Destiny (Vanish Book Four) (3 page)

“What are you talking about?” I demanded.

“Change is coming, embrace it.”

“Hey, what are you doing?” Dante asked from
behind me. He stood there with the car door open, waiting for me to
get in.

“I was talking to—” I turned toward the
woman, but she was gone. All that remained was a vial. It looked
exactly like the ones I took from the woman’s house. It was filled
to the top with a bright pink liquid. I picked it up and put it in
my pocket.

I turned around and got into the car. The
theater was about five miles from home. The entire time, there was
a black SUV behind us. Their windows were tinted so dark, I
couldn’t see inside. Dante didn’t seem to notice them, but I’d been
watching since we left the parking lot.
It could just be a
coincidence
, I told myself, but when they turned into our
neighborhood, I really started to worry. No one here had a car like
that, and I knew that for a fact. When they followed us all the way
to my driveway, I was frozen with fear.

“What’s wrong?” Dante asked.

“Haven’t you noticed? Someone has been
following us.”

He looked behind us, and I could tell by the
look on his face, that he was afraid, too.

“We’re going to hurry up and get inside the
house, okay?”

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“One, two, three, go.”

We both opened our doors and ran to the
house. They didn’t get out of the car; they just sat there. Rose
and Violet were asleep. I thought it would be better not to wake
them unless something was actually going on.

“How didn’t you notice?” I asked Dante.

“I—I don’t know; I was thinking about other
things,” he answered.

“Like what?” I wondered.

“Nothing,” he snapped.

I flinched. Dante never talked to me like
that. Sure, he would get angry at times, just like anyone else, but
Dante never said anything to me with
that
kind of anger.

“Will you stay?” I mumbled, sounding
something like a helpless five-year-old girl. “Please.”

“Of course,” he said in a nicer tone. “I
wouldn’t leave you here right now even if you wanted me to.”

I went back to the door and peeked out. It
didn’t look like they were doing anything. Even though they had
only been out there for a minute, I wondered how long it would be
until they did something. I looked away for a second and when I
looked back, a man and woman were getting out of the car. They came
up to the door and knocked.

We had two options. Ignore it and hope they
went away, or answer the door and hope this didn’t end badly. They
looked innocent enough, but why did they follow us? Dante opened
the door, and I stood behind him.

“Yes?” Dante said as he opened the door.

“You dropped this in the parking lot… at the
movie theater,” the woman said to me as she held up my purse.

I moved in front of Dante and grabbed the
purse.

“Thank you,” I said.

“We’re sorry if we scared you, following you
home and all,” the man said.

“No,” I lied with a smile on my face. “Thanks
again.”

“No problem,” the woman said, and they were
off.

I closed the door and leaned up against it,
letting out a deep sigh. We overreacted; we must have looked
insane.

“Let’s go sit on the beach,” I said as I
opened the door.

“Okay,” he replied.

As we sat there watching the moon’s
reflection on the surface of the lake, I couldn’t help but feel
like something was missing. In all honesty, I hadn’t felt right
since the day we conquered the Alliance. It was almost as if coming
back to life left me empty inside, and I didn’t feel alive at
all.

“What’s wrong?” Dante asked.

“It’s nothing. I was just thinking about….” I
stopped and thought about how to word this. The day we took down
the Alliance was technically the day that Dante and I started
dating. If I said since that day things didn’t feel right, I knew
he would take it personally. “Ever since we died, I’ve felt
strange.”

“I know what you mean. I haven’t slept in
what feels like forever.”

I thought for a moment, I hadn’t been
sleeping lately either. I hadn’t really noticed the strangeness of
it because I was never tired.

“Do you think something went wrong? Maybe we
didn’t do it right, maybe there’s something that you’re supposed to
do when you go back into your body.”

“I don’t know,” he sighed.

“Let’s just forget about it, I’m sure it’s
nothing.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he agreed. “I
was thinking, maybe we could go camping. We can invite everyone to
come along.”

