Once Again (27 page)

I didn’t wait for her to respond before I
flipped my phone shut.

I turned around, prepared to sprint back up
the beach to my car, and nearly plowed him over.

“Corey.”

Dear
Lord. It was Corey.

“I figured you’d heard about Lucas by now,”
he said, his eyes so empty I barely recognized him.

I nodded, thinking that the best chance I had
to get out of here was to pretend I had no idea he was behind
it.

“Jessie just called,” I said, forcing a
smile. “It was nice of you to come find me, though. I should hurry
and get back to town.”

I started to step away, but he stepped, too,
and blocked my way. My head still reeled from the knowledge that
Corey was behind all of this. Luke’s best friend had been the one
to betray him and set him up.

Fate, destiny, or whatever you want to call
her, it was a cruel, nasty bitch.

“I don’t think you’re going to be able to
help him.” He touched my face and bile rose up and burned my
throat.

“Maybe not,” I shrugged. “But I could at
least be there.”

He narrowed his eyes. And the words started
falling, swirling in my mind, senseless and random.

Focus, I ordered myself. If this didn’t end
today, the next attack would be on Lucas. I could not let that
happen.

I had to let his thoughts in, had to see what
was going on in his mind. Maybe, just maybe, it would give me an
advantage.

Always, always trying to protect him.

Once I let them start, the words came,
unfiltered

Never once looking anywhere but him. You’ll
look at me, though. It won’t be long now, my love. You belong to
me. No matter what I have to do. I won’t lose, not this time. Even
if I have to kill him.

His face hardened, and Corey seemed a million
miles away. As if his body was now occupied by Carter Johnston.

Could it be? Was Corey Jacobs really locked
away somewhere inside. Had Carter taken him over completely?

And did it even matter?

I decided to take a chance.

“Carter?”

His eyes darted toward me, fixing on my face.
“Lillian.”

Fear coursed through me with a force that
matched the waves crashing on the shore, and I trembled violently
inside. I said nothing as he stepped toward me.

“I knew you would see the truth,” he said.
His voice no longer resembled Corey’s. “After all these years, you
see it. I am the one for you.”

I shook my head. “Carter, you know this
doesn’t end well. It never will.”

His thoughts jumbled, melded into a confusing
mix of past and present, as he fought the memories that would prove
I was telling the truth. He shook his head, forcing his mind back
to the delusion that he’d lived in so long. The delusion that
allowed him to believe the two of us belonged together.

“As soon as he’s gone, everything will be
fine. We’ll be happy.” He grabbed my hand, hard enough to be
uncomfortable, and pulled me along the shore, away from the
outcropping.

The wind off the ocean lifted my hair off my
neck, blowing it wildly around my face, bits of the cold slipping
between my sweater and the skin on my neck.

All around me, inside me, chaos swirled, from
the wind, to the fear, and to Carter’s delusions.

I must get her away from here, far enough
away that she forgets.

As his thoughts scrolled across my
consciousness, I sensed his confusion, his frustration. Lillian
hadn’t fought him before. With Leo already dead, she’d had no fight
left. But now, having known the truth about the past, my resistance
threw a wrench in his plans.

I pulled against his hold, digging my feet in
the wet sand, making him turn to face me. “Carter, Lillian didn’t
go with you because she wanted to. You killed her will to live when
you killed Leo. And later, she ran away from you because she hated
you and everything you’d done.”

“No! No!” His grip on my arm tightened,
enough that I knew there would be a bruise, and the confusion in
his eyes morphed into anger.

The surf pounded harder as the wind whipped
with more force. I had to shout to be heard above it. “Lillian
didn’t love you, and neither do I!”

For a moment, I thought he would hit me. His
face iced with a fury far colder than the November air.

The sadness that came next scared me even
more.

Then it must be death.

He changed directions, and instead of pulling
me along beside the water, he waded in, forcing me to trail behind
him.

The frigid water soaked through my socks and
the bottom of my jeans. Fear masked what was surely an almost
burning cold against my feet.

