Logan heads down the porch on the way to his truck.
“Remember, I’m just a phone call away.” He says before hopping inside.
I watch as he backs out of the driveway and disappears down the street.
***
I don’t remember the last time I was alone in a house by myself. It’s one of those things that rarely happens with a busy family like ours. For sure I’ve never been alone at this house, come to think of it, I’ve never spent the night alone at any house, ever.
A shiver runs through me as I shut and bolt the door. I’d turn on the heater if I knew how to work it, so much for it being August.
The hollow of my footsteps echoes off the walls as I make my way back to the family room. I switch the TV off, and the house fills with a deafening silence. It sounds less than natural so I switch it back on and turn down the volume. I’ll leave it on for the night. It’ll make it look like someone’s home other than me, sort of like a safety mechanism. No one in their right mind will want to break in if they think someone’s wide-awake downstairs. Then again, criminals are rarely in their right mind.
I peer out the window over in the direction of Bree’s house. An entire thicket of overgrown pines, barricades my view. It’s not important. It’s not like seeing a light on over there would have made me feel safer.
I head up to my bedroom, leaving on all the downstairs lights. Tad will probably have a heart attack when he sees the electric bill, so at least some good will come from this.
It’s strange how everything looks different, sounds different when there’s nobody in the house but you.
I head into my bathroom to brush my teeth. I’m far too lazy to take off my makeup or change into my PJ’s. Besides, jeans and a sexy shirt will totally come in handy when I run out the front door screaming.
A dark figure appears behind me, causing me to jump and hold my toothbrush out like it’s some diabolical lethal weapon someone might actually fear.
“Who’s there?” I shout. I spit the foam out of my mouth and wipe the excess off my lips with a towel.
I felt someone there behind me, felt them.
A loud thump emanates from downstairs, which sends me immediately searching my jeans for my cell.
“Shit!” I panic. I distinctly remember leaving it in the kitchen next to the sink, which happens to be the most distal point from where I’m standing. And thanks to Tad’s super human tightwad capabilities there is no landline in this freaking house!
A sharp rasping sound rubs against my window and sends me sailing downstairs in a dramatic screaming tirade.
My heart tries to jackhammer its way out my chest as I speed over to my phone, but it’s gone.
“Skyla?” My name echoes behind me.
I freeze.
In my entire life I have only peed my pants once. I was in the fifth grade, and Laura Henderson my then best friend had me laughing so hard I created a small river of urine going down the steps of where we were seated during our lunch hour. I’ll never forget that feeling, watching helpless as the concrete darkened around me, as my shame spread along with it.
I turn slow towards the glass back door that leads to a tiny porch. I’ve yet to visit the back of the house, and for all I know there could be an entire graveyard out there.
A woman with shaggy hair waves at me. Her erratic smile far too enthusiastic for my liking. I can’t make out her body, just a face. She jumps and her eyes shut tight, her tongue bulges out of her mouth. A brown shredded rope cinches around her neck. It goes straight up past the door, and as she starts to spin, her hair flattens itself out against the glass.
A violent series of screams sail out from my vocal chords. I spot my phone on the table, and run to the closet and call Brielle.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Party
The light from the crack in the curtains tickles me until I shove a pillow over my face and try to continue with the pleasant dream deprived coma I was experiencing.
The volume on the TV rises, and I peek from under the pillow to find Brielle munching on a bag of chips with wild hair and mascara smudged down to her cheek.
“Crazy night.” I say forcing myself to sit up. “Thanks for coming.”
Soon as Brielle got here we went straight to the back door to find a bushy red branch had fallen off one of the back trees. It must have been an illusion. I was so tired and alone. It couldn’t have been real. Could it?
“I’ve sent a mass text out, so we should have a ton of people.” She says playing with her phone.
“A ton of people?” A part of me is still sleeping.
“At the party. You have anything we could put out for food? Or never mind, I told them nine o’clock so everyone should have eaten by then. My mom has these cool wireless speakers I’ll bring over and hook it up to my iPod. There’s a…”
“Stop. I’m not having a party. You can mass text everyone back and let them know it’s been canceled.”
“I can’t do that. Besides, school starts in a few weeks. Doesn’t your mother want you to meet everybody?” She gives a sly grin. “Killing two birds with one stone.”
“She does.” And doesn’t Logan want me busy tonight so there would be no way I could be sneaking around at the council meeting? “So I guess we’re going to have a party.” And I’m going to kill two birds with one stone.
***
Brielle brings the speakers over, and before I realize what’s hit me I’m enjoying the music emanating from the entire downstairs, including the driveway.
Brielle suggests we leave the lights off and open all the curtains, but it’s pitch black both inside and out, so I pull a bunch of camping lanterns from the garage and set them out all over.
