Bleeding Misery (Threatening Souls Book 2)

by N. M. Lambert

  “Maybe she has a point,” Rebekah said. “At least until this blows over.”

  “I don’t want to accept Jamie’s offer, despite what Holly says. Obviously, we’re still alive, so the aftermath can’t be that bad, can it?” Mandy glanced at Rebekah for validation.

  “It’s only been five days.”

  “I know, but—” Mandy stopped in mid-sentence, turning towards the mirror and resting her hands on the sink.

  “Mandy?” Rebekah approached her with concern. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m…fine,” Mandy said through gritted teeth. “I just got hit by a sudden wave of nausea, but it’s over now.”

  “Maybe I should take you to the nurse’s office?” Rebekah suggested.

  “No,” Mandy said a little too quickly. “I’m fine.”

  “Just to make sure, I think I should—”

  “I said I’m fine!” Mandy snapped, and as if on cue, the lights flickered off in the bathroom. Both girls stared at the lights in silence.

  “Power outage?” Rebekah questioned, but in the back of her mind, she knew something else was going on.

  “Now?” Mandy said. “I don’t think—”

  A violent scream interrupted Mandy, and soon, the two of them fell silent as they listened to the commotion outside. Rebekah felt cold as dread seeped into her bones, and a voice came over the intercom. The school was on lockdown.

  Mandy and Rebekah immediately raced out of the bathroom towards the nearest classroom when the scream sounded again, louder this time. Rebekah turned towards the noise, temporarily forgetting about Mandy, but before she could take a step forward, a hand grabbed her arm.

  “We need to go!” Mandy yelled as she tried yanking Rebekah towards the door.

  But Rebekah barely heard her. There the scream was again, though it sounded louder this time. The hallway lights were off as well, and for a moment, she couldn’t see anything in front of her. She took a step forward, and Mandy tightened her grip on her arm.

  “Rebekah!” Mandy hissed.

  “What if Holly’s right?” Rebekah said monotonously as a few shapes materialized in front of her. “What if he’s here?” She couldn’t bring herself to say the immortal warlock’s name.

  Mandy froze. “You think he’s here? At our school?”

  Rebekah didn’t respond. Down the hallway, someone was sobbing hysterically, and two others were trying to comfort her. Rebekah broke away from Mandy and began to move towards the commotion.

  “That’s Rosalie!” Mandy said suddenly. “Oh, no.”

  Rebekah knew what they were both thinking. Where’s Kendra? The two with Rosalie were people Rebekah had only known in passing, and none of them was Rosalie’s esteemed best friend.

  As the screaming grew louder, Rebekah could make out the words. “Take me back!” Rosalie yelled as she thrashed in the arms of her company. “Fucking take me back!”

  “She’s gone, Rosalie! Stop! You’re going to hurt yourself!” a girl Rebekah knew as Melissa said.

  “No!” Rosalie twisted and turned, kicking out at the air in front of her. At one point she sunk her teeth into the other girl’s, Sarah’s, arm.

  Sarah immediately let go and stumbled backward. “She bit me!”

  “Rosalie, calm down!” Melissa tried again. “We’re going to take you to the nurse’s office, and everything will be fine!”

  Rebekah was horrified at Rosalie’s current state, but she was even more horrified at what Melissa said. Someone was gone. Someone died, and she knew only one person’s demise would cause that much strife for Rosalie.

  Kendra.

  Rebekah glanced at Mandy, wondering if her friend reached the same conclusion. Yet, Mandy’s expression betrayed nothing.

  “Let her go!” Mandy suddenly said, which not only shocked Rebekah but also shocked Melissa so much she loosened her grip on Rosalie. As if on cue, Rosalie twisted out of Melissa’s grasp and sprinted down the hallway from whence she came.

  Melissa stared after Rosalie for a moment, and Sarah took off after her. “Fuck, this doesn’t concern you! Go back to class!” she spat at Mandy.

  Mandy didn’t flinch. She had always been the strong one in Rebekah’s friend group and never let anyone intimidate her. “Whatever happened doesn’t concern you either.”

  Melissa barked out a laugh, and a flash of yellow appeared in her eyes. Rebekah froze as she zeroed in on Melissa’s unnaturally yellow eyes, something she had never noticed before she went to Roseway.

