Taken (Book #2 of the Vampire Legends) (3 page)

“They need you for questioning,” Mr.
Allen whispered, pointing to the clipboard.

Rachel felt her face turn bright red
with nervousness. She shook her head and looked at the principal’s secretary.

“Now?” Rachel whispered.

“Follow me,” she said in a stern voice.

Rachel was scared. She had never been
this nervous or worried about anything in her entire life. She followed the
secretary out of the classroom and down the empty hallways. The echo of their
footsteps rang loudly in her ears as they walked towards the principal’s
office. It felt like they were walking forever. Each step felt like an hour as
the anticipation grew.

Rachel wondered what they were going to
ask her. She wondered if it would be the same police from last night, or
different policemen. As they neared the office, Rachel’s anxiety levels were
through the roof. She felt her body shaking as she walked into the main office.

“Sit here,” the secretary said, pointing
to an open chair just outside Dr. McNery’s office. The secretary peeked her
head inside the principal’s office and said, “She’s here, whenever you’re
ready.”

Rachel felt like she was on trial. She
sat there waiting, tapping her foot and looking at her watch. The minutes moved
slowly as she sat there and awaited her fate. She ran the fight over and over
in her head trying to come up with a story that would be believable to the
police. 

After about fifteen minutes, the
principal, Dr. McNery, came out of his office in his crisp navy blue suit with
a blue and white striped tie and said in his deep authoritative voice, “Rachel
Wood, we’re ready for you.”

Rachel rose to her feet and walked
slowly into Dr. McNery’s office. She saw the two police officers from last
night, along with another man wearing a police uniform that said Police Chief.
Rachel began to panic and she could feel beads of sweat forming on her
forehead. She hoped the police officers didn’t notice the state of panic she
was in.

“Nice to see you again, Rachel,” one of
the police officers said.

“Rachel, I know my associates spoke with
you last night, but we need to ask you a few questions, as this has turned into
a very serious matter,” the police chief said in a serious tone.

“Ok,” Rachel said, as she nodded her
head.

The police chief unfolded the Daily
Westchester newspaper that was under his arm and placed it down on the table.
Rachel took one look at it and was in utter horror. She couldn’t believe her
eyes. Was that really a picture of her and Benji on his motorcycle outside of
Rye Playland? Rachel grabbed the paper and began to read the article.

TEEN WITH SUPER POWERS SAVES GIRL’S LIFE
AT THE RYE PLAYLAND FERRIS WHEEL:

A teenage boy saved AHS sophomore,
Rachel Wood’s life as she nearly fell to her death on the Rye Playland ferris
wheel two days ago. The teen boy is said to be a student at AHS, although he
has not been identified at this time.

Onlookers watched as one of the cars on
the popular Playland ride plunged to the ground, shattering in front of their
eyes. The crowd looked up to see the boy, miraculously lifting Rachel up with
super natural strength into the next car. As the ride stopped, and the two got
off, they seemed not to be phased by the incident. When onlookers asked the boy
how he did it, and if they were OK, he didn’t respond. The two then briskly
walked out of the amusement park and were spotted taking off on his motorcycle
(pictured above). There have been no further details on this story.

Rachel was in shock.

“Rachel, can you tell us more about this
night?” the police chief asked.

Rachel didn’t know where to begin. She
tried to figure out what to say, and then said, “What do you want to know?”

“What happened that night? How did he
save you?”

“Well,” Rachel took a deep breath. “He
grabbed me as the car was falling to the ground and lifted me into another car.
He’s a strong guy, and I think his adrenalin was pumping.”

“Yes, it must have been. That seems
pretty incredible if you ask me,” the police chief said.

“Yeah, he didn’t seem to think it was a
big deal,” Rachel added.

“There is something mysterious about
Benji. We don’t have any record of him going to this school, yet we know you
said he was a senior at AHS,” the police chief said.

“Yes, we do not have any student named
Benji here at AHS,” Dr. McNery said. “I’m sorry but you seem to have the wrong
information.”

Rachel was confused. She thought for a
minute and then began to piece things together in her head. Benji is a vampire;
of course he doesn’t go to school. But then why did he say he did? She felt
conflicted with all the information she had in her head. She didn’t know what
was true and what was false anymore.

 “Where did you meet him?” Dr. McNery
asked.

“Um, I met him when I was walking home
one day. He picked me up on his motorcycle,” Rachel replied.

“Did he tell you anything about where he
lives? Where his parents work? His siblings? We need to know everything you
know, so we can track him down,” the police chief asked.

“He said he lived close to school, but
that could be a lie, too. I’m sorry, I don’t know what is true anymore,” Rachel
answered.

“We understand,” the police chief said,
as he finished writing down everything she’d just told them on his note pad.

“Can you tell me again, what the nature
of your relationship with Benji is?” the police chief asked.

“We were becoming friends, but now, I’m
not speaking to him,” Rachel said.

“Why not?” the police chief asked.

Rachel realized she had misspoken. Why
did she open up that can of worms? Now Rachel sat there, looking at the four of
them, not knowing what to say.

“We got into a fight,” Rachel answered. “It’s
really not a big deal.”

“A fight?” replied the police chief, “About
what?”

Rachel had officially dug her own grave.
She knew she was going to have to tell them something.

But what?

Should she tell them that Benji is a
vampire, and go against her promise?  Or should she make something up?

Rachel’s mind was racing; she couldn’t
just sit there and say nothing. She knew that this wouldn’t end well for her,
and that she was going to get in big trouble.