“It looks so cool!” I hold both Logan’s hands and jump up and down like an idiot in an effort to look convincing. Then I drop them like he’s got the plague and head over to the front door securing it open for the onslaught. A few kids are already hanging out on the porch, and according to Bree tons more are on the way. I need to convince Logan I’m not going anywhere tonight, that this party is my pet project and that I want to be here to oversee the whole thing, which I sort of do. Lousy night to have a faction meeting, if you ask me.
“So maybe after, Gage and I will drop by.” Logan comes over and wraps his arm around my shoulder. So long as he’s not touching my flesh I don’t have to work so hard on blanking out my mind.
A crowd wanders in and soon the downstairs starts filling with bodies.
“So how come Brielle spent the night?”
“I got scared.” I pull a face. I don’t tell him about the woman dangling from a rope out the backdoor. I may be headed for the loony bin, but I don’t need to let the entire world in on my journey.
“You should have called me.” He pushes into me gently, landing my back flat against the wall. His lips press against mine. I try and enjoy his deep wonderful kiss while trying to create a force field of white noise within my brain.
He pulls back and gives a curious look.
“What? I can’t enjoy the fruit of your lips?” I ask.
His eyes twitch around the room as though he senses something.
“What’s wrong?” His expression has me worried. Maybe he detects something or someone left over from the night before.
“What happened last night?”
“Nothing. A branch fell down and hit the window. I freaked out.”
“There’s something else.” He walks through the river of bodies, and down to the kitchen. His head turns slowly towards the backdoor. His eyes widen with surprise.
I hide behind his shoulder and peek out carefully. The last thing I want to do is scream like a maniac in front of the entire student body of West Paragon High.
It’s Michelle. The door’s wide open, and Michelle’s sitting there smoking a cigarette flanked by Emily and Lexy, creating a disgusting cloud of bitchiness.
Logan’s chest rumbles against me as though he were going to say something, b
ut doesn’t.
“What did you think you were going to see?” I ask in a hushed tone.
“Something evil.” He whispers back.
“Looks like you were right.”
“Looks like I was.” His chest trembles with an inaudible laugh.
“I didn’t want to tell you this last night, but Chloe thought this place was haunted.”
I take in a sharp breath. That explains more than a few things.
“I can spend the night if you like.” He offers.
His offer is like a balm to my newfound misery, although I question if he’s telling the truth or utilizing scare tactics so he can stay over.
“No. I have Bree.”
“Well I’m coming by after the meeting anyway.” Besides, there’s something I want to show you that you may not have discovered about the house.
“That it grows eight furry legs at night, and it’s really a tarantula?”
His brows knit together.
Gage pops up behind him and slaps him on the shoulder.
“Time.”
“Alright.” He takes me by the hand and we move swiftly towards the front door. “Expect me after midnight.”
He drops a kiss on my forehead and disappears out into the crowd.
I’ll be seeing you long before then, I muse. Only you won’t know it.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Awakening
I found Nicholas Haver’s address this afternoon in a Paragon Island phonebook at the foot of Tad’s desk, in the office. I thought I’d have to dig for hours, scan the Internet, pick Brielle’s mom for information, but it was all so easy.
I head upstairs and change from my jeans, and black and white top, to a charcoal running suit. I want to make every effort to blend into the night. I’m only planning on skirting the windows and doors to get a feel of what’s going on—eaves drop if I’m lucky. Besides, didn’t Logan say you needed to be thirty to go to one of these? Or maybe you needed to be thirty to learn all of the benefits? Who the hell cares? All I know is if Logan and Gage think they can go, so do I.
“Hey.” Brielle grabs me by the arm as I dig out the spare key to the minivan from out of a junk drawer in the kitchen. “Isn’t this great?”
Ellis Harrison is shadowing her. I remember him from the party he threw when I first got here. He’s tall, good looking and his teeth glow in the dark. I don’t know why Brielle doesn’t go for him instead of Drake—so many choices to make, and such poor choices being made.
“I gotta make a food run. I’m starving.”
“Are you kidding?” Clearly she wasn’t expecting me to leave my own party.
“No really. I’ll get a ton of food and be right back.”
“You can’t feed all these people!”
Something in the living room breaks, sounds like glass, and I’m praying it’s not a window.
We head over to find a bottle exploded all over the floor.
“I’ll get some towels.” Brielle offers rushing back to the kitchen.
I ditch out the front, the cold night air penetrates right through my clothes with a glacial chill, making me wish I’d brought a jacket.
“I’ll go with you.”
I hadn’t even noticed Ellis at my heels until I unlock the minivan and he piles in.
“You can’t come.” I shoo him out with my fingers as I start the engine. Technically I don’t have my driver’s license. I was way too petrified to drive around L.A. so I took my sweet time getting my learners permit. Plus, it probably didn’t help that my father died in a fiery freeway collision right about the same time. Nothing to dampen your zest for driving like a little vehicular homicide.
“I want to.” He’s quick to buckle himself in, and for a moment I consider taking him. He won’t have to know why I’m sneaking around. He can sit in the car. He can protect me from freaky women who like to say my name and hang themselves, and I can buy him donuts afterwards. It’s made of win.