I realized then that he meant to kill us
both. That if I couldn’t love him, he wouldn’t allow me to love
Lucas. Hot anger surged through me, canceling the cold that
would’ve otherwise taken my breath. And I let the anger explode,
unleashing it at him.

“Stop it Corey! Or Carter, or whoever the
hell you are!” Screaming, I jerked my arm out of his grasp. Rage
burned inside me. Never had I felt such loathing. “You killed Leo
and it accomplished nothing! Lillian didn’t love you. She
never
would’ve loved you. You might as well have killed her
with your own hands.”

He lunged for me again and I jumped to the
side, stumbling in the surf but successfully dodging him. His
thoughts streamed in so fast I couldn’t comprehend them, nor did I
want to. I knew he was incensed by the look on his face and I did
not care. If he thought he was pissed off now, he hadn’t seen
anything yet.

“You may think you own me,” I yelled. “You
may think you own this place. You may think you’re entitled to have
whatever you want. Bullshit! This is my life, Carter Johnston or
Corey Jacobs or whatever name you want to go by. This place, this
time, it’s mine and Luke’s. This time you don’t get to win, because
we won’t let you!”

His eyes darted back and forth, the
expression shifting from hatred to sadness with each movement. I
was no psychiatrist, but I could tell that Corey and Carter were
battling for control.

Then he was still. His eyes lifted to mine,
empty and malicious, and I knew that Corey had lost.

And then, in a last ditch effort, I repeated
the words Lillian had spoken. “Think you your acts will bring you
joy. But hate and malice you employ. For the things you want you’ll
always yearn. Until the day you finally learn.”

His eyes lit with flames of hatred.

“You belong to me,” he uttered, in a voice
that was not Corey’s.

CHAPTER 43

Pain sliced through my skull as he grabbed me
by the hair, wrenching my head against his chest until his arm came
around me in a headlock. I struggled, flailing wildly while he
pulled me further into the water. The freezing water crept up to my
chest, my clothes pulled against me like quicksand.

Something caught my eye. A blur, as if
something was moving far up the beach toward the parking area. If
someone was there, all I needed was a distraction, a split second
to get out of his hold and run screaming toward the movement.

With strength I did not think I possessed, I
jabbed my elbow hard into his ribs. When he jerked from the impact,
I swung upward, my fist connecting with what I hoped was his
nose.

Take that you sorry piece of shit.

Stunned, his grip around my neck loosened and
I sprung away from him, just in time see him knocked back toward
the sand by Lucas, moving faster than any human should be able
to.

Then it clicked. The blur I’d seen. Luke’s
gifting.

Corey stood up, dripping wet from having
landed in the shallow water, only to be launched into the air again
when Luke’s fist slammed into his chin.

“Layla!” Luke shouted, running back toward
me.

He threw his arms around me, hugging me tight
and lifting me out of the water at the same time.

Back on the sand, I saw a bewildered Corey
lying on the ground, not offering to fight back or run away. Did he
really have no idea what had just happened?

Luke sat me back on my feet, but didn’t let
go. His eyes searched my face, frantic, as his arms tightened
around me again.

I answered his unspoken question. “I’m not
hurt.”

He nodded, pulling me flush against him and
pressing his lips against my forehead.

Police sirens sounded in the distance.

“Kara?” I asked. “Is she hurt badly?”

“One of the cops that was questioning me got
a call from the hospital that she was awake and talking.”

The sirens got closer.

“Are the police looking for you?”

He shrugged. “Not sure. Don’t really
care.”

Corey moaned and sat up. “What the - ”

“Shut up and don’t move,” Luke snapped.

“What happened, Luke?” I asked.

“All of us took off running,” he said. “The
track that winds down behind Emerson House. Right after we started,
Corey said he forgot something and headed back to the locker room.
We all went on. I was about to finish up the run, and when I came
around the curve that leads back to school a cop stopped me. Hauled
me down to the station in the freaking squad car. Told me Kara’d
supposedly gone to meet me down by the creek, because I’d texted
her and told her to. Now she was beaten up and drugged with
something, and did I know anything about it. It all clicked then.
Corey borrowed my cell phone during sixth period.”

