Betrayal (Vanish Book Two) (8 page)

“No, you were keeping me for yourself. For
some reason, everyone wants my powers—“

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she
spat.

Someone busted through the front door.

“Help,” she screamed. Joe ran in and pushed
me up against the wall by my throat.

“Dante—” I choked.

There was no way he could have heard me, and
even if he did, Joe was a big guy; it would take a lot to take him
down. Then I heard Dante running down the stairs. He hit Joe so
hard on the head, that almost instantly when he fell to the ground,
there was a pool of blood. Before I could say anything, he hit Ann
as well.

“Are you alright?” Dante questioned.

“They’re dead…” I gasped, “…oh my god.”

“Let’s get some fresh air, then we’ll come
back in and grab the duffel bag and anything else you want,” he
said in a soft voice as he put his arm around me.

“Okay,” I whispered as he led me out the back
door.

When we got to the grass, I felt my legs
collapse out from under me. She couldn’t hurt me anymore, there was
no doubt that she would have, but we just added another two to our
body count.

I could see the moon through the branches,
the stars all shined down on us. It was a beautiful night; it was a
horrible night, and my whole life had changed.

I fell asleep out there on the grass in
Dante’s arms, without a single dream to haunt me, or maybe for
once, make me feel a little better. I woke up and as I rolled over,
I noticed something was sticking out of the grass. A knife stuck in
the dirt, no more than two inches away from where I was laying.
There was a piece of string tied around it with a note
attached.

See how easy it would have been for me to
kill you, but I’m nowhere near done with you yet.

“Dante.” I shook him.

“What?”

I showed him the knife. He jumped up and ran
to the back door. All that was left from where Ann laid, was a
small blood stain and another note. Dante picked it up. I stared at
Joe’s lifeless body.

“You really shouldn’t have done that,” he
read. He looked over at me, then, ran to the front window. I stayed
glued where I was. “Her car is gone.”

“The money,” I bent over and looked under the
table. “She took it.”

We went back to the car and sat in silence. I
didn’t know what I expected on the way here, revenge, but how? I
wished we would have killed her, but had I wanted that from the
start? No, I wanted to teach her a lesson, and now she was angrier
than ever. She wanted to get her own revenge now, and I was sure
she wouldn’t stop until she did. Dante took the cell phone out of
his pocket and dialed.

“Hello Elizabeth? We’re coming back.
Everything went wrong…” he kept on talking, but I was focused on
the man in the backseat. Though Joe was definitely dead, it wasn’t
him. It was another familiar face, a kind face. It felt like all of
the breath was stolen from my lungs, I tried to speak, but I
couldn’t.

“It’s okay,” he said.

“No… How?” I stared at him; I couldn’t
believe this.

“My wife called me, to tell me that Skylar
had escaped, and took her phone. I was driving, and I drove off the
road....”

“How do I tell him?” I said when I was almost
sure he wasn’t going to finish.

“I don’t know; that’s not up to me, but you
need to tell him now, before I can tell you anything else.”

I took the phone from Dante’s hand and hung
up.

“Hey what are you doing?” Dante asked.

“Your dad is here with us…” I whispered, “…he
got into a car accident.”

“You’re joking.”

“No, I’m sorry.” I grabbed his hand. He
slowly looked toward the backseat. He just stared.

“Dad,” he said, under his breath.

“You should probably call your mom,” I
suggested.

“No wait,” his dad said. “She doesn’t know
yet.”

“What, when did it happen?”

Should I have even told Dante? I wasn’t
trained in telling people a loved one had died. I was almost
certain I hadn’t gone about it the right way. Having his dad right
in front of me made me lose my sensitivity in the matter. He was
dead, but he was also right there, just as I remembered him. I was
almost certain now, that Dante could see him as well.

“Last night, but no one has found me
yet.”

Dante sat there motionless, just staring.

“So Skylar didn’t hurt anyone, right?” I
asked, turning my attention back to his father.

“No, he just left, but I think he was going
to come after you.”

“Yeah, he already did.” Dante said. Now I was
sure he could see him.

