Betrayal (Vanish Book Two) (9 page)

I needed to get past all of my other
problems. They seemed to be building up so fast, I couldn’t get
past the first one before a new one came along. What should I deal
with first? Grace? The woman I used to know as my mother? And
speaking of mothers, should I find my real mom? Would I put her in
danger or be just as disappointed in her as Ann? Then, there was
the Alliance; I wouldn’t even try to kid myself into thinking I
could deal with that one. I wanted just a shred of normality in my
life, but would that ever be possible and what would that tiny
little piece be? Everything I knew about normal seemed to have
disappeared in the past week or two.

We laid in bed holding on to each other
tight. Even though we were both aware of what was going on around
us, when it was just us, it didn’t seem to matter. That was all I
wanted in the first place, to be able to escape. Nothing would
compare to being able to completely escape, but we had this, and as
long as I didn’t ruin it, it wasn’t going anywhere.

“Earlier when you said you loved me…” Dante
began. “Did you really mean it or was it only because of—”

“I meant it. I wouldn’t have said it if I
didn’t mean it,” I assured him.

“I want to take you on a date, well as close
to a date as you can get out here in the woods.”

He was so awkward; it made me smile, but I
had to wonder, would there be time for us to go on a date? There
were so many things we needed to figure out, so many things we
needed to handle, and I didn’t know where to start.

“When?” I asked.

“Tomorrow around noon?”

“Okay,” I agreed.

It wasn’t hard to fall asleep, even though I
still had countless problems. Some I was fortunate enough to have
solved, but that just led to new problems. My dream was almost
nice, but it still haunted me.

I stood on a street with a few houses,
besides that I saw nothing. It was daytime, but the dark-gray sky
almost made it look like night. There was a white house with a
white picket fence, without a second thought, I headed toward it.
The fence squeaked as I opened it and the front door opened.
Standing in the doorway, was a woman, but I couldn’t see her face.
At first, I was afraid, but I didn’t know why. Everything seemed to
double in size. Then the sky turned blue, and calmness swept over
me.

“Come inside honey, you’re going to get a
sunburn.” She walked away from the door.

As I got closer, I saw my reflection in the
glass. I couldn’t have been any older than three. I climbed up the
steps just as a three-year-old would. I reached for the door knob,
struggling, just as a three-year-old would, but I still had every
lesson, every memory that my eighteen-year-old self had. The woman
came to open the door for me, but her face was blurred.

“Mom?” I didn’t say that, well I did, but I
didn’t mean to. Was this my mother? What did it matter? I couldn’t
see her face anyway; I had no idea who she was. Before I could try
to speak another word, or go out and see the address, I was
awake.

“Good morning,” Dante smiled as he rolled
over.

“Good morning,” I moved closer and kissed
him. I decided—either while I was sleeping or right after I woke
up—that I didn’t need to find my mother, not right now anyway. It
was just another problem, the difference? It wasn’t crucial. I’d
lived almost my whole life without a real mom. While I needed to
know who she was at least, it wasn’t something I needed to know
today, or this week, or even this year. It could wait.

Dante turned over and looked at the clock; it
was nine. My dreams seemed to be lasting all night and yet, there
wasn’t a whole lot to them. This left me wondering how much I
missed; how many clues could have been unnoticed.

“Well I’ve got to go set up,” Dante said as
he got out of bed.

“Set up for what?” I wondered.

“Our date,” he smiled.

“Oh, um, okay.” I didn’t understand what he
would have to set up, but I let him go without any questions.

After he went out the front door and headed
into the woods, I went over to see Elizabeth. I knocked on the
door.

“Oh hey, what’s up Scarlett?” Elizabeth said
as she opened the door.

“I just needed someone to talk to… about my
mom.” She fidgeted and looked away.

“What do you want to ask me?” she asked,
confused.

“I just don’t understand, how I came to live
with Ann. I had a dream last night, I was three—”

“I’m sorry honey, but I don’t know anything
about this. I don’t see how I could be of any help.”

