Thicker Than Water (The Briar Creek Vampires Book #2) by Jayme Morse & Jody Morse (24 page)

Lexi started walking again, unsure what to do
with herself.

As she turned the corner past the haunted house
that was in Crimson’s Hair Salon, Lexi began to feel like someone
was watching her. She could feel their eyes on the back of her
head. Trying to hide the goose bumps that were now coating her
arms, Lexi crossed her arms and continued walking.

“Hey, where are you going? Today’s the day!” a
young girl exclaimed from across the street.

Lexi froze, but didn’t turn to look, hoping
that she wasn’t talking to her. Today’s the day? Were they talking
about her?

“That’s not fair, wait for me!” the same girl
shouted and scurried away, chasing after one of her friends. Lexi
shook the paranoid feeling away. Although she knew tonight
was
the night for her, it didn’t mean that every single
thing a person said at the festival had anything to do with her.
The girl was probably just talking about the fact that it was
Halloween. What little kid didn’t look forward to trick-or-treating
and other Halloween festivities? Plus, hadn’t Gabe said that a
vampire couple’s children were either human or half-vampires? Lexi
hadn’t thought about it before now, but she assumed that they were
unable to get Wilkins’ Syndrome.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lexi saw a dark
figure trying to keep up with her.

Lexi didn’t turn to get a better look at them.
Instead, she quickened her pace. She knew that looking back towards
them would only slow her down and if they didn’t already know who
she was, they would know for sure if Lexi stopped to talk to
them.

Glancing down at her feet, Lexi realized that
she was running, though she wasn’t sure where she should go.
Turning down a side street, she ducked behind a dumpster. Holding
her breath so that she didn’t get a whiff of the overflowing
garbage, Lexi peered out from behind the dumpster, waiting for the
person who had been following her to walk past. She was beginning
to question the choice of mask the person had left on her bed. Sfhe
wished they had given her a mask that covered more of her face so
that she wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable about looking anyone in the
eye. Still, she knew that the mask she was wearing helped her to
fit in better with the rest of the costumes she had seen so far; it
was actually less attention grabbing than she would have
assumed.

Over the sound of
The Adam’s Family
theme song blaring from one of the festival vendors, Lexi heard the
loud echo of footsteps clacking against the black pavement behind
her, crunching over autumn leaves. Thinking she had been caught,
Lexi held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut.

She heard the footsteps slow down as the person
walked past her. When she no longer heard the echo of their
footsteps, Lexi let out her breath and opened her eyes.

Lexi watched in front of her as the person
walked up to the stand and stood still for a few moments, seeming
to be listening to the music. Deciding that the person had just
been a straggler, she stood up and started to walk back towards the
rest of the crowd. Just as she reached the sidewalk, the person
turned and glanced her way. She almost had a heart attack: the
person was wearing the exact same costume that the man who had been
following her in the corn maze had been wearing. Lexi panicked. Was
the person in the costume the person who was trying to kill her?
Who
was it? Was it the person from the maze? Obviously it
was someone who knew who she was. Lexi just wished that she knew
who they were. If she had some idea of who was following her, she
might be able to protect herself better. Instead, she felt hopeless
and defenseless against the unknown.

Why had the anonymous letter sender insisted
that she come here today? Why hadn’t they given her further
instruction? What was she supposed to do? Every ounce of her body
wanted to run away, to get out of this awful town. At the same
time, she knew that her attempts to run away in the past had been
unsuccessful. Would this time be any better? As far as Lexi knew,
most of the people from Briar Creek were at the festival. She had a
pretty good chance of getting away without anyone even
noticing.

Realizing that she couldn’t continue hiding
behind this dumpster for any longer and that she couldn’t go back
on the main street where the festival was being held because of the
person who was following her, Lexi got up and continued walking
down the alley way. It led her to a backstreet behind the street
that held that block party. No one else was back there, so it was
eerily quiet.

Lexi had decided that she was going to try to
go back to the festival, but she wanted to be far enough down the
road so that the person in the creepy skeleton costume wouldn’t see
her again. She continued walking down the road behind all of the
buildings on the main road until she was at the very end, before
walking up another side street that would lead her back to the
festival.

Peering out from behind a building, Lexi made
sure that the person in the costume wasn’t there. When she realized
that they were nowhere in sight, she walked along the sidewalk to
the face painting stand.

Lexi watched a table of kids carving pumpkins
while she decided what her next move should be. There were a few
kids who were just carving traditional jack-o-lantern faces into
the pumpkins, and others who were creating more advanced designs.
One of the older girls was carefully carving a butterfly into her
pumpkin, while a boy was carving a pirate face that Lexi thought
somewhat resembled Johnny Depp in his
Pirates of
the
Caribbean
costume. Lexi decided that her favorite pumpkin was a
cute surprised-looking cat face.

“May I have your
attention, please?” a
voice
came from a loud speaker.

Turning around, Lexi
saw that the guy who had asked her to participate in the Halloween
costume contest was standing in front of a podium, speaking into
the microphone.

“We would like to
announce the winners of the annual Briar Creek
costume contest. It was pretty difficult for our
judges to make the decisions this year because you’re all wearing
some really cool costumes,” the man said, chuckling. “The winner of
the children’s category and who will receive a one hundred dollar
gift certificate to the store of his choice, is Chris McKenna. Come
on up here, Chris.”

Lexi watched as a young
boy who looked to be about five years old was led up to the stage
by his mother. His costume was definitely unique; he was wearing a
cardboard box that had been painted to look like a basket around
his waist and about half a dozen helium-filled balloons that were
attached.

