hand. We squeezed
each
other’s
hands
tightly
and watched
him disappear
through my front door.

A few m
inutes
passed
by
and t
hen a few mo
re
. T
here
was
still
no sign of Ginata’s dad
or my family.

Ginata’s
mom
was antsy and
started
unbuckl
ing
her
self
.
“I’m go
ing to go check what’s taking
so long.” She took a deep breath and unlocked the doors.
Then
,
hesitating
for only a moment
,
she
got
up
out of her seat.

I
begged
her not to go
,
but she wouldn’t listen
.

“Just c
all the police,” she
ordered, before she relocking all the doors. She closed her door and I sunk
helpless
back into my seat
watching
her
walk
away
. I waited for
what felt like a few minutes and
to
my horror
,
she
also
never
returned
.

I called
9-1-1
,
sobbing
uncontrollably
.
“
I think s
omeone broke in
to
my house. My
friend’s
parents went in
and they haven’t come out
. I’m scared, something’s not r
ight. Send
the
police
now!
”

What was going on? They’
d been inside
fo
r what felt like
an
eternity.
Why wasn’t anyone coming
out?
There was no sign of movement and n
o lights went on, nothing but
sheer
dark
ness
.

I
heard
the sirens
’ blare
coming down my
street. Three police cars pulled up
in front of my house, one
after the other. One offic
er noticed me sitting in the SUV
as he headed up towards my house. He came over
and knocked on the window.

I
stared
helplessly
at my house hoping everyone would walk out
. Instead,
I
noticed
those same
red glowing eyes
looking
at me from
my bedroom window
. I looked
at the officer and
pointed
back up at my
room
.
I looked again, but n
othing was there.

The
officer
spoke
loudly through the
window,
“A
re you the one who called us?”

I nodded
. I’d been crying so badly,
he
looked like a
blur with a flashlight
. I
wiped away my
tears and
saw
his hat and uniform.
In that moment, I knew
I was safe
, but
what about everyone else?

“I need you to come
with me
. You’ll be safer
in my cruiser
.
Unlock
the door so I can help
you
,
”
h
e said sternly.