by Sonny Daise
Chapter 13: Finding Grace
We all climbed into the car, this time Cooper sat up front giving directions. Annabelle and Lily sat in the middle, and Dante and I sat in the back. We had to stop a few times; Annabelle kept getting sick, but other than that the trip took about an hour. No one said much with the awful finding this morning, things were tense. Dante held my hand as we awaited the possibility of our deaths. I hoped I could stop it, but I didn’t know what would happen in the moment, no matter what I did, it couldn’t be taken back. I wouldn’t wake up with Dante holding me in his arms. It was a lot of pressure, having a life in your hands. We pulled up to the beautiful mansion. It was hard to tell from outside, but I had a feeling it was the one from my dream.
“It looks empty,” Elizabeth noted, relieved.
“It’s not. We need to be very careful, I’d say stay in groups of two,” I urged.
“Yes, Annabelle are you feeling up to it?” Dante asked.
“Yeah, I’m feeling much better now. My power could come in handy,” she replied.
“Okay, does anyone else have any powers that might be useful?”
“I can duplicate myself,” Lily answered as another of her appeared on the other side of Annabelle. Both of her looked back at Dante, raised their eyebrows and blew him a kiss.
“Ugh,” I muttered, restraining myself. He looked just as disgusted as I was. “Okay, that could come in handy as a distraction or whatever. Elizabeth, you should go with Lily, and Annabelle with Cooper.” I said in hopes of him finding someone else to bother for a while.
“Alright,” Elizabeth agreed.
“Sounds good,” Annabelle was enthusiastic.
“Okay, Elizabeth and Lily,” Dante said. “Go on the side of the house, behind those bushes watch for anyone coming, or if you can tell anything is going on inside the house—”
“Got it,” Lily interrupted.
“Annabelle and Cooper, go through the backdoor. We’ll go through the front,”
“Okay,” Cooper replied.
“Alright let's go,” Dante said, it was obvious that he was nervous.
“Wait,” Elizabeth called. “Take these.” She held out two velvet bags filled with something. Cooper and Annabelle took one, and then gave us the other.
“What is it?” Annabelle asked.
“Dirt,” Elizabeth replied. “It will keep you safe, to an extent.” Annabelle just stared, confused. I understood, but in her defense, I hadn’t just ingested a bottle of pills.
“It’s from their house, Annabelle,” She just looked at me. “Do you remember going to their house?”
“Yes, I remember, why are you talking to me like I’m an idiot?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“It’s fine,” she huffed. “Let’s go.”
Annabelle and Cooper snuck to the back of the house, while Elizabeth and Lily hid behind the bush where Dante instructed them to hide. Before I knew it, we were at the front door. There were no other houses around, so we didn’t have to worry about neighbors. It was like a house in the suburbs, with the flawless green grass, a few bushes and trees scattered in just the right places. Then, a hundred feet from the house, the forest gathered around in a perfect circle, only spreading out enough to make room for the road.
He turned the knob, but it was locked. That was to be expected; I imagined the lock on the other side of the door. Then I imagined it unlocking, and I heard a click.
“Try again,” I suggested, and sure enough, it opened. I couldn’t breathe. I felt the sweat pooling on my palms. It was the house from my dream, no doubt. I heard a noise from upstairs, and Dante heard it too. He went to run up the stairs, but then he looked back at me.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
I couldn’t move. I felt glued in the exact place I was in my dream as if there was nothing I could change to keep us together, now or ever again.
“Wait,” I pleaded.
My feet were planted in the fluffy, white carpet. My arms felt like stone; I couldn’t move them. I closed my eyes and imagined myself following him up the stairs. One by one my fingers moved, and then I could move my arms, my legs. The whole world was shaking. Nothing felt right, and I felt like I was going to be sick. I wondered if this was what it always felt like trying to change the future.
I remembered trying to keep my mom from going on her business trip. I packed my things to go to my aunt’s house just like I had in my dream, and then decided that I would pretend to be sick. Now, as I recalled it, I hadn’t been faking for long, soon after I yelled for my mom, I began feeling nauseous.
I tried to breathe evenly while closing my eyes for a moment, it helped a little. We crept up the stairs, listening again for the noise. I heard the sound of metal swiping against something, the knife. I got myself ready.
“Grace?” Dante called, it was as if he had no choice in the matter, or wasn’t thinking.
