Dark Secrets (Dark Heritage #1)
Page 5
Chapter Five
Susan was feeding Jessica lunch when I slipped in the front door, and her eyebrows snapped together angrily when she saw me. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in class right now?”
“That guy showed up at my school, and he said some weird things to me that kind of freaked me out. I didn’t think I could sit through the rest of my classes knowing that he was waiting outside for me. So I ran home.”
For the first time since before Jessica was born, Susan’s eyes actually softened a little at me. Then she took a deep breath, and it looked like she was trying to think of something to say. “I’m sorry you’re going through something like this. No girl deserves to be freaked out like you are. Why don’t you go relax a little, and I’ll call Alan at work to let him know?”
I nodded. “Thanks, Susan.”
She went back to feeding Jessica as I climbed up the stairs and into my room. I closed the door behind me, and noticed Two Socks curled up on my bed. The window was open behind him, and the afternoon breeze flowed in along with the scent of something musky and, even though I’d only smelled it twice, I recognized it immediately.
That guy had been in my room again!
I checked all four corners of my room and got the strange urge to check under my bed and in the back of my small closet. Instead, I crossed over to the closet and used my desk chair to peek at the dust covered boxes on my top shelf. The one I needed was in the far back, buried under old board games and finger-paintings. I pulled it free, blew the dust off the top, and sat down on the edge of my bed.
Two Socks forced his way into my lap, and I absently stroked his head while opening the box. There were old photos inside of both me and my mother, and I couldn’t help but noticing how happy the two of us looked when I was younger. Before she died, and I was left basically alone, with a father that couldn’t have cared less about me.
I tossed the photos on the bed and dug around the rest of the box. My fingers brushed something cool and hard, and I lifted it out to examine the necklace my mother left for me after she died. The stone was in a tear-drop shape, and was fastened to a beautiful silver chain. The stone itself was dark purple and solid in color. It was amethyst, but I didn’t know any more about it than that. I remembered the note she left with the necklace, and I fished it out of the box and unfolded it.
Dearest Veronica,
I’m sure that you’re wondering why I’m writing this to you, but I promise you in time you’ll understand. There are many things about me that you hopefully will never have to know, but if my…uniqueness…has been passed on to you, you will need this pendant.
It will increase your power–power that I’m sure you won’t have for many years–and it will help protect you if you should ever need it. If I’m not still around to explain things to you when the time is right, I want you to find a woman named Nancy Puckett. She’ll have all the answers for you. I promise.
Veronica, if you’re reading this, than it means I’m not around to see the woman you’ve no doubt become. And that will be my biggest regret. I truly hope that you and I will see each other again some day, though hopefully not for a very long time.
I love you, Veronica, so much. Don’t ever forget that you were the most important part of my life. Always have been, and always will be.
Love, Mother.
As it did the first time I read it, rereading her last letter made me cry. The first time I read it, I was too young to understand what she was really saying in the letter. At first, I was so angry with her for leaving me such a confusing and pointless final goodbye that I almost tore it to shreds, but it was the only thing left of hers that I had, and I’d kept it.
Now I was glad that I did, or I wouldn’t have this information that actually meant something to me now. The uniqueness she was talking about had to be necromancy. If that’s even what this is, I thought to myself, but quickly dismissed that. I could see and talk to the ghosts of the dead–there was no denying that. So now that I have a name for it, am I going to deny that it exists? How stupid would that make me?
I’d always accepted the fact that I was different, and now I had the proof. My mother was like me, and was just waiting for the right time to tell me all of this. But she couldn’t, because she’d died. But she left me a name in her final letter, and I could do a search of it now. Before, I was too angry to even consider looking for Nancy Puckett, but now I had to do it for the answers that she would hopefully have for me.
I did a quick internet search for her and, while the page was loading, I slipped the necklace over my head. It settled between my breasts, and I could feel the power radiating off of it. It hummed gently against my skin, comforting me and filling me with a sense of amazement. I couldn’t believe I’d never noticed it before. Maybe it was because I hadn’t seen my first ghost yet. Of course, I might be completely wrong.
I’ll have to talk to Nancy Puckett. She’ll be able to give me the answers I need. Maybe she’ll even be able to tell me what was with the strange man that was in my room…
I got Nancy Puckett’s home address and shut off my laptop. The address was on the other side of town, but I knew the neighborhood. It was three houses down from my old home with my mother, which happened to be the last place I could actually call home and was truly happy at. I was not happy at the thought of passing my old home, but I had to go and talk to Nancy. If it was what my mother wanted me to do, I’d do it.