by Jayme Morse
“That’s the stranger part,” Austin agreed. “I don’t know who it was or what they want, but we really need to keep our guard up. Someone has an idea of where we are, and if it’s anyone from Briar Creek, they’re going to try even harder to find us. In fact, I better cancel seeing Mary-Kate again on Thursday like we agreed.”
“But we agreed that you wouldn’t call her,” Gabe insisted. “How are you going to let her know you’re not meeting her and when you’ll meet her next?”
“I know. Worst case scenario, I just won’t show up.”
“Wait, I’m confused. Why aren’t you calling Mary-Kate?” Lexi asked.
“We’re afraid that even if we block the number we’re calling from, Mayor Lawrence will somehow find a way to figure out how to trace it and figure out where we are. We only call her in emergency situations.”
“That makes sense.” Lexi paused. “I wonder if the person who tried to follow you home also saw that we were in Briar Creek earlier tonight. I wonder . . . I wonder if they already know where we are.”
“No, I highly doubt that,” Gabe said. “I’m not sure you realize how desperate these vampires are, Lexi. If they even thought you were here, they would have come here to check it out already.” Gabe reached over and squeezed Lexi’s hand.
Entwining her fingers with his, Lexi hesitantly squeezed back. She hoped that he was right.
****
Chapter 7
Lexi tried to fall asleep that night, but her mind just wouldn’t shut off. She spent the whole night worrying about what was in store for them next. If Gabe’s visions were right, she was going to have to find a way to fight a town full of vampires and not get herself killed or captured in the process – which sounded about as simple as finding a bobby pin in a corn maze.
Just remembering the time she had been followed in the corn maze a few weeks ago sent clusters of goose bumps up her arms. Lexi turned to Gabe. He was lying very still and, like always, there were no signs of him breathing (vampires were dead, after all). His eyes were closed, which made it look like he was sleeping, but Lexi knew that he was just trying to catch a vision. She shook his arm lightly. “Gabe?”
One of his eyes popped open. “What?”
“That night in the corn maze, was it you or Austin who followed me?” Lexi asked.
Gabe shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Remember how I told you someone followed me in the corn maze?”
Gabe, closing his eyes again as though he were exhausted, nodded. “Yeah, I remember you mentioning something like that.”
“Whoever was following me was wearing the same Halloween costume that you and Austin were both wearing on Halloween,” Lexi went on. “So, which one of you was it?”
“As far as I know, it was neither of us. I could be wrong, though. You should double check with Austin to make sure it wasn’t him.” Gabe rolled towards her, wrapping his arm around her waist.
“Okay,” Lexi replied, sinking her head into the soft pillow. It had to have been her cousin. She just wondered why he hadn’t told Gabe . . . and if Austin really hadn’t mentioned it, was there anything else that he was hiding from them?
*
The next morning, the aroma of bacon filled her nostrils, waking her up. Glancing next to her, she found that Gabe had already left the bedroom that they’d decided they would sleep in together from now on. When she had crawled out of bed, she found Austin in the kitchen flipping pancakes and jumping back from the frying pan as the bacon grease shot at him.
“Morning,” he said, smiling at her sheepishly. “Do you want chocolate chips or blueberries in your pancakes?”
“Chocolate chips.” Lexi opened her mouth to ask where Gabe was, but before she could get anything out, Austin had already answered her question. “He went meet his mom in Huntington.”
“Do you know why Gabe’s mom doesn’t like me?”
Austin shook his head. “No, I don’t really know her. Even when I was staying at their house, she was really quiet. I don’t know if she keeps to herself, or if she was just quiet around me. Gabe has mentioned that she doesn’t really like you, but he hasn’t told me why. I imagine it has something to do with you being human and all.”
“What do you mean it has something to do with me ‘being human’? She doesn’t like humans?” Lexi asked, confused.
