Destiny (Vanish Book Four) (12 page)

“You tricked me,” I snapped, wriggling to get
free.

“Well, Dante refused to lead you here
himself. Guess how I got him here?” he laughed playfully. “Go on
guess.”

“You did the same thing to him,” I mumbled,
not amused.

“Wrong!” he shouted. “Sienna?”

She walked up dressed in something I would
wear, with just a touch of makeup. She had a sweet smile on her
face one second and the next, the most evil smirk I could
imagine.

“Oh, and that’s not all!” she said excitedly.
“Your mommy and sister are here as well.”

“What?” I almost screamed. “What do you want
with us?”

“I have to thank you for that little stunt
you pulled. When you went back in time you changed everything for
me for the better,” my dad said, ignoring my question. “Now, at
first I was upset. I’d lost the only piece of the puzzle I’d come
anywhere near claiming, but when I woke up here and Sienna and
Hazel were with me, oh you wouldn’t believe how happy I was.”

“What are you talking about?” I demanded.

“Dear, you didn’t take down the Alliance.
You’re looking at the Alliance.”

“What?” I choked. My hands started shaking,
and I felt like I was going to puke. This explained the tunnel
leading from the Alliance neighborhood to his house.

“Yeah,” he laughed. “You four are all I need.
Of course, others will want to join in, but this time, I won’t make
the same mistakes.”

A quick vision of the woman from the theater
parking lot, flashed through my mind. ‘It’s your responsibility to
take the next steps on this. You’re going to have to cut people
from your life, and let new people in. Someone was hiding behind
the Alliance, ruling from afar, they still had to follow the rules
though, and now all bets are off,’ the woman had said.

“I will never help you,” I cried.

“Of course you will; we’re not too different
from you Scarlett. We’ve been watching you, on and off, but some of
the things we’ve caught you doing—you made me proud.”

“Almost everyone I’ve ever killed, was part
of the Alliance.”

“It doesn’t matter, join us. You’ll never be
able to free all three of them. You join us, and I’ll let them
go.”

I turned my head, pretending to look at my
dad. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Skylar walking along
the property. He was heading to exactly where I would‘ve headed if
I could—the shed. He was going to find everyone, and they would
come and help me; I knew they would.

“Okay,” I said. He took his arm from around
my neck, put it around my shoulder, and we walked into the
house.

“There is not nearly enough room here for the
five of us, as I’m sure you realized, Rose will need to stay with
us, too. Your mother and Dante will be set free though.”

“Yeah, okay,” I mumbled.

“Well, girls,” he said as he turned toward
Sienna and Hazel. “Have you packed all of your things?”

“Yes, sir,” they said together.

“Alright, grab the most important box first
and let’s get going, we can move the rest of this tomorrow.”

They did as he said, and he went to go fetch
a box or two of his own. I walked around the house looking out
windows, making sure the coast was clear. I didn’t see Skylar
anywhere, which was comforting and concerning all at the same time.
If I didn’t see him, they wouldn’t see him, and he wouldn’t be
captured. But if I didn’t see him... then where was he? The shed
door was closed, and latched from the outside.

We began our journey on foot. I wasn’t quite
sure what to expect. Obviously, it was another house in the woods,
but what weird things would be hidden here?

The entire time we walked, I was in the
middle. I felt like their hostage, their prisoner. I only hoped it
would be as easy to escape as it was to get tangled up in this
mess.

I kept looking behind us, looking for any
sign that Skylar might have been following, but I didn’t see
anything.

When we made it to the house, he had to type
a password into the pad on the tall iron gate. I kept my distance,
but I still tried to see the code. The first number was ten, the
next twenty-eight, then ninety-three—mine and Rose’s birthday.

We walked through the gate and up a fairly
large amount of stairs. We made it up to the house. He unlocked the
door, and we went inside. He walked with me upstairs, there was a
door with my name on it. I looked down the hall, there was a door
that said Sienna, one that said Hazel, and one that said Rose.

He opened the door. The room was
fully-furnished. He walked in and sat down on the bed.

“Well, this is it, your new room. I’m so glad
you’ve decided to join us.”

