by Willow Rose
"What are you doing?" Melanie came up behind her and looked out the blinds too. "Who are they? Why aren't you answering the door?"
"Keep it down." Amy spoke in a low whisper. "Don't let them hear us."
"Who are they?" she asked.
Amy shrugged. "All I know is they've been ringing the doorbells up and down the street. They're looking for Mr. Aran."
Melanie froze. "They are, are they?"
Amy nodded. The two men backed up in the driveway and, for a moment, it seemed that they disappeared. Amy sighed, relieved, and moved away from the window. They both went into the kitchen where Billie Jean was lying on the floor, covered in her puppies. Amy was about to start making her famous chili, when there was a sound coming from the backyard. The girls exchanged a look, then froze.
"It's them," Amy said and hid behind the counter. Melanie joined her, while they heard the men rustle around in the yard. Billie Jean let out a bark till Amy gave her a look to make her be quiet. Amy peeked up behind the counter to look outside, then slid back down as fast as possible.
"What? What are they doing?" Melanie said.
"Looking in through the windows," she said, her mouth running dry. "I don't think they saw me."
Chapter Twenty-Six
Everyone was quite confused at our house. For the first time, I think I realized just how much my mom was the one who held everything together. As dinnertime came and no one had thought about food, I had to find something in the freezer and defrost it. I had no idea what it was that I was thawing, but it was one of my mom's dishes, and it looked even stranger when defrosted than when frozen. It smelled even worse.
My dad was busy on the phone and, once he came out from his office, he looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. My three cousins were hanging out in the living room, slouched on couches, watching TV. I forced a smile when I saw my dad.
"I’m trying to heat something up," I said and looked at the mass.
My dad shook his head and placed his phone on the counter. He looked at whatever it was I had defrosted with a sigh.
"It smells kind of awful," he said.
I grimaced. "I know. Maybe it tastes better?"
He shook his head and grabbed his phone. "I'm calling for a pizza."
The blood in my veins froze. Did he just say pizza?
"Dad, are you sure…Mom would…"
"She's not here. Besides, she has more important things on her mind right now and, frankly, so have I."
I stared at the strange dish between my hands, then threw it all out in the trash. My dad ordered a large family-sized pizza—vegetarian at least—then hung up.
"So, any news? About Mom?" I asked cautiously.
He shook his head and looked at the phone in his hand. "I’m waiting for Ben to call me back."
I sighed. At least I felt some sort of relief that Jayden's dad was there. Our families might be in some sort of feud, but I knew he would do his best to protect her if he had to. I had always liked him and missed going to their house. For a few seconds, I wondered about the feud once again. Was it just because my family was vampires and his werewolves? Was it just to keep Jayden and me apart because a wolf and a vampire could never be together that they had started to dislike one another, or was it something deeper?
My dad's phone rang, and he picked it up. He walked down the hall, and I could hear his voice disappear. I stared after him, my heart-rate going up when he suddenly returned, a sad look on his face.
"Was that him? Was it Ben?"
My dad sat down and nodded. He rubbed his face. "Yes. They're keeping her for the night. He tried to get them to release her and have her come back for more questioning later, but they wouldn't hear of it."
My eyes grew wide. "They're keeping her? Are they allowed to do that?"
He shrugged. "Sure. She's a suspect in a possible murder case."
I swallowed, hard. "Really?"
"Well, they haven't found his body yet, so that's good. No body, no murder, right?"
My dad sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"Will she be all right?"
He nodded. "Sure. She's your mother. She's always all right."
He didn't sound convincing.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
"Are they gone?"
Amy's heart was still pounding loudly in her chest. They had been sitting behind the counter for at least fifteen minutes. She hadn't dared to look up again, worrying that they would spot her.
Melanie peeked above the counter, then stood up. "Yes. They're gone. You can come out of hiding."
Amy stood up with a deep sigh. She had dropped the ground meat in the sink when she spotted the men in the yard, and now it was all ruined. She picked it up but had to throw it out.
Amy walked to the freezer and pulled out another pack.
"How about we call for a pizza for once?" Melanie asked.
Amy looked up. She always cooked. She loved to cook. Calling for a pizza sounded like a defeat to her.
"I could just heat some leftovers," she said.
"Okay, let me rephrase that, then," Melanie said. "I am in a terrible mood and want pizza. Your mom left us money to do takeout at least once while they were gone. I haven't had pizza since I came here. Could I please have a pizza? Please? Pretty please?"
Amy didn't really know if she should feel offended or just not care. She was tired after a long day in school. She nodded.
"Okay. I'll just make us some brownies for dessert, then."
"That a girl, " Melanie said, smiling.
