by ID Johnson
Alice Cook has the same nose as Jack’s. Even though hers was currently red and raw from all the tears she’d shed these past few weeks, I could still see the resemblance. She’d been a good mom, raised a son a person could be proud of. Now, here she was, likely wondering where she’d gone wrong, why God was angry enough at her that He’d take her only son in the prime of his life. There were no answers for that.
If Jack really was a vampire, running around the Caribbean killing tourists and other unfortunate souls, would Alice want to know? If I was in her position, would I? What about Cadence? I assumed if it was him I saw on the video that my sister already knew about it, which begged another question: how could she keep that information to herself?
Of course, Cadence didn’t know what I knew. She had no idea that I was aware that she was anything other than a security guard for an elite company. Elliott had made it very clear that I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone what I knew and that I shouldn’t share any of the information I’d gathered with my friends. Well, that ended up not making any difference because they were incapable of believing me right now, and I couldn’t blame them. I wouldn’t believe me either. Heck, half of the time I didn’t believe myself. I thought I was losing my mind.
When the sermon was over and we sang the last notes of the final hymn, I jumped up and headed for the van. I knew my mom would want to linger, probably talk to Alice and Steve, and I couldn’t blame her for that. But I didn’t want to talk to them. I didn’t want to look into Steve’s eyes, the same as Jack’s, and think, “By the way, could you watch this video and tell me if you think that might be your son lurking back there in the shadows?”
My dad was a smart man, and I heard him click the button on the remote to the van to unlock and start it for me. I am sure he realized how uncomfortable I would be standing around talking to grownups about grownup things. I waved at a few people I knew but didn’t smile as I made my way out the double doors, not even waiting long enough for the pastor to take his spot to shake my hand. Once I was in the van, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I had a missed call from Emma. I was hopeful she was already on the mission I’d assigned her the night before. Without hesitating, I dialed her back, not thinking about how it might appear to my parents if I were to find out about Jack with them sitting in the van.
“Hey, Em. You called?”
“Yeah,” she said, her voice bordering between bored and clinical. “I ran that test.”
“And?” I asked, glancing back toward the church. Still no parental units.
“And… it’s a match.”
We were both silent for a long exhale before I said, “I’m sorry. Are you saying… that was Jack in that video.”
“Well, not one hundred percent sure,” she began.
I forced myself to breath. “How sure?”
“Ninety-nine point nine.”
Once again, the air was heavy. “Emma, you do realize what this means, right?”
“Yes. It means Jack Cook is alive and living in the Caribbean. Possibly killing people.”
“No, Em. It means that he is a vampire. That everything I told you last night is true! He’s not dead---he’s not alive—he’s undead!”
“Cassidy, I don’t think that’s possible.” Emma launched into the same biological explanation she’d used to explain away vampires the last time we’d had this discussion, weeks ago, back when I hadn’t convinced her the first time.
About halfway through, I saw my parents coming and cut her off. “Okay, Emma Jane. I get it. But do me a favor and see what you can find on your own, okay?” This approach had worked last time. She’d done enough digging around to convince herself without me having to put in too much effort. “Just pose the hypothesis that perhaps vampires are real, and see if you can prove it, all right?”
“I don’t know why I’d do that….”
“Humor me!” My parents were walking with the Cooks, and I knew I definitely couldn’t talk to them right now. My heart was racing in my chest. Their son was somewhere right at that moment, near a sundrenched beach, planning to attack another innocent person, perhaps that very night, and they thought he was in an urn on their fireplace. I questioned exactly who or what was in said urn before bringing my mind back to more immediately pressing things. “Does Lucy know about this?”
“No, I wanted to tell you first.”
“Good. I’ll call her myself, okay?”
“Fine,” Emma said, “but I know you just think you can convince her if you get to her first.”
“Possibly,” I admitted. “I’m not trying to convince you of anything, Em,” I said as my parents stopped next to the van. “I just… I’m freaking out here.” I kept my voice low so my mom and dad couldn’t hear.
“That’s understandable. I am sure you’ll want to inform your sister that her ex-boyfriend is still alive. So bizarre….”
“Emma, do not tell anyone about this,” I warned. I could just see Cadence and her associates breaking through doors and windows like a SWAT team on a B-rated movie, taking Emma’s family hostage.
“Who am I going to tell?” she asked. “I speak to two people. I just told you, and you told me not to tell Lucy.”
She had a point. I could think of a few other people she might mention it to, like Milo and Wes, but since she hadn’t thought of that, I left it alone as my parents pulled their doors open. “Okay. Thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Emma hung up. She said she didn’t really see the point in telling people goodbye if she was going to see them soon, so I expected nothing less.
“Everything okay?” my mom asked, glancing over her shoulder at me.
“Uh, fine,” I replied, trying to calm my breathing. “I just…” I had to think quickly. And I didn’t want to lie in a church parking lot. “It was hard to see Alice and Steve.”
My mom made a clicking noise with her tongue. “I know. It’s just… terrible.”