I shake myself back to reality.
“Get out of the car!” I bark.
“OK, OK.” He holds up his hands in an effort to quell my aggression.
“I mean thanks, but I can’t drive anyone under twenty-one for the next two decades. It’s a special stipulation on my driver’s permit.”
His forehead wrinkles.
“Liar, liar pants on fire.” He says it calm and eerily out of cadence. “You’re going to see Logan. He’s not the right one for you, but have it your way.” He gets out of the car.
I roll down the window.
“What do you mean?” I shout after him.
“I mean, I am.” He holds out his arms while walking backwards up the driveway.
Dream on.
***
Nicholas Haver lives behind the gates.
Shit.
I slam my hand against the steering wheel.
The guard at the gate all but laughed when I told him I was going to visit my friend Nick. He went over the list twice before making me circle back around to the main road. Then it hits me. Ellis Harrison.
I fly back down to the house, which eats up another twenty minutes and find Ellis standing in a circle of smoke with two guys I don’t know.
“Ellis.” I hiss.
The whites of his eyes glint.
“You got food?” He asks with glassy eyes.
The air smells funny. I see one of the guys pass a joint to the other, and I take in a sharp breath of air.
“You guys can’t do this here!” I try and ventilate the area with my hands. “I’m going to go to jail or prison for this. Plus my mom is totally going to kill me!”
“Relax.” Ellis snaps out of his stupor and looks surprisingly normal.
“I changed my mind. I want you to come with me.” I drag him by the elbow and shove him into the passenger seat.
I run around to the other side and click on my seatbelt.
“Buckle up.” I yell, backing out the driveway in haste.
“Where we headed?”
“Your place.”
“There’s no food at my place.”
“We’re not headed there for the food.” I try and sound mysterious like maybe he might get lucky so he won’t protest and screw up my chances of getting behind the gates. Nicholas Haver’s house is miles away from the front gate, and I don’t much like running around the dark in the middle of the night.
We drive in silence. Or at least I think we do until he lets out a loud series of strange noises and I realize he’s snoring.
As we arrive at the gate I shake him abruptly by the shoulder.
“Help you?” The guard asks peering into the car.
“I’m taking Ellis Harrison home. Right, Ellis?”
He gazes at the night security guard through heavily glazed eyes.
“Hey there.” The security guard salutes him and the barricade arm rises.
I roll past the guardhouse and into the quiet solitude of the backcountry of Paragon Estates.
I’m in.
I’m going to the faction council meeting—with a very stoned Ellis Harrison.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Just call me Angel
“I’m over here on the right.” Ellis points out, bright eyed and bushy tailed.
I pass it up trying to visualize the map, which I stupidly forgot to bring with me. I know he lives on a cul-de-sac called Saddle drive, and he’s the only house on the block so it can’t be that hard to find. It veered right off Steamboat, which is the main thoroughfare.
“Turn around right here.” He instructs.
“I’m not going to your house. Would you like me to drop you off?”
“No,” he says suspiciously. “You passed up his house too.” His being Logan’s.
“Not going there either. I need to pick up something for a friend at Nicholas Haver’s house. You know him?”
“Big Nick?” There’s a note of disbelief in his tone.
“Yeah, big Nick. So what does big Nick do anyway?” No point in
letting my imagination run wild if Ellis is willing to blab.
“Construction.”
“Oh right. That makes total sense.” Not really.
Ellis instructs me on the details of how to get there, and after several twists and turns down unmarked roadways I come to realize there is no way I could have gotten here on my own. So it’s sort of a God thing Ellis is with me.
The street is loaded with cars. I park high up on the ridge behind a giant shrub and get out of the minivan.
Ellis joins me.
“You mind waiting in the car?”
“You’re parked like a mile away. I’ll come with. Besides, I like Nick. I helped him do an addition last spring.”
“OK. But I have to tell you something. I’m not really here to get anything from Nick. I have to ask you to wait by the car. This is strictly female business. I’m actually here to see his wife.” Who I pray actually exists.
His face darkens.
“Well if you put it that way.” He leans against the minivan and crosses his arms.
Stay. I shout at him mentally as though he were a dog.
It’s beyond dark so I open up my cell and let it illuminate a pathway over to the property. I round out the back and find a giant structure, like Ellis’s pool house only ten times that size. The lights are on and I can see a bunch of heads sitting around the periphery of the room.
I tiptoe across the long stretch of yard with no bushes, or trees, or structure to obscure me. I glide across something greasy with my left foot and it’s not until the fowl odor hits my nose that I realize I stepped in a pile of dog droppings.
Gross.
I smear my shoe along the grass until I get most of it off.
If there’s dog crap, where’s the dog?
I don’t waste any time analyzing the situation, instead I hug the back wall, slightly out of breath from the long trek over.
Voices emanate from inside. The window clear on the opposite end is open so I get on all fours and crawl over.