Forks, Book Two

by A. E. Davis

  I looked at Ken for affirmation and he nodded. “Great.” With one last quick hug, I turned and left the room before I started balling like a baby. I hadn’t spent the night away from Mom since I went to see my Dad. It sucked then and I was sure it was going to suck even worse now.

  Ken seemed preoccupied and didn’t say much on the way to my car. His car radio kept making static sounds and then the warbled voices of other police officers cut in now and then. It sounded like it was a slow night and one of them was saying something about heading over to the Doughnut Shop. What was with cops and doughnuts? I couldn’t help wondering if it was a prerequisite to being a police officer—if you didn’t like doughnuts you couldn’t be a cop.

  I almost laughed again at the absurdity of that thought just as I had with seeing Dr. Cullen’s reserved space at the hospital.

  Ken swung his car into the now deserted school parking lot and pulled into the space beside my car. He put the car in park and turned towards me. “Make sure you lock the doors as soon as you get home,” he reminded me.

  “I will.”

  “And here is my number.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out one of his cards, handing it out to me.

  I took the card from his outstretched hand. “Thanks, Ken.” I shoved it in my bag next to the other one he had given me.

  “If you need me, just call.”

  “I will.”

  “I’ll have one of the guys swing by later to check on everything.”

  “You don’t have to…”

  Don’t worry,” he cut me off before I could finish. “He won’t bother you. I’ll just have him check on the house.”

  “All right. Thanks.” I grabbed the handle of the door.

  “Amber,” he said.

  I turned. “Yeah.”

  “Don’t worry about your mom. I will keep a close eye on her.”

  “I wasn’t going to.” I told another fib. Of course I was going to worry. She was my mom. “Thanks a lot Ken.”

  “Anytime.” He gave me a warm smile.

  I smiled back and opened the door. “See you tomorrow,” I said. “Oh and call me if anything changes, okay?”

  “Will do.”

  I stepped out of the car and shut the door. The temperature had dropped considerably now that sun was gone. Shivering, I walked over to my car and unlocked the door. Climbing in, I shut and locked the door again, put the key in the ignition and started Peggy Sue. As usual she sounded like she was on the verge of croaking. I looked over at Ken and waved.

  Ken wasn’t looking at me though. His head was down and his shoulders seemed tense as he stared down at his phone. I waited for a minute but when he still didn’t look up, I hit the horn.

  He jerked around with a harsh look on his face, which softened considerably as I waved again.

  He waved back.

  I put Peggy Sue into gear and pulled up to the stop sign to leave the parking lot. Glancing in my rearview mirror I expected Ken’s car to be right behind me, but it wasn’t. Turning on my lights, I headed out of the lot.

  When I got home, I thought about calling Glinda and inviting her over but then I realized that I didn’t really want to call Glinda. My finger hovered over Vincent’s number… and then Viktor’s. I ended up not calling either one. Instead, after I took a long hot shower to get the hospital funk off my body, I headed downstairs to make some Chunks’ Sirloin Burger soup for dinner.

  Once downstairs, I turned on all the lights and checked the lock on the door twice. My clothes were still all over the floor. Determined to have my laundry done before Mom got home tomorrow, I picked up the clothes and headed to the creepy basement to start a load. I still couldn’t shake what Mom had said though, about being pushed.

  When I came back from starting a load of clothes, I stopped and looked up the stairs. Ken was right, it could have been so much worse because the stairs were really steep. Thank goodness, Mom only hurt her ankle and got a few bumps and bruises.

  Turning another page of the Cosmopolitan Magazine Ken bought for me, I lifted a spoon full of soup.

  The doorbell rang.

  My spoon clattered into the bowl and soup sloshed up on my shirt. Heart hammering, I jumped from the table and raced to the door. Cupping my hands, I looked out the little sidelight window onto the porch. Of course, I had forgotten the turn on the outside light. And since all the lights were on inside, whoever was outside could see me perfectly, but I couldn’t see them. Freaked, I ducked around and plastered my body against the door just as the wood vibrated under my body as someone knocked—hard.

