Betrayal (Vanish Book Two) (10 page)

“No,” he laughed, smiling from ear to ear. It
was a smile I hadn’t seen in a while. Sure, he smiled, but I hadn’t
seen him smile like this since before what happened with Grace.
“It’s ketchup; I made a picnic remember?”

“Yeah,” I let out a deep breath.

After we finished all of the food, we laid
there and looked up at the sky. The sky was blue with a couple of
perfect white clouds. We stared up through the bare trees for what
seemed like hours. I kept my mind clear of any thoughts that didn’t
have to do with Dante. How perfect he looked when I caught him
staring at me as I watched the clouds pass by. He would turn away
the second I went to look, just as he had before. It felt wrong to
be so happy, but in this world—as Dante would put it—you can’t
spend too much time worrying about every little—or big—thing.

When the sun went down, we decided to go
home. We walked slowly, taking in the beauty. He had his arm around
me, and then, suddenly, he stopped walking.

“Did you hear that?” The terror in his voice
was unquestionable. A few twigs snapped not too far away from where
we were.

“Yeah, what do you think it was?”

Leaves crunched as whatever it was came
closer.

“Let’s go.” He walked at a pace that was
almost too fast for me. I could tell he had an idea of who was out
there, and it frightened him.

When we reached the house, he shoved me
inside and locked every lock on the door.

“What’s out there?” I demanded.

“Who,” he corrected. “And I don’t know, but I
lied to you earlier.”

“What did you lie about?”

“It wasn’t ketchup; it was blood, my blood,”
he conceded.

“Well, what happened?” I demanded.

“Someone came at me, but I didn’t see their
face. They were wearing huge sunglasses and baggy clothes. They had
a hat on, and if they had any hair, it was put up in the hat.”

“So you don’t have any idea—”

“No, maybe if I could have gotten a better
look, I would recognize them, assuming it was someone I know.”

“So what do we do?” I asked as he looked out
the peephole.

“One of us needs to call Elizabeth, and the
other needs to make sure all the doors and windows are locked.”

“I’ll get the doors and windows, and you call
Elizabeth and George,” I replied.

I ran to the back door, making sure each lock
was locked. Then I ran to the windows, locking every last one. By
the time I was finished, Dante was sitting on the couch.

“No one answered,” he mumbled as he stared
ahead of him.

“Try again,” I shrieked.

“I did. I tried five times, Scarlett. No one
answered.”

“Okay so what do we do?” I cried.

“I need to go over there,” he declared.

“No…” I pleaded. “Call again.”

“There’s no point no one is going to
answer.”

“Then I’ll go, at least I can be invisible,”
I suggested.

“No, I’m not letting you go out there. I’ll
be right back.”

All that was left was a neon blue and green
light and soon nothing. I waited a few minutes. It shouldn’t have
taken him long to stop over there find out everything was alright
and come back. I went invisible and headed out the door. I was
careful to miss tree branches and as many leaves as I could, but I
still wasn’t silent.

When I reached the house, I noticed the front
door was open. I walked inside; I didn’t see anyone, but they
didn’t go anywhere, so I knew they had to be home.

I walked back towards Lily and Cooper’s
rooms, as I walked through the kitchen, I stepped on a squeaky
floorboard, and a light turned on.

“Surprise!” Everyone yelled.

I had been scared visible. I didn’t know how
it happened, but surely if this became a regular thing, this power
wouldn’t help me much. I was laying on the floor in shock; I
couldn’t even look to see who surrounded me. My eyes were fixed on
Dante standing above me.

“You knew?” I accused.

“Well, no, there is a small problem. I should
probably go shut the door. I’ll explain later,” he promised.

When I got a chance to look around the room,
I saw Elizabeth and George standing next to a cake on the counter.
Lily was laughing at me across the room. Cooper—still looking
uncomfortable—avoided eye contact at all costs. Next to him, was a
woman and a girl—the girl from earlier. I knew it wasn’t a dream. I
knew it actually happened, but how? There’s no way I could have
gone as far as I did in a matter of minutes.