  “Mandy,” Rebekah said weakly, “we need to go.” The only other person she knew who had yellow eyes was Henri Anderson, which unnerved her.

  Mandy didn’t seem to hear Rebekah, her entire attention on Melissa.

  Melissa, however, seemed to have heard Rebekah’s words. “Listen to your friend,” she said. “Go back to class.”

  “Mandy!” Rebekah said more forcefully.

  At once, Mandy broke her gaze with Melissa and turned to face Rebekah. Her facial expression fell.

  “Fine,” Mandy said more to Rebekah than to Melissa. “Rebekah, let’s go.”

  In silence, the two of them trudged to the nearest classroom and were quickly ushered in. The school was still under lockdown, and as the teacher relocked the door and Rebekah and Mandy took seats along the wall farthest from the door and windows. Rebekah couldn’t stop thinking about Kendra. Whatever had caused the lockdown, she was sure had to do with Kendra.

  ~~~

  For hours, the school remained on lockdown. For hours, Rebekah was locked in a foreign classroom in the dark where she knew no one but Mandy, who was huddled next to her on the uncomfortable, carpeted floor. The hours ticked by slowly, feeling more like days of complete silence. The fear in the room was palpable, since no one dared to utter a single word.

  When the lockdown was finally lifted, it was announced the school was closing for the day. The fear soon became voiced as frantic students phoned their parents, begging to be picked up as soon as possible, and busses zipped into the bus lane. Rebekah felt numb as she exited the school with Mandy by her side, only to be accosted by the flashing lights of police cars and an ambulance, and uniformed officers littered the parking lot, some ushering people safely to their vehicles and others crowding around the ambulance. Rebekah looked around for any sign of Holly, but to no avail.

  “A gun,” Mandy said quietly, and Rebekah strained to hear her.

  “What?” Rebekah questioned. She didn’t think she heard her friend correctly.

  Mandy repeated, louder this time, “A gun. I overheard some officers talking about a gun.”

  Rebekah froze, forcing Mandy to stop as well. “Someone brought a gun to school?”

  For the first time since the lockdown started, Mandy looked utterly petrified. “Maybe. But we would have heard gunshots if—”

  “Rebekah!” someone called, and anything Mandy was about to say died on her lips. Rebekah turned towards the voice and saw her mother frantically waving at her. Her father was already in the driver’s seat, and he seemed to have already started the car.

  “Go.” Mandy practically pushed Rebekah towards her parents. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  Rebekah moved a couple of steps before facing her friend. “Will you be okay?”

  “We’ll talk later,” Mandy said in a voice that oozed finality. “Now, go!”

  This time, Rebekah obeyed, sparing her friend one last glance before she made her way to her parents’ car. Wordlessly, she slid into the back, and her mother sat in the front passenger’s seat, and then, they sped off away from the chaos that spawned from Rebekah’s school.

  For a few tense minutes, no one spoke. Rebekah studied her parents carefully, noticing how her mother was shaking and how her father exuded a foreign, cold demeanor.

  At last, her mother turned to face her. “Where were you?”

  Rebekah glanced at her mother, and a feeling of dread washed over her. “What do you mean?”

  “I searched for you in my class
when the lockdown started, and you weren’t there.” Katie’s voice trembled on each word.

  At last, it clicked. “I had to use the bathroom,” Rebekah said.

  Katie dug her nails into her palm as her body shook uncontrollably. “You left without telling me, and I had no idea where my own daughter was!”

  “Mom!” Rebekah pleaded, and for a moment, she could have sworn she saw tears brewing in her mother’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know—”

  Katie turned around in her seat and sighed, fighting to get her emotions under control. “Next time, you need to tell me where you’re going,” she said coldly. “I spent the entire lockdown wondering if you were hurt or killed and worrying that—”

  Rebekah stilled. “Mom, what are you talking about?”

  Her mother took a deep breath. “Someone brought a gun to school and shot themselves in the middle of class.” She paused as she glanced at Rebekah through the rearview mirror. “No one else was hurt. No one else was even shot at, but if that had been a more severe school shooting, if there were more casualties than just the person who brought the gun—”

  Rebekah froze as what her mother told her sunk in. The one who brought the gun to school and killed herself had to have been Kendra Laurent, but the only thing Rebekah didn’t know was why. “Mom, I’m fine!” she pleaded. “Mandy and I—” As soon as the words came out of Rebekah’s mouth, she realized her error.

  Her mother looked furious. “Mandy was with you?”

  Rebekah nodded slowly. “She happened to need the bathroom too.”

  “You didn’t actually need the bathroom, did you?” Katie said, seeing right through Rebekah’s lie.

  Rebekah’s heart raced. “She needed to talk to me about something. I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to—”

  Her father finally spoke, and hearing his voice sound as cold and detached as it did sent shivers down Rebekah’s spine. “You’re grounded for two weeks.”

  “What?” Rebekah felt like she just got slapped. “Why?”

  Paul clutched the steering wheel so tight Rebekah was sure the tendons in his hand would burst. “Why? You worry your mother sick with your negligence, and you have the audacity to ask why?”

  Rebekah slunk in her seat. “I said I was sorry,” she said quietly. “I didn’t know—”

  “Give me your phone,” Her father said, reaching behind him with one hand. By that point, they had pulled into the apartment parking lot.

  Rebekah handed him her phone, and as she did so, she felt like she was giving a part of her away. “I’m sorry,” she said once again.

  Her father grunted but said nothing as he slid the gear into park and pocketed her phone. Rebekah watched her parents silently exit the car, and she soon followed them, feeling like a puppy with their tail tucked between their legs. She hadn’t told her parents yet about going to Munich for the ICW, but now after this fiasco, she wondered if they would even allow her to go, even if she was under adult supervision.

  The three of them entered their apartment in tense silence, Rebekah’s parents going straight to the kitchen table, and Rebekah herself going straight to the room she shared with her brothers. She needed to talk to Mandy and Holly about what she learned. She needed to tell them what she had seen in Melissa and, if the girl was indeed an immortal witch, perhaps she had something to do with Kendra’s sudden suicide.

  And Rosalie. Rebekah needed to figure out what Melissa wanted with Rosalie.

  Yet, her father took her phone. She had no way of contacting them, and she wouldn’t get her phone back until the two weeks were up. Rebekah shivered as she crawled into her bed and wrapped the blankets securely around her petite frame. Kendra had to have been bewitched in order to commit such a devastating act, which brought her back to something Holly had been adamant about. The threat to their lives didn’t end with Roseway. And if Melissa had a role in Kendra’s death, then Henri couldn’t be that far away.

  And Rebekah couldn’t be done with the war like she originally wished. This was as much her and Mandy’s fight now as it was Holly and Andre’s. As she sifted through the recent events, ending with Kendra’s death, one thing became painfully clear to her.

  Henri was not yet done with her. He wasn’t done with any of them.