“Yeah, you’re right. So what about the
necklace that Ann had, would that really allow her to come here? I
thought we were safe here?”

“If the necklace fell off, she would be
burned, but the necklace will keep her safe as long as she has it
on.”

“What about us? What’s going to keep us
safe?” I cried.

“I don’t know.”

“Maybe I should leave; you will all be safer.
I’ve put you all in danger.”

“No, we’ve been through things like this
before, not quite to this magnitude, but we can get through this.”
She seemed like she actually believed it, I, however, wasn’t so
sure.

“These are my problems; I shouldn’t be
dragging you into them.”

“You’re like family now, and we’re the only
family you’ve got.” My face fell. “I’m sorry…”

“No, it’s okay. I need to go,” I mumbled as I
headed toward the door.

I went back home. I needed to get ready.
First, I took a shower. Then, I tried to find something to wear. It
was way too cold for a dress. Dante wouldn’t care what I was
wearing. So I put on some jeans, a silky blue shirt with a blue
sweater and a matching scarf. I went back into the bathroom.
Annabelle left me the red lipstick she put on me the night of the
party. She said I pulled it off way better than she ever could,
which I doubted. It was technically our first date, so I wanted to
look nice.

When I came out of the bathroom, there was a
note on the bed.

Scarlett,

Follow the roses at 11:30. I’ll see you
soon.

Love, Dante.

I looked at the clock; it was eleven
twenty-five. I took a deep breath and sat on the bed, each minute
passed by slower than the last. Finally, I got up and headed out
the door. There were roses spaced far apart leading into the woods,
but on the porch, I noticed another note.

Scarlett,

You can either go meet your boyfriend, or
meet your mother. If you want to meet your mother, go in the
opposite direction. This may be your last chance to do either,
choose wisely.

An old friend

I looked both ways, go right and go to Dante.
Go left and possibly meet my mother. It felt like a trick, but
something pulled me left; I couldn’t help it. Before long, I was
too far to turn back. There was another note.

Keep going straight, you’ll be there in no
time.

Half an hour had passed and there was still
nothing in sight. Nothing but glowing trees, trees that used to
make me feel safer, but now I felt nothing. I heard a twig snap,
and I ran as fast as I could straight ahead. After a few moments, I
realized the trees weren’t glowing anymore. Now I was afraid. I’d
made a mistake; I knew it from the beginning, but something inside
made me do this. I kept walking straight; there was still a chance
what the note said was true.

Ten minutes later, I saw a log cabin in the
distance. Another twig snapped behind me, I turned to see what it
was, but nothing was there. When I turned back around, I had an
eerie sense of déjà vu.

The three quiet girls standing in front of me
didn’t frighten me, but I knew they should. The evil in their eyes…
their eyes
…. I remembered them from the one dream I thought
could have been fiction. I’d never seen anyone with the same red
hair that I had, or my vivid green eyes.

“Did you write me that note?” I asked.

“What note?” one of them asked. Their tone
was harsh.

“A note saying if I came this way I would
meet my mother.”

“No,” their eyes darted behind me.

“You should leave,” one snapped. “Nobody
wants you here.”

Strange, it was the same three girls from my
dream, but everything was so different.

“I’m sorry. I’ll go,” I muttered.

“So your Scarlett, right?” they sneered.

“Uh yeah, who are you?” I asked.

“None of your damn business,” one of the
girls yelled.

“Do you live over there?” I wondered.

“I don’t think that’s any of your business
either.”

I turned around to leave, and I saw a blur;
someone or something ran between two trees.

“Did you see that?” I turned around and
asked.

“See what?” the girl on the left finally
spoke. She had a sweet voice; I didn’t feel the anger I felt from
the other two coming from her.

“There was something over there.”

I noticed she looked a little older; maybe it
was just her maturity. I didn’t know. Unlike the other girls who
had longer hair, though not as long as mine, hers was about
shoulder length and just as curly as mine. I couldn’t imagine
having my hair that short, but it suited her.

“You’re not welcome here,” the girl in the
middle snapped.

