“The back way. I can’t exactly park beside Jared’s jeep right out in the open now can I?” Eric’s eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror where he looks at me like I’m stupid. What an ass. The symbol on my wrist glows just a tiny bit as a large crack splits down the center of the rearview mirror.
Juvenile? Maybe.
Satisfying? Absolutely.
Beside me Jared takes my hand while trying and failing to conceal a small smile. He knows what I did. I smile back with a little shrug of my shoulder. What can I say? Dude made me mad. At least I know I’m getting a better handle on my newfound telekinesis.
Eric’s eyes narrow in the now broken rearview mirror. I smile sweetly feigning innocence. Shifting his eyes back to the road he pulls over to the side then shuts the engine off. “This is where we get out.”
Eric leads us through the woods taking us back to the place of last night’s events and all the while I can’t stop replaying everything that’s happened over and over in my head like some sick horror movie stuck on repeat. Zoe’s mind controlling, Will’s near death at my hands and then again at Blondie’s, Blondie’s sickeningly evil grin as he buries his knife into Jared’s chest. And the blood, so much blood pouring out of Jared’s chest, covering my hands as I try so desperately to keep it inside. Over and over, again and again, it plays on a never-ending loop. I can’t get away from it.
“We’re here,” Eric announces, snapping me out of my nightmares. Addressing Jared he says, “We’ll need to get as much blood from you as we can without actually killing you, so I need you to do exactly what I say, okay?” Jared nods. Eric pulls out a knife from under his pant leg then hands it to him. “Then let’s get started.”
All the color in Jared’s face drains as Eric explains what he wants him to do. Silently I hope and pray that hearing this it will make Jared come to his senses and he’ll reconsider going through with this ridiculous plan. But he doesn’t and when he makes the first cut I have to walk away. I can’t watch him do this. Seeing him almost bleed to death the first time was enough.
“Hey.” Will comes up to stand beside me, keeping his back to Eric and Jared. Maybe he can’t stand to watch either. He wraps his arm around me squeezing my shoulder. “He’ll be okay. I promise.”
I want to believe him. I really, really do, but after everything that’s already happened and everything that’s still to come, none of us are going to be okay. Not in the long run anyway. None of us are going to come out of this without scars. Especially Jared.
When Eric calls for Will, I sigh in relief that they’re finally done with the bloodletting. But at the thought of what I’m about to see when I turn around my hands start to shake so badly, not even putting them in my pockets can hold them still. Taking a deep breath I turn.
There’s blood everywhere and the only thing keeping me from completely freaking out is seeing that Jared’s okay. Of course he’s pale, woozy, and slightly swaying, but Will is healing him so there’s color starting to come back to his cheeks.
With careful steps I inch my way over to them. I try to keep my eyes on Jared even though they want to drift down to the pools of blood on the ground, the pools of his blood, and so much of it. Between the sight of it and its intent, I can barely keep myself from throwing up. From this point on I’ll have to lie to everyone about everything. I’m a horrible liar to begin with, but this lie, this lie is huge and it’s going to cause a lot of people a lot of pain. I don’t know if I can tell it and survive it.
By the time I reach them Will has finished with the healing. Jared lowers his sleeve down over a bad scratch that only moments before had been a deep gash on his wrist. I hate it. I wish Will could heal him without limitations and erase any signs of what Jared just did.
Catching me staring at his wrist Jared wraps me in a hug. “I’m okay. It doesn’t even hurt anymore.”
“So what happens now?” I ask once Jared releases me.
“Now Will takes Jared to The Compound and you and I move on to phase two of the plan,” Eric answers. He looks around the scene one last time. Satisfied that it’s perfect we head back to the vehicles.
Strangled by silence, nobody talks.
I hate it.
I hate this plan. I hate that things are happening out of my control. I hate that Jared is doing this. I hate that I’m going to have to lie to everyone and pretend to grieve over the loss of my best friend. I hate that Jared and I are going to be separated for God knows how long. I hate all of it and by association I hate Eric for even suggesting this stupid awful plan in the first place.
