Dark Realms (26 page)

“
Don’t be such a prude,” snorted Vivian as she discarded her
own robe and stood proudly. “We’re obviously both very beautiful
and have nothing to be ashamed of.”

She bit her lower
lip. “But…”

“
You have to do this, Adrianne,” demanded Lisbeth in a tight
voice. “It is part of the ritual.”

Adrianne felt
confused and ashamed as she dropped her robe to the ground. She
stared towards the fire, fighting an intense urge to cover herself
with both hands.

Noticing her
modesty, Meredith smiled in amusement and continued with the
ceremony. “We will now ask Goddess Diana to accept her new children
into our coven. Protect them and keep them safe from those who do
not understand, from those who can only hate. Give them strength
and power to defeat their enemies and heal their loved ones,
whenever it is needed.”

Adrianne frowned.
She knew she had special powers that she was supposed to keep from
her father, but she also believed in God. Who was this Goddess
Diana? Wasn’t it blasphemy to pray to her? This was all so
confusing.

Sudden gunshots
echoed in the darkness, startling everyone. Someone screamed in
pain and Adrianne watched as all of the women began to scatter into
other parts of the woods, their pale bodies glowing in the
moonlight.

“
Girls, follow me!” demanded Lisbeth, grabbing her robe.
“Hurry!”

Vivian and Adrianne
quickly snatched up their cloaks and followed their mother while
more gunfire exploded all around them. Just when they reached the
ravine that would lead them back towards the safety of their cabin,
Adrianne felt intense wave of dread and she could barely breathe.
It was then that her mother stopped and turned towards the girls,
her face as pale as the moon.

“
Mother? Why are you stopping?” asked Vivian, looking around
nervously.

Lisbeth didn’t say
anything¸ instead she crumbled to the ground. Both girls screamed
in horror as blood began to spread across the top of their mother’s
robe.

“
Mother!” cried Adrianne, dropping to her knees beside Lisbeth.
She touched her cheek and began to cry. “No!”

“Devil worshipper!” growled their father as he sprang out of
the woods with a shotgun clutched tightly in his hands. His dark
eyes were filled with loathing as he stared at Lisbeth’s still
body. “Now,
Witch
, you
can spend eternity with
him
!”

Adrianne choked on
her sobs as father raised his gun and aimed it at her this
time.

“
Daddy?!” she screamed.

He stared at her for
a moment and then his eyes filled with tears. “I can’t… I just
can’t, dear Lord,” he moaned, falling to his knees. He held out his
arm. “Adrianne… will you repent child… and seek God’s
forgiveness?”

Before Adrianne
could respond, Vivian grabbed her wand, then closed her eyes and
began to chant. It was then that Adrianne noticed the wand in her
hand that was beginning to sparkle.

Mother’s wand
.

“
What in Heaven’s name are you doing, daughter?!” hollered
their father, now raising the gun towards Vivian. “Put that
down!”

Vivian stopped her
chanting, pointed the wand towards their father, and whispered a
single word. “Die.”

His face turned
white and then red. He dropped the gun and clutched his chest,
staring at Vivian in anguish. “Viv, what have you done?”

Her eyes narrowed.
“Die,” she repeated, this time with much more venom.

Adrianne screamed in
horror and ran towards their father, who now lay writhing on the
ground, howling in horrendous pain. She kneeled down and took his
hand. “Stop it!” she yelled, staring up at her sister. “You’re
killing him!”

Vivian smiled
darkly. “That’s the point.”

Chapter One

(Now – 25 Years Later)

Bayport,
Michigan

“Kendra, for the last time, wake up!”
hollered my mother, who was now standing outside of the bedroom
door, tapping her nails impatiently against the doorframe.

“Fine,” I groaned, turning over. I looked at
the clock – seven o’clock, and I only have twenty minutes to get
ready. That was barely enough time to find clean underwear.

My sister flounced into the room, dressed in
her new pink skinny jeans and white lace top. She plopped down next
to me on my bed and shook me. “Get up, lazy bones! Aren’t you
excited? I just love the first day of school.”