“That sounds great, actually.”

“Alright, we can let everyone know in the
morning. Maybe we could leave tomorrow if that works for
everyone.”

“I don’t know what they have going on, but
maybe.”

“Well I think I might head home, maybe try
and get some sleep.”

“Yeah me, too,” I sighed. I didn’t feel tired
at all.

In the morning, Dante went over to Cooper and
Lily’s. I went over to see Grace, and she went with me over to see
Annabelle. They were both excited to go camping and wanted to leave
right away.

Then, we went over to Jackson and Rachel’s.
They weren’t home and wouldn’t be for at least two days; they were
staying out of town with family. Allison was over at Cooper and
Lily’s, and she was also excited to come along.

We thought about waiting for Jackson and
Rachel, but since we weren’t sure when they would be back, we
decided against it.

Everyone went home to pack up some things.
Cooper and Lily had two tents that they brought along; Annabelle
had a tent too. Dante and I packed some chairs, bug spray and a few
other things. Rose still wasn’t sure if she wanted to come along or
not, so when I was finished packing, I went upstairs to ask her.
She sat there for a few moments, deep in thought. Then, she snapped
out of it and said yes.

Dante drove his car with me, Rose, Annabelle,
and Grace. Cooper took his car, Allison and Lily rode with him.
Cooper led the way, he said there was an amazing spot in the woods,
and it wasn’t too far from Sunny Bay.

It took us about an hour to drive there, and
another half hour to walk to the spot, but once we reached it, it
was more than worth it. Wild flowers grew throughout the grass, and
the sun shined through a break in the trees. About one hundred feet
from where we set up camp, there was a waterfall over a beautiful,
crystal clear lake.

It was so peaceful, even if there would have
been noise, the waterfall blocked it out. It was pretty obvious
that we were the only ones around. Surely, if someone else was,
they would have heard the waterfall and came to witness its
beauty.

We set up all three tents; Lily, Annabelle,
Rose and Grace offered to take a tent together. That left one for
Allison and Cooper and one for Dante and I. Annabelle’s tent was
much bigger than the two Lily and Cooper brought, so the girls took
that one.

Everyone took turns using the tents to change
into bathing suits. By the time we were all ready, the lake was in
the shade, and the sun burst through the trees just inches away
from the shore.

As we headed for the water, an uneasy feeling
came over me. A vision took over, and I could no longer see what
was happening in front of me. Only what was happening in my
mind.

It wasn’t a vision really, more of a
flashback. I was underwater, and my lungs were fighting for air. I
began to feel weak; I could feel the life rushing out of me.

Then, it fast forwarded to me being alive
again. Instead of being relieved and happy that we were winning the
fight against the Alliance, I still felt only weakness. I wondered
if I didn’t notice it before because of the rush from defeating the
Alliance.

Then in slow motion, knife in hand, I stabbed
Nurse Debby. Slowly, I started feeling stronger, and soon I was
back to feeling normal. It didn’t last though, because not too long
after that, I felt better than I ever had before.

When I could see what was going on around me
again, I was on the ground. Dante was next to me with his hand on
my forehead.

“Are you alright? You just fell, and you
weren’t responding.”

“No, I’m fine,” I answered, but honestly, the
same weak feeling I had in the flashback, was all that I felt right
now.

He went to help me up, but instead of pulling
me up onto my feet in one quick motion, he struggled. He looked
embarrassed. I shifted my feet so they were flat on the ground and
the next time he tried I pushed up off of my feet.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with
me,” he explained.

“It’s fine,” I smiled.

Everyone else went swimming, after the
flashback I couldn’t. Dante and I changed back into our clothes,
and then decided to walk around. This place was beautiful. We hiked
up to the top of the waterfall. Then, we walked around until we ran
into the first people we’d seen since we arrived. They looked about
our age, another observation I made: they looked like trouble.
Their muscles bulged out from their too-small shirts, and it looked
like one of them had a gun stuffed into their pants.