  “Calm down, Amber,” I told myself. If someone was here to do me in they wouldn’t be knocking on the door. Steeling myself, I flicked on the porch light. When I looked outside again, all I could see was part of a tan uniform.

  Relieved, it was Ken, I opened the door. “Did you forget where the key was…?” I trailed off stupidly as someone other than Ken turned around. He had light brown hair and was young, not my age but certainly not as old as Ken either.

  “Are you Amber Davis?” he asked as the little black box on his shoulder crackled. Reaching up he pressed a button and his radio went quiet.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m Officer Sykes.” He adjusted his stance. “Officer Warren asked me to come by and check on you.”

  “Ken said you were just supposed to drive by,” I said stupidly.

  He cleared his throat and shifted awkwardly. “Your porch light was out,” he said as though that explained everything.

  “I forgot to turn it on.”

  “I can see that now.” He frowned.

  “Oh.” I gripped the storm door, not sure what to do. Was I supposed to offer him a beverage or something? Well too bad. Not gonna happen.

  He was not unattractive but there was something about him that made me feel weirdly unsettled. “Well, as you can see, I’m fine.”

  “Yes. I can see that,” he deadpanned.

  Wad. “Well, thanks for stopping by.” I started pulling the door closed.

  “You should keep your porch light on,” he advised.

  “I will.” I kept inching the door shut.

  “Well,” he exhaled. “I guess I’ll get going.”

  “Okay.” He kept standing there. What the heck did he want an award or something? “Thanks again.”

  “No problem.”

  I had the door almost closed.

  “Oh, Amber,” he called out.

  “Yes,” I sighed and pushed the door back open a bit, just an inch or two.

  “Ken…I mean Officer Warren wanted me to tell you not to go anywhere.”

  “Got it. Thanks.” Was he blind? I was wearing my sweats and thanks to his impromptu visit I now had Chunks Sirloin Burger soup on my t-shirt.

  “Well,” he hedged, looking uncomfortable. “It was nice meeting you.”

  “Yep,” I agreed to be nice. “You too.” I clasped the door harder and started pulling it closed again.

  “It sure is dark out tonight,” he mused, looking around.

  I gritted my teeth and reopened the door a crack. Isn’t it usually dark at night? “Yep,” I agreed, again. “It does look pretty dark. Be sure to watch your step.”

  “Is someone with you?” he blurted.

  Prickles rose on my skin. What the…? “Um…yeah,” I dumped out a lie. “My girlfriend is here.”

  “Really?” His brow hitched up in disbelief as he leaned forward to look inside.

  What was his problem? “Yeah,” I said, tempted to slam the door in his nosey face. “She’s in the bathroom.”

  “I thought you were supposed to be alone?” He frowned.

  “Well, I was,” I evaded. “But then my friend called and came over.”

  “Where’s her car?”

  “Ah…” I gave him a blank look searching my brain for a tangible excuse. “She got dropped off.”

  His frown became more severe. “I’ve been out front for a while. When did she get dropped off?”

>   “I don’t know,” I snapped, my patience shot.

  “You don’t know?” He gave me a look of disbelief.

  “It was before you showed up, obviously.” What was with the twenty freaking questions?

  “You know,” he mused. “It’s against the law to lie to an officer.”

  “Good to know,” I said, acting unfazed by his little threat even though I was starting to freak out. Not because I was lying but because he was acting like a weirdo.

  “Well, be sure to tell your friend that I’ll be outside, that is…if either of you need me.” A strange gleam entered his eyes.

  “Need you?”

  “Yeah, in case either of you gets scared,” he elaborated. I was sure he was trying to make me feel more secure but that wasn’t the feeling I was getting.

  “Thanks again,” I added to end the conversation once and for all.

  “I’ll be watching.”

  “Yeah. Great.” Too bad it didn’t reassure me like it should have. “Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight.” He turned and headed down the stairs back to his car, which was parked across the street.

