Redheads are Soulless (16 page)

Eighteen

Caution

We drove south for what seemed like forever. We didn’t stop at night to sleep, Jason just kept driving.
Finally, we
ended up in Key West, Florida.

I wasn’
t sure what to do. Should I fight him? The real question was
could
I fight him…
Because no matter what way I look at it, he is much stronger
than I am
.

My
own
life wasn’t the problem. I w
ould
gladly give up my own life if that’s what it t
ook
to save Robb
ie. He is my number one concern, and he is the one I am worried about. I only hoped that he had caught onto Jason’s plan and that he wasn’t following us.

Eventually, we pulled into a very large, empty parking garage. It was taped off and said “CAUTION” all over the building. I didn’t at all feel safe, but Jason drove us
up all 10 stories
to the roof.

Neither of us had said a word since his earlier confess
ion. I was glad… I definitely did
not want to spend the last few hours of my life listening to my killer’s voice.

Finally, Jason pulled into a parking spot and got out of the car.

The first thing I noticed was the steady sway of the parking garage. I knew it wasn’t safe to be up here, and I felt like it could collapse at any moment.

“Are you sure it’s safe to be up here?” I asked.

Jason laughed in response. “Do you want to know the real reason
that
Robbie killed you
r
dad?”

I refused to look up at him.

“
I curse
d
him. And all these years, he thought it was Adrianne who did it
,” he said, proud of his secret. “I’ve kept my true self hidden for a thousand years… It was worth it. Now I get to kill all of you, and I’ll be the only immortal left.”

I looked over the ledge of the parking gar
age. We were up about 10 stories, and t
here was absolutely no way that I could jump off. If I ran, he would most definitely catch up with me.

“It’s not too
late,” I tried reasoning with him
. “You can still do the right thing.”

“Do you think you’re going to change my mind? After a thousand years, no seventeen year old girl is going to change my mind,” he said with a laugh.
“Especially not one as gullible as you. You bought into every single lie… What made
you
think that
I
loved you? What a pathetic waste of space.”

I knew I shouldn’t let his word
s
affect me, but I couldn’t help the hurt feeling that washed over me. Tears stung my eyes, but I refused to let them escape. I would
not cry in front of him. I wo
n’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that he hurt me.

I heard a noise from behind. When I turned around, another car had just pulled up. Adrianne got out of the car and headed towards us.

“Adrianne,” Jason greeted her. “You’re just in time.”

Jason came up from behind me and put his arm around my throat. I tried to pull myself out of his grasp, but there was no use.

“Don’t try anything, because it won’t do you any good,” he whispered in my ear.
The sound of his voice made me nauseous.

Adrianne held out her hand towards me, and shot electricity at me. When it hit me, I couldn’t help but scream. The pain was much more intense since I didn’t have a way to block the shock. It felt like I was getting poked with a thousand hot needles, and then
dropped into a large pot of boiling water. She didn’t stop after just once. She did it again, and again, and again.
I wasn’t sure if I was screaming. I could think of nothing but the excruciating pain.

Finally, the pain came to a halt, and my body fell to the ground. I wanted to get up, but I couldn’t make myself.
I just lay against the cool concrete. My body was sti
ll throbbing from the pain.

“Not so strong now, are you?” I heard Jason’s voice.

“How does it feel coming after a seventeen year old girl? Two against one isn’t very fair,” my voice was weak. “I guess you’re just too scared to take me on yourself.”
I started to push myself up off the concrete, but before I could I felt Jason’s fist connect with my jaw. The force of the punch sent me sliding across the concrete. I felt my back hit the concrete wall hard. I
crawled
away from the wall just as it crumbled and fell ten stories below.

When I looked back up, Jason was glaring at me with his black eyes. “You really think you could take me on?” he asked with a laugh.

I knew without a doubt he could crush me without trying, but I wasn’t go to go down without a fight. I put out my hand, and wi
th all my might, I pushed him. H
e slid back about 5 feet before he gained control. Even with me pushing as hard as I could, he fought the force and eventually stood just a few inches in front of me.

“Nice try,” he said before shoving me once more. When he pushed down, the concrete gave away and I fell to the floor directly below the roof. When I stood back up, my ankle screamed in protest, but I fought it.

I held my hand out and pushed myself against the ground. I lift
ed
myself back up to the
top level
and positioned myself in front of Jason.

“Back for more?” he asked. He started to shove me again, but I pushed his hand away. This time
,
he screamed in protest. I looked down at my hand to see that steam was comi
ng off of it.
I went to touch him again, but I felt a zap of electricity go through me. I fell back once again through the hole in the concrete, falling to the floor below the roof. This time I landed on my back.