They hadn’t noticed us yet. I told Dante that
we should go, but before we did, their eyes were on us.

“Hey, what are you doing over there?” One of
them laughed in a condescending voice.

We didn’t answer. We started walking away
before things could get ugly. I heard one of them whisper
something, and then they moved closer to us. One of them got in our
way and stood in front of us, waiting for us to say something.

“Where do you think you’re going?” One of
them slurred, in the most serious voice he could muster.

“We’re just going back to our friends,” Dante
said, his voice was calm.

“No, you’re not,” the man said before he
grabbed Dante. Instantly, the gun was pointed to his head.

I couldn’t believe this; this couldn’t be
happening. It was bad enough when we knew the Alliance was after
us, but to stumble upon two drunken idiots with a gun—this was bad.
The only thing I could process, the only thought in my mind, was
that if Dante was shot, that would be the end, he couldn’t come
back.

My eyes searched the forest floor for
something, anything I could use to save him. I tried not to be
suspicious, but I needed to act fast. Conveniently, the tree to my
left had a broken whisky bottle lying next to it. Now, I just
needed to figure out how to get to it, and get back over there
faster than the man could fire the gun. It was hopeless. Then I
realized; the Alliance was gone. I could use my powers in front of
whoever I pleased. I could imagine whatever weapon I needed, but
with the situation in front of me, I figured a knife would be best.
I’d never fired a gun, and Dante was way too close to the man.

I put my hand behind my back and imagined a
knife. I refocused my attention back to them; they had been arguing
without me even noticing. The man holding the gun was getting
angry, apparently Dante insulted him. What did he think would come
of insulting the man holding a gun to his head? Then I realized; he
was probably trying to distract them. I lunged forward and stabbed
the man in the chest. Dante grabbed the gun before the other man
could. I paid no attention to them, only the man lying on the
ground covered in blood. The weaker he got, the stronger I
felt.

Before I could comprehend what was going on,
Dante shot the other man, who was running at me. Dante closed his
eyes, and I knew he was feeling what I felt only moments ago.
That’s when I realized—we were monsters, and as long as we wanted
to live, we would be. This was what we needed to do to survive. I
didn’t understand it, but I knew that I would never be the same
again.

“Do you realize what’s going on here?” I
asked. My expression was blank, and my voice didn’t give away what
I was feeling.

“You feel stronger too?” he assumed.

“We need to find out more about this. We need
to know if this is the only way.”

“Those guys were creeps, Scarlett. They would
have killed us, and we’ve made it this long, maybe it’s not
something we’ll have to do that often.”

“If it’s something we’ll ever have to do
again, then we need to know if we have other options.”

“You’re right,” he agreed, “but I wouldn’t
let this bring you down—they wanted to kill us. It wasn’t even like
before, the Alliance had a reason. I’m not saying that makes what
they did right, but something tells me, we weren’t the first people
that ran into those guys.”

“You always know how to make me feel better,”
I sighed.

“Come on let’s get back before they come
looking for us.”

We went back to camp. Everyone was still
swimming around without a care in the world. I wondered if I could
ever be that way, I wondered how all of this would play out.

Day after day, it became clearer that I was
different. I wasn’t the same person I once was, and I would never
be the same again. Did that mean that I would never find happiness?
No, I had all that I needed here with me right now. His arms were
wrapped around me as he stood behind me, watching the others. I
just needed to figure out who I was—or what I needed to learn to
accept it.

We grabbed a blanket from the tent when we
were sure they weren’t planning on getting out anytime soon. We lay
down and faced each other. He looked better than he had in days,
his skin was a little brighter; his eyes had a spark in them, and
he no longer looked the least bit tired. I assumed the same applied
to me, and I knew exactly why—killing was the only way we could
stay strong.

It seemed as though a soul taking over
another body was specific to the Alliance—specific to evil. They
had no problem killing to keep their strength. In fact, I was
almost certain that it was a welcome excuse.