by Daise, Sonny
I knew I needed to get Rose and Violet out, but I also knew who started this fire, and they would not get away with it.
I ran over to Sienna and pushed her into the flames. Hazel looked back, shot me a dirty look and ran out the door.
I ran over to Violet and Rose. Dante had already cut them loose. Dante carried Violet out, and I dragged Rose. We laid them down out on the lawn. Dante called 9-1-1, and as we waited, Sienna ran out, still on fire, but she didn’t look in pain. Her eyes looked red—she looked like pure evil.
“This isn’t over; you haven’t seen anything yet, and by the way, I remember everything, and I’m sure he does, too,” she closed her eyes, the fire extinguished, and she ran off into the woods.
“What the hell was that?” I choked.
“An extremely pissed-off member of the Alliance,” he said as he stared forward, watching her run into the woods.
The firefighters and ambulances came. Violet and Rose were still not responding when they were rushed away. Elizabeth and George went with them, while Dante and I stayed behind. I knew I would need to go to the hospital, but I couldn’t look at their faces. I let them stay in the fire while I went off to get Sienna, but all that accomplished was pissing the Alliance off even more.
I heard a loud blast coming from deep within the forest, miles away. Dante and I stood up, and as we did, a blue explosion lit up the sky. Then, an electric blue shockwave went over us, knocking us to the ground. I got up and looked in the direction it was heading, but it looked like it went on for miles.
When the air cleared, everything was shimmery, like it was covered in a sparkly dust. I knew in my heart that the explosion came from the shed where Dante, Rose and Violet were imprisoned. I knew in my heart that it didn’t kill my father. Without a doubt, I knew that the words Sienna spoke were true. This wasn’t over. No, this was just the beginning and before whatever was to come, we had truly seen nothing.
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Chapter 1: Hospital
I walked through the doors of the hospital, tears still fresh on my cheek. Elizabeth and George had returned last night. They told me I should go to see Violet and Rose as soon as possible. I knew my fear and anxiety were showing clear as day.
I heard the beep of monitors as I walked down the halls. I was headed for the ICU. The shallow breaths that were all that I could take were only making me dizzier. I needed to appear calm, but I was anything but and still, I only had myself to blame.
I came to the ICU, and pushed the button next to the door. A young doctor came to let me in. When he saw me, he knew exactly who I was here to see. He smiled at me solemnly, and then led me to Rose’s room.
She lay still in the hospital bed as the monitors beeped. She didn’t stir, and she didn’t wake. She hadn’t awakened as of yet, and no one was saying much of anything about that. A cry escaped my lips, and I put one hand over my mouth and wiped away the tears. I sat down and stared at her. I should have saved her. I should have pulled the both of them out of that fire the moment I saw them, but hate and anger clouded my common sense.
She looked beautiful as she lay there. That was not to say she got out of the house unburned. If she didn’t make it… it killed me to say those words, it made my stomach churn, but unfortunately, I knew that was a possibility. I would find Sienna, I would find my father, and I would kill them both. Hazel might just get some mercy. I got up from the chair next to her, but before I could walk out the door, I had to stop and stare.
“I love you, sis,” I whimpered. My lip trembled and fresh tears came streaming down.
I kissed her gently on the forehead and then went to go see how Mom was doing. I slowly walked through the door and sat down next to her. She turned toward me as much as she could. She had burns on her neck, feet and legs. Rose definitely got the worst of it, but Violet inhaled a lot of smoke.
“Hey, sweetie,” she strained to say.
“Hey, Mom, how are you feeling today?” I asked.
“Oh, you know,” she avoided my question, but she smiled at the fact that I called her ‘Mom.’
“This all began because of that stupid curse, I don’t even understand what the point of any of it was. Who cares if one person is good and the other evil? What difference should that make to their child? Who would even care enough to do that?”
“Your Grandmother,” she sighed. “On your dad’s side.”
“What? I don’t understand. Why would she put a curse on her own granddaughter?”
“To prevent him from doing this, to prevent you from ever coming into existence, I thought if I gave you up—”
“I don’t understand what the big deal is. If they would have left me alone, none of this ever would have happened.”
“Scarlett, my family—our family has always respected the Alliance out of fear, but that never stopped us from being their biggest enemy. We were on the exact opposite side of the spectrum. We helped people escape them. You are one of us, but you are also part of them, and that makes you powerful. She knew that you would either be the one to lead them or the one to bring them down for good.”
“So, what does the curse have to do with anything? What does the curse have to do with stopping that?”
“I guess she hoped that your father wouldn’t have the heart to put his daughter through that, but he never cared. He only sees you girls as pieces in his little game.”
“Didn’t she know that before?”
“I guess she wanted to believe that he was better than that, she was a horrible woman, but that’s not to say that she didn’t have some heart left.”
“So, why Skylar?”
“I don’t think there is any answer to that,” she sighed.