“Scarlett,” Elizabeth said as she came
closer. “God, I can’t believe it, but I think I found your mother.”
My eyes darted between Elizabeth and my mother. “She’s also my
sister, the one I told you about, Violet.” They looked almost
exactly the same, aside from their hair. My mother’s hair was a
less-extreme shade of red, and her eyes were a mix between blue and
green. There was no denying that she looked like me, my only
question now was, where was my father?

“Nice to meet you,” I choked. “And you,” I
said to Rose. “I saw you earlier today didn’t I? Because I left the
house at eleven thirty, and I got home at eleven thirty.”

“Yeah, you saw me earlier,” she laughed. “I
didn’t mean to freak you out, but you said you missed a date with
someone, so I rolled back the clock a little.”

“So you can go back in time?” I asked.

“Yes,” rose said. “It’s my only power.”

“Can I have a minute alone with her?” Violet
asked.

“Of course,” Elizabeth said as she shooed
everyone into the living room.

“It wasn’t hard to imagine what you would
look like.” She smiled. “All this time, I thought you were
dead.”

“I didn’t know about you until the other day,
I would have done something.” I felt a tear stream down my cheek.
She got up and wiped it away.

“There was always a part of me that hoped,
but I had become so wrapped up in the grief, that I guess I may
have neglected your siblings,” she sighed.

“Is that why they don’t like me?” I
wondered.

“I suppose, but they’ll come around and Rose
doesn’t hate you, but she went through the same pain I did. You two
were inseparable, like most twins.”

“Twins?” I asked in disbelief.

We all sat in the living room, next to the
fireplace. I didn’t know why it was such a shock to realize I had a
twin. Just earlier today, I was staring down my three sisters,
whose similarities were eerie. Soon I snapped out of it; I just
didn’t know how to react. The woman sitting there, who I never
really knew, was my mother. I didn’t know how this would work out,
would we only see each other occasionally? Would I go home with her
and leave Dante behind? And what about my new sisters? I had no
idea what to expect from them. Rose sat by me, waiting for me to
talk.

“So, I thought you would be happy that I
decided to tell mom about you. I just felt so bad, when you said
you had no family,” she explained.

I cleared my throat, “yeah, I am. Just a
little shocked is all.”

“So were you surprised?” Lily laughed.

“Yeah,” I smiled at her. “Where’s Annabelle?”
I hadn’t seen her since we got home.

“She left…” Lily answered. “I’m sorry you
didn’t get to say good-bye.”

“What she left? Why?” I demanded.

“She called her neighbor, Brian; I think that
was his name. He came and picked her up,” Lily answered.

“I—I just don’t understand why she would
leave without saying good-bye,” I sighed.

“I think she was afraid,” Lily confessed.

I shrugged it off and turned toward my mom
and Rose. “So, I’m curious, what led you to believe I was
dead?”

“The cop in charge of the case, he seemed
very determined to find you. He was so young though, I wasn’t sure
I could really trust him with finding you. He tried so hard, or so
I believed, but you were never found—”

“What was his name?” I wondered.

“Officer Rowley. I don’t remember his first
name though, maybe Jake or Josh—”

“Joe?” I said in a flat tone.

“Oh yeah, that was it Joe Rowley.”

“Do you know Joe’s last name?” I looked over
to Dante. He nodded. “Well what was it?”

“…Rowley,” his voice cracked and then he
cleared his throat.

At first, I felt bad that Joe died. I thought
maybe he was another victim of Ann’s beauty, blindly following her
orders. Now I realized he was almost single-handedly responsible
for ruining my life.

“What’s going on here?” My mom asked.

“Joe is the man who got me locked up after
Grace disappeared, and he was the one who kept you from finding
me,” I responded.

“I’ll kill him,” Rose snarled.

“Too late, we already did.” Both Rose and my
mom gasped.

“There’s been a lot going on,” I said,
feeling ashamed. Apparently, it wasn’t normal to be this way, even
in this world.

“They did what they had to do, you can’t even
imagine what they’ve been through,” Elizabeth stuck up for us.

“No, you’re right; I can’t. I’m so sorry that
you had to go through all of this. I think you should come home
with us.”

“I—I can’t. I’m sorry,” I stuttered.

