by Willow Rose
Amy hugged me, her short arms barely reaching around me. "Good to see that you're all right," she said.
I nodded. "I am."
"Your mom never found out that you were gone last night?" Jazmine asked, sounding strangely cheerful and friendly toward me.
I shook my head. "At least, I don't think so. She seems very suspicious of me and, for a while, earlier today I thought she was onto me, but that's not why I asked to meet."
Jayden nodded. "What's up then?"
"I overheard my mom talking to your dad on the phone," I said.
"Really?"
"I thought your parents hated one another," Jazmine said.
"For people who hate each other, they spend an awful lot of time talking and meeting up," I said. "That's what’s so odd about this entire ordeal. But it supports Jayden's suspicion that they too are…vampires."
I looked at Jayden as I said the word. His reaction was that of embarrassment. I knew how he felt. I had to admit, I felt so incredibly ashamed of who my parents were, it was almost unbearable. Now it looked like he had to carry that burden too.
"But what did they talk about?" Amy asked. "I’m guessing you didn't get us all here just because your mom talked to his dad. There has to be more to it than that, am I right?"
"Yes," I said. "I think…I think they have Melanie."
Jazmine gasped and cupped her mouth.
"And there’s more. I saw her today. In the mountains."
"What were you doing in the mountains?" Jayden asked.
"My mom had this idea that we should go on a field trip, and I thought she took me there to…kill me or at least have me scared enough to admit that I was at the church last night, but that wasn't why we were there at all. She wanted to find Melanie and believed she had run for the mountains. There were tracks and then my mom…took off. I couldn't see her. Not until I took the car and I spotted her and…Melanie, then I…well, I ran the car into my mom and then lied about it being an accident afterward. I think I got away with it, but I’m not sure. I never know with my mom."
"Wow," Jayden said.
"You seriously ran the car into your own mother?" Amy asked.
I nodded. "I knew that…I hoped…well, I was pretty sure that she wouldn't be hurt, and I was right."
"Still. It had to have been scary…" Jayden stated. "I’m not sure I could do that."
"I had to. To save Melanie. She managed to get away, but apparently, it was in vain."
"Are you sure they have her?" Jazmine asked.
I shrugged. "Of course, I’m not sure. I just heard my mom say, 'so you have her?'"
"It might be something else they were talking about," Amy said.
"No. Robyn is right," Jayden said. "I just overheard my parents talking about it in our living room. They’re afraid your mother wants to kill her, get rid of her, and I fear that I might have overheard them agree that it is the best solution."
"Oh, dear Lord," Jazmine said.
"We need to find her," Amy said. "Before it’s too late."
"I was afraid you were going to say that," Jazmine said.
Chapter Forty-Two
The old abandoned house."
I looked up at the creepy old house in front of me, lurking behind the iron fence and the lush garden. Last time we were in there, I saw my parents unfold into vicious bloodsucking creatures and, frankly, that had terrified me to the core, watching them try to kill Melanie like that. Even my brother had been…in the shape of a bat-like creature, fangs and wings and everything, trying to suck her blood.
Jayden stood next to me, his arm brushing up against mine. "I know…" he said. "It's scary to have to go back in there. I feel it too."
I looked at him. "You feel it too?"
"The thudding? The drumming in my chest? Oh, yes. It feels like something is calling for you, right? I’ve heard it since I was a young child. I can tell by your face right now that you feel it too."
"And you never told me this?" I asked. "I thought I was the only one. That there was something seriously wrong with me."
"Nope. Nothing wrong with you, I mean apart from the fact that your parents are vampires. I have a feeling it has to do with what and who our parents are. Somehow, this house is connected to them and, thereby, to us as well."
I exhaled, thinking I hadn't looked at it that way before. I didn't like the way Jayden talked about it like we were somehow bound to this thing, to this destiny just because our parents were. I liked to believe there was a way that I could not end up like them or like my brother.
"Are you coming?" Amy asked.
Jayden held the gate for me and we walked into the yard. I glanced up the street toward my house, hoping and praying my mom wouldn't see me. I had left my phone by the lake covered by my jacket, so she wouldn't track me to where I really was. If we moved fast, I could still be back before my thirty minutes were over.
Amy opened the big door with the emblems on it and we entered the hall. Fear struck me when I thought about the last time I was there, but I shook it. At least it was broad daylight now, so the place had to be less scary and there were no parents here this time.
"Let's split up," Jayden said, "and search the place."
"I’m not walking around here all alone," Jazmine said and looked around with terror in her eyes.
