Forgotten (14 page)

“What werewolf attack?” Marcus asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’ll tell you when we get home. This isn’t exactly the time or place,” Emily said quickly.

Marcus looked into the rearview mirror at Emily and shook his head in dismay. With a heavy sigh, he started his car’s engine and pulled out of Sycamore Heights High School student parking lot.

Katrina tossed her book bag and the sweater that she had been wearing on to her window seat, then went over to her dressing table and sat down.

“Every inch of my body aches,” Katrina said to her reflection, rubbing the back of her neck.

“So how does it look?”

Seeing Jessica’s reflection in the mirror, Katrina turned around. “I don’t know about the sweater but everything else looks okay.”

Jessica’s smile slowly disappeared. “I thought you liked this sweater?”

“No, I said I liked the green sweater, not the red one.”

“You sure?” Jessica frowned.

“Quite sure; it was your friend, Madison, who liked the red one.”

Her face puzzled, Jessica tried to recall the day’s events.

“Jess, can you really not remember what happened earlier?” Katrina asked.

Jessica began to smile. “Of course I remember. We met Madison, and she invited us to her party on Saturday to congratulate all the girls who made the cheerleading squad this year.” Jessica took a breath. “But I still I think that I’m right about you saying you liked the red sweater better.”

Katrina rolled her eyes. “If you say so.”

Jessica sat down on Katrina’s bed. “So are you going to Madison’s party?”

“Maybe,” Katrina said, unsure.

“What’s wrong?” Jessica asked.

“Is she the same girl you were telling me about yesterday?”

“Yeah. Why do you ask?”

“No reason.”

“Katrina!”

Katrina sighed. “Didn’t you find anything odd about the way she was acting?”

“Odd? Like what?”

“I don’t know if I should say.”

“Katrina, if there’s something bothering you, just tell me.”

“Don’t you think she has a weird appetite?”

“Can’t say I really noticed.”

“Jess, she had two whole pizzas to herself!”

“Maybe she was hungry.”

Katrina turned back towards her mirror. Ever since she’d had that weird dream about being bitten by a vampire she had felt different but couldn’t place why. She looked at her neck — it looked normal like it had done last night when it had felt tender to the touch — then she placed her fingers on her throat, stroked where it had hurt, and involuntary flinched. Katrina looked up to see if Jessica had noticed her reaction and was relieved to see in the reflection that Jessica had been distracted by Shelby jumping up and trying to lick her face, so turning to face her foster sister, Katrina took a breath, “Jessica, this might seem like an odd question but …” Katrina paused and wet her lips, “do you believe in vampires?”

Jessica looked up, stunned, before starting to laugh. “Katrina, I’m sorry, but that sounded so funny!”

“I’m being serious.”

“Sorry; your question just surprised me.”

“Well. Do you?”

“How can I believe in something that’s not real?”

“I thought you said Logan Vickers is a vampire?”

“No I didn’t,” Jessica said with a grin. “I said that some sophomore girls started that rumor!”

“What if it’s true?”

Jessica burst out in laughter, almost rolling from the bed. “You’ve got to be joking!”

“I’m not. Have you any proof he isn’t one?”

“No. I don’t need any, because vampires don’t exist!”

“How do you know that, though?”

“Because I think I would have noticed people dying all over the place.”

“There’s no need to be sarcastic.”

“I’m not.”

“It doesn’t sound like it.” Katrina smiled.

Jessica grinned back. “When school starts I’ll go up to Logan and ask him.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“Or I could phone him now if you like!”

“No, it’s okay, I’ll take your word for it.” Katrina paused, then changed the subject. “So you got a date with Billy?”

“Yeah, he’s picking me up in half an hour.”

“Well I hope you have a good time.”

“Don’t I always have a good time with Billy?”

“Oh please, I’m going to be sick if you say things like that!”

“My love life isn’t that disgusting! Anyway, on that note, what are you going to be doing tonight? Got a hot date you haven’t told me about? I saw that guy in the mall checking you out.” Jessica asked, giving Katrina a mischievous wink.

Katrina started to laugh. “I wish, but nothing that exciting; I’m just going to catch up on some studying. I have missed so much so I’m glad you were able to lend me some textbooks to help me out. I figure it’s a good idea for me to catch up with the rest of the class, what with school starting soon.”

“Rather you than me,” Jessica said with a laugh. Then, as an afterthought: “I can’t stop thinking about the joke me and Billy pulled on you last night, I’m really sorry we did that to you. Sometimes he can be a real jerk but he’s only ever joking around, he doesn’t mean any harm by it. All the same though, we shouldn’t have done it in the first place and you shouldn’t have heard about it from him anyway. He said you would laugh it off.”

I bet he did
, Katrina thought, annoyed, but said, “It’s okay. Just forget about it.” She glanced at her clock. They had been talking for over twenty minutes. “You don’t want to be late, do you?”

“Jeez, is that the time?” Jessica cried, peering at the clock herself. “Thanks for reminding me! Don’t stay up too late studying!”

After Jessica had left, Katrina moved from her dressing table to her desk, opened a thick textbook and started to read. Needing her notebook that was still in her book bag, she reached over the back of her chair and pulled at one of the straps. It slipped; the book bag fell off the window seat with a loud thud, spilling its contents across the floor.

Grumbling under her breath, Katrina stooped to pick up her things. She hastily crammed most back into the bag and grabbed her notebook, but then noticed something that shouldn’t have been there.

There, amongst her belongings, was a plain red envelope.