  ~~~

  Paige’s family was apparently in town, or at least that was what Rebekah’s parents told her. They were due to visit the apartment in an hour for dinner, and then, Paige would take Rebekah shopping while the adults indulged themselves with some wine. Of course, these plans had been set before Rebekah was grounded, and thus, the rules were bent a little. Paige and Rebekah could only be out for a few hours, of which Rebekah would be allowed her phone for emergencies only. And Paige was in charge of making sure Rebekah abided by those rules, though Rebekah suspected Paige wouldn’t care. Her cousin would just be happy Rebekah was still allowed out, only because Paige was family, and family was important, according to her parents.

  The smell of roast beef wafted throughout the apartment, accompanied by the clacking of a spoon as her mother stirred mashed potatoes on the stove and the sizzling of corn. The onslaught of food made Rebekah’s mouth water, and for a moment, she forgot what had happened at school earlier that day. She took a seat at the table across from her brothers, who were engrossed in their phones. It was then when it hit her, the painful absence of her own phone.

  “Rebekah, come here for a minute?” her father requested in a tone that suggested Rebekah had no choice.

  Rebekah groaned internally as she slid out of her seat and went to join her father in the kitchen. He was currently bent over the roast beef in their slow cooker, prodding the meat with a meat thermometer.

  Rebekah approached him hesitantly. “What?” she said.