Each moment she didn’t answer felt like a
day. She knew they were probably wondering why it was taking so long for her to
answer. Rachel’s panicked state was making her draw a blank. She was
speechless.

“We need to know what this fight was
about, Rachel. You need to share everything you know,” the police chief asked
again. “This could be our clue to finding this criminal.”

Rachel nodded and opened her mouth to
speak, but then closed it again. Her mind was racing with ideas. She didn’t
want to betray Benji after she had sworn not to tell a soul—but she was being
asked to do so.

She waited another moment and then said,
“I don’t really want to talk about it.”

The policemen looked at each other and
then back to the principal.

“Rachel, you need to tell the police
what is going on,” Dr. McNery prodded.

“It’s personal, and really wouldn’t help
you,” Rachel said shyly.

The police chief looked at his pad of
paper and then looked up at Rachel, “Of course it will help us. Any bit of
information will gather the clues we need to bring us to Benji.”

Rachel looked at him and then back at
Dr. McNery, who was shaking his head as if to say,
go on, tell them.
Rachel
didn’t say a word. She stood there in an awkward silence, keeping Benji’s
secret safe inside of her.

“Rachel, you can either tell us now, or
tell us later. Either way this information is crucial to us,” the police chief
said in a stern voice. “What’s it going to be?”

Rachel looked down at the ground and
shook her head.

“I don’t want to tell you now.”

“You have twenty four hours to tell us.
We will meet with you tomorrow morning at school,” the police chief said
coldly. “See you then.”

Chapter Four

As Rachel walked out of the principal’s
office, she was in shock. She couldn’t believe she would have to spill her
secret to the police in twenty-four hours. As she began walking down the hall,
she tried to process everything that had happened. She looked down at her watch
to see what period it was, the minute hand has just changed and it was now,
11:30am, which meant it was time for lunch.

She was dreading going into the
cafeteria. If only the police questioning had lasted longer, she wouldn’t have
to deal with the cafeteria scene today. If she thought it was bad last week,
she couldn’t imagine what it would be like today.

Rachel walked to her locker and grabbed
the brown paper bag that held her lunch. She could smell the peanut butter
aroma coming from inside and heard the loud voices of kids breezing down the
hallways. Their voices echoed in her head, as she tried to listen for
conversations about the fight. She hoped that people had moved on to another
topic, but that was not the case, everyone was still buzzing about the
homecoming dance fight.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to
the team?”

“I heard they got a serious beating.”

“Who is this guy anyway?”

Rachel couldn’t help but hear the gossip
swarming around her. She so badly wanted to set everyone straight, but she knew
she couldn’t.  She knew she would have to keep it bottled inside until this
whole thing died down.

As she walked with the crowds of people,
her mind was spinning with everything that had just happened. She couldn’t stop
thinking about her interrogation by the police chief. At that moment she
remembered the newspaper article. Did she really see a photo of herself on the
front page of the
Westchester Daily News
? She ran the article over and
over in her head, which made her incredibly anxious. As if she didn’t have
enough on her plate, Rachel worried about her parents finding out about Rye
Playland. She knew she had to come up with a way to dodge her parents looking
at the paper. As she was coming up with ideas in her head, she felt a tap on
her shoulder, which made her nearly jump out of her skin.

“Why are you so skitzo today?”  Asked
Jen who was walking with Emily and Taryn.

“I know you guys heard what happened
last night, don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m going through,” Rachel
said back.

“Yeah, we know, but we want to hear it
from you,” Taryn said with a laugh.

“What are you going through?” Asked Jen.

“Guys, we should give her some space,
she’s had a rough morning,” Emily chimed in.

“Thanks, Em,” said Rachel. “It’s been
tough.”

The four girls walked into the cafeteria
and found a seat at the table. Rachel actually felt thankful that her friends
found her in the hall so she wouldn’t have to walk into the cafeteria alone, of
all days. She felt like she had just dodged a bullet.

Even so, the second that they all walked
into the cafeteria, Rachel could immediately sense everybody stop to turn and
stare at her. She felt her cheeks redden from all the attention. She could even
have sworn that the entire noise level in the cafeteria dropped dramatically at
her entrance.

Thank God I don’t have to go stand on
line for a hot lunch, she thought, gratefully clutching her brown paper bag.

As they unpacked their lunches, Liv and
Kate joined the table.

“OMG, this is the craziest day I’ve ever
seen at AHS guys,” Liv said, as she took out her iced tea.

“Um, yeah! It’s sick what’s been going
on,” Kate added.

“Did you guys hear the police chief has
been here questioning kids about last night? I heard they questioned Amanda,
who had been driving out of the parking lot and saw the fight. Rumor has it,
she snapped a pic from her cell and gave it to the police,” Liv said.

They all looked at Rachel, expectantly,
as if waiting for her to say something. Clearly, this was the moment when they
all expected her to fill them in on everything that had happened.

But Rachel didn’t know what to say. She
didn’t want to gossip about last night with her friends, so she sat there and
began to eat her sandwich as she thought about what she was hearing. Her world
was being shaken upside down and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

 “Guys, can we change the subject?”
Rachel asked. “I’ve been dealing with this all day. I need a break.”

“Are you serious?” said, Taryn. “This is
the biggest thing to happen to AHS in years, thanks to you!”

“We want to hear your side of the story.
Please, just tell us. We won’t tell anyone,” Liv said, as she leaned into the
middle of the table.