She grabbed the phone and ordered a pizza with steak, then hung up. Amy didn't feel good about this decision. It made her uncomfortable. She pulled out the ingredients to start baking instead, and soon she had made both brownies and a carrot cake, which was her personal favorite. She was glad that she did because later, once the pizza had arrived, Kipp came over and they all three hung out together on the couch. Just like Amy, Kipp loved carrot cake, and together they ate so much it almost hurt their stomachs, while Melanie had the brownies to herself. Kipp took Amy's hand in his when the characters kissed in the movie they were watching. Amy realized she didn't even know what it was called since she hadn't been following along at all. She had been watching Kipp, thinking about how he was constantly surrounded by all these girls at school and didn't seem even to notice her at all. Was he embarrassed by her? He didn't know it was Jazmine who was behind the roach attack and Jazmine had made Amy promise she wouldn't tell. Amy had found it very amusing to see all those girls squirm, even though she hadn't told Jazmine that. She was quite grateful that she had done it. She'd only wished she could do stuff like that herself. It was pretty cool.
Melanie went to the bathroom. Amy lifted her eyes, and they locked with Kipp's. He smiled his handsome smile and Amy couldn't stop thinking about all the girls who moaned as he walked by them in the hallway. She had literally heard them do that.
He winked at her and then squeezed her hand before pulling her into a deep kiss. When their lips parted, and Amy opened her eyes again, she spotted something moving on the wall behind him. She gulped, her eyes growing wider.
"What's the matter?" Kipp asked. "Didn't you like the kiss?"
Amy sat up straight, then pointed at the wall.
"S-s-s-pider!"
Chapter Twenty-Eight
"Relax, it's just a spider," Kipp said and got up from the couch. "What's the big deal?"
Amy got up too. Her pulse was pounding in her ears. "Th-that is no ordinary spider," she said.
Kipp shrugged. "All right. I admit it is kind of big. Is it a tarantula?"
Amy nodded, biting her lip.
"Hairy thing, those, huh?" he said and walked closer to it.
"Don't get too close to it," Amy said.
"It's not like it's gonna bite me," he said with a scoff.
"You don't know that."
He looked at her. "What's with you? You're all flustered."
Amy took a deep breath. "It's one of them. Or
at least I think it is. It could be."
He wrinkled his forehead. "One of whom?"
"Remember the spider-man in Jazmine's room?" she asked, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him away. She was whispering so the spider couldn't hear her.
He stared at her. "You mean…"
She signaled for him to keep quiet. "They're their spies."
Kipp swallowed, then looked behind Amy, his expression growing very serious.
"Don't move," he whispered.
Amy's eyes grew wide. "What? Why?"
"I see one on the wall behind you."
"Another one?" Amy turned around quickly with a loud gasp. On the wall behind her sat another of the tarantulas. Its little eyes were staring down at her, causing the hairs on her neck to rise.
"What do we do?" she whispered and turned to look at him again. The spider on the wall behind him was on the move, crawling under the ceiling, moving fast. She shuddered.
Kipp froze. "Where did it go?"
"Where did what go?" Amy asked.
Kipp swallowed. "The spider. The one behind you. It’s gone."
Amy shrieked and turned around. Kipp was right; it was nowhere to be seen. "Didn't you keep an eye on it?" she asked.
"Amy…I…"
"You can't let them out of your sight!" she said.
"Amy…I…"
"You what?" she asked and turned around slowly. The look on his face told her everything she needed to know.
"It's on my back, isn't it?"
He cleared his throat, then nodded, sweat springing from his forehead.
Amy let out a loud scream.
"Get it off me! Kipp, do something!"
"With what?" he asked, perplexed.
In the same moment, Melanie returned from the bathroom. "What the heck is going on in here?" she asked, then spotted the spider on Amy's back.
"It's on me; please, help me," Amy cried. "It's moving; I can feel it crawling!"
Melanie let out a sigh, pulled off her shoe, then hurried toward Amy, her shoe in her hand. She slammed the spider on the head with it, causing it to fall off Amy's back and onto the tiles. Amy screamed and jumped up on the dining table, while the tarantula continued darting across the tiles. Melanie rushed after it, the shoe still in her hand, then slammed it on top of it several times. The spider hissed again and again, then let out what sounded like a deep sigh before it stopped moving. Melanie grunted and removed a lock of hair from her face.
"That's how we deal with spiders where I come from. Now…are there any more brownies left?"
Amy gasped and turned to look at the other spider behind Kipp. It seemed to realize what had happened, made a loud shriek, then stormed toward the front door, where she watched it squeeze underneath it and then disappear. Amy threw her arms out.
"Great. Now it's going to tell on us."
"Pah. What can it possibly tell?" Melanie said, crumbs of brownies flying from her mouth. "That we killed a spider? Hardly illegal last time I checked."
Amy sighed, looking across the street toward Mr. Aran's house where all the new spider-men seemed to have set up camp.
"I sure hope you're right," she said. "I sure hope so."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
"We killed one of their spiders last night."
Amy bit her nail. We were sitting in the cafeteria at lunch. I hadn't been able to focus very well all morning since my thoughts kept circling around my mother and how she was doing inside a prison cell. I couldn't believe my mother—my mother!—of all people in the world had ended up there. It just seemed to go against everything I had ever believed.