“A lot of vampires believe that humans and vampires shouldn’t mix,” Austin explained. “Some of them believe that it’s not a good idea because there’s no way to real tell if it’s a mutually-beneficial relationship. There have been vampires who have gotten into relationships with humans just so they could have someone to drink from whenever they want.” He flipped one of the pancakes in the pan and turned towards her. “Other vampires believe that it’s unfair for a vampire to stay in a relationship with a human because, in the long run, they usually need to decide if they want to turn them into a vampire or if they will just let them die. Some see turning humans into vampires unethical unless there’s no other choice.”
Lexi hadn’t realized that there was almost a sense of racism in the vampire world. It was a lot like the issues that she had experienced in the real world. She remembered once liking a guy from Trinidad at her middle school, but his parents wouldn’t allow him to date her because they didn’t want her to be with a white girl. Lexi couldn’t understand because her mom had always raised her to believe that people were all the same, regardless of their skin tone. It made her sad to think that people – and vampires – felt that they had the ability to judge relationships that were not their own.
“I thought you said we shouldn’t go to other towns anymore,” Lexi said, pulling out a chair to sit down at the kitchen table. “What if Gabe gets caught in Huntington?”
“Nah, he should be okay because he’s driving there. We just really shouldn’t do any flying there unless it’s absolutely necessary and even then, we should be extremely cautious. We also need to keep you out of Briar Creek and Huntington.”
“Speaking of being cautious,” Lexi said, remembering her conversation with Gabe from the previous night, “I have a question. Were you the one who followed me in the corn maze?”
“What do you mean?” Austin asked, a confused look on his face as he set a plate of pancakes in front of her.
Lexi drenched her pancakes in a pool of maple syrup before taking a bite. “Someone in a skeleton costume like the one you and Gabe wore on Halloween followed me when I went to the corn maze with Mary-Kate and her friends. I asked Gabe about it, and he said it wasn’t him.”
“It wasn’t me either,” Austin said, shaking his head. “Are you sure they were following you? I know sometimes they dress people up and send them into the maze as guides for anyone who gets lost. Or maybe they were trying to make it seem like a haunted maze this year.”
“No, whoever it was made it pretty obvious they were following me,” Lexi replied. “It scared me at the time . . . and I remember telling Gabe about it, but he didn’t believe me.”
“Well, he should have believed you,” Austin said, furrowing his brow. “There are a lot of people who are out to get you. It wouldn’t surprise me if one of them dressed up to throw you off guard in hopes of kidnapping you or something.”
Lexi’s jaw dropped as she remembered the homecoming dance she had gone to. Right after she had overheard Mary-Kate and Craig Lindstrom having a moment together, Lexi had started up the stairs to get away from them. Before she could get back to the gymnasium, she had been drugged. “You know, those guys from school did try to kidnap me right around the same time,” Lexi said slowly. “But Dan saved me. I wonder if maybe it was one of them at the corn maze. It’s either that or . . ."
“Or what?” Austin asked, raising his strawberry blonde eyebrows at her.
“Maybe someone other than you and Gabe knew about your plans for the Halloween festival. Maybe they got the same costume you two were planning to wear, and wore it to the carnival to sca
re me so that when I would see your costume at the Halloween festival, I would stay away from you,” Lexi said, glancing up at him. “I don’t know which one of you it was, but it did freak me out a little when I first saw the costume.”
“Lexi, only Gabe, Mary-Kate, and I knew about the plan. No one else could have known because we didn’t tell them. Besides, the skeleton costume was really popular this year . . . that’s one of the reasons why we chose it. Anyone else could have bought it from the party store. It was probably just a coincidence.”
She wondered if Mary-Kate might have accidentally mentioned the costume to Dan. For some reason, she still got this nagging feeling that he was involved in it somehow. She remembered that Dan was supposed to show up at the corn maze that day, but she didn’t end up seeing him. It sounded like he was pretty sure that he was going . . . but never showed up. Lexi shrugged, deciding that she didn’t want to start another argument with Austin over Dan. “I guess you’re right.” As she took another bite of her mostly uneaten chocolate chip pancake, she realized that she was already full. That had been happening to her a lot lately, she noticed. It was hard to have an appetite when her stomach was constantly in knots.