Everything went in slow motion: a door busted open, and a man came out. He was dressed like any average guy, but his shaggy hair and beard covered most of his face. I looked down at the dagger in his hand. I imagined him paralyzed, and he collapsed to the floor. I grabbed the knife and stabbed him; I couldn’t control myself, just thinking about him killing Dante, not to mention everything with Grace sent me over the edge. When he coughed up blood, and his eyes rolled in the back of his head, I pulled myself away. I wiped the blade off on his pants.
“Why are you holding on to that?” Dante asked, looking a little frightened.
“Just in case,” I said, acting nonchalant, but deep down, I, too, was afraid that I’d gone over the edge.
We opened each door, but Grace was nowhere to be found. We went back downstairs, looking through every door on the main floor, as well. Dante opened a door that led to a library; every wall was covered in shelves full of books. When I looked down at the tables, I saw Annabelle and Cooper, two men where behind them with knives at their throats. They didn’t seem to notice us as the men asked them questions.
“Who sent you here?” They demanded. “How did you know her?”
I looked behind them at the shelf. It looked pretty heavy, and if I was right, it looked just tall enough to hit the men, and spare Annabelle and Cooper. I imagined it falling over, and crushing them. My eyes squinted, as I focused all my attention on the bookcase, and the bloody mess it would make of those two. I shook my head. I really am losing it, aren’t I? I had a feeling this wouldn’t be the last time I would have to ask myself that question.
The bookcase shook, but didn’t fall. The two men looked over at it, then back at each other and shrugged. I tried one more time; instead of the book case tipping, every last book flew off the shelves. The man behind Annabelle pushed the knife to her neck so hard, a single stream of blood flowed down to her shirt.
“What did you do?” He demanded.
“Nothing, I swear,” she choked. He pressed the knife harder; more blood ran down.
“Hey,” I screamed.
I didn’t know what my next move would be, but I couldn’t just stand there and watch Annabelle get killed. The men looked over. One stayed with Annabelle and Cooper, and the other came charging at me. He took me to the ground, as he ran into me. I somehow managed to knock the knife out of his hand; my knife had already flown across the room as he knocked me down. I couldn’t pay attention to much else, as the man hit me over and over again, but it was obvious Dante wasn’t coming to my rescue. I looked on the other side of the room, there was a window. I could see Lily and Elizabeth, still at their post, just watching us through the window. Lily noticed me looking over and put her hand up to her lips to silence me, then she pointed to a row of shelves across the room. At first, I was confused, then I saw her peeking around the corner of one of them; she pointed to the knife that had fallen right next to my foot.
The man leaned backwards as he got ready to strike me again—building up momentum no doubt—I pulled my foot forward and kicked him in the chest, knocking him off of me.
Then, while I still had the chance, I kicked the knife over to Lily. She came running over and stabbed him in the back. He rolled over. I grabbed my knife, and we ran to the table where Annabelle and Cooper were being held hostage.
As we approached the man, he let go of Annabelle and ran straight to Lily. It all happened so fast. I heard a scream outside. Seconds later, my mind started comprehending what was happening. I looked at Lily, who had an emotionless look on her face as she gripped her chest where the knife was sticking out. She fell to the ground; her white shirt was now almost completely red.
Cooper tried to get up, but the man was back by them with the knife at his throat. I imagined the bookcase falling one last time; it crushed the man, and Cooper ran over to his sister. Dante was standing just inches away from where the bookcase fell.
Cooper pulled the knife out of her, and held his hands over the wound; it disappeared, but Lily still lay motionless on the floor.
“Lily?” I panicked. Cooper held his hand up, to silence me, a moment later her eyes popped open, and she sucked in a deep breath.
“Get her out of here,” I urged.
“Yeah, no problem,” Cooper said, trying to sound calm.
“We’ll be out soon, all we have left to check is the basement. You’re sure she’s here right?” I asked Cooper.
“Yeah,” he said as they ran out the door.
“How do you even know there is a basement?” Dante asked.
“Why didn’t you help us?” I demanded, ignoring his question.
“Someone grabbed me; you’ll see the dead body lying out in the hall.”
“I don’t know for sure that there’s a basement, but we’ve looked everywhere else, and this house is huge I doubt it doesn’t have a basement.”