For a moment, I was unable to breathe, but after a few seconds I was fina
lly able to take a deep breath. When I did, a sharp pain shot through my back.

I forced myself to stand up again. This time, instead of going back for more, I decided my best chance would be to run. Unfortunately
,
I couldn’t run fast with my ankle and back hurting.

I heard laughter from behind me, but I didn’t look back. I just kept running as fast as I could down the ste
e
p parking garage.

I felt an electric bolt in my leg, and I fell, rolling all the way to the bottom of the eighth floor. When I got to the bottom, I hit my head on the side of the concrete wall. I grunted from the pain,
and tried to push myself up
.
I couldn’t make myself.

So this is it – I’m really dying.

For me, dying seems like an easy way out. I only wish that death would have come sooner, b
efore I met Robbie
, before he changed my life. It almost seems unfair that I have to leave him now, just when I found my place in the world.

I fought to stay alive. I fought for
him
. As reality slowly slipped away from my grasp, I tried hard to hold on. I couldn’t leave. Not now – not yet anyway.

I had to see his face one more time.

I had to say goodbye.

Suddenly, it wasn’t just laughter I heard. I heard tires screeching. I looked up the see a red car coming towards me… Robbie’s car. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight.

“Get in,” he yelled.

When I heard his voice, I found strength inside myself to get up. I pushed myself up. I
ran towards the car faster than before, and got in. As soon as I shut the door, he floored it. Tires screeched as we made our way down the parking garage, but I also heard another sound
, a
low rumble.

The right side of the parking garage was slowly starting to crumble as we raced towards the exit.

“Robbie!” I screamed. The ceiling above us started to cave in, but we made it to the next floor just in time.

Robbie didn’t say anything in return. He just focused on getting us out alive.
Finally, I saw the exit giving
way to beautiful sunshine. Robbie downshifted once more and raced out just in time for the whole garage to crumble behind us.

Once we reached the streets, he didn’t slow down. He just kept racing through traffic until finally we pulled onto the interstate.

I sighed in relief
to see that nobody was following us
.

“Are you ok?” Robbie finally asked.

Once again, I was reminded o
f
the throbbing pain in my ankle, lower back and head. “I’m fine,” I said softly.

He glanced over at me. “Where are you hurting?”

“The question is where am I not hurting.” I tried to joke, but it came out very serious.

“I’m so sorry, Sof. I didn’t think my brother would do something like this,” he apologized. “I will kill him for what he’s done.”

“It’s not your fault, Robbie,” I insisted.
“Besides, I’m sure that parking garage took care of him.”

Robbie half-laughed, but it sounded more
bitter
than anything. “I wish it were that simple to take care of him. We are immortal, and it will take a lot more than a
few thousand tons
of concrete falling on us to kill us.”

“Then why do I hurt so badly?”

“I didn’t say it wouldn’t hurt. But don’t worry, you’ll heal quickly.”

Almost instantly, I noticed my back
was feeling
sore, like it had happened weeks ago instead of moments ago. My head was no longer pounding, and my ankle felt almost completely better.
I was glad for how much better I felt, but was instantly reminded that Jason would heal just a
s
quickly.

“He’s going to come after us, isn’t he?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Yes he is,” Robbie answered.

“What are we going to do?”

He smiled. “We are going to fight for our lives.
”

“Are we going to win?”

The smile on his face fell as he answered. “I don’
t know. But I’m going to fight as hard as I can for you.”

“We can’t go home, can we?”

He shook his head. “No, I’m sorry.”

I was disappointed with his answer. Sure, I had a
bsolutely nothing to go home to
. I had
no
home, and my mom could care less about where I was. No matter what way I looked at it, I was better off on the run with Robbie. Still, I would miss my drunken mother. She wasn’t much, but she was the only mom I would ever have.

“Can I at least call my mom?” I asked.

He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “When you’re done, throw the phone out the window,” he advised. “He can track us
with the GPS
.”

Nineteen

Goodbye
s and Confessions

Slowly, I dialed my mom’s cell phone number. I figured that maybe if I dialed it slower, the moment would last longer. She
picked up her phone on the second ring. “Hello,” she answered.

“Mom, it’s Sofia,” my voice sounded sadder than I intended.

“Oh, Sof, I’m so glad you called. Listen, I can’t talk long. I just wanted to let you know I’m checking myself into rehab today.”

Tears threatened to escape my eyes. “That’s great.”

“I am so sorry, Sof. I haven’t been a good mother to you.”
She
sounded like she had been crying too.
“But that’s going to change.”