Whether Dan was responsible or not, Lexi had this overwhelming feeling that Austin was wrong; whoever was wearing the skeleton costume that day in the corn maze hadn’t been wearing it by coincidence. Whoever it was, if they knew some of Austin’s little secrets, like which Halloween costume he had been planning to use, it made her wonder if they knew his biggest secret: that he was still alive.
When Gabe came back to the house, he looked startled. Lexi’s felt her heart speed up out of fear. “Oh, no!” She gasped. “Did someone see you?”
Gabe shook his head. “No, it’s not that. I nearly crashed the car because I had another vision on the way home. Luckily, it was a really quick one and I was on a back road. Otherwise, I probably would have crashed into someone.” He flopped down on the leather couch. “I’m feeling lightheaded now.”
“Do you need blood?” Austin asked. It was the first time Lexi had ever heard the question asked so bluntly, which was weird because before all of this, she would have thought that blood drinking would be a private thing that no one actually talked about. Hanging out with vampires had really opened her eyes.
“I don’t know yet,” Gabe said, shaking his head. “Not like I did the other day.” He sat down on the leather sofa. “This vision . . . it was different from any others I’ve had before. There were no people in it.”
“What was in it then?” Lexi asked, confused.
“A book. It looked really old and frayed,” Gabe replied. “Actually, there was a person in it, but I couldn’t see their face at all. Someone was flipping through the pages, and they stopped on page one hundred and ninety.”
Austin grabbed a piece of paper from the coffee table and scribbled something down. “We’ll need to remember that. You say the book was old? What color was it?”
Gabe closed his eyes as he tried to recall the color of the book. “Brown? Or black, maybe. I’m not really sure, but I think it was dark in color.”
Austin looked over at Lexi. “Are you thinking the same thing that I’m thinking?”
Lexi nodded. “Yeah, it has to be the book that was in my tote bag.”
Austin closed his eyes. “I knew that book was going to be important one day. I shouldn’t have trusted you with it.”
“Austin, she didn’t know she was going to lose it,” Gabe replied. “She didn’t even know how important it was at the time. Don’t be mad at her over it. It’s your own dumb fault for not keeping it in a safe place somewhere.”
“I’m not mad at Lexi. It’s just really frustrating. We obviously need to find that tote bag.”
“So, anyway, back to my vision. After I saw the person flip through the book, my mind did a flash-forward to Lexi’s gravestone with flowers on it. I think that if we don’t find out what’s on page one hundred and ninety, she’s going to die.” Lexi felt her heart sink. Her life was hanging on by a string and a page out of a book – that she had lost – was all that could save her. That was just her luck.
Austin nervously tapped his fingers against the coffee table. “Can you control your visions? I mean, if you want to see something, can you see it?”
Gabe frowned. “It depends. There are times when I can, but other times I can’t. I’ve never actually tried to see something so serious like this, though. What makes you ask?”
“Have you ever had a vision of the past?” Austin asked.
“I have, but only once. It was of the day my dad died. The thing is, I didn’t mean to do it. It just sort of happened that way.”
Lexi studied Gabe’s face. He hadn’t told her much about his family. He’d never mentioned anything about his father. She hadn’t realized that they had something in common; they had both lost a parent. Lexi wondered how long it had been since his father had died and what had been the cause of his death, but she didn’t want to ask right now and bring up painful memories or upset him.
“Do you think you can try to see into the past for us?” Austin asked Gabe. “We need to find out who took that bag as soon as possible so that we can get it back.”
“I wish I could tell you that it will work, but I don’t know if it will,” Gabe replied. “I will try, though. I’m going to need to spend a lot of time alone so that I can try to see something.”