Summer was officially over and both Kala and
I were starting twelfth grade. She was excited and I was resigned
to the fact I still had nine more months of school before my “Great
Escape.” June couldn’t get here fast enough.

“Yay,” I mumbled, swinging my legs over the
side of the bed. As always, she was a little too chipper for me to
handle this early in the morning.

“So, what are you going to wear?” she asked,
hopping off of the bed.

I yawned. “Um, clothes?”

Kala laughed and then started digging
through our closet. She pulled out one of the new outfits my mom
had chosen for me and held it out. Unlike both my mom and sister, I
loathed shopping.

“Here, you should wear this purple hoodie
with your white cargo pants,” she said. “It’s super cute.”

I
snorted
.
“Cute?
Sure, on someone else.”

My sister frowned. “Don’t
be so negative. It
does
look nice on you. In fact, if they would have had
it in my size, I would have snatched it up in a
heartbeat.”

Kala, my skinny twin sister, never had to
worry about clothes. Being a twig, everything always looks awesome
on her.

“Fine, I’ll wear it,” I said, grabbing the
outfit. I brushed past her to the small bathroom we shared and
hoped I could still fit into the pants. Locking the door, I turned
around and stared at my reflection in the mirror, wishing it was
someone else – long brown hair, ghostly white skin, and blue eyes,
which, actually… weren’t half bad.

I sighed.
Who was I kidding? Nobody even noticed my eyes
with this double chin.

“Don’t forget, we only have fifteen
minutes,” she called through the door. “I’ll be downstairs in the
kitchen.”

Groaning, I quickly got ready, stuffing
myself into the new clothes. When I finally got the zipper up, I
stood sideways and groaned at the result. Although they were a size
fourteen, they were much tighter than the last time I’d tried them
on. Even the hoodie looked tight.

Crap.

Shuffling out of the bathroom, I grabbed a
pair of sandals and looked longingly towards my soft bed, wishing I
could just crawl back inside and veg out for the entire day.

“Hurry up, Kendra!” bellowed my mother’s
voice from downstairs.

“Hold your horses,” I mumbled, wondering if
I could talk her into online schooling.

God, that would be awesome.

Online,
nobod
y would notice the thick roll of
skin above my waistband or the way my legs jiggled when I moved too
quickly. I’d be just another faceless student in pajamas, trying to
finish up my senior year until I went to college, which to me,
didn’t seem quite as daunting. I’d never heard of any bullying in
college, just stories about all of the crazy drunken parties and an
occasional date rape.

Eh, come to think about it, online college
was starting to sound more interesting, too.

Sighing, I decided to run the online idea by
my mom later and went downstairs to the kitchen. I crossed my
fingers, hoping that she’d made her famous chocolate-chip pancakes
for our first day of school. It was an annual tradition.

“You look… nice,” said my mom, who was a
terrible liar. I could tell by the expression on her face that she
also noticed the extra weight I’d put on in the last three
weeks.

“We have to go,” said Kala, grabbing her new
designer clutch purse and a flaxseed granola bar. We’d both turned
eighteen last month and she’d used her birthday money for the
ridiculously priced purse, which I thought was gaudier than all
hell. But, because of the French name imbedded on the inside of the
thing, which nobody even saw, it was a ‘must have’ among many of
the girls at our school. “I’ll meet you outside.”

“Take this,” said my mom, handing me one of
the flaxseed bars as I stared the bagels on the counter.

My eyebrows shot up.
“Seriously, a
flaxseed
bar? This bird food isn’t going to fill me up,” I pouted.
“Can’t I just have a bagel instead?”

She brushed a few strands of her jet-black
hair behind her ears. “Sidney’s mom brought them over for the
daycare kids and I don’t have enough. I’m sorry, honey. You know
they’re loaded with carbs anyway,” she said, leaning over and
kissing my cheek. She’s always trying to control my carb and fiber
intake, which almost always leaves me hungry and unapproachable.
It’s one of the reasons I keep a stash of candy bars under my bed.
Fortunately, my sister doesn’t say anything about them. She’d
rather let me eat than deal with my grumpiness from lack of
sugar.

