Echoes

by Michelle Rowen

  Helen was waiting at our lockers for my arrival. Normally she greeted me with a big smile as she quickly shared the news of the day before we took off for first class.

  There was no smile this morning.

  I didn’t need additional high school drama today, but it was impossible to avoid her. I’d already been avoiding her texts. Then again, my phone wasn’t working properly. She didn’t have to know I’d even received them.

  Thank God it was Friday.

  “Hey Helen,” I said casually. “How’s it going?”

  “Ethan Cole,” she said.

  I grimaced. “What about him?”

  “Julia said she saw you downtown with him yesterday.”

  “I, uh, yeah. We hung out after school together.”

  She didn’t look angry at the confirmation, exactly. Instead, she looked hurt.

  Four years we’d been best friends ever since she moved to town halfway through seventh grade. Four years we’d told each other every secret, every experience, the good and the bad. She was my best friend for a reason. Sure she was petty sometimes and a bit too focused on being popular and perfect and having control over her life at all times, but she’d been there for me unfailingly when I’d been in the depths of despair about my mother leaving. She’d been patient as I got myself together again. She’d been there for me every step of the way and I’d have done the same if it had happened to her.

  But it hadn’t. Helen’s life was virtually perfect in every way. Always had been. If her mother was planning to take off to Hawaii with her personal trainer, she’d probably schedule this event a year in advance and send out regular reminder notices to everyone.

  I guessed that she saw Ethan as a symptom of me drifting away from her. He was a part of my life I wasn’t willing to share with her or anyone else. Not yet.

  “I don’t understand you lately, Liv,” she said softly. “Why would you keep this from me? Have I done something wrong?”

  I took a deep breath to compose myself. “No, of course not.”

  “Why Ethan? There are tons of other guys in this school. Why would you choose him and not somebody else?”

  My back immediately came up. I didn’t understand why she was so hard on Ethan. If she’d open her eyes she’d see he was just as good as anyone else. Better even, in my opinion. “I don’t want to talk about this right now.”

  “What about Peter? What about prom tomorrow night?”

  I tensed. “Have you told him anything about this?”

  “No, but you should tell him soon.” Her attention moved past me and at the crowded hall around us. “After all, we wouldn’t want him to hear any rumors.”

  Her word choice made me think of Bree’s insistence that it was Helen who’d spread the nasty rumors about me and everyone else around school. I hated to think it might be true.

  Then again, spreading rumors about her friends and blaming it on someone outside of our circle would be a great way to keep everyone close to her. A way of controlling the group and keeping things perfect. Perfect according to Helen, anyway.

  “Honestly, Helen, you’d think this was the end of the world or something the way you’re looking at me. I’m going to break up with Peter today. Besides, me being friends with Ethan is not a bad thing and it has nothing to do with you.”

  “It has everything to do with me.”

  My patience was wearing thin. “I know this is a major shocker for you, but just because he’s not part of our usual crowd, not wildly popular or anything, doesn’t mean he shouldn’t exist. Or that we should ignore him.”

  She wiped at her eyes. She was actually crying now and I found that unbelievably confusing. “I know that. I’m not stupid, you know. It’s just that Ethan is supposed to be alone. He’s not supposed to be interested in anyone else...” She trailed off. “Forget it. Let’s just forget it, okay?”

  I couldn’t figure her out today. “Maybe I don’t want to forget this.”

  “Whatever.” Wiping at her tears, she stormed off and I was left wondering what exactly was going on. She’d acted as if I’d stolen her boyfriend.

  Unless...

  She couldn’t be interested in Ethan, could she? That made no sense at all.

  Or did it?

  The truth suddenly came to me with such clarity I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before today. Of course I hadn’t seen it. I mean, up until this week even I hadn’t noticed Ethan that much.

  Helen must have had a secret crush on him all this time. She liked a boy outside of her social circle and if she’d acknowledged this her perfectly constructed life would have taken a bashing.

  She’d never acted on this crush, but in her mind, Ethan still wasn’t allowed to date anyone else.

  I couldn’t believe it. Until this moment, I hadn’t had a clue.

  I had to talk to Ethan before class. Not about this, though. This—this could definitely wait. No, we had to discuss our plans when it came to Bree and that journal that might have a ton of answers we desperately needed.

  I grabbed my books out of my locker before quickly making my way through the halls toward his locker. Through the crowd of kids heading to first class, I saw him and my heart did an immediate flip-flop. His back was to me and today he wore a blue shirt, black jeans, and black lace-up shoes. My gaze moved over his dark hair, the edge of his jaw. And his hands...

  I frowned.

  His hands were pressed against Bree Margolis’s cheeks as he leaned closer to where he had her backed up against the wall. He stroked some of her pink-streaked hair back from her forehead and tucked it behind her ear. Her gaze was fixed on his eyes and he was saying something softly to her that she looked completely and utterly mesmerized by.

  My gut twisted at seeing them in such an intimate position, practically making out in the middle of the hall and I felt a sharp pain, like someone had just sliced a knife through my chest.

  I waited, not able to tear my attention away from the two of them. Finally he released her. She nodded and brushed past him, blinking as if she’d suddenly come out of a dark theater into bright sunshine.

