Phantoms of Fall (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 2) (39 page)

He backed the car out of the garage and then hopped
out to say goodnight. “So I guess I’ll see you in the morning
then,” he said as he pulled me close. “Until then,” he paused to
give me a gentle kiss on the cheek, “Mwah and sweet dreams.”

“Mwah,” I replied and watched as he got into his car
and drove away.

Dad and Shelly snuck up behind me on the porch and
joined me as I watched until he was out of sight. “Good party,”
my dad said.

“The best party ever!” I agreed as I hugged them both
at once. The best party…
ever
.

Sweet dreams. Those two simple words Zach uttered
before he
left
spoke volumes
to me.
How could I
have
anything but? Once I was in my pajamas and nestled into bed,
I stared at the ceiling and imagined him there with me.
I
could still smell the scent of his cologne on my comforter, still
feel the warmth of his hands on my skin. And when I rolled
over to pet Coco, I heard the sound of the condom wrapper
crinkling under the pillow right where he left it.

Reaching under my head to retrieve it, I held it in my
hand for just a minute—admiring it like it was a fine diamond.
I opened the drawer of
the nightstand
and
concealed it
underneath my well-worn copy of
Dracula.
Hiding that thing
from Dad and Shelly was priority number one, but keeping it
safe for next time ran a close second in my opinion.

Next time. When exactly would that be anyway? Zach
didn’t want to do it the backseat of the Neon, so that left only
his house and mine as potential scenes for the crime. I had to
admit that I preferred it to be here at Rosewood for several
reasons.
For starters, my bed was
way
bigger than his. And
since I didn’t have any brothers or sisters, my house would be
more private. As glad as I was that it was only Rachel at the
door tonight, it was still downright embarrassing. I made up
my mind—I would tell Zach I wanted it to happen here.

The only obstacle I could foresee was finding a way to
get the house to ourselves. If all I had to deal with was my
dad, things would be easy. He worked long hours and never
popped in unexpectedly.
Shelly, however, was a different
story entirely. The only time she left the house for more than
a half hour was when she went shopping or out to dinner with
my dad.
Which brought up an interesting question—how
much
time
would
we
need?
Now
that
the
lines
of
communication were open between us, I would have to ask
him for his input. It wouldn’t hurt to have a second, more
experienced opinion either—I would find a delicate way to
ask Rachel, too. Once I had a rough estimate, I could think of a
way to get them out of the house for long enough.

The exhaustive emotional turmoil of the day finally
caught up with me as my eyelids fluttered shut and the world
of dreams opened up to me. The last thing I saw before I fell
asleep was the ring on my hand—the ring that now bound me
to Zach Mason. Sweet dreams.

They were anything but. The dream started out like a
normal boring day at school.
listening
to
Mr.
Raspatello
upcoming
assignments,
fidgeting
in
my
chair
from
restlessness. While doodling Zach’s name on my notebook to
pass the time, I noticed movement in the hallway from the
corner of my eye. There were two girls arguing in the hall and
one of
them
was
Garnet.
The second girl was
familiar
somehow but when I craned my neck to see who she was, I
recoiled in horror. She had no face. A hollow void sat where
it should have been, shrouded ghoulishly by a frame of mousy
brown hair.

I was seated in English class
drone on and
on about our

Even
though she
had no eyes, I could sense that
somehow she saw me, saw me watching her.
I shrank back
into my seat to get out of her field of vision but I could still
feel her “eyes” on me. Pretend she’s not there, I told myself
and refocused my attention on Mr. Raspatello.
It was the
wrong thing to do. His face was now gone, too.

Close your eyes.
Close your eyes.
I repeated that
phrase to myself silently. When you open them, you’ll be
awake!
Believing it could happen, I squeezed my lids tightly
shut and began the countdown. Five. Give it some time. Four.
They’ll all be gone.
Three.
This nightmare will end.
Two.
You’ll be safe in your bed. One. You’ll be awake. My eyes
snapped back open.

Instead of seeing my bedroom walls, I was met with a
vision that was even more ghastly than before. Now, no one
had a face, just an empty pit of blackness where their faces
should have been.
I could still hear their voices but there
were no mouths or lips to move in sync with the sound. My
breathing became shallow as they all turned to “look” at me,
voices chattering away from out of the voids they once called
faces.
No one took a single step, but it felt like they were
closing in on me. I writhed in my seat, afraid to stay there but
too frightened to run past them to escape. That’s when I
caught my reflection in the window.

My face had been swallowed up by blackness, too. No
eyes, no mouth but somehow I could still see the horror and
hear the piercing scream it evoked.

32. Back to Unreality

The first sensation I had upon waking was an intense
urge to throw up. I bolted from the bed and got hunched over
the toilet just in time.
My life seemed so perfect when I fell
asleep last night but the light of day reminded me of what still
lay ahead. The nightmare was horrendous—the worst I’d had
in a while—but it was nothing compared to what I had to deal
with while I was awake.

Getting back together with Zach clouded my vision of
the future, but now I could clearly see every pitiful step I
would have to take today. I broke into the school yesterday—
what if someone found out about it? How would I be able to
hide my guilt as I walked past the window that I smashed in a
panic so I could get out of there undetected?
Not to mention
dealing with Garnet.

Garnet. I did everything I could to help the girl—hell, I
even felt sorry for her after everything she did to Zach.
I
knew myself well enough to know that no
living
soul would
have garnered my sympathy after that one.
But I hit a wall,
came to the end of the road, and any other cliché you could
think of to describe my situation. I couldn’t give her what she
wanted because I didn’t know what
it
was.
Without that
suicide note, I was useless to her. How would she react now
that I was forced to give up?