“That explains the text I got from you,
telling me to meet you here. He must’ve done it when he went back
to the locker room.” I looked over to Corey, still sitting on the
sand, wondering if he was listening to all of this.

“I put the pieces together, and I knew in my
gut somehow he’d get you here.” He pulled off my soaked jacket and
threw it to the ground. “Here,” he said, unzipping his hoodie.
“Take this. You’re freezing.”

I didn’t argue. His sweatshirt, dry and warm
from being on his body, did a lot to relieve the nasty cold.

“As soon as I heard the cop on the phone with
the hospital, I got up and left. I figured they’d find me if they
wanted to hound me some more. Jessie was coming into the station as
I was running out. I told her to tell the officer if he wanted me,
he’d find me down at the beach.”

Now out of their cars and headed toward us,
the police guys didn’t look happy.

Corey stood up. “Luke, I got no idea – ”

Lucas cut him off again. “No idea why you
were dragging Layla into the freezing ocean trying to drown her? Or
no idea why you beat Kara, fed her some drug to knock her out, then
blamed me for it?”

“Oh my God,” Corey whispered. The little bit
of color left in his face drained, leaving him white as a sheet.
Realization dawned in his eyes, defeat and confusion playing across
his expression.

The two police officers reached us, and one
of them clasped Corey on the shoulder. “Corey Jacobs, we need to
talk to you down at the station. Your folks are already on their
way.”

“I don’t understand any of this.” Corey’s
voice shook. “I don’t understand how any of it happened.”

“I think he’s been hallucinating,” Luke
offered. “Maybe he’s taking the drugs he gave to Kara.”

“We’ll do the investigating, son,” the taller
officer said. “You two just stay in town so we can take your
statements.”

***

“I think he may have been on some kind of
drug,” Lucas said to my mother, who sat next to him on the
sofa.

He’d followed me home and insisted on
explaining things to my parents himself.

“And he did all this because he was jealous
that you’re dating my daughter?” my dad asked from across the room.
We’d left the reincarnation part out, as well as the part about
Corey/Carter wanting to kill himself and drag me along with
him.

“Apparently, sir,” Luke nodded. “I don’t know
how I didn’t see it. I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself for
putting Layla through that.”

“You didn’t put me through anything,” I
insisted.

Despite everything, Lucas still felt guilty
and somehow responsible.

“She’s right.” Mom put her arm around Luke’s
shoulder. “In fact, you got Layla away from him before something
awful happened.”

“The most important thing is that it’s over,”
Dad said. “Kara Jennings is all right, and this kid is going to get
the help he needs.”

“I hope you all will still allow me to see
Layla,” Luke said to my parents. Then he looked at me. “And that
you’ll still want to see me.”

Oh good grief. Was he really
that
oblivious? I still wondered what his feelings would be once things
settled down and the past – hopefully - stopped creeping in on us,
but did he really think I was just done with him now?

“Of course,” Mom reassured him.

Dad nodded his agreement.

Lucas took my hand.

I just smiled.

And he smiled back.

***

Understandably, my parents wanted to
re-negotiate the State Cross Country Meet the following day, which
prior to the events of the day before, I’d had permission to drive
myself to.

I didn’t argue, even though the meet was only
an hour away in Belfast.

Gwen was already scheduled to ride on the
team bus as a chaperone, so Dad left the shop in the hands of
Charlie, his assistant manager, and he and mom drove me.

I found their over-protectiveness very sweet,
under the circumstances. I think they also realized just how
serious things were between Luke and me. It was nice that they were
taking an interest in him and the things that were important to
him.

And it was very cool for Mom, Dad, Gwen, and
I to all be there to see Luke cross the finish line first and with
the state title in his division.

The smile on my face at that moment had its
roots deep in my heart.