Dad backed the van out of the parking spot and got in line with the other cars waiting to make their way onto the street that ran past the church. “It really is just awful.”
Mom started recounting whatever she and Alice had talked about, and my dad, who must not have heard for some reason, maybe he had been talking to Steve, made the little sounds he was obligated to make in order for my mom to know that he was listening. Meanwhile, my phone burned a hole through my hand. I needed to get home so I could call Lucy. I had to see what she thought about what Emma had to say about the video, though I already knew the first three letters would be, “OMG.”
As soon as my dad pulled the van to a stop in the garage, I was out the door. “I’m going upstairs to change!” I shouted over my shoulder, praying none of us had remembered to lock the door between the garage and the foyer. It opened easily as I hit it full force, and I left it ajar as I flew up the stairs, thinking my parents would be right behind me.
“Well, lunch is ready!” my mom shouted after me. “It’s been in the crockpot all morning!”
“Okay!” I shouted back at her, but I thought I could get away with taking ten minutes or so to change and call Lucy, probably at the same time. I hit my bedroom door at about the same magnitude as I’d hit the door to the house, and was fumbling through my recent calls, ready to press Lucy’s name when I looked up and screamed, my arms flailing, and my phone sailing out of my hand.
Elliott caught it before it hit the wall where it likely would’ve shattered into a million pieces, and I did my best to stifle the screech that was still coming out of my mouth before my parents knew what was happening.
“Are you okay, Cassidy?” my dad shouted up the stairs.
“Uh, yeah, I’m fine,” I stammered. “I just… tripped. I’m okay, though.”
“Well, be careful, honey,” my mom yelled. “The last thing we need is a broken limb.”
“I will be!” I closed the door behind me and turned to the man standing in the middle of my bedroom. “What the heck?” I whispered. “You scared the crap out of me.”
/> He was standing between my bed and desk now, his arms folded, my phone still in his clutches. “Sorry about that, but I had to do something to get your attention. Clearly, our recent discussions have had little effect on your judgment—or lack thereof.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied, crossing my own arms. “I was just… going to call Lucy to see if she knows what’s on the lunch menu tomorrow.”
“Oh, really?” he asked, not wavering. He cocked his head to the side. “So, it doesn’t have anything at all to do with the video you had Emma investigating? Or the fact that you re-told them all of the information I had Hannah pluck out of their brains last time she was here?”
My mouth dropped open in shock. “How do you know that?” I asked, once I could speak again. “Have you been spying on me?”
“I have my sources,” he replied, shaking his head at me, like my recent life choices were disgusting to him. “I told you… we can’t play this game, Cassidy. You cannot be telling your friends what you know. Not only are you going to end up getting me in trouble, they’re gonna be more at risk, too, and you don’t want that, do you?”
He had my attention now. “What kind of risk?” I asked, unfolding my arms and putting my hands on my hips. “What are you talking about?” Thoughts of what had apparently happened to Jack filled my mind again. Is that what he was talking about? Could Lucy or Emma be in danger?
Elliott let out a sigh and dropped down so that he was sitting on the edge of my bed. “Look, lil girl, I trusted you, and you went behind my back and started talking again. You’ve left me little choice….”
I knew what he was getting at and was ready to flee the room, though I didn’t know what good it would do me. He could catch me in half a second if he wanted to. “No,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry. I’ll… fix it.”
“Fix it? How?”
“I’ll tell them I was just kidding. I’ll tell them that I made the video, that I made the whole thing up.” I was desperately searching for ways I could prevent him from wiping my memory.
“Cassidy,” he said quietly, “I don’t think you grasp the importance of keeping this information to those who are allowed to know about it. I’m sure you’ve noticed how quickly posts get taken down when they give regular old people a look into what we’re all about, haven’t you?” I nodded. “Christian patrols that stuff closely for a reason. Our official title starts with Clandestine—do you know what that means?” I nodded again. “Good. Then, stop trying to make it all public information.”
“I’m not,” I countered, sinking onto the bed about three feet away from him. “I’m just trying to understand what is happening and cope with it. I don’t exactly have a lot of people I can talk to about anything at all. Lucy and Emma are the only ones I can trust—besides you—and it’s been killing me to keep this information from them.” I could see his countenance shift for a moment when I said I could trust him, and part of that was a play for sympathy on my part; I thought, perhaps if he remembered how important I am to him and vice versa he wouldn’t be so keen to take all of my thoughts away from me. But I didn’t expect it to work.
“Cassidy… there are certain things we are not allowed to screw around with.”
“I understand. I really do. It’s just… why can’t they know? Is it because no one in their family is a part of it?”
“No,” he replied with a shrug. “But… it isn’t time yet.”
“So, just like me, they will get to find out eventually, right?”
“Yeah, but that’s years off.”
“Lucy will be sixteen in the spring, just a few months from now. That’s only a year early, really.”
“Cassidy, quit trying to talk me into something I’m not allowed to change! I came here with the intention of making all of this stop, not to give you more rope to hang yourself with!”
I could hear the frustration growing in his voice, but before I could counter, my mom yelled up the stairs, “Cassidy! Are you coming down?”