  “Hey,” she said when she spotted me standing there. Nothing to indicate she felt the least bit awkward about my standing there gawking at the two of them.

  “Hi.” I forced myself to sound casual. “I see Ethan got a chance to talk to you about that journal of yours.”

  “Journal?” she asked, frowning. “What journal?”

  I snorted. “Funny. The journal? The one you told me about yesterday?”

  “Uh, what? Sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Maybe I’d stuttered. “The one your ancestor wrote in about the”—I lowered my voice—”Upyri?”

  “I know there’s a family rumor that an ancestor of mine had something to do with fighting them off ages ago, but...” Her frown deepened. “I don’t know anything about any journal.”

  My eyes narrowed with confusion. “Then what were you talking to Ethan about?”

  She shook her head. “I wasn’t talking to Ethan. I haven’t even seen him this morning.”

  I opened my mouth to tell her off for trying to lie to me after a very rough week, but then I stopped. The look on her face—she was being dead serious. She didn’t remember anything about that journal at all. Ditto her conversation with Ethan only a few minutes ago.

  A shiver went down my spine. Because the moment that little piece of information clicked for me, so did one of my own memories.

  It was of Ethan pressing me up against the side of my house the first night he saved me from the Upyri, staring deeply into my eyes, much as I’d just witnessed him doing with Bree. It had felt intimate then, as if he’d been about to kiss me instead of just talk.

  “Forget, Olivia,” he’d said.

  Something really wrong was going on here.

  “Bree, you still remember what Upyri are, right?”

  She nodded. “Of course. Upyri hunting’s in my blood. And you—you said they�
�re back.” She frowned. “Funny, I almost forgot that for a moment.”

  “Do you remember, in anything you’ve heard or read before about them, do they have the ability to hypnotize their victims?”

  Her expression turned thoughtful and she nodded. “It’s one of their weapons along with major strength and accelerated healing. You should never, ever look directly into the eyes of an Upyr. Very bad idea.”

  I glared at her. “Why didn’t you tell me that before? You know they’re after me, don’t you?”

  “Sorry.” She shrugged. “But obviously you’re still alive. No harm done. Have you seen another one lately?”

  “Yeah. Yesterday.”

  “Seriously?” Her gaze shifted. “Oh, there’s Ethan now.”

  I tensed and looked over my shoulder. Ethan stood by his locker, leaning his back against it. His expression was open and our eyes met.

  Upyri could hypnotize a human. Make them defenseless. Make them not fight back.

  Make them forget.

  Oh, my God. Was I actually giving this ridiculous theory the time of day? Ethan was not an Upyr. It didn’t make any sense at all. Ethan had been the one to save me from the Upyri who’d wanted to kill me. That was the evidence right there that my imagination was getting away from me.

  I turned to Bree. “Listen, can we get together later? Just you and me? I need your help.”

  She eyed me like I’d grown another head. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah. I’m serious.”

  “Why would I want to help you?”

  I hissed out a breath. “Look, as much as I’d like to debate our messy history and why you should hate me or I should hate you, I really don’t have the time or energy. I need to get more information on Upyri and I think that you might have it, whether or not you currently realize that. So it’s either a yes or no.”

  “Gosh, you make it sound like so much fun. Of course. Yeah. We can get together and talk about the monsters who want to suck you dry.”

  “Fine. Good. I’ll call you.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Hooray.”

  I turned away from her and fixed my full attention on Ethan. I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other as I crossed the hall to stand in front of him.

  “Morning.” He gave me a grin that nearly smashed every single doubt that had just crystallized in my mind.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked, twisting the chain of my silver locket tightly around my finger.

  He touched the back of his head gingerly. “Better.”

  “Good.”

  His smile held. “I talked to Bree a minute ago.”

  I wanted to tell him that Bree didn’t happen to remember this particular conversation, but I held my tongue. “Oh yeah?”

  I glanced over my shoulder to see she’d already taken off; all I saw was the back of her head as she disappeared into a nearby classroom.

  “It’s weird, though,” he said. “She doesn’t remember any journal. Do you think maybe you heard her wrong yesterday?”

  I shrugged and gripped my books tighter to my chest. I tried to keep my voice steady. “Maybe. I thought she said there was a journal, but she’s a bit of a flake. Always has been. If she doesn’t remember it today, that doesn’t give me a ton of confidence in her ability to help us figure anything else out.”

  “Which leads us right back to square one.” His jaw tightened. He drew closer so no one would hear us. “My plan is still to trap an Upyr in that locked room so we can question him after his strength starts to fade. When he’s so desperate for blood he won’t have the energy to lie to us. He’ll tell us everything.”

  I went silent for a long moment, my brain racing. Desperate times called for desperate measures. “You’re right. We need to do that. And...I can be the bait.”

  He looked uneasy at the suggestion. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

  “I’ve been giving this a lot of thought. When that Upyr shows again, we lead him in there and slam the door behind him.”

  He mulled this over. “I don’t know.”

  “We could go back to the warehouse today after school and see if he comes for me again.”

  “Today?”