Not well, I imagine. I was still getting sick, I was still
losing weight.
Her slow assault on me had me wishing that
she would just shove me down the stairs too and get it over
with.
Was that what she was looking for—to make me so
miserable that I wanted to die, too? Zach wouldn’t know how
to help me, but at least I wasn’t alone in this anymore. He
would listen to what I went through, hold me while I cried,
then vow to find a way to protect me. It wouldn’t help me get
rid of Garnet, but it
would
make me feel better.
And right
now, that was the most I could hope for.

I looked like hell and I felt like hell, but I climbed into
my car for the drive to school anyway.
I was just putting it
into gear when I looked into the rearview to see Zach pulling
down the drive.

“What are you doing here?” I asked as he leaned in my
window and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“I’m here to give you a ride to school, sweetie, unless
you’d rather go alone.” He started to walk away in a mock
show of wounded pride.

“Oh no, you don’t!” I threatened, as I turned off the
engine and leapt out of the car after him, “Get back here!”
Locking my arms around his waist, I announced, “You’re not
going anywhere without me!”

He opened the passenger side door of his car for me
with a laugh. “Now, that’s more like it!”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to see you—but aren’t
you working at the shelter after school today? Who’s going to
give me a ride home?” I probably should have asked that
question before we were half way down the road.

“Nope—not today.
I asked Andy for the day off so I
could spend more time with you.”

 

Maybe today wouldn’t be so bad after all. “Thanks,
Zach—you’re the best boyfriend in the whole world!”
“Yeah, I know,” he said laughing. “But that’s only
because I have the best girlfriend in the whole world.”

We
were apart for so long that now every single
second I spent with him felt like a gift from the gods. “So what
are we doing after school then?”

“I thought I could take you out to dinner and then we
could just go somewhere to talk.
I want you to tell me
everything about your ghost.”

The fact that he wanted to know what I was going
through—every wretched detail—
did
in fact make him the
best boyfriend in the world and I told him so.

“Well, I just hope I can live up to that title.” He
remained silent as he pulled into the school parking lot. Once
we were parked, Zach added, “Just know that I will do
anything I can to help you. What I said to you last night in the
oak grove wasn’t just me saying whatever it took to win you
back. When I said I would take a bullet for you, I meant it.”

“I know, Zach—but I wish you would stop saying
that.” I fidgeted nervously in my seat. “Promise me you’ll
never say it again—promise right now,” I pleaded.

“Okay, okay! I promise!” He reached over and gave
me a quick kiss before getting out of the car. “You’re not
going to make me pinky swear, are you?”

“Very funny Zach Mason—just for that I
should
make
you pinky swear.”

He laughed, grabbed my hand and led me into the
building. We weren’t more than five steps inside when Rachel
ran up to us.

“Hey guys—have you heard?” She didn’t give us any
time to reply before blurting out, “Someone broke into the
school!”
Here we go.
I had to look surprised, had to ask the
questions any innocent person would ask. “Really? When?”

“It happened sometime Sunday
night during
the
party,” she replied animatedly. “They’re asking around to see
if anyone knows anything or saw anything suspicious—the
police are in Principal Lascher’s office right now.”

Oh no.
How did they narrow down the timeframe so
drastically? I never thought anyone would be able to pinpoint
the break in to within a few hours. It was a good thing I threw
up this morning because if I hadn’t, there would be a hot,
steaming pile on the floor at my feet.

“Ruby and I don’t know anything about it—I was too
busy winning her back to pay attention to what anyone else
was doing.”

Zach was going to flip out when I told him that it was
me who broke into the school so I almost decided not to tell
him. But lack of communication, half-truths, and flat out lies
just weren’t working for us anymore. If our relationship was
going
to last, I had to
cut the dishonesty
and tell him
everything regardless of the consequences.

“That’s not the only thing you were busy doing!”
Rachel quipped as she bounced off down the hall.

Guilt followed me around all day, digging its dirty
claws into my gut every time I went near the broken window
or listened to anyone’s conversation about what happened.
Rumors spread like a bad case of acne so by the end of the day
people were saying that the thieves stole thousands of dollars’
worth of stuff from the computer lab. Whatever. I broke a
window and that was it.

I also
felt
a twinge of
shame when I saw Mr.
Raspatello. There was still definitely something off about the
way he reacted when I mentioned the Black Raven Society,
but I knew for sure now that he didn’t kill Garnet. Still,
sometimes I would catch him looking at me with an odd
expression on his face, like he was analyzing me or something.
He wasn’t a killer but he
was
creepy, that’s for sure.

The
only
thing
that made the day
bearable was
knowing that I was going to tell Zach the truth. It was funny
to think after all of the lengths I went to to conceal things
from him that it should all end like this—with me dying to tell
him the truth, to strip it bare and lay it all out there for him to
see. One thing’s for sure—I was going to feel a whole lot
better after it was done. And the best part—the truth was all
he ever really wanted from the start.

When the final bell rang, we were off and running. I
knew that he was taking me to City Lights for dinner but he
had a surprise planned first. His only hint was that we were
going to be doing something a city girl like me would have
never done before. After warning him that I drew the line at
milking cows, he assured me that it was something I would
love.

So imagine my surprise when he drove me straight to
Rosewood. Was this a subtle hint that I needed to shower or
something? I took a quick whiff to make sure I didn’t smell
bad. Nope—the Midnight Kiss and my deodorant were still
doing their jobs.
I watched with fascination as he got out of
the car and went into our garage. What in the world did he
have in mind?

When he reappeared with two rakes in his hand, I was
baffled. Yard work? This was his idea of a date? Maybe this
was how he bought my dad’s approval—free yard work in
exchange for his daughter’s hand. Hmm, my dad should have
held out for more.