My fingernails dig into the palms of my hands. Who died and made Eric leader anyway? If it weren’t for him we wouldn’t even be in this situation right now. We would have come up with another way to keep Jared safe. A way that didn’t require draining half his blood supply so he could fake his death.
Rage, so much rage, boils in my veins as I stare at the back of Eric’s head. I dig my fingernails even further into the palms of my hands with enough force to draw blood in the hopes that it will offer some form of release. It’s not nearly enough.
Angling my face up at the dark clouds above I spread my arms out toward the heavens. Energy rushes out of me in torrents as lightning bolts crash down. Instinctively the guys drop to their knees, their arms shielding their faces, but not me. No. Not me. I embrace it. It’s my anger and my frustrations causing it and it feels so good to be letting it out, even if it is destructive.
Will dusts off the back of his jeans once it’s safe to stand. “Geez Hanna, think maybe you can not burn down the whole forest?” He nods towards a tree that’s smoking a bit. It’s not actually on fire though so I think we’re good.
Eric stares at me. I can’t tell what he’s thinking. He’s definitely got that whole cop face thing going on. He could be mystified, slightly scared, pissed off, or he could care less, it’s hard to tell. He glances down at his watch then instructs us to keep moving. I’m half tempted to hit him with a lightning bolt as he turns back around.
Jared hangs back to fall in line beside me letting Will and Eric take the lead. “First of all that was kind of awesome in a scary as hell kind of way. When did you learn how to do that? And second, what brought it on?” I give him a knowing look. “Right. You’re still upset about the plan.”
“Upset? Try infuriated. It’s not too late to change your mind you know. We can forget about all of this and go home. If Blondie tries to come after you—well you saw what I just did. With this new symbol I can protect you.”
“What new symbol? What happened to the old one?” Jared takes my wrist, examining it.
“The old one disappeared in the lake and the new one Sam gave me in The In-Between.”
Still holding my wrist, he comes to a sudden stop. “When were you in the lake? Why were you in the lake? And what the hell is The In-Between?”
“After I discovered who you were, Blondie kind of shoved me off the cliff and into the lake where I sort of… died for a moment. While I was there in The In-Between, a place where the soul goes to decide if it wants to stay or go back, I visited with Sam and that’s when he gave me another symbol before sending me back.”
He stares at me on the verge of a total freak out. “Blondie shoved you off a cliff and you died?”
“Yes, but I’m okay now, and I have this.” I hold up my wrist, which is still clutched in his hand, for emphasis. “So you see, you don’t have to go through with this whole faking your death thing because I can keep you safe.”
“What about everybody else? If I’m not dead Blondie’s going to come after me, after you. What if he goes after my mom or your brother? If you’re protecting me who’s going to protect them? You can’t save us all Hanna, especially when we don’t know exactly what we’re dealing with. This is still our best option.”
“Fine. If this is really what you want to do, then I guess I can’t stop you.” I yank my wrist out of his hand. Leaving him behind, I run to catch up with Will and Eric. Behind me, Jar
ed yells for me to stop. I don’t. I’m too mad to even look at him right now. Doesn’t he see what this is doing to me? Doesn’t he care?
Eric and Will are waiting by the SUV by the time I emerge from the tree line. I head for them ignoring Jared’s loud stomping behind me. I hope he trips. No I don’t. Well, maybe I do…just a little.
Jared grabs me by the arm, steering me in another direction. “I need to talk to you.” He’s angry with me. I try to jerk away; his grip tightens. He’s not going to let me go until he says what he wants to say.
“What do you want? I’ve already agreed to go along with your plan because you’ve rejected mine multiple times, so what Jared? What else do you want from me?”
He lets go of my arm. “I want you to not be mad at me for doing what needs to be done.”
“Yeah, well, tough, because I don’t think it needs to be done. I think we can find other ways. I think this plan is stupid and I think you’re stupid for doing it.”