  Once he was in his car, I shut and locked the door. I was tempted to call Ken and ask him about weirdo Officer Sykes but I didn’t want him or Mom to worry.

  Walking back into the kitchen, I grabbed my bowl off the table. Thanks to Officer Sykes arrival, I found my appetite was shot. Cleaning up, I washed my dishes and set them on a towel to dry by the sink. I was tempted to turn out the lights so I could spy out the window to see what he was doing but I didn’t want him to get any ideas thinking I went to bed. So instead, I left on all the downstairs lights and I headed up to my room so I could spy on him from my balcony.

  Very aware of all the noises in the house, I stilled on the last set of stairs to my room, listening intently. I wished now that I had called Glinda, because I didn’t want to be alone.

  Having Officer Sykes outside should have made me feel better but it had the opposite effect. I was really jumpy and nervous, which was weird because I was none of those things before he showed up.

  Making my way up the rest of the stairs to my room, I stepped inside and closed my door, locking it. Belatedly, I remembered I still needed to switch the laundry but decided that it could wait until the morning because there was no way I was going down to the basement again tonight.

  Holding my hands out in front of me so I wouldn’t face plant into something, I slowly made my way towards my window. When I got in front of my desk, I felt for my Sunshine hoodie and pulled it over my head.

  Officer Sykes was right about one thing, it was really dark outside. Normally, I could see just fine in my room even without the lights on but not tonight. No tonight, it was black as pitch with the exception of my alarm clocks red angry numbers glowing like demon’s eyes from beside my bed. Feeling the frame of my circular window, I climbed out onto my balcony.

  The air felt heavy and thick. A streak of lighting shot down from the sky followed by the thudding boom of thunder.

  “That’s just perfect.” A storm was brewing in the distance and by the looks of it, it was headed my way.

  Now I really wished I had called someone to come over. Peeking over the railing, I saw Officer Sykes was true to his word. He was still sitting across the street in his car. A little light was on inside, his phone, I presumed, and it illuminated his face. Even from this distance I could see he was pretty cute, but something about him definitely gave me the willies.

  As if he sensed me, he looked up. I ducked down and peeked through my railing, my heart pounding. “Wad.”

  He finally turned away. Not wanting to chance him seeing me, I kept my head down and dragged my chair back so it was against the house. I sat down and kicked out my legs. Large black clouds roiled above as the wind picked up.

  Another streak of lighting lit up the sky and another roll of thunder shook the house. The storm was getting closer. I didn’t want to go inside yet, though. I loved storms, well…the before the storm—when the clouds hung low and the winds picked up. It was the storm itself that I didn’t like so much and the rain. The temperature was dropping. I pulled my hoodie closer, pulled out my phone, and switched to YouTube to watch another Owl Crate unveiling from one of the bloggers I liked. I put my ear-buds in and turned up the volume.

  This one was for the “The Girl on the Train.” I made a mental note to add it to my TBR list. There were a few more recommendations but they didn’t interest me. At some point I would have to finish reading Twilight but I was putting it on the backburner for a while since it made me think weird stuff like how Vampires and Werewolves might somehow be real. I knew it was stupid but I couldn’t quite shake the uneasy feeling I got when I thought of them which probably had more to do with the way people around here acted than the actual possibilities of Vampires/Werewolves actually existing.

  Another crack of lightning flashed in the sky followed by a louder boom of thunder. This one really shook the house and my chair vibrated under my bottom. Hunkering down, I scrolled through some articles on Forks and hit the link to the main website.

  There was a guided walk through the Hoh rainforest and apparently, I just missed the Last Chance Salmon Derby at La Push. I couldn’t help but wonder if Lucky had been there.