“That makes me so happy to hear, Mom.” For some reason, I actually believed her this time when she said she was going to change. S
he was actually asking for help, and that was a first.

“I won’t be able to talk to you very much while I’m in here. They will take my cell phone. You can’t call me for the first two weeks, but after that I can talk to you once a week.”

She gave me the number to call for her. I would get to talk to her at 5pm on Sunday afternoons for 10 minutes
every week
. I only hoped that I could really call her when she was in there.

“How long are you in for?” I asked her.

“At the shortest, 2 months, but I may have to stay longer depending,” she answered. “I just wanted you to know that I love you very much.”

“I love you too, Mom.”

“I’ll talk to you in a couple of weeks,” she said sadly.

“I am looking forward to it.”

“Goodbye, Sof.”

“Goodbye,” I replied and then hung up the phone.

I rolled down my window and stared at the phone in my hand for a few seconds. I sighed before tossing it out the window. I watched as it shattered into tiny pieces on the concrete behind me.

After the phone was completely out of sight in my rear-view mirror, I started to cry. There was absolutely no going back.
This is my life now, and there is nothing that I can do to change that.

Robbie put his hand in mine and squeezed reassuringly, as if to say no matter what, he was here for me. I felt better at his touch.

“So where are we going?” I asked, trying to sound more optimistic.

“Wherever you want to go,” he replied. “The sky is the limit.”

I knew immediately where I wanted to go. “
Portland, Maine
,” I blurted out smiling.

“
Well, Portland
it is,” he smiled back.

Really, this is exactly what I wanted, to move far away from my mom and start my own life… I
just thought it would be later on, when I left for college. It seems like those circumstances would be a lot better.

“So why did you chose Maine?” Robbie asked curiously.

I thought for a moment before answering. “I’m not sure,” I answered honestly. “It just feels right to me. Like there is a fresh start waiting for me there. Nobody knows me, there will be no judgment about my past… I’ve always dreamed of what it would look like. There are over 70 lighthouses in Maine. I’ve always been fascinated with them since I was a little girl.”

“Since you
r
dad took you to see them when you were 4?” he asked.

“How did you know?”

Robbie smiled back at me. “I’ve been watching you for a very long time, Sof. You were so happy that day. Your family was on vacation in Portla
nd, and your dad took you to see the Eagle Island L
ighthouse
. Your dad found a way to sneak you inside
even though you weren’t supposed to go in.”

I laughed at the memory. “That was the best day of my life.”

“I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

I looked over at him, curious about what he meant.

“It wasn’t really
me
who killed your father,” he started. “I’ve been trying to protect you your whole life. I knew about you before Jason did. In fact, he didn’t know about you until the night your father died… He had been trying to convince me to kill your dad for years, even before you were born. I kept refusing. Especially after you came along, I knew I couldn’t do it.”

“But I saw you… And your eyes…” I shook my head at the memory.

“
I’ll explain… After the war that killed all the immortals took place, I vowed not to use my
powers
anymore. The death and destruction was so bad, it hurt me to see it. But it had an opposite effect of Jason. I didn’t realize that he was still using his powers and stil
l practicing. That night, it had
been hundreds of years since I practiced. Jason put a curse on me, and I wasn’t strong enough to resist.
I killed you
r dad
because of
Jason
.
He made me, Sofie, and I hate myself for letting myself get weak, and for letting him in my head.
”

“What did the curse do?” I asked, curiously.

“It allowed Jason to take possess my body for a short amount of time. I tried to fight back the whole time. But I couldn’t. I saw everything.”

I sat there for a while, letting
his confession really sink in.
For some reason, his words made me feel better – lighter even. I knew that Robbie wasn’t capable of such monstrous actions.

“Why did you wait so long to come? And why did you make me think you were a monster at first?”

“
At first I didn’t come because I was hopeful. I knew you were good, and I had hope that you could change my brother… If anybody could change him, it would be you,” he admitted. “And
I needed you to think I was a monster because I felt like I was. I didn’t want to get close to you. I just wanted to save your life, that’s all. But the
n I met you, and you changed me, Sof.
”

His words warmed my heart. “I’m sorry that I complicated things.”

“I’m not,” he smiled. “You gave me a reason to want to live. You’re the reason that I will fight to the end. I will do everything that I can to protect you.”

As we drove north, I began to feel a lot more optimistic about the future. I knew that I wasn’t only saying goodbye, but also hello to a wonderful future. I didn’t know how long we had until Jason would find us, but I would enjoy what time I had left. Each day I will treat as the gift it is.

I yawned, the long night was finally catching up with me.

“Sleep,” Robbie demanded.

And so I did. I closed my eyes, and a peaceful, dreamless sleep awaited me.