Echoes (11 page)

I got about a block away before my legs gave out, I dropped to the ground and sat there stunned and empty, my heart a lead weight in my chest. By now I was doubting everything I’d done, everything I’d said. It was a stupid plan, but it was the only one I had.

Ethan would either hate me or he’d be exposed as a monster who’d been laying in wait to kill me. If that was true, then it was far worse than him hating me.

The boy I remembered as staying in the shadows, not saying a word, being shunned by the popular group of kids in school for years—so much so that he’d fallen completely off my radar except for someone I might notice now and then in my periphery vision...

The boy my mother remembered having a crush on me, riding his bike past my house when I’d never even realized he lived on the same street as me...

He would be dead, just a shell being used by a manipulative monster.

I braced my hands against the ground, forcing myself up to a standing position. There was no undo button to press. I couldn’t take back what I’d done. I’d given him food and water, but taken away his phone so he couldn’t call anyone for help.

In twenty-four hours I’d find out if I was right or not—if he’d even been telling me the truth about that. Then I’d deal with whatever the answer was.

I gathered the two bags together; Ethan’s and mine, checking inside for the silver knife, as I quickly made my way home.

My mother watched me enter through the front door and must have seen the look on my face. Confusion, fear, grief. All of the above, all at once.

“Honey...” she began.

I let out a hollow sob, dropped the bags and went right to her. She hugged me tightly to her chest.

“Whatever it is, it’ll be okay,” she assured me.

“I don’t know about that.”

“Sometimes things seem really bad, but with a little distance and time they get better. Much better.” She stroked my hair off my forehead. “Do you want to talk about it?”

I shook my head. And I hated to admit it when all I really needed was a hug from my mom, but even this felt hollow between us, like I was hugging a complete stranger. It felt like an eternity since we were ever close.

“Talk to me, Olivia. You can tell me anything.”

I sniffed and pulled away from her. No, I couldn’t tell her anything. I really wished I still trusted her with anything but the extraneous details. “I’m not going to prom tomorrow.”

“Why not?”

“Lots of reasons.” Tears stung my eyes but I forced myself not to cry. Not in front of her.

“Whatever’s happened, I think prom is exactly where you need to be. With your friends, people who can support you. You have to go and have some fun, make some valuable memories that no one can ever take away from you.”

I ran a hand under my nose. “I’ll think about it.”

After that I went upstairs, cleaned myself up, and stared at the reflection in the mirror of the dark-haired girl with the red-rimmed, haunted eyes.

And then I called Bree.

“Can I come over?” I asked, twisting the chain of my locket so tightly that my finger went numb.

“Here?” She sounded surprised to hear from me.

“Yeah. You still live in the same house as before, right?”

“Well, yes. But—”

“I’ll be right there.”

I showed up at her front door a half an hour later. I had Ethan’s backpack with me that contained the silver knife. It was the only protection I had anymore against the Upyri.

Bree opened the door and looked at me warily. “Gee, what an honor. Olivia Hawthorn dropping by for a visit. Let me grab my camera to document this special day.”

In reply to her cutting sarcasm, I burst into tears.

She cringed. “Oh, hell. What’s wrong with you?”

I just shook my head, bracing myself against the door frame. It was like the flood had let loose and I couldn’t hold it back even if I tried. I could barely catch my breath.

Bree, true to form, didn’t exactly grab me in a fierce hug and tell me everything was going to be okay like my mother had. She did, however, pat me awkwardly on my shoulder.

“Come in. Damn, you’re a big soppy mess.”

I shuffled into her house and she shut the door behind us. A moment later she shoved a box of tissues in front of me. I grabbed one and wiped at my face.

“I heard what happened this morning,” she said. “Ethan kicked Peter’s ass at school. He deserved it. I just wish I could have seen it. One point for the geeks.”

“Ethan isn’t a geek,” I mumbled.

“Whatever. Anyway, what’s so super urgent that you had to come here? I figure if you’re having trouble with your feuding boyfriends, you’d be more likely to go to Helen with your issues than to me.”