“Anything else you want to say?”
I cross my arms over my chest. Defensive. Defiant. “Nope, that about covers it.”
“Good, then you can listen to what I have to say. I hate this plan just as much as you do, if not more. Do you really think I want to do this? Do you really think I want to hurt my mom by making her think I’m dead? Do you think that this isn’t killing me? Because it is. I know what this is going to do to everyone Hanna, and I know what it’s doing to you, but there is no other choice. If there were, if there was another way that guaranteed others wouldn’t get hurt because of Blondie or because I turn into some freak when I turn eighteen in a couple months, I’d be all over it. But there isn’t. This is all we got.”
“I still don’t like it.”
“Neither do I.” Taking ahold of my hand he pulls me closer. “Please Hanna, I don’t want to fight with you. Not now. Not when I need you the most.”
Eric whistles extremely loud getting our attention. He taps his watch then nods his head toward the SUV. I know we’ve got schedules to keep and all that, but dude seriously needs to chill. It’s not going to kill him to allow Jared and I a few minutes to say our goodbyes.
“I don’t want to fight with you either,” I say ignoring Eric’s protests that we get a move on. Instead, I focus all my attention on Jared, memorizing everything about him. His messy brown hair, the shape of his mouth, the piercing green of his eyes, the feel of his touch, because he’s right, we need each other now more than ever. Besides, when this all goes down, who knows how long it’ll be before I get to see him again. I don’t want our last moments to be us fighting. I don’t want this to be our last moments at all. “I don’t want to say goodbye.”
“Then don’t.” He pulls me closer so that there’s barely any space between us. “Say, see you later.” It’s basically the same thing as saying goodbye, but I get what he means. We won’t be apart forever.
“See you later,” I whisper against his lips. Eric clears his throat louder than humanly possible and Jared smiles under my kiss.
“I think,” Jared’s lips press softly against mine. “That Eric’s ready for us to go.” Another kiss. “What do you think?”
“I think I don’t care what Eric wants.” Grabbing his shirt I pull him closer, deepening our kiss until everything else fades away and it’s only him and me.
The sound of a horn blaring ricochets off the trees giving the illusion that it’s coming from everywhere. Jared and I separate with a laugh. Eric is nothing if not persistent.
“Time to go,” Eric shouts. He gets into the SUV slamming the door behind him.
Taking my hand, Jared and I walk as slow as possible to the back of the SUV where Will is waiting for us with an extra helmet hanging from his fingers. He hands the helmet to Jared.
“I’ll be over by the bike when you’re ready,” Will says getting that Jared and I need a moment.
Nodding his head, Jared takes the helmet. “Okay.” He turns to face me. “So, see you later.”
“Yeah, see you later.” It’s a bit garbled, nearly incoherent. I don’t want to say see you later. I don’t want to say goodbye.
Jared drops the helmet to the ground and within a half of a second I’m in his arms. “Remember this isn’t goodbye Hanna. We’ll be together again soon. I promise.” He kisses me hard, just once. “I love you.” He lets me go and grabs his helmet. Without looking back he puts it on then climbs onto the back of Will’s bike.
“I love you too.”
Everything inside of me breaks as I watch him disappear into the distance.
***
“Can I get you something to drink?” Detective Henderson asks. His buggy little eyes stare at me from across the table.
“No, thank you,” I say even though I really do want a drink. My throat is like sandpaper, but my stomach has done so many flips since I’ve been here I doubt I’d be able to keep it down.
“Okay, Miss Harper, let’s go over this one more time just so I can make sure I’ve got the facts straight.”
I nod while stuffing my hands under my legs to keep from fidgeting. They have me in what I’m assuming is the interrogation room and the thought of someone or someone’s watching me from behind the two sided mirror on the opposite wall is making me nervous. What if whoever’s back there can tell I’m lying? Or what if they suspect I did something to Jared?