“Okay, do you want the police to tell your
wife, or your son?” I asked. I thought it might be better coming
from Dante, but I wasn’t sure.

“I’m calling my mom,” Dante sniffled. “Dad
I’m so sorry.” It sounded like he was starting to cry. I had to
look away.

“For what?” His dad asked.

I bit my lip to keep from crying as well, I
guess I hadn’t completely lost my sensitivity.

“For not being there, for leaving you guys,”
he turned away from me.

“I’m sorry Dante, if it wasn’t for me—” I
began.

“No Scarlett, it’s not your fault,” his dad
said, but Dante didn’t say a thing, and I knew that was how he
felt. If it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t have had to leave—he
wouldn’t have had to lock up Skylar.

“Can I talk to you, alone?” I asked his dad.
I let go of Dante’s hand, and his dad followed me out of the car
around to the back. “So what should we do? Should we go check on
your family?”

“I don’t think you really have that option,
and you need Dante. They will be fine without him,” his dad assured
me.

“I’m not going to make him stay for me,” I
argued while the tears streamed down my face. This was my fault,
and nothing that anyone said would change that.

“Stop pushing him away Scarlett. Life is too
short—”

“That’s not what this is about,” I
objected.

“I need to go be with my family. It will be
hard, but I need to be there when they find out,” he sighed.

“Okay. I’m so sorry; I don’t know what to
say.”

“Good-bye Scarlett,” he said and a second
later, he was gone.

I got back into the car. I knew that Dante
was still crying, but his head was down, and I couldn’t see his
face. I stayed silent for a while, when he stopped, he looked up at
me. I put my hand on his cheek. I heard something hit the back
window.

“Did you hear that?” I asked.

“No.”

“I’ll be right back,” I said as I climbed out
of the car. Standing near the back of the car, was the person I
thought I had seen among the crowd of ghosts. Looking as beautiful
as ever, and nowhere near what she had looked like recently. What
the one ghost had said, ‘there’s one of them among you.’ now made
sense.

“Grace, oh my God.”

I sat down on the dirt road. Dante didn’t
seem to notice how long I’d been gone. I couldn’t believe what I
was seeing before my eyes. How could this be? Even though for a
brief moment, I thought I had seen her in the crowd of ghosts, I
thought it was impossible, and it slipped my mind.

“You’re dead?” I cried.

“Yes, I was dead all along,” she sobbed.

“When did you die?” I asked.

“The day before the party at Alexis’s”

“So it wasn’t you? Did you see what
happened?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Did Ann think it was you or did she
know?”

“I don’t know.”

“So what about Dante?” I questioned, hoping
she would know what I was asking her.

“It wasn’t him. It was Skylar.”

My best friend, the girl that I knew, the one
that I loved was dead, but I couldn’t help feeling relief flowing
through me. She wasn’t the one who attacked me the other night. She
wasn’t the one who would say anything to hurt me.

“I can’t believe this, now it all makes
sense. I have hated you since we saved you from that mansion, but
it wasn’t you.”

“Nope.”

“Well I don’t know what we can do about this,
but I promise we’ll do something.”

“You’re my best friend and I love you to
death, but don’t make any promises you can’t keep,” she smiled, and
then she was gone.

I walked over to the passenger door and got
in the car. Dante was calm, just staring ahead at nothing.

“I’m really sorry,” I whispered.

“I just wish I’d gotten to say good-bye.”

“You did, and if that wasn’t enough, you’ll
have another chance,” I promised.

“Thanks.”

“I need to tell you something.” I waited for
him to respond.

“What?”

“I just saw grace…” I looked over at him.
“She’s dead; she has been since the night before the party.”

“What are you talking about Scarlett? Grace
has not been dead since before the party.”

“No, she has. I guess ghosts can take over
someone’s body if they’re dead or dying,” I tried to explain, but
even though we had powers, this still seemed too weird to be
true.

“What? So….”

“It wasn’t you; it was Skylar,” I said with
so much excitement. I felt horrible. His dad had just died, and
that’s all I could think about.