Lexi leaned her head against Gabe’s shoulder, trying to remember when she had tossed the tote bag in the bushes. Who was the next person she had seen or last person she had seen? Her mind drew a blank. The only thing that she could remember after tossing the bag was seeing Gabe with her aunt and uncle – and the feelings of anger that she’d had. “Weren’t you able to read anything on the page of the book in your vision when the person opened it?”
Gabe shook his head. “No, for some reason, I couldn’t make out any of the words that were written. They were too blurry.”
“Figures,” Austin mumbled, brushing a hand through his strawberry blonde hair. “Nothing seems to be coming easy lately.”
That’s for sure, Lexi thought.
*
“I sense that you are aware that a certain curse is affecting a large group of people. What you need to understand is that they are not the only ones who are cursed. To break the spell, you must gain a better understanding of its originator . . . The only safe place is the place where you will become reunited with a lost one.”
Lexi bolted up in bed. She felt beads of sweat pouring down her forehead, and she felt sick to her stomach. The psychic’s words replayed through her head loud and clear. She had nearly forgotten about the confrontation that she had at the Halloween festival with the psychic.
What the psychic had said at the time had seemed important, but it was shortly after their run in with each other when Lexi discovered that Austin was still alive. In comparison, the psychic’s words had seemed insignificant and, naturally, she had forgotten them. Until now . . .
Next to her, Gabe breathed heavily. If she hadn’t known that he was a vampire, Lexi would have assumed he was actually sleeping, but she knew the truth.
“Gabe?” Lexi whispered, shaking him.
Slowly, each one of his eyes opened and he looked up at her. “What? Is everything okay?”
Lexi sighed. “Yeah, I just had a dream about what the psychic said on Halloween, and I get the feeling that it’s important.”
“What psychic?” Gabe asked. “And what did she say?”
“I don’t know,” Lexi said, shrugging. “Just some psychic in Briar Creek. I ran into her shop when I was hiding from my aunt and uncle. Anyway, she gave me a fortune, I guess, for free. It seemed like a really cryptic message.”
Gabe stared at her, waiting for her to continue.
“She said that in order to break the curse, I need to ‘better understand its originator.’”
“So, you need to understand the witch, then,” Gabe said, putting the p
ieces together. “That’s pretty easy, I think.”
“What do you mean it’s ‘easy’?” Lexi asked.
“I just mean that it’s easy to understand why the witch did what she did,” Gabe replied. “Albert Hunter was the love of her life. Zachary Wilkins really devastated her by turning him into a vampire. I’m not justifying what she did or saying that it was right, but it’s easy to understand why she did what she did.”
Lexi knew that Gabe was right. It was easy to understand why, in the moment of heartache, someone would resort to a curse like the one the witch had put on the people of Briar Creek. She probably hadn’t been thinking about the long-term effects – that people would still be suffering today because of the disease that had affected their ancestors and that it would put the remaining family members from the Hunter bloodline in danger. The witch probably hadn’t known that her curse would cause so many people to be murdered and so much suffering. It seemed asinine that she could put a curse on people who weren’t even alive at the time. Actually, that didn’t even make sense. “I’m a little confused about something,” Lexi began. “Violet and Tommy weren’t even alive when the witch cursed the vampires in Briar Creek. How do they have Wilkins’ Syndrome? Why does the curse affect them if they’re new vampires?”
“The curse affects them because it affects all vampires who would ever live in Briar Creek,” Gabe began. “Even if I were to have children one day, it would be possible for them to contract the disease if they were to drink from another vampire. So, basically, the curse is on all Briar Creek vampires, not a certain group of vampires.”
“Oh,” Lexi replied. Things made a little bit more sense now. “Okay, so that’s the first part of what the psychic told me. I don’t know if it’s as easy as what we think or if I need to come to some sort of revelation. The second thing she told me is that I will only be safe in a place where I become reunited with someone I’ve lost.