“This has nothing to do with Peter. Or Helen.”

“Then what is it?”

I exhaled shakily. “I need to see the journal.”

She shook her head. “I already told you that I don’t know what journal you’re talking about.”

I blew my nose and finished mopping myself up. I regretted breaking down in front of Bree, but I felt a bit better.

And I wasn’t going to think about Ethan right now locked in that dark room all alone. If nothing else, he wasn’t in any immediate danger. If he couldn’t get out, nobody could get in. I felt the heavy weight of the key hanging around my neck, reminding me of what I’d done.

I’d had no choice. I had to keep believing that.

And at the moment, I had to get a grip on myself. The week was over. It was Friday at—I glanced at the clock on the living room wall—five o’clock. Ethan said he’d planned to keep the Upyri locked up for a day before they’d weaken, before they’d show signs of what they really were and be willing to talk, to tell us their plans in town. Their plans for
me
.

I didn’t think he’d meant for that game plan to be for himself.

In the meantime, I needed that journal.

The Upyri I’d been faced with had wanted me for some reason—wanted to kill me so they could hand my body over to someone else.

Why me?

Bree’s great-great-grandfather hadn’t just fought them; he’d managed to trap them. They’d been imprisoned for a hundred years and a few had only now starting to escape. How? And why now? And if there was a way in the past to trap them so they couldn’t hurt anyone, what was it and how could I do it again?

After taking several deep breaths, I looked directly at Bree again. The look on her face would have made me laugh if I’d been in a laughing kind of mood. She looked confused, concerned, and annoyed. It was an interesting combination.

“If you’re going to puke, don’t do it here,” she said bluntly. “My mom’s going to be back in an hour and she will seriously freak.”

“I’m not going to puke.”

“Are you drunk? I wouldn’t really blame you if you were. This is...” Clarity filled her gaze. “Wait, Peter dumped you, didn’t he? And you went out and got drunk because of that.”

I cringed. “Well...yes. He did. But I’m not drunk and he’s not the reason I’m upset. Just think. You have to think. Remember in the hall on Tuesday when we were talking? You saw me with Ethan...” I swallowed past the lump in my throat that made his name difficult to say. “You heard us talking about the Upyri.”

“Right. I remember that.”

It was a start. “And you said your great-great-grandfather who’d been here in town trapped them once upon a time.”

“Yeah, vampire hunting runs on my father’s side of the family. My father always told my mother stories about the past, but she never believed him since there was no real proof.”

I wished I’d paid more attention at the time but I’d been so annoyed with Ethan’s avoidance and Bree’s eavesdropping that I’d been more than a little bit distracted.

“You said it was in a locked case. Your great-great-grandfather’s locked case. You found it in the attic along with a ton of other old photos your mom wanted you to scan for her.”

She gave me a look of surprise as if she was surprised I knew about that. “Yeah, there were hundreds of photos in varying degrees of disintegration. My scanner’s never worked so hard.”

“Can you show me where you found them?

“Why should I?”

“What?”

“You want my help, but why should I help you? You’ve ignored me for years. You shut me out when Helen came to town.”

“I didn’t shut you out.” My voice raised as frustration pricked at me. “God, Bree, why do you have to be like this? That was four years ago. Can’t you just let it go once and for all?”

Her expression darkened. “I guess not.”

“Besides, when Helen moved to town, you got new friends, too. It’s not like I ignored you. We just grew apart. It happens.”

She gave me a sour look. “You think so, huh?”

I tried to remember, but seventh grade
was
a very long time ago. I remembered us having a last big fight and then her hanging out with new people. End of story. “If I hurt you, I’m sorry—really. I didn’t realize that you cared that much about it.”

She crossed her arms. “I
don’t
care.”

“Then why is this such a big deal right now?”

“It isn’t.” She looked away. “Forget it.”

I was missing something here. Some piece of the puzzle that was Bree Margolis. I would have stayed her friend. I
would
have. Just because Helen had moved to town and become my best friend didn’t mean that I couldn’t have other friends. How stupid would that be?