“Hmm, I can’t remember anyone giving me this!” Katrina said to herself, picking up the envelope and sitting down at her desk.

Feeling excited and a little apprehensive, Katrina opened it and, taking out a piece of white card, began to read the scrawled writing in deep red ink.

The note read:

Roses are Dead,

Violets are, Too!

Suzanne’s going to die soon,

Then I am coming for you!

Katrina quickly dropped the note on her desk like the paper had just burnt her fingertips and felt bile rise up in her throat, but as hard as Katrina tried she couldn’t take her eyes off the macabre writing.

She stared at the note until finally, exhausted, she fell asleep, her face resting against her open textbook.

The room was dark when Katrina next awoke, and her curtains were still open. She stepped up groggily to close them.

I wonder how long I was asleep for
, Katrina thought, moving back across her bedroom to her bed, forgetting momentarily about the threatening note.

As Katrina passed her telephone on her nightstand, it rang. She jumped.

Katrina picked up the receiver and answered.

“Hello?” Katrina said down the phone, perching herself on the edge of her bed.

Silence.

“Hello?” Katrina repeated.

The deafening silence continued.

“Billy, is that you? I don’t find this very funny,” Katrina said, annoyed.

“Did you get my note?” a hoarse voice finally asked.

“The note was from you?” Katrina whispered, bile rising up in her throat again. Her eyes flew to the note, mocking her through the dark.

“I hear that you’ve been seeing someone to help you remember your life before your
tragic
accident, but if you know what’s good for you then you’ll keep the past where it belongs.”

“Who is this?”

“Let’s just say that I’m an admirer of you and your sister, Suzanne!” the voice said with a chuckle.

Katrina’s hand began to tremble. “You’ve had your fun now, Billy!”

“Billy? Isn’t he the were—” Then the voice broke off, before recovering and continuing, “The boy that left about two hours ago with the pretty blonde that looks remarkably like Suzanne?”

“Who are you?” Katrina screamed into the receiver. “And what do you want with me?”

“I want to see you and your sister dead! You can’t hide forever behind these humans!”

Overcome with fear, Katrina slammed the phone down and began to cry.

“Marcus?” Suzanne asked innocently.

“Yeah?” Marcus looked up from his laptop.

“Have you and Emily spoken yet?”

“What about?” Marcus stopped typing and closed his laptop, focusing all his attention on Suzanne.

“About the werewolf attack.”

“I was wondering when you were going to ask me about that.”

“Why?”

“When Emily spoke to me earlier she implied that something was wrong with you.”

“No, I’m fine.”

“You sure that nothing strange happened?”

“Well … something did happen, but it’s not important,” Suzanne replied dismissively.

“Suzanne?”

Looking away, Suzanne shrugged her shoulders, then sighed. “I couldn’t transform.”

“I would say that’s pretty important.”

“I knew this would happen!” Suzanne threw up her arms in frustration. “I should have never said anything.”

Marcus got up from the desk and crossed the room in several long, easy strides. “What happened this afternoon?”

She sighed and sat down on one of the study couches. “I’m not going to get any peace until I tell you, so here goes.”

Marcus sat down next to her and waited for Suzanne to begin.

Suzanne cleared her throat nervously. “Erm, well, Emily and I were in the girls’ locker room at school getting ready for cheerleader try-outs, and the next thing we knew there was a rogue werewolf standing behind us.”

She was silent, so Marcus urged, “Please, go on.”

“There’s not much more to tell.”

“Suzanne!”

“Fine!” She shot Marcus a nervous smile. “Basically I’m getting changed into my cheerleading uniform, I look up and six feet away from me is the biggest wolf I’ve ever seen.”

“You said she was a rogue?”

Suzanne nodded. “And a mean one at that. Emily thinks that she might come after us.”

“It’s possible. I’ll keep my eyes open and warn Jonathan. Is there anything else?”

“She was a match for me and Emily combined. I don’t think I could have taken her out alone; I’d have tried if I had been able to transform but she was vicious. I’ve seen nothing like it before. When she changed back into a human, I saw her hair; it was blonde, with blue streaks. I didn’t get a good look at her face.”

“Well, it’s a start, and if you or Emily see her again, in either of her guises, you tell me immediately because she sounds dangerous and needs to be controlled.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice. Why don’t you just put her down? That’s what people normally do to rabid dogs. If we hadn’t been at a school we’d have done it ourselves!”

“In theory that’s true, and I do agree with you, but she’s also part human so if there’s any chance that we can save her then we’ve got to try.”

“Marcus, she’s too feral!”

“We’ll see.” He got up off the couch, went over to the desk, picked up his car keys, then headed toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Suzanne asked, standing up.

“I’m going to see if I can see her about anywhere. I’m just going to cruise around. The quicker she gets caught the better.”

“You want me to come with you?”

“No, it’s okay.” Marcus gave a weak smile.

“Marcus?”

“Yes?”

“Is it okay if I go out hunting?”

“Of course.” Marcus paused. “But only if you’re with someone else. I don’t want you to go out alone.”

She nodded.

Marcus reached for the door, but stopped when he heard Suzanne take in a sharp intake of breath. He turned. “What’s wrong?”

“Flopsey!” Suzanne whispered. “I have to get him and bring him inside the house where he’ll be safe.”

Before Marcus could reply, Suzanne had already passed him and was heading toward the kitchen. Marcus watched as she disappeared and heard the back door open. He gave a small shrug and headed for the hallway to leave and begin his search.