“Yeah, me, too,” I lied.

“You’ve come at just the right time, too.
We’re getting ready for something—big. I’ll tell you the details
some other time, you get settled in. Dinner will be ready
soon.”

He got up and walked out the door, shutting
it behind him. I went to look out the window, but I couldn’t see
much from here.

I sat on the bed for a while, deciding what
to do later. I would try and look around the house, if I saw a shed
outside, I would definitely go check there. I couldn’t know for
sure that they had taken anyone here, but I knew that if they were
at the other house, Skylar would find a way to help them.

“Dinner’s ready,” Sienna called upstairs.

I didn’t want to go, but I knew I had to. I
had to act like I wanted to be here, at all times, no matter what.
I sat down at the table; my
dad
sat next to me, and Sienna
and Hazel were across the table glaring at me.

“So, Scarlett, do you like it here so far?”
he asked.

“Yes,” I answered.

“Maybe it would be nice for you three to get
to know each other after dinner.”

“Okay,” I said.

I wasn’t happy about it, but I couldn’t let
that show. Besides, if these two wanted to try anything, siblings
fought all the time, right?

“Yes, sir,” they mumbled together.

It was getting late, and still I had seen no
sign of Skylar. Sienna and Hazel sat across from me in the living
room, just staring. A board game was set on the table between us,
but nobody even acknowledged that it was there. Finally, one of
them broke their silence, but I almost wished they hadn’t.

“So, your boyfriend is a really good kisser.
I found that out earlier when I tricked him,” Sienna said.

“Where exactly did you trick him into going?”
I asked.

Her eyes went to the window for a moment, and
then she looked back at me.

“Like I would tell you that, but the really
weird part was where I found him. He was in these woods, not too
far from the other house.”

“The agreement was, that if I joined you, he
would be set free. So, why does it really matter if you tell me?” I
asked, ignoring her previous statement. Though I did wonder what
Dante was doing out here. He pretty much set himself up for
this.

“He’s not ready to be freed yet,” Hazel
blurted. Sienna punched her in the arm. “Ouch. What the hell,
Sienna.”

“Shut your mouth you idiot,” Sienna
snapped.

“Well this was fun…” I mumbled. “I’m going to
head upstairs.”

“No you’re not, he’ll get mad. He told us to
get to know each other.”

“Well, then what the hell do you want to
know?”

“Why you’re so much more important than us.
We remember before, too. We knew you for all of one day, but you
were all Violet ever thought of. Now, here, we’ve known you one
day, and you are all dad ever wants to talk about. Scarlett this,
Scarlett that. I’m sick of it!” Sienna screamed.

“What’s going on in here, Sienna?” Dad
grumbled.

“We were just talking…” she muttered with her
head down.

“Do you want to know why your sister is the
most special? She was the first born, and then Rose, then you, and
then Hazel. I’m the first born in my family as well. You’re just
slightly stronger, more powerful when you’re the first born, but
the family you were born into, is what really matters.”

“Thanks dad,” she smiled, but still didn’t
look toward him.

“Alright, I’ll see you guys in the morning,”
he smiled and then walked away.

He was good at pretending to be a nice man. I
only wondered if it was an act for me, and how long it would last,
or more importantly—how long would it have to?

Sienna and Hazel both got up and walked away,
glaring at me until I was out of sight. I waited until they were up
the stairs. Then, I ran over to the window Sienna had looked out
when I asked her about where Dante was. I looked outside. A light
off the side of the house, gave off just enough light to see a
small shed about fifteen feet from the house. I would need to get
out there and get to it, without anyone knowing.

I turned invisible and concentrated. Then, I
started walking toward the wall. I made it through, but once I was
on the other side, I felt like I had been hit by a train. I sat
down for a minute, trying to recuperate. That’s when I noticed
Skylar on the other side of the fence, walking around, looking for
a way in.

I walked over to the fence, still invisible.
When I got there, I looked up to the windows to make sure no one
was looking, and became visible.

“You scared me,” he said. “Are you
alright?”