“You started the night off with Jared Vaughn and Will Jensen, correct?” Detective Henderson asks.
“Yes.”
“Then sometime later Mr. Jensen left leaving you alone with Mr. Vaughn who is also your boyfriend, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Then what happened?” Detective Henderson leans into the table, eyes trained on my every move. This is the third time we’ve gone over this and each time it gets harder and harder. Whoever said it was supposed to get easier to tell a lie the more you tell it, obviously lied.
Pulse racing; sweat starts to bead around my hairline. Is he doing this on purpose? Is he making me repeat it so many times because he can tell that every time I do I’m inching closer and closer to a total freak out which is what he wants because he knows I’m deceiving him and if I freak out he’ll get the satisfaction of catching me in a lie and I’ll be forced to tell the truth?
Get it together Hanna. I scold myself. You can do this. You have to do this.
I take a few deep breaths collecting myself. I can do this. I can tell this lie and I can be convincing, because I have to be, because Jared is depending on me to be. “After Will left,” I start. “Jared took me out to this spot in the woods that overlooks the lake because he said it’s the best spot for star gazing even though I told him it was supposed to rain and that we probably wouldn’t be able to see any stars anyway. He insisted, so we went and then it rained like I told him it would. On our way back we stumbled upon two guys arguing over drugs near the edge of the woods. One of them had a gun and when he pointed it at us we ran.
“Everything was happening so fast and I just ran and ran not really paying attention to where I was going and when I finally stopped to catch my breath, I was alone. I had no idea where I was or where Jared was and I was so scared that if I moved the guy with the gun would find me.
“After awhile I built up enough courage to look for Jared, but I couldn’t find him.” Playing my role as the distraught girlfriend I hitch my breath. “Eventually the sun came up and I found my way out of the woods and that’s when Officer Jensen found me on the side of the road.” I reach across the table suddenly, grabbing the detective’s hand, startling him just a little. “Please Detective, you have to find him.” I close my eyes letting tears run down my face. “You have to find him.”
Detective Henderson’s eyes soften a bit as he continues to study me. He puts his other hand over mine giving it a small pat. “I have every available Officer out looking for him right now. As soon as I have more information, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, I have a few more questions if you’re feeling up to it.”
I don’t have a choice.
After disengaging my death grip on his hand, Detective Henderson slides over a box of tissues before taking up his pen and notepad. “Can you describe the two men you saw in the woods?”
“No.” I shake my head slightly side to side. “It was too dark and they were both dressed in black. I couldn’t see their faces clearly.” I hang my head.
“Do you have a cell phone?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you call for help?”
“Because by the time I stopped to catch my breath I realized it was gone. It must have fallen out of my hoodie pocket when I was running.”
Detective Henderson scribbles down a few more notes in sloppy handwriting I can’t decipher from this side of the table. I imagine it says things like: Hanna’s a liar. She’s a big fat liar, liar, LIAR.
Closing his notepad, Detective Henderson taps his pen against the cover. “I think I have all I need for now. Is there someone I can call to come pick you up?”
I nod. “My brother Adam.”
“If you’ll wait here Miss Harper, I’ll arrange for your brother to come get you.” With that he exits leaving me alone where I totally and completely fall apart.
“I see you’re not dead.” Blondie circles without looking directly at me. “Resilient little thing aren’t you? Guess it’s for the best, since it turns out I’m not quite through with you just yet.”
Damn it. I must have fallen asleep. “I don’t have anything you want. Jared is dead. Remember? You killed him?”
Anger flashes over his face momentarily before being replaced by his usual menacing smile. “Oh, but you do.” In the time it takes to take a breath his hand is wrapped around my throat. If I could gasp I would because the whole right side of his face is marred with deep slash marks running from his hairline to his jaw. “Like what you see?” With eyes shifting from ice blue to the blackest of blacks his smile becomes something far, far darker. “It’ll heal. Not without scars of course, so you see Hanna, there is something I want from you and we’re just getting started.”
Fated Page 4