I soon realized he wasn’t offended, when he
leaned over to kiss me. It felt like this was our first kiss. Never
did I have so many feelings rushing through me, but the sadness and
fear washed away as soon as his hands reached for mine. Then the
only feeling left lingering, was love.

I pulled away for a moment. “I love you,” I
whispered. He looked at me; the way he stared made my heart beat
faster.

“I love you, too.” A smile covered his face.
He pulled me closer, but before his lips met mine, there was a
screeching sound, like something was scraping across one of the
back windows.

“What was that?” I asked, frightened.

“I don’t know.”

He sat up straight and tried to start the
car, but it wouldn’t. I looked over at him, and when I did, there
was a loud bang against my window. Ann stood there with her hands
against the glass.

“Try it again.” I imagined the car starting,
but it didn’t work. She kept banging on the window. “Again, come
on.” I urged. He kept trying; it started, but it broke down a
little ways down the street.

“I don’t know if I have the strength to move
us and the car. Finding out about my dad took a lot out of me.”

I grabbed his hand. “Then let’s just go. We
can come back for the car.”

When I opened my eyes, we were back at
Elizabeth and George’s. We were standing right in front of their
house; they must have noticed right away because they all came
running out. Elizabeth ran up and hugged us both.

“I’m so glad you’re okay, what happened
earlier?” she demanded.

“I found out my dad died,” Dante replied. I
put my hand on his shoulder.

“Come in, come in. It’s freezing out here,”
Elizabeth said as she led us through the door. She told us to sit
in the living room.

“So what happened?” George asked.

“Well, I found out my mom isn’t really my
mom.” George and Elizabeth shared a worried glance. “Now she wants
to kill me, Dante, and I’m assuming whoever else gets in her
way.”

“You didn’t tell her anything… about where
you were, right?” Elizabeth worried.

“No, of course not,” I sighed. “But I think
she knows; this was around her neck.” I held out the heart-shaped
necklace that was filled with dirt.

“The only reason she would have this, is if
she was planning on coming here,” Elizabeth said.

“Is that how Skylar—”

“Oh my god,” Elizabeth whispered as she
opened the drawer where she kept the velvet bags of dirt. “There
had to of been at least twenty bags in here… they’re all gone.”

“Grace,” Dante and I both grumbled.

“This isn’t good,” Elizabeth said as she
walked in circles. “We may not be safe from the Alliance here.”

“You think they would give them to the
Alliance?” I questioned.

“The Alliance would do just about anything to
get to you. They would pay any price,” she cried.

“Why me?” I blurted. “What’s so special about
me?”

“Can we talk about this later?” Elizabeth
said as she rubbed her temples.

“Sure, but there’s something else…” I
mumbled.

“What?” She sighed.

“Grace isn’t exactly Grace,” I revealed.
“Someone possessed her, or something. I don’t know, but it wasn’t
Grace.”

“Have you ever heard of anything like this?”
Dante implored.

“Really, it’s almost like a form of
immortality,” George began. “The body will stay the same as it was
before the person died forever—until they’re killed. It’s no harder
or easier to kill them than any other person, but when they die,
they leave nothing behind. They’re just gone.”

“So you don’t think that we can save Grace?”
I whispered.

“I don’t know; I’ve only seen this happen
once,” George said. “Elizabeth and I will come up with something. I
don’t know if we can save Grace, but leave it to us.”

“Come on lets go home, you’ve had a long
couple of days,” Dante suggested as he put his arm around me.

“Okay,” I smiled and looked up at him.

I was glad we were past all of the stuff with
Grace. This felt right; that’s why I couldn’t figure out why I
still felt the need to pull away. I figured it was because I’d
never really had anyone in my life I could count on, and now that I
did, I didn’t think it could really be true. To have something like
this ripped away from me, would hurt worse than anything so far. I
had what I’ve wanted since the sixth grade, a perfect relationship
with Dante, and he cared about me just as much as I cared about
him. I needed to put all of my fears behind me and just live.
Through all of the misery, he was my light at the end of the tunnel
and without him, none of this would be worth it.