“Yeah, here take my hand,” I whispered, as I
squeezed it through a gap in the gate. I went invisible, and so did
he. “Alright, walk through.”

He tried, but I saw his outline hit the fence
and fall back. He got up and walked back up to the fence.

“I can’t do it,” he sighed.

“You have to want to, Skylar, focus.”

He backed up and walked toward the fence
again. It took him a while, he stopped for a minute when he was
half through, but finally, he was inside.

“Where to?” he asked.

“Inside the shed over there, I have a feeling
it’s probably the same as the other one.”

When we got to the shed, it was locked, but
that wasn’t a problem—we could just walk right through. Once we
did, I grabbed his hand and we both became visible. There was a
small door in the floor just like the other shed had.

We opened it and headed down. When we got to
the bottom of the stairs, we must have hit a sensor. Starting at
the far side of the room, the lights started switching on. It was
exactly like the other; it looked like a really nice living room.
The only difference: instead of a giant bookshelf, there was only a
regular wall. I knew what we were looking for, would be on the
other side of the wall. I went over and looked for a button, but I
didn’t see one. Then, I noticed a small piece of the wall that
stuck out, just a tiny bit. I touched it, and it moved a little. I
tried to move it again; it slid over, and there was the button.

I pushed the button, and the wall moved
aside. Again, the lights turned on, starting from the back. The
first light looked so far away. I found myself wondering how big
this room really was. Then, as more lights came on, I was worried
about something else entirely.

There were hundreds of huge glass tubes
filled with blue liquid. I walked in between them, looking around,
and I found Violet. She was connected to one of the tubes with an
IV.

“Skylar, come here,” I called, and he ran
right over. “What is this?”

“This isn’t good,” he said. “You know how I
used the knife to get to my powers? Well, essentially, that is what
your dad has going on here. The only difference is the knife didn’t
take all of my powers. We need to get the IV out of her, or she’s
going to die.”

“Okay, you do it; I need to find Rose and
Dante.”

I walked around, and connected to another
machine, was Rose. I took the tape off her arm and pulled the
needle out.

“Scarlett?”

“Yes, Rose, it’s me,” I said. “Are you
alright?”

“I—I don’t know.”

“Okay, I need to find Dante right now. I’ll
be right back.”

I ran around searching for him. He wasn’t
connected to one of the tubes when I found him, but he looked in
worse shape than Violet and Rose combined. He was half conscious
and covered in bruises, and he looked so frail and weak.

“Dante?” I whispered, running my hands over
his face, trying to wake him.

“Scarlett?” he croaked.

“Yes, it’s me. I’m here,” I assured him. “I
need to go get Skylar. I’ll be right back.”

I ran back over to where Violet was, Skylar
was standing there dumfounded.

“I don’t think she lost too much, but we’ll
need to try and get it back.”

“Rose and Dante aren’t in good shape,
Skylar.”

“Okay, you stay here. I’ll see if I can
figure anything out over there.”

I grabbed the IV that was in Violet’s arm; I
followed it back to the glass tube, and there was a switch. I
flipped it, and some of the liquid came spewing out. I flipped it
back and put the needle into her arm. Then, I flipped it again;
Violet closed her eyes and laid there.

“Violet, you yell for me if you start feeling
weaker or anything, okay?”

“Yeah,” she whispered.

I ran back over to Rose and did the same, and
then, I ran over to Dante. He still looked the same, if not worse.
I needed to find out which of these machines he was connected to,
if any.

“Dante?” he looked up at me. “Were you
connected to any of these machines?” He nodded as much as he could.
“Which one, can you tell me?” he pointed to the one right next to
us.

I grabbed the IV to see if it would reach
him, it did. I put it back in and turned the switch. Now we just
had to wait. The glass tubes were emptying quickly, but I feared it
wouldn’t be quick enough. If anyone realized I wasn’t in there,
they would come looking for me.

Once all of their tubes were empty, Rose and
Violet were back to their old selves, but Dante was still sore and
covered in bruises. We ran back up the stairs. That was when I
realized—everyone but Dante, Skylar and I were locked in; they
couldn’t walk through walls.