  Her father didn’t bother turning around, nor did he answer her right away. Instead, he narrowed his eyes as he read the temperature of the meat and then removed the thermometer, placing the lid back where it belonged. “Only a little longer now,” he mumbled to himself.

  “Why is everything being prepared early?” Rebekah asked. “They’re not coming for another hour.”

  Paul didn’t answer her. He straightened his shoulders instead and said, “Who is Andre?”

  Rebekah froze at the half-immortal witch’s name. She didn’t know how Paul knew about her, unless—

  “An unknown number messaged you, claiming to be Holly,” her father explained. “The message claimed someone named Andre needed to speak to you and Mandy.” He practically sneered the name.

  Rebekah felt herself deflate. Holly and Mandy didn’t know she was grounded, but what bothered her more was the fact her father read a message meant for her. “You went through my phone?”

  This time, Paul turned around. “I think I have a right to know what my daughter is up to.” He paused as he eyed her. “Does Andre go to your school?”

  Rebekah was confused, but she answered anyway. “No.”

  Her father tensed. “Older or younger?”

  “Older.”

  “How old?”

  Rebekah hesitated, feeling her father’s eyes bore into her own. He would know if she lied to him. He always knew when she lied to him. “Seventeen.”

  At that moment, her father lost it. His eyes grew wide, and Rebekah was sure they would pop out of their sockets. “I’m going to kill him.”

  “What?” Rebekah said. “Kill who?”

  Paul fought to steady his breathing. “I thought you and your friends were smarter than this,” he said solemnly. “You’re thirteen! You see no problem with hanging out with an older man?”

  And then, it finally hit her. “No, Dad, Andre’s not—”

  Paul closed the gap between them in two easy strides. “I thought I taught you better than this!”

  “You have!” Rebekah protested. “Andre’s not…she’s not a…a…predator!”

  This time, her father was the one who froze. “She?”

  Rebekah nodded. “She’s Holly’s cousin.”<
br />
  “And she wants to talk to you.”

  Rebekah nodded again, but this time, she said nothing.

  Paul gave an audible sigh. “About what?”

  Rebekah shrugged. “I don’t know.” It was the truth, though Rebekah had a good idea what Andre wanted to talk to her about.

  Paul took a step back and visibly relaxed. “Regardless of who she is or isn’t, I don’t feel comfortable with you hanging out with someone who is visibly older that your mother and I don’t know.”

  “You know Holly,” Rebekah pointed out, “and Holly’s parents.”

  “But we don’t know her,” Paul said as if it should have been obvious. He turned back towards the roast beef and scoffed. “No normal seventeen-year-old would want to hang out with people four years younger than them. There is too much of a behavioral gap. I don’t trust her, and I forbid you from hanging out with her.”

  Rebekah tensed again. “What if you guys met her?”

  Her father didn’t respond. He never responded to her questions if he deemed the answer was obvious. Inviting her over here would be stupid.

  Rebekah sighed as she went back to the table. If only she could tell her parents about Roseway and magic and how Andre had a hand in saving her life. But of course she could never do that, because doing so would be trying to explain her family’s false memories, and trying to explain to her normal, human family how their bodies had been under a spirit-induced trance for months and what that meant didn’t sound appealing.

  Paige’s family didn’t arrive until a little after five, the minutes leading up to their arrival ticking by slowly as Rebekah sat in silence at the table. To say she was bored would have been an understatement, and she was beyond glad when the sudden knock rapped against their front door. By then, dinner was ready, and the table had been set for eight people, albeit the spaces were a little cramped. In one grand flourish, Katie answered the door and enveloped her sister in a hug that lasted many seconds too long. Aunt Trina looked the same as always, with her porcelain skin, brownish-burgundy hair that fell to her shoulders, and a plump frame that was in direct contrast to her mother’s too-skinny one. Behind her was her husband with his all-too-prominent beer gut, whom Rebekah knew as Uncle Bernard. As usual, he strolled in like he owned the place and plopped down on the Jensens’ couch in front of the TV. Lastly, there was her cousin, Paige, whose brown, chest-length curls bounced with each step she took. Like usual, she was wearing way too much makeup, and her form-fitting crop top and jeans reminded Rebekah of Jamie, much to her dismay.