"I mean, it's probably not that big a deal, right? It's just a spider?" Amy continued, now chewing her sandwich. I had grabbed a piece of leftover pizza and brought it with me, making sure it wasn't all going to be eaten by my annoying cousins while I was in school. I had taken Veronika to school too this morning and asked her to show me who this Tommy was, but she told me he was already inside the classroom. How she knew that, I didn't know, but I guessed that maybe she had seen it before. I often wondered how much of our daily lives she had been through before and if she even knew. Maybe she just experienced it the way the rest of us had deja-vus.
"I don't know," Jazmine replied to Amy. "These people don't seem to take anything lightly."
"You didn't use any…powers…when taking it out, did you?" I asked, whispering the word powers.
Amy shook her head. I saw her glance toward the other end of the cafeteria, where Kipp was hanging out—as usual—with his crowd of dazzled girls who were moaning while gaping at him, tilting their heads to the side in awe of his awesomeness. I could tell it bothered her, but we had more important things on our minds right now.
"Melanie killed it with her shoe," Amy continued.
"Good," I said.
"How's your mom?" Jazmine asked.
I shrugged. "They kept her overnight."
Jazmine looked surprised. "For what? They don't even have a body!"
I sighed. "I don't get it either. What if they kill her?"
"They can't do that, can they?" Amy asked. "I don't think so. I mean, she would have to do something to show her…real identity, right?"
"What if they have that evidence already?" I asked.
Jayden shook his head. "Then they wouldn't have used the police force to get to her. They would have just shown up with those machines."
"Why are the police helping them anyway?" I asked.
"My dad tells me they have infiltrated the entire police force. Way up high in our police and justice system. They have friends everywhere. He even fears for his own safety if they find out what he is."
"That's crazy," Amy said. "We can't even trust the police then?"
Jayden shook his head.
"Except for Jayden's dad, of course," Jazmine said.
There was silence.
"My dad thinks they overheard their conversation," I said after a little while, still chewing. "You know, where they planned to kill Mr. Aran. He fears there might have been one of their spider-spies listening in on it. If so, then all our parents are in the spotlight. They were all there."
Jayden nodded. "Guess we have to be careful what we say from now on."
I finished my piece of pizza. "Even here in school. I mean, if that spider could come in underneath Amy's door, there's no telling where it can get in."
My remark immediately made all of us go quiet. No one dared to speak a word, and we sat there in silence for the rest of our break, each of us wondering how this was all going to end.
Chapter Thirty
Jazmine grabbed her bike from underneath the old magnolia tree outside of the school and mounted it. It was a nice day out for once. It wasn't like the sun was shining or anything like that—it seemed that it never did in this strange place—but it wasn't raining, and the wind felt nice on her face as she rode her bike back toward her neighborhood. Adrian had called her the night before and told her he had arrived, and he was already very bored there. She knew he was just saying that to make her feel better about being left behind, but even though she knew he was lying, she still felt comforted by it.
"Any pretty girls?" she had asked him, then regretted it immediately. What kind of answer did she expect?
"They've got nothing on you, my Wild Rose," he had said. "No one here compares to you."
He was being nice again, but she took it. Now as she rode the bike home, she suddenly missed him terribly. She still didn't know when she would see him again. And with everything else that was going on, she feared this was going to be a terrible school year. On the other hand, it could hardly get any worse than what spring had been like.
She thought about her mother for just a few seconds; that was as long as she allowed herself to think about her because it always made her so angry. Then she felt sadness come over her. She missed things the way they used to be before they had moved to Shadow Hills.
Her dad—or BamBam—wouldn't let her hear the end of
it. He kept telling her she should go talk to her mom, but Jazmine cut him off every time he mentioned her. She could do that, she had realized. Completely block his voice out of her brain. He could talk all that he wanted to, but she wouldn't hear it. It frustrated him greatly, and the cat was now walking around the house, sulking. Jazmine didn't care. She missed talking to her dad, but if all he could talk about was her mom, then it was no use.
"Boy, you bike fast."
It was Jayden. He had caught up with her.
Jazmine smiled. "Hi there."
They passed the lake through the park when he suddenly spoke again. "I have something I need to show you. Can we stop here for a sec?"
"Sure," she said and stopped her bike. She threw it in the grass, and he did the same. They stood by the lake for a few seconds, staring out over the water. Jazmine thought about that day when they had pulled Natalie Jamieson out of it. She remembered thinking that her life would never be the same again, but how could she have foreseen just how much things would go wrong? It was strange to think about.
"What's up?" she asked.
"I have something I want to show you," he said and pulled out his phone. He showed her a picture.
"What is that?"
"I was kind of hoping you could help me find out. I couldn't read it myself and wondered if you might be able to tell me what it was."
"Let me see again." Jazmine studied the picture of the paper on his phone again. She couldn't really read it, but she didn't have to.