“Okay, get some rest.” I leaned over her and kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll be back tomorrow, okay?”
“Alright, I’ll see you then,” she smiled.
As I got up, she smiled and closed her eyes.
“Mom?” I said as I turned back around before walking through the door.
“Yes, honey?”
“I love you, and I’m sorry.”
“I love you, too, and you have nothing to be sorry for.”
I would have argued, but it wouldn’t have made a difference, and she didn’t need that, definitely not right now.
I walked out of the ICU, went down the elevator, then through the halls as fast as I could. Once I made it outside, I fell to my knees. I knew now, what seemed to be only a very small part of the story. I also knew there had to be more to all of this than what she knew.
I didn’t want answers; I didn’t need to know. I knew the one who had the real curse in all of this was Skylar. I knew we would have to hide. I knew eventually I would have to kill my father and my sisters. I got up, shook my head and continued walking to the car.
I drove all the way back to the neighborhood; it was quite a long drive. The hospital closest to Sunny Bay was obviously not well equipped for burn victims.
When I reached my street, I saw Elizabeth was waiting next to a moving truck while Cooper, Dante and George all brought out boxes and furniture.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I walked up to Elizabeth.
“We’re going back. We thought it was safe, but it isn’t. I can’t believe my sister kept these secrets from me.”
“She never meant for any of this to happen, and neither did I.” I looked up, trying to keep the tears from escaping. I’d been crying too much these past few days.
“Everything is going to be fine. They won’t be able to get to us there, that’s for sure.”
“Yeah,” I mumbled, but I wasn’t so sure.
“Wait. There was something that I wanted to check,” I said as I ran toward the burned house I once called home.
“Wait Scarlett, I don’t think it’s safe to go in there,” Elizabeth said, but I ignored her.
I walked through the door, there was garbage everywhere, or so it seemed. The smell of smoke was still fresh, and almost everything had been ruined.
I ran down the stairs to the basement. Everything was black; the fire had definitely spread down here. But there was a circle of untouched shelf space, and sitting there, was the box I grabbed from my room. I closed my eyes and sighed. Inside this box, were a few mementos I’d saved as well.
In front of me, a woman appeared. She was not just any woman…. It was the woman from the movie theater parking lot.
“Who are you?” I wondered.
“A miserable old woman who was wrong all of her life,” she muttered.
“Wrong, wrong about what?”
“About what was right, about what I really wanted.”
“Why did you help me?” I wondered. “How did you know I would need that potion?”
“Like I said, I was wrong about what was right, and I was just trying to correct it.”
“Correct it…” I whispered to myself.
“I wasn’t the one who made the Alliance, that was my great-grandfather, but all I wanted was to—to keep it going, to do what I had learned all my life.”
“You’re my… grandmother?”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “But do you see what a mess this has become?”
“You’re the one who made this curse,” I snapped. “How? Why? Why me? Why not them? You punished me for something I had no part in, something I couldn’t have prevented even if I wanted to.”
“My son…your father, he has gone too far. I see that now, in my mind all of the people I hurt deserved it. They knew the rules; they broke them. Maybe I was wrong about that, but I can see that he is going to take this as far as he can. Ruling the Alliance wasn’t enough for him. Now, he’s set his sights on the world, but don’t think he has given up on you, not yet.”
“And what am I supposed to do? Why am I the one who needs to figure everything out?”
“Because like it or not, you hold the key to everything. You and your sisters, but you’re the one who will ultimately make or break the Alliance.”
“I can’t take this anymore,” I cried. “I am not what everyone thinks I am. I can hardly figure out my life, powers and everything else aside. How am I supposed to be the one to change things?”
“You already have. You’ve changed me, you truly have. I will help you as much as I can.”
“How have I changed you?”
“I’ve watched you, and I realized—what’s the worst that could happen if our secret was exposed? That is one thing that is hard to foresee, but I know it can’t be as bad as this mess that I’ve made. I tried to leave you the potion in that box, but it seemed like that was the only one missing.”
“Wait, you tried what?” I said, confused.
“The old witch that the boy in the attic spoke of was me.”
I had no time to question her—as if any question I would have asked would have been coherent—she was gone before I could even process the information handed to me. She lived in the house before Mrs. Winter, which made her murder all the more coincidental. Could it have been me who brought on her death, or was it only the place she had chosen to live?
I walked back up the stairs, watching my step, trying not to trip on piles of debris. I carried the box that had miraculously avoided the flames, and I put it in the back of the moving truck. Dante could tell that something wasn’t right, but he understood that right now, nothing was right, and he knew not to ask. He wrapped his arms around me, and my face was buried in his chest. He smiled down at me with just the slightest glimmer of pain in his eyes. My suffering hurt him deeply.
He led me over to his car and opened the passenger door for me.