“Daycare kids,” I mumbled, scowling at the
granola bar. “They eat better than I do.”

My mom runs a daycare in our home. Eight
smelly little punks who’ve invaded our home and now there’s never
any peace. Since my dad died earlier last year, though, it’s the
only way my mom’s been able to afford the house payments. She
blames it on lack of college, and that’s why she insists we both
earn a degree.

“You eat very well, my dear,” she answered
with a wry smile. “Now, you’d better get moving before you miss
your bus.”

“Fine,” I said, walking towards the door.
“But if I can’t concentrate this morning, it’s probably because I’m
trying not to poop.”

She threw her head back and laughed.
“What?”

“Yeah, mom… flaxseed… fiber… what are you
trying to do to? Give me diarrhea?”

“Kendra, detoxifying your body is good for
you!” she called as I shut the door behind me and stepped
outside.

“Here it comes,” said Kala, who was applying
more lipstick to her already glossy ones.

The bus was just turning down our lane and
we both rushed over to get to the bus stop across the street.

Our neighbor, John Frances, smiled at me as
I stopped next to the curb. “What’s wrong, out of breath?” He’s our
age and a total jerk. I despise him with a passion.

“Shut up, tool,” snapped my sister, giving
him a dirty look.

One thing I could say about my Kala was that
she never thought twice about defending me.

I stabbed him viciously
with my eyes and followed Kala onto the bus while everyone stared
in shock at my sister. Kala
never
rode the bus. At least not last year, but that was
because she’d been dating this superhot senior, Jamie Grant, who’d
driven her to and from school every single day. Unfortunately, for
Kala, he’d left for college two months ago and neither of us had
our licenses yet, so it was the bus for the both of us.

“Sit here, Kala!” yelled Brandi, my sister’s
best friend.

Brandi was obviously still grounded from
using her Mustang after sneaking out in the middle of the night
last week. Apparently, she’d snuck to a concert that she’d been
forbidden to go to, and her parents had busted her when she’d tried
to get back into her window early the next morning. I didn’t feel
sorry for her, however. Brandi was blond with the perfect body and
all the guys at school wanted to get into her pants, which I think
most of them already had. Kala said she was a complete nympho and
didn’t hide that fact. In fact, she flaunted it with her short
skirts and low-cut tops. The fact that my sister was friends with
someone like that was a little unsettling, but I also knew that
Kala held her virginity very sacred. More than once she’d told me
she was saving it for Jamie, when he was finished with college and
came back to put a ring on her finger. Only then would she let him
go all the way with her.

Personally, I thought Jamie, who looked and
dressed like a glamorized Ken-doll, was gay, and had been ecstatic
to have someone like her for his girlfriend. She’d told me that
he’d never pressured her to do anything as far as sex, and they’d
barely kissed. Most of their time together was spent shopping or
going to movies, and I’m not talking drive-ins. She’d mentioned it
once to him and he’d stared at her in horror, complaining that the
humidity would make his hair droop.

Yeah, if he was straight then I was
definitely winning the next “America’s Top Model” competition.

Kala went to the back of the bus and flopped
down next to Brandi while I sat towards the front, as far away as I
could from the others. I wasn’t about to give anyone a chance to
start teasing me during the first day of school. Last year had been
bad enough. Apparently, being the pudgy sister of one of the most
popular girls in school was hysterical to many.

I stared out the window and sighed, wishing
that I would have stuck with the diet my mom had tried to put me on
during the summer. But just like all the others, I’d cheated and
then had finally given up. It was a horrible feeling, but what was
even worse was looking at my sister, and knowing that if I’d lost
weight, I’d be more like her – beautiful, confident, and able to
wear “skinny jeans.” Coincidently, most of my jeans already looked
like “skinny jeans” on my thighs, but were supposed to be “relaxed
fit.”

That’s why I hated to shop
for clothes
. Nothing fit like it was
supposed to.

The bus made one last stop before it dropped
us off at North Central High School, and we all stared at the
person who stepped onboard. He was tall with longish, dark hair and
a slender build. A fairly average looking guy, really, dressed in
all black and wearing dark sunglasses.