Vanish (Book One)

by Sonny Daise

Chapter 3: Intrusion

  I stood frozen with fear. They walked across the porch; I saw them standing in the window. It seemed as if they were looking for a key, without success.

  “Skylar?” I grabbed his shoulder.

  “What?” He said louder than I expected.

  “Shh, shh,” I took a deep breath. “There’s someone out there.”

  “Are you sure?” He asked.

  “Yes,” I whispered in a high-pitched voice.

  He crept over to the door, and I stumbled behind him. The fog-covered moon lit the front yard enough for him to see that I was right. Someone was out there, and they weren’t alone. The men went around the side of the house.

  “Okay, you find candles, and I’ll look for a flashlight,” he instructed.

  “What about—”

  “Just do it, hurry,” he interrupted as he ran into the kitchen.

  There was a set of three candles in a glass cabinet next to the T.V. I ran into the kitchen and lobbed them onto the counter. I ran to the back door, it was obvious that Skylar had forgotten that it wasn’t locked. Just as I was about to reach the lock, I heard footsteps coming up to the door. They were in the garage. I turned the lock as fast as I could and backed away from the door. Then I noticed that the basement door was open.

  “Skylar are you down there?” I called.

  “Did you find candles?” he yelled up.

  “Yeah—”

  “Okay, go in your room and lock the door. If the power comes back on, turn the light out. Don’t let anyone in but me, okay.”

  “But—”

  “Go, I’ll be there in a minute,” he barked.

  I grabbed the candles off the counter and rushed into my room, dropping them on the floor. There was no lock on the door; I needed the key to lock it. There was a wooden chair on the other side of the room, I propped it up under the door knob. I had a lighter in my nightstand before, but was it here? I felt around and found the nightstand. It was the same one that was in my old room, where I kept my lighter. I had it taped to the top of the drawer; it was still there. I grabbed it and lit a candle. I looked around for the key. There was a shelf next to the door, I couldn’t see what was on it, so I reached up. I felt the key. I moved it over a little too far, and it clanked as it hit the ground. I picked it up, locked the door, then I took the chair away and waited.

  I sat on my bed looking out the window. The rain drops sliding down the glass were electrified with each bolt of lightning. As I stared out the window, I saw something just outside of it slowly rising up into view—a man was peering in the window. I rolled off the bed and ducked on the side of it, pretty sure I hadn’t been seen.

  I waited for the knock on the door that wouldn’t save me, but would make me feel a little safer. His presence comforted me. I didn’t know if it was the eerie resemblance or the fact that he was the only person around that I could take any amount of comfort in.

  I heard a light tap on the door. I glanced over the bed at the window, and whoever was there was gone. I jumped up and ran to the door.

  “Skylar, is that you?” I whispered as I reached for the key.

  “Yes, open up, hurry.”

  I searched for the keyhole, but I couldn’t see a thing. I left the candle by the bed and there was no time to waste retrieving it. When I got the door open, he busted in and hugged me. He pulled away, looking at my face in the dim light.

  “What was that about?” I wondered.

  “I’m just glad you’re okay,” he turned around to lock the door. “They’re not going to give up until they get in here.”

  “We should call the police,” I panicked.

  “It won’t do any good,” he sighed. “We’ll have to deal with this on our own.”

  “What about my mom, your dad? Shouldn’t we tell them?”

  “They’ll be fine. He’s a cop, remember?” He sneered.

  “Okay. What do we do now?” I questioned.

  “We wait.”

  We sat there for what seemed like forever, waiting for whoever was out there to come barging in. Skylar lay next to me; every now and then, I glanced over. The candles flickered next to him, outlining his face as he stared at the ceiling.

  I had all the insecurities in the world, more anxiety than I could measure, but when he was around, it seemed to melt away. Even as someone was trying to break into the house, looking through my window, it didn’t matter. Just having someone there, was a comfort I hadn’t known in quite some time.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked.

  I thought for a moment, trying to put it into words.

  “It’s strange. I don’t know you… at all, but—”

  “You feel like you do,” he interjected.

  “No, I’ve been thinking and it’s odd—”

  “No, it’s not. I know why you’re feeling the way you are,” he turned toward me and put his hand on my cheek. “What I’m about to tell you, you don’t repeat to anyone.” I nodded. “It’s—”

  Something shattered not too far away from the door, interrupting what he was trying to tell me.

  “Isn’t there an alarm?” I asked.

  Before he could answer, someone pounded on the door. Once it stopped, I realized I was on his lap, I got off, and he started looking around the room.

  “Here,” he whispered.

  The banging started again. He handed me an old glass vase; it was pretty big, but I still wasn’t sure it could do a whole lot of damage.

  “Are we going out there?” I asked, terrified.

  “No, that’s in case they get in here before I can… well you’ll see. Put your shoes on.”

  He sat down on the bed and closed his eyes. I watched him, bewildered; this was no time for meditation, or whatever the hell he was doing. It almost seemed as if he was starting to glow. The knocking subsided, then I knew for sure, he was glowing. I saw a blade come through the door, turning the wood to splinters.

  “Skylar?” I cried. “They have an axe.”

  He put his finger to his lips to silence me. A moment later he held his hand out.

  “I hope I can do this. We need to make a pit stop first. You’ve got your vase right?”

  “Yeah I have it, what are you talking about, have you gone crazy too?”

  “Yeah, if that’s what you want to call it.”

  He squeezed my hand, and the next thing I knew, we were traveling through a tunnel of blue and neon green light. When it stopped, we were standing in the living room.

  I looked around in amazement, what just happened? It must be the pills, I convinced myself. I had seen some weird things after I had taken them, but not the same horrible things I saw without them. My mother was nowhere to be seen, but she had to of heard the ruckus. Skylar went over to the coffee table and grabbed a set of keys. Before he got back to me, someone came up from behind and grabbed me.

  “Skyl—” was all I could scream before they put their hand over my mouth, and a knife to my throat.

  Skylar heard me. I knew he did, but he vanished. I closed my eyes. This is all in your mind, I told myself. Someone grabbed the vase from my hand, and hit the man holding onto me. Shards of glass showered over me, and the man fell to the ground, taking me with him.

  Skylar grabbed my hand. I was still on the ground, but again, we were roaming through a bright colorful passageway. The colors darkened, and soon disappeared altogether. Suddenly, we were in the backseat of a car, and Skylar looked like he was going to pass out.

  “What just happened? Is this real?” I begged for answers tugging on his shirt. He lifted his head up the most he could.

  “We need to get out of here,” he said as he handed me the keys.

  “Wait, the nurse at the hospital, she handed my mom a note—”

  “This isn’t the time for that, Scarlett.”

  “No, I think she left it in her car, do you have a key?” I asked.

  “Yes, but—”

  “I’ll be right back,” I
interrupted, but before I could open the door, a different man beat me to it.

  I screamed at the top of my lungs and turned to kick the man in the chest. It held him off for a minute, giving me time to put the keys in the ignition.

  The man who had grabbed me inside the house came running outside. I could see shards of glass sticking out of his face; they shined in the head lights. He reached the car as I put it in reverse, the door was still open, and he ripped my pants while slashing my leg with his knife. I sped off, knocking him over with the door and hitting a few garbage cans on the way.

  My leg was bleeding, but it wasn’t too bad. I hated blood, not because it made me sick or anything like that. The night Grace disappeared, I was found wandering covered in blood; some of it was my own. Their logic was I attacked her, she fought back, and I killed her. For a while, I believed that as well.

  “What the hell was that about?” I asked as I snapped out of it. “If they were just trying to rob us, they wouldn’t have come after us.”

  I heard him sigh, “I know.”