“And why not?” she said in voice that just
screamed,
you will listen to me, I’m your mother
.

“For one, this isn’t over yet, and two, I’m
very happy to have found you, but I can’t go home with you and
expect it to feel normal, to fit right in.”

“You will. I promise,” Violet said.

“I’m sorry.”

I walked outside. I heard leaves crunching,
and someone came running at me. I flinched and put my hands up, but
before I knew it, Dante had grabbed me from behind and dragged me
back inside the house.

“Come on,” he said reaching out for my hand
after he locked the door. He led me into the kitchen. “There is
someone out there, that wasn’t a lie, but they don’t know that
anyone is out there. Your mom and Rose had come over just a few
minutes before, Elizabeth was planning a birthday party for you
tomorrow, but they decided to just have it tonight.”

“So who’s out there? What do they want?” I
asked.

“I don’t know, but it’s definitely the person
who attacked me before. I was going to come get you, take you over
here for your surprise party, but then you just showed up,” he
explained.

“We need to go out there; I’m tired of being
afraid—”

“Scarlett, we may have powers, but we don’t
know if whoever is out there does, too, and if they do, we have no
idea what they are.”

“It’s only one person. What are we going to
do when the Alliance comes, hide forever?” I questioned.

“Do you want to know the truth?” He
whispered, pulling me closer. “Yes, we probably would have to hide
forever. I’ve already given up my life for you; I’m not going to
lose you.”

No matter how sweet the end of his sentence
may have seemed, his tone was ice-cold.

“I don’t want you to give up anything for
me.” I walked away before he could see the tears in my eyes.

I became invisible and busted out the front
door. I wasn’t going to sit in there afraid. I was going to take
care of this before the fear I had crippled me. I wandered through
the woods until I heard something moving, and they heard me, too.
They stopped in their tracks and turned in my direction. I looked
around on the ground for anything to use as a weapon, just my luck,
an empty beer bottle. I simultaneously smashed the bottle against a
tree and went visible. Before I could do anything, they ran. I
chased after them, but it did no good; they were gone… for now. I
walked back in the direction I’d come from, but it seemed like I
should have hit the house by now.

Someone came up behind me and put their hand
over my mouth. I tried to squirm free, but it was pointless.

“Shh,” Dante hushed as he took his hand
away.

“Get away from me.” I pushed him and walked
away.

I didn’t know exactly where I was headed, but
I was sure I could figure it out by myself. Someone else grabbed
me, all I could see were black gloves holding a shard from the beer
bottle I smashed. I saw a flash of neon light from where Dante was.
I took a deep breath, balled up my fist and hit them as hard as I
could. The glass cut my neck, but not too bad, at least I didn’t
think. I made a run for it, with whoever they were following close
behind me. I heard a loud bang, and when I turned around they were
laying on the ground with Dante behind them. I held my sleeve
against the cut on my neck as I bent over to see their face.

“It’s me, Sienna, your sister.” Dante and I
exchanged the same worried glances.

“Was that you I saw wandering around out
here?” I wondered. She couldn’t be the one who attacked Dante; I
was with them when it happened.

“No, I just came and I wasn’t going to hurt
you; I just wanted to scare you away,” Sienna admitted.

“Why? I don’t know what I did to make you
hate me.”

“You should have seen mom’s face when Rose
told her she found you. I knew once she saw for herself, it would
be as if I didn’t even exist anymore,” Sienna whined.

“I’m not trying to steal your mom away. I
only wanted to know who my mom was,” I cried.

“Well now you know, so just leave us
alone.”

At first, I stood there motionless. Her
worries made sense, at least in her mind; she was just scared. Then
I thought about her holding the shard at my throat, and telling me
I couldn’t get to know my real family, and I snapped. I lunged at
her. My hands balled up into fists. I really wanted to hurt her,
but luckily, Dante grabbed onto me before I could reach her.

“Fine, I don’t care. I’ve gotten this far
without a family. I don’t need you or your family, and I don’t need
to be told what to do,” I snapped.

We stumbled through the woods, searching for
the house. I kept my sleeve pressed against my neck. I was starting
to feel a little light-headed. Finally, we found the house, and I
barged right in.