“The winner of
the adult costume category and the winner of a
gift certificate to Sabrina’s Day Spa is Ms.
Karla Martin,” the man’s voice roared into the speaker. Lexi
wondered if Karla had added the ‘Ms.’
in front of her name when she signed her name to the
clipboard, or if the announcer had said it on his own. She watched
as Karla strutted over to the podium, shaking the tail feathers on
her peacock butt.

Lexi breathed a sigh of
relief. Her costume would also probably fall into the adult costume
category, so she had nothing to worry about.

“The winner in
the category of the
scariest
costume is Taylor Ratburn,” he continued. Lexi watched Taylor walk
up to the stage to accept the prize. The zombie mask he or she
(Lexi couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman and the unisex name
didn’t help her figure out the difference) was wearing was
definitely scary.

The man called
the next two winners. The boy who won for the most imaginative
costume category was wearing a tooth costume with a green rope
wrapped around him, which Lexi assumed was supposed to be
floss.
The winners for the
couple’s costume category were a couple who were dressed as Little
Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. The woman wore a short black
dress with a red hooded cape and the man wore a scary werewolf
mask. His costume was completed by a red plaid flannel long sleeved
shirt and ripped blue jeans.

“And the winner
of the most mysterious costume and a gif
t card for fifty dollars to Stacy’s Coffee House in
Huntington is Lacey MacDonald,” the man read.

Lexi panicked. She
glanced around. There were no garbage cans or tall bushes to hide
behind, so Lexi did the first thing that came to mind: she ran,
even though she felt wobbly in her heels.

Once she was up one of
the back streets, she breathed a sigh of relief and panted. There
was no way Lexi was going to accept an award as Lacey MacDonald in
front of everyone who lived in Briar Creek. If her aunt was there
somewhere in the crowd, she would have put two and two together.
Lexi would have never been able to fake a different identity; Briar
Creek was a small town where everyone knew everyone and outsiders
were immediately recognized. No one knew a Lacey MacDonald, so
they’d probably figure out that Lacey was a phony name.

“I don’t know where she could be, but I know
she’s here,” Lexi heard a male voice that she recognized grumble.
Peeking through her masquerade mask, she realized that it was Tommy
and she quickly slid into an open doorway to avoid being
spotted.

“Don’t worry, Tommy. We’ll find her. This
street isn’t too big and we all know our little Lexi isn’t too
smart,” Violet’s voice replied nervously.

“She’s probably in the funhouse. I know that
Lexi loves fun houses,” a third voice chimed in. A third voice that
she knew all too well.

Gabe. Gabe was in on this? Lexi felt like she
was going to puke. Whatever sick plan her aunt and uncle were
cooking up, Gabe was a part of it. The realization made tears fill
up behind her eyes. The dramatic mascara and winged eyeliner that
Lexi had applied before the festival burned her eyes, blurring her
vision as the tears came pouring down.

Even though she had gone against her gut
instincts, Lexi had trusted Gabe. She’d trusted him
so
much,
even though she knew she shouldn’t have after the night of the
accident. When everyone had told her that he was screwed up for
leaving her the way he had, she’d believed that there was a good
reason for it and when he came back, she instantly allowed her to
sweep her back off her feet.

Everything Gabe had told her had been a lie.
Gabe was against her. For all she knew, he was the one who was
behind her gravestone. She felt like she couldn’t keep Gabe’s lies
separated from the truth (if there was any truth to anything he had
told her) as all of her memories of Gabe swirled around in her
head.

Why had he acted like he cared about her if he
really was plotting with Violet and Tommy? And why had they acted
like they really hated him, if he was helping them instead? None of
it made sense, and just thinking about it made Lexi’s had spin in
circles. She wanted to scream, but screaming would draw attention
to her.

Whatever the truth was, she knew one thing for
sure: she had still seen her own grave. Whether Gabe was on her
side or not, someone was plotting against her.

Lexi realized that she had to get out of Briar
Creek – and fast.

****

Chapter 23

When she walked out of the open doorway, Lexi
glanced up the street. She saw Violet and Tommy walking
side-by-side, holding hands. Next to them was a guy wearing the
creepy skeleton Halloween costume that she had first seen at the
corn maze.

Lexi realized that it was Gabe. Gabe was the
one who had followed her at the corn maze, and he was also the one
who had been following her tonight.

Ignoring the sick feeling in the pit of her
stomach, Lexi began walking in the opposite direction. She had just
passed a large crowd of people when she noticed Mary-Kate, who was
wearing a short, light pink dress. Mary-Kate’s costume puzzled her.
She was wearing fairy wings and was holding a wand, but she was
also donning a sparkly tiara, complete with Swarovski crystals.
Lexi realized that she was a fairy princess.

As Lexi began to walk past Mary-Kate, she held
her breath. This would be the true test as to whether or not her
costume was recognizable. If it wasn’t, that was a good sign; it
meant that Tommy and Violet wouldn’t notice her as
quickly.

“What a cute costume!” Mary-Kate exclaimed as
she passed Lexi.

“Thanks,” Lexi replied quietly, trying to make
her voice sound different. By the expression on Mary-Kate’s face,
she could tell that she had failed.

“Lexi? Oh my God! You lied to me!” Mary-Kate
exclaimed. “You told me that you weren’t coming to the Halloween
festival and –”

Lexi lunged at her and wrapped her hand around
Mary-Kate’s mouth, pulling her into the open doorway that she had
just stepped out of. “Shhh,” she hissed. “You can’t tell anyone
that you saw me, okay? I’m not supposed to be here. Well, I sort of
am, but Violet and Tommy don’t want me to be here and they’re
looking for me. No matter what happens tonight, they cannot find
me.”

Mary-Kate raised an eyebrow, the confusion
written all over her face. “Why can’t they find you? Lexi, what’s
going on?”