“I know it’s going to be a little further to the hospital now,” he mumbled. “But I’ll go with you to see your mom and Rose as many times as you’d like.”
“Thanks,” I smiled at him. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” he smiled back over.
Though neither of us had much to smile about, just being near him made me able to bear this. I had to believe that something good could come of all of this. I had to believe that everything would be okay.
I closed my eyes and thought of the woman who apparently, was my grandmother. She helped me; she gave me the potion, but she also gave me the curse. I didn’t quite understand, not yet, but someday, I hoped that I would.
I unrolled the window and felt the breeze sweep my long hair out into the wind. I put my arm out the window and felt the cool breeze. I closed my eyes and tried to clear my mind. Being worried sick about Rose wasn’t going to do a damn thing to help her. I feared in the end, she would be another victim added to my ever-growing body count. I could have saved her, instead, I went in for another kill—and I failed.
The drive didn’t seem to take long. When I was lost inside my head, thinking about all of these terrible things, time seemed to fly by.
Soon, we were parked on the dirt road, just in front of the tree with the star carved into it.
I took a deep breath as we got ready to walk into the forest. A lot had happened since we were here; a lot of people had died at my hands. I walked into the forest, waiting for the worst—waiting to burst into flames. Nothing happened. The trees lit up, the wildflowers that I’d never witnessed here, lit up as well. This place was beautiful. It was filled with so many beautiful memories, and almost as many horrific ones. The leaves from last fall crunched under our feet as we made our way up to the house.
We stopped at the door and waited for George and Elizabeth to arrive. Elizabeth was driving the moving truck, and she dodged trees all the way up to the house. When she got out of the truck, Dante gave her a high-five. Though we’d seen her drive a Hummer through here, it was still impressive.
We started grabbing boxes and taking them into the house. I didn’t have much, nothing really, aside from the one box. So I helped them get all of their stuff inside.
Once we had unpacked all of the boxes besides mine and Dante’s, George and Elizabeth pulled us aside and said we could take the guest house.
I closed my eyes, and blood-covered walls were all that I could see. I could hear myself screaming Dante’s name, over and over again. When I opened my eyes, I saw that Dante was carrying two big boxes stacked up on each other. We walked over to the house, and I sighed before we walked in.
“Is everything okay?” Dante asked.
“Bad memories,” I mumbled. I would have thought he would have been just as upset by this, if not more.
“We’re going to be okay,” he promised.
We walked through the doors. The guest house didn’t look like it used to, another thing that must have changed. I couldn’t believe something so small could make me feel so much better.
I sat down on the black leather couch, and Dante made a fire in the fireplace. Then, he sat down next to me. Though the room was different, the couch was in the exact same place—this was where we spent our last night together. I didn’t want to think about that. I couldn’t keep holding on to the pain in my past, especially things like this, things that didn’t really matter. Nothing bad would happen to Dante here. We would be fine.
“So do you think everyone is really safe in that neighborhood? I mean, I don’t think my dad would personally go after them, but I don’t think he would think twice about killing any of them if it came down to that.”
“I can’t say for sure, but there isn’t enough room here for the whole neighborhood. They know what happened; they know that it wasn’t just some mysterious explosion.”
“I guess you’re right,” I sighed.
I grabbed the remote and turned on t
he TV; the local news was on. Dante went to grab the remote to change the channel, but I pulled it away.
“Police are saying there may be a serial killer in the small town of Sunny Bay. The usually quiet town has seen a sky rocketing of murder cases in the area,” the woman said. “Residents are being asked to be in by nine o’clock, and not to travel alone. The police have no leads, but all of the murders appear to be connected. The police are not excluding the possibility that there is a group behind the attacks.”
“In related news,” the man began. “Officials still haven’t found the source of Thursday’s explosion in Sunny Bay, but they believe that it was accidental. If you have any information on either of these stories, please call—”
I turned off the television. I didn’t know who the murderers were, but I had an idea. My father and sisters were no longer afraid of being caught. They had much bigger plans now.
Dante put his arm around me and pulled me close. I was so happy to have him back. It wasn’t that I needed him, not as a boyfriend, not at all. That wasn’t to say that I wasn’t head over heels in love with him, but it was more than that. He was my best friend, and I couldn’t imagine life without him.
I closed my eyes, but instead of darkness, I saw my father and my sisters sitting in a circle in their living room. They had the glass bowl in front of them, and the picture was already fully developed. I was walking through the glowing forest—they knew where I was. Could I be so stupid to think that they wouldn’t figure out a way to come here?
My eyes popped open, and I looked around the room in a daze. I hadn’t paid attention to much in that vision, only the fact that they were watching me. I jumped up and paced around the room.
“What’s wrong?” Dante asked.
“They’re watching me,” I mumbled.
“You’re safe here, Scarlett.”
“You weren’t safe here; we’re not safe here,” I argued. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t let anyone else get hurt.”