“Did Helen say something to you?” I asked, straining my brain to access events that happened four years ago. “Back then? Something to make you keep your distance?”

Her lips pressed together.

My eyes widened a little at the non-verbal confirmation. “She did, didn’t she?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Helen wouldn’t do something like that. She’s so nice. So cool. So popular. I can practically see the shiny halo hovering above her head.”

“I never said she was an angel.”

“Even if she did say something, it doesn’t really matter anymore. It’s not like you ever bothered to talk to me again unless you had to.”

“What did she say to you?”

She raised an eyebrow. “You really want to know?”

I’d realized this week that Helen had a lot of secrets she’d kept from me in order to maintain her perfect exterior. I shouldn’t be surprised that there might be more left to uncover.

“Yes, I do.”

She looked me directly in the eye. “She said that if I didn’t leave you alone she was going to tell everybody that I was in love with you. Like,
love
love. And that I once tried to kiss you.”

My mouth fell open. “You’re lying.”

“No, I’m not. She makes things up so people behave themselves, or leave her alone, or
not
leave her. Or whatever. She’s a total control freak and my mom says her mother is the same way. I know you don’t believe it, but that’s what she does. She makes things up and uses it against people to keep them in line, whether or not it’s the truth.”

I resisted this new information very hard, but after everything that had been happening I couldn’t pretend what I was hearing didn’t ring any bells for me. “And what she said about you...”

“That I was in love with you?”

I cleared my throat, feeling more than a little uncomfortable. “Yeah, I mean, was that, um, the truth?”

Bree snorted. “No offense, but you’re not my type. I like guys. These days if she spread the rumor I was gay I wouldn’t give a smaller crap what she or anyone else thinks. But back then? The thought of it mortified me. So I did what she said and stopped hanging around you.”

“Uh, well, okay then.”

She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, you’re not
that
hot. Get over yourself.”

I glared at her. “Okay, I get it.”

“So you never knew that happened? For real?”

I frowned. “Why would I know that?”

“I don’t know, I just—I mean, you’ve been friends with her all this time…”

“I think Helen may have a lot of issues I don’t know about.” Helen’s mom was a former Olympic athlete—she’d received a silver medal for swimming. Her father was a retired Army Sergeant. Both her parents always liked things just so, their house was always neat as a pin and scheduled to the minute when it came to meals and family events. Helen never said much about it before, except to complain, but now I saw that she might be like her parents. She wanted things to go perfectly according to Helen, and anything else would have to be dealt with.

And she rarely dated. Nobody was good enough for her unless they were rich, popular, and gorgeous.

I thought about how Helen had reacted regarding Ethan, like she was jealous that I was paying any attention to him. She liked him, but he wasn’t quite “good enough” for her to pursue seriously. And now to find out that she liked to spread rumors and gossip, whether or not they were true, in order to make people behave according to her wishes. Wow. It was a lot to accept all at once.

All this time I’d thought that it was Bree taking her revenge on the more popular kids who ignored her.

Like
I’d
ignored her.

We’d been friends for years, despite her being a little eccentric back in elementary school—her and her family. However, I’d found it fun then, not embarrassing. We’d shared secrets, hung out, and laughed. And all that was forgotten, put in the past, when I got new friends, and when I didn’t get any friction from leaving my past behind and moving on.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled.

Her expression was tense. “What did you say?”

“I said I’m sorry. I’m sorry Helen did that to you. Really. And I’m sorry I’ve been ignoring you all this time. You and me—we were really good friends once. The best, actually.”

She shrugged. “Yeah. I mean, I have friends now. Great ones. But with what happened with you...I guess I let it fester.”

I eyed her. “I never would have guessed it. You hid the festering so well.”

That sarcasm earned me a sharp look. “Let’s just forget it.”

“Really? Put it all behind us?”

“I mean let’s forget about it right now. I don’t feel like dealing with this. I’ve been losing my Zen in a seriously big way ever since you got here.”