We searched and searched, but we couldn’t find it. As I was walking through the kitchen, which unlike the rest of the house had hardwood floors, I tripped over a rug. I hit my head pretty hard on the table, and Dante came running over.
“Are you okay?” He asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I answered, feeling a bit woozy. I went to flatten out the rug, but it wouldn’t, there was something underneath. I lifted the rug up and there was a handle. “I think we found the basement.”
Dante lifted the door up; it looked heavy. There was a set of stairs that led to the basement. Why the need for secret doors if they didn’t have something to hide down here? I was convinced that we found Grace. Sure enough, as we walked through I spotted her chained to the wall.
“Grace,” I cried.
“Scarlett?” she whimpered. I imagined the chains falling off her wrists, and onto the floor. They were glowing red for a moment, and then I felt a shock.
“Ouch,” I gasped. As I walked toward her, I noticed she didn’t look very good. It might have been the giant sweat pants and sweatshirt, that seemed to swallow her whole, but there was something else that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I grabbed the chains trying to find a way to get her out, but it shocked me again, this time hard.
“We need to find a key,” Dante said. “Quick.”
“Do you have any idea where it is?” I asked Grace.
“There’s a drawer or something over there, every time they unchain me, they go over there,” she explained.
“Okay.” I ran over to where she pointed, there were a few drawers. One was filled with jewelry, which I thought was odd. The others were filled with random things, but no key. The next was heavy it took me a second to get it open; it was filled all the way to the top with keys.
“Did you find anything?” Dante asked, as he walked over.
“Yeah, take the drawer out and bring it over there.”
“Okay?” He said, confused before he could see what was inside the drawer. “This is going to take us all day.”
“Do you have any other ideas?” I asked. We went through at least half the drawer without a match, and then I noticed an odd-shaped bronze key. I went to pick it up, but like the chains, it shocked me. “Ow,” I said as it clanked against the floor. Dante tried to pick it up, but he, too, got shocked.
“What should we do?” He asked.
“Grace you need to try,” I rushed.
“But I can’t reach it,” she cried.
I grabbed the key and tried to get it up to her hand, the longer I held it, the worse it got. She grabbed onto it without a problem. Once all her shackles had been removed, we went up the stairs. We ran to the front door, but before we could reach it, someone grabbed me from behind.
“Not so fast.” Dante looked back to make sure we were following.
“What are you doing Scarlett?”
“Uh.” I pointed to the man who had a hold on me.
“What?” Dante asked baffled. I turned to look at the man. His beard and long shaggy hair were covered in blood. It was the man I’d stabbed just a half an hour before.
“It’s a ghost,” I answered, unsure of what to do. I tried to imagine him disappearing, but he remained. Dante came over and tried to pull him away, but his hands went right through.
“I don’t feel anything, how could a ghost hold onto you?”
“I—I don’t know, but I can’t get him off me,” I pulled and scratched and kicked but nothing happened. Dante grabbed my hand, and moved us across the room. The ghost stayed where he was.
“Run,” Dante shouted to Grace and I. We ran from the house; the ghost stayed, watching us leave from the front window. Everyone was waiting for us in the car.
“You got her!” Elizabeth exclaimed with joy. “Not many people could go through what you guys have.”
“It’s not over yet,” Grace said. “I still want revenge, with or without you guys.”
“But they’re dead Grace. We killed everyone in that house,” I tried to reason with her.
“What, you don’t think I deserve revenge? I’m sorry if this is a problem for you Scarlett, but—”
“What are you talking about?” I interrupted.
“You—you didn’t go into the woods did you? You didn’t find what I asked you to find.”
“I couldn’t, but we found you anyway. I don’t see what the problem is here.” I was starting to lose my patience.
“This is all wrong,” she said, looking around at all of our faces. “No, no, no.”
“Grace, you’re free; you’re alive,” I interjected. The happiness in my voice faltered. “What exactly is wrong?”
“I can’t—” she said, as tears streamed down her cheeks. “I just can’t. You’re my best friend,” she somehow managed to smile through the tears.
“Okay,” I said, smiling back. “I think she needs some food.”
After she ate, she didn’t seem as weak, but she still refused to talk.
“Okay, you need to tell us what’s wrong,” I demanded.
“You just saved my life; I can’t hurt you, and this will hurt you.”
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Preview chapter for Betrayal (Vanish Book Two).