  “I don’t want to wait any longer. It makes me feel like they’re the ones in control. That I’m helpless, just waiting and watching. It’s driving me crazy.” My grip on the books grew tighter.

  His expression tensed. “I swear I won’t let anything happen to you, Liv.”

  “I’m kind of counting on that.” I didn’t pull away from him when he brushed my hair back from my shoulder. He was close enough that I could feel the heat from his body. He smelled good, warm and clean. I closed my eyes, leaning against him, and tried to pretend just for a moment that everything was okay.

  “Uh-oh,” he said.

  My eyes snapped open. “What?”

  “Problem.”

  I glanced over to the other side of the hallway.

  Peter stood there flanked by two of his friends, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, his eyes narrowed into slits.

  He looked mad as hell.

  Uh-oh, indeed.

  “So it’s true,” Peter said.

  My stomach sank. I moved away from Ethan and put myself protectively in front of him, much like he’d done yesterday with the Upyr.

  “Peter...”

  “Shut up,” he snapped.

  My eyebrows went up. “Excuse me?”

  His gaze moved to me and narrowed even further. “I can’t believe this. I don’t understand what’s going on right now. Ethan Cole? Seriously? That’s the loser you decide to cheat on me with?”

  I cringed. “Peter, let’s talk about this in private.”

  “You’ve been pushing me away all week. Now I know why. You know, I’ll admit that throwing you in the pool was a stupid, but this?” He shook his head. There was no sadness, only outrage in his expression. “You two have made me look like a total idiot around here. Everyone’s laughing at me right now.”

  “Peter, nobody’s laughing. Just try to relax.”

  “And you.” He glared at me. “I’ve given you time to get over your issues about your stupid scar. I haven’t pushed you into anything you didn’t want to do. I’ve tried to be good to you, and this is how you treat me?”

  His words stung like a slap. “You don’t understand.”

  “Get out of the way, Olivia. Now.”

  He wanted to fight with Ethan. Right here in the middle of the hallway at nine in the morning, right underneath a banner advertising junior prom tomorrow night.

  He walked right up to me and when I didn’t move on my own he shoved me out of the way.

  Ethan’s attention snapped from me to Peter and his eyes narrowed. “Shouldn’t have done that.”

  “She can’t protect you,” Peter snapped. “This is between you and me now.”

  “Walk away.”

  Peter snorted. His friends snorted. “Is that what I need to do? Thanks for your opinion, asshole.”

  Peter hit him, his fist connecting solidly with Ethan’s jaw, making his head snap to the side. Ethan still didn’t make a move to defend himself, but when he looked at Peter again, there was zero friendliness or understanding left in his gaze.

  “Don’t.” It was a warning this time, like the growl from a waking lion.

  “You know what, Cole? You’re a loser. Have been since the day I saw you hiding in the corner of the cafeteria in ninth grade eating the lunch your mommy packed for you. I liked it better when you hid in those corners like the other cockroaches around here. Otherwise, I need to start squashing you.”

  Ethan just glared at him. “You always talk out of your ass like this? Or am I just special?”

  Peter’s eyes flashed with anger. “You need to stay away from Olivia.”

  “No. Don’t think I will.”

  Peter stepped closer until there were only inches separating them. “Let me make this a bit more clear. Stay away from her or I’m going to kic
k your ass.”

  This time Ethan was the one who snorted. “Good luck with that.”

  Being mocked was just enough to push Peter over the edge he’d been precariously balancing on. What had come before was his version of a gentle warning. People usually did what they were told and stayed out of his way. He had twenty pounds and a couple inches on Ethan. He was into sports. I honestly didn’t know if Ethan had ever been in a fight at school before.

  “Both of you,” I snapped, “stop this right now.”

  “Shut up, slut,” Peter growled at me.

  Then he swung at Ethan again, but Ethan caught his fist before it made contact. Then Ethan grabbed hold of Peter’s shirt and shoved him backward.

  It was no normal shove. Peter flew across the hallway and slammed hard into the wall. Ethan pushed back his sleeves and moved closer as Peter scrambled to get back up, gasping for breath.

  I just stared at all of this with shock. Ethan grabbed Peter, pulled him up to his feet, and slammed him against the lockers.

  “Don’t come near me again,” he growled. “Or you’ll be sorry.”

  Peter’s buddies gathered him up and the three of them disappeared down the hall without another word spoken. I was speechless as well. Finally Ethan looked directly at me and he had the grace to look guilty.

  “I didn’t want that to happen,” he said and raked his hand through his dark hair. “I’ll—I’m going to go to class now. I’ll see you later.”

  I just nodded as he turned and walked away.

  Peter’s reaction to learning me and Ethan had been spending time together hadn’t been all that surprising. It bothered me that it had led to a scene like this, but it wasn’t what scared me so deeply that I could barely move as everyone disappeared from the hallways leaving me standing out there all alone.

  And it hadn’t been Bree’s odd forgetfulness and how she’d confirmed that Upyri had the ability to hypnotize someone to forget about something like a journal. Or an entire conversation.

  It wasn’t because Ethan had shoved Peter so hard that nobody without some kind of supernatural strength could possibly do that.