“What did I do to you?” I asked, a little
hurt. I hadn’t done anything and to be honest I was a little afraid
for the long walk home with whatever was wandering around out
there.

“You were supposed to be dead, but here you
are,” the nice girl marveled. The other two shot her a threatening
glare.

“Okay. Who are you and how do you know me?
Are you part of the Alliance, is that why you want me dead?”

“We never said we wanted you dead…you’re our
sister,” the one on the left said, the other two looked at her
again. She winced.

“What?” I whispered, feeling the tears well
up in my eyes.

I pressed my lips together tightly and looked
away. I had always wanted a sister, someone to go through
everything with me, someone I could tell anything to. I never
dreamed of actually getting one. The woman I thought was my mother
never wanted me, let alone another child.

“Are you okay?” The nice sister asked.

“What?” I snapped out of it. “Yeah, I’m fine.
I’m going to leave.”

“Good,” the other two huffed and turned
around.

I turned back to walk home.

“Wait,” the nice sister said. “I’m Rose.”

“So, the note was right? My mother is… here?”
I had to ask.

“Yes, but—”

“So why do they hate me?” I interrupted.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be
here, but that doesn’t mean I hate you, I couldn’t really tell you
whether they do or not.”

“Why? Why isn’t it a good idea for me to be
here, I mean?”

“I’m sorry. I wish things were different, but
they’re right; you should go,” Rose whispered.

“I guess it’s better to have no family than
to have one that would rather not have me around again. I just wish
I didn’t miss my date with Dante for this.”

I went invisible and ran into the woods, at
least this way I was somewhat safe. I felt awful about ditching
Dante. I felt numb about finding my family. There was no hope left
in that, I wouldn’t have a family, and that was that. Part of me
wanted to go see my mother anyway, but if it hurt that bad to be
unwanted by the sisters I never knew I had, how bad would it hurt
to be unwanted by my mother? My
real
mother.

I ran the whole way home, but even so, it
seemed to take at least twice as long. As soon as I could see the
house, I went visible, I could feel someone’s eyes on me. I
shrugged it off and ran to the house. Lily was outside gathering
firewood.

“Hey, what time is it?” I asked.

“Uh,” she said as she rolled up her sleeve to
look at her watch. “It’s eleven thirty.”

“What?”

It felt like the world was spinning around
me. I thought I was going to be sick; I had to sit down. Was it
even the same day? Had I lost track of time so much that I had been
gone a whole day? No way, it never got dark.

“What’s wrong? Dante’s waiting for you, you
know.” She looked concerned.

“I just went into the woods. I walked so far
the trees stopped glowing. I had to of been gone at least an hour,”
I said so fast it made me dizzy.

“To get out of our woods, you would have been
walking for at least an hour,” she explained.

“Maybe it was a dream,” I shrugged it off,
got up and followed the roses.

I knew it wasn’t a dream; I had just walked
back from meeting my sisters. It was real. It just had to be, but I
decided to forget it for now. I didn’t know what to expect when I
found Dante, but he had to of worked hard on this; I wouldn’t ruin
it for him. I picked up each rose as I walked, when they came to an
end. Until here, there was a path between the trees, but when I
picked up the last rose, all that was in front of me was a line of
trees and bushes that I couldn’t even see through. I pushed aside
the branches and squeezed through. There was a circle of perfectly
green grass surrounded by a wall of trees. The sun shined down from
the sky without interruption from the trees. There was a blanket in
the middle with a basket sitting on it.

“Dante?” I called. This was perfect. It would
have been much more beautiful if it was summer, but right now I
couldn’t imagine it being any more beautiful than it was.

“Hey,” he said as he ducked under a tree
branch.

“This is amazing.”

“I’m glad you like it.” He sat down on the
blanket and pat next to him. “Sit.”

I was about to say something until I noticed
a red stain on the blanket, which wouldn’t have startled me as much
if I hadn’t seen the stain on his shirt.

“Um, is that blood?” I said with as much
calmness as I could.