  I hadn’t seen him since the day on the beach and that thing, whatever it was, had chased me into the ocean. Thank God, Viktor had been there. I still didn’t know why he was there, but I was glad for it just the same. Thinking about Viktor made me feel gloomy though. I missed him somehow, which I didn’t quite understand. My feelings were all over the place where Vincent and Viktor were concerned. I was hoping to have some kind of clarity this weekend with Vincent but that didn’t look like it was going to happen now, what with Mom’s accident and all.

  A large raindrop splattered down on my screen and another followed on top of my head.

  “Shoot.”

  Now I was going to have to go inside.

  Shoving my phone in my pocket, I stood up and let my eyes adjust to the darkness once again. Another streak of lighting lit up the sky, followed by an unholy sounding crack. It sounded like it hit a tree. I ran to the edge of the balcony and looked towards the woods sure a tree was on fire or about to fall…but I didn’t see anything. Weird.

  I glanced towards Officer Sykes car, wondering if he heard it too but he wasn’t inside.

  The blood in my veins turned cold as the all too familiar feeling of fear slid up my spine. “Where did he go?”

  Trying to see where he went, I leaned over the railing just as another flash of lighting lit up the sky and illuminated my yard. Something moved in my peripheral and then the lights went out.

  Freaking out, I backed across my balcony and flattened myself against my house. With shaking hands, I pulled out my phone. Low Battery flashed up on the screen.

  “Oh, no…no…no! Don’t die on me now!”

  I hit the first number I saw. The phone trilled out a lengthy ring. I didn’t even know who I was calling but right now, I didn’t care.

  On the third ring, my phone died.

  “Sh—t!”

  The sky opened up and released buckets of rain on me, forcing me to retreat inside. I crawled back through my window. The house rattled and creaked in the wind…or was that my door. A surge of dread shot through me. I ran towards my door, stumbling over my clothes to make sure it was still locked.

  It was.

  Letting out a pent up breath, I made my way slowly back across my room. Feeling for my bed, I sat down and swiped my wet hair back from my face as the rain slammed down against my house.

  Another flash of lightening lit up the sky followed by another rumble of thunder. The house shook. The darn thing felt like it was going to collapse, which set my nerves more on edge than they already were.

  To make matters worse, I was suddenly hungry and thirsty. Of course, that always happened when you didn’t have food or water around, at least it did to me. It was like Mur
phy’s Law or something.

  The storm continued to rage. Leaning back against my pillows, I tried to sleep but the howling winds and pounding rain were not a conducive sound to lull me to sleep.

  After a while, in spite of the pounding rain and the raging winds, I decided to go and see if Officer Creepy Sykes was where he was supposed to be instead of where I thought he might be… which was skulking around inside my house.

  Throwing off my comforter, I climbed from bed and made my way to my window. Grabbing my hoodie, I pulled it back on and tugged up the hood. Reaching up, I braced myself on the frame of the window and stepped outside. As soon as my feet hit, something touched my arm.

  “Ahhh….”

  thirty seven

  Warm hands grabbed hold of my arms. “Amber, it’s me!”

  “Vincent?” A mixture of relief and wariness spread over me simultaneously.

  He leaned forward, talking loudly over the rain. “That’s my name.”

  “WH-what are you doing?” The rain pounded down against us both like we were standing in a shower.

  “Getting wet.” He swiped his dripping hair back from his face.

  “Come inside.” I turned and climbed back through my window.

  Vincent stepped inside behind me and touched my waist. A tingling sensation shot through me from the contact. “Do you have a towel?” He raked his hand through his hair and water splattered everywhere.

  “Um, yeah,” I said. “If I can find it.” I reached down and patted the floor. My hand landed on my towel that I ditched earlier. I grabbed it and stood back up. “Here,” I said and handed the towel to him.

  “Thanks.” He wiped off his face and hair.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “You called me.” He set the towel down.

  “I did?” I pulled off my soaking wet hoodie and tossed it on the floor.

  “Yes, you did,” he said, sounding almost defensive. “I tried to call you back but it went straight to voicemail. I got worried and decided to come and check on you.”

  At least now, I knew who I called. “My phone died.”