“Yes, Mom!” I cracked the door and shouted out, “Just a minute!”
“It’s going to get cold! Your father and I aren’t going to wait all day!”
“Go ahead!” I shouted in response.
“We aren’t going to eat without you!”
I opened my mouth to scream back at her, but Elliott’s loud voice boomed over mine. “Go ahead and eat without her, Liz. Everything is fine. You’re not at all surprised to hear my voice and will forget in two seconds that we even spoke.”
There was a pause and then my mom shouted, “Okay!” in a pleasant voice, and I heard her talking to my dad as she faded back toward the kitchen. I turned and looked at Elliott as he leaned past me to shut the door. My mouth was hanging open again.
“What?” he asked, shrugging. “It’s a gift.”
“I don’t…. How did you…?” I couldn’t wrap my mind around it and gave up trying. “Elliott, I’m begging you not to take my memories from me. I know I probably would be better off living in a state of ignorant bliss, but I can’t imagine what that would be like.”
“It would be like not worrying about your sister, not caring that you currently think Jack is a vampire, and not thinking I’m an old dude who looks remarkably younger for reasons you currently can’t grasp. What’s so wrong with that?”
He had a point; wouldn’t it be easier not to have to think about this anymore? I could be like the other kids walking around with a stupid smile on my face, thinking everything was all rainbows and unicorns, while my sister was out there battling the forces of evil and her ex-boyfriend is killing surfers and party-goers. “No,” I whispered. “I don’t want that. I don’t want to be a drone.”
“Do you mean clone?”
“Whatever. I don’t wanna walk around with my head in the clouds while Cadence is out there doing whatever she’s doing. Look, she has no idea I know, does she?” He shook his head. “And neither do my parents. Even when Lucy and Emma knew as much as I did, they didn’t tell anyone.”
“They could have if I hadn’t sent Hannah over.”
“But they didn’t! We knew for over a week and didn’t say anything to anyone. Come on, Elliott, please don’t wipe my brain. I promise I won’t get you in trouble.”
He swiveled so he was looking directly at me. “How can you promise that? You have no idea! This little infraction of yours wasn’t reported to me—I was sent here by Aaron and told to handle it correctly this time. That’s a problem, Cassidy. He’s my boss. I don’t like looking like a sucker.”
For a moment, his big head, full of curly brown hair morphed into a lollipop in my imagination, and I had to stifle a laugh. He must’ve known what I was thinking of because he reminded me that it wasn’t funny. “I’m sorry,” I said, trying to shake the thought from my mind. “Maybe I should talk to Aaron myself. I’ve got a few things I wouldn’t mind telling him.” I could feel my blood starting to boil as I thought about how that jerk had treated my sister.
“I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” Elliott replied, running his hands through his hair. “Why can’t you just leave everything alone? You do know what happened to the cat, right?”
“What cat?” I asked, confused.
“You’ll never get to meet the cat, Cassidy, because it’s dead. Curiosity killed it.”
I smirked at him. “Are you threatening me, Dr. Sanderson?”
“No, of course not. I’m warning you, though. You need to leave stuff alone.”
“But you said that we were safe here.” Now, I was beginning to wonder if he was getting at something else. “Is whatever got Jack still hanging around?”
“No, your sister took care of that.” I raised an eyebrow at him, and he got that look on his face like when he knows he’s said too much. “Listen, lil girl, I don’t make the rules. And right now, you’re making it very hard for me to even try to follow them. You’ve gotta stop.”
“I will, I promise.” I stood and marked an X over my heart.
“I will leave everything alone. I will not talk to my friends about anything else. I promise.”
He stood and took a few steps closer to me, towering over me. He was well over six feet tall, I thought as I craned my head to gaze up at him. “And what about Jack?”
“Jack who?” I asked, pursing my lips and swallowing hard.
Elliott let out a sigh that blew my hair back off of my forehead. “Seriously, there are people listening to you all the time, Cassidy. You’re never alone.”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “What about now? Are people listening now?” I figured if they were, we’d both be in trouble.
“Maybe,” he said, taking a step backward, his hands on his hips. “You never know.”
“Okay, well, then say your magic words. But I will not look you in the eye, and I will not repeat after you. I refuse to be wiped!”
I had my eyes closed tightly, a defiant look on my face, so I wasn’t expecting him to start laughing hysterically. I opened an eye and looked at him, wondering what I’d said. Then, it dawned on me. “Okay… so maybe that sounded like something a two-year-old might say, but you know what I meant.”
Elliott cleared his throat and said, “Cassidy, there’s no such thing as vampires. Jack Cook is not a vampire. Your sister works for a security team in Kansas City, and you don’t want to ask any more questions.”
I cracked my eyes open and looked at him. I could tell by his expression he was talking to someone over the IAC. But I didn’t feel any different than I had before. So, he could control it. With a deep breath, I said, “Vampires aren’t real. Jack Cook is not a vampire. My sister works for a security team in Kansas City. I will not ask any more questions about any of this.”