"All right," Jayden said. "Let's split into two groups. Robyn and I will take the left side of the house, while Amy and Jazmine take the right side. Everyone okay with that?"
I gave him a look of surprise. Why would he do that to Jazmine? She would get jealous. Was he trying to make her jealous? I didn't like it. I turned to look at Jazmine, expecting her to protest, but to my surprise, she just smiled and approached Amy.
"Sounds good to me," Amy said.
"All right, let's hurry," Jayden said. "Robyn needs to be back in less than twenty minutes. If she’s not, all hell breaks loose, literally."
Chapter Forty-Three
We began in the basement where we had seen them before but found it empty. We then walked through the hall and continued through what looked like an old dining room, calling Melanie’s name. Paintings of old people seemed to be staring at us from the walls, tracking our every move. Being in the house made me feel sick, as the thudding in my chest continued and even grew in power. At one point, it was so powerful that I gasped and held a hand to my heart.
Jayden felt it too. He turned around and grabbed my hand in his. Our eyes locked as the thudding continued and made me lose my breath.
"What is it?"
He shrugged. "I don't know, but we have to ignore it. Come. Let's see if we can find the stairs to get up to the second floor. See if they might have hidden her up there."
He pulled my hand and we rushed through the dining room into another big room with many statues and paintings and vases with small hand-painted drawings on them. I stopped, and my hand slid out of Jayden's as I approached the giant vase standing on the floor; it was as tall as me.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Look," I said and stared at the drawings.
Jayden approached it and looked too. "They're…they're vampires?" he said, puzzled.
I nodded. "But there’s more…look at those over there?" I pointed at some other figures painted in black on the vase.
"Wolves," he said and looked at me.
"It seems like they're…look here…" I pointed at another drawing on the side of it.
"They're fighting?"
I nodded. "Apparently, wolves and Vampires don't mix well."
"Makes sense why our parents are so eager to get rid of Melanie Peterson then," he said. "If it has always been this way."
He pulled my shoulder. "We should get going. Before your mom finds out you're not by the lake and before they realize we’re in here."
"Okay," I said and followed him out of the room. We found a set of stairs and walked up. They seemed to go on forever, winding through the house, before we ended in a hallway that appeared to be as long as th
e eye could see. Doors were on each side of it. Many doors.
I sighed. "There have to be at least fifteen doors here. Fifteen rooms to search."
He shrugged. "We should get to it then. If you take the ones on the left, I'll go right."
I followed him down the old hallway, feeling very uncomfortable as we got deeper and deeper into this odd house that seemed to grow bigger and bigger the more time we spent in it. I didn't recall it being this big from the outside.
I tried the first door. It complained loudly as I opened it.
"Melanie?"
Inside, I found an old bed. I had expected it to be covered in dust and spider webs since it hadn't been used or cleaned in ages, but it wasn’t that way. The room was as neat as if my mother had just cleaned it. I remembered the story of the young boy who had lived here and disappeared and wondered if it was haunted. Was that why no one had used it for all those years? Why it had been empty and abandoned for what seemed like forever? Who were the owners?
"Not in here," I said as I closed the door again.
"Not here either," Jayden said as he closed the door across from me.
We continued. The carpet we walked on was thick and quieted our steps. We reached yet another set of doors and opened them simultaneously. On my side was just another bedroom, just as impeccably clean as the first one.
"Another bedroom," I said and turned to look for Jayden. He came out of the other room. "Same here."
We continued like that over and over again, finding each and every room to be very much like the previous one, down to even the smallest details such as the beds and even the dressers and closets. It was quite curious but made it a lot easier to look through all of them, until we reached what seemed to be the end of the hallway. Then, we looked behind us and realized there were just as many rooms and doors ahead of us as behind us. And both ways looked exactly the same. We realized we didn't know which way we had come from and which one we were going toward.
We didn't know how to get back.
Chapter Forty-Four
We came from there," Jayden said and pointed.
I shook my head and pointed to the opposite side. "No, we didn't. We came from that side. I’m sure we did."
"But you're wrong. We walked into the hallway and then I took all the rooms on the left and you on the right."
I shook my head again. "No, it was the other way around…I think."
"Well it should be easy enough to determine," he said and walked to the right. "If we walk to the end of the hallway, we should find the stairs."
I followed him down the hallway, feeling very intimidated by the many paintings of faces staring at us, following us closely with their eyes. As we reached the end of the hallway, we turned the corner, and found…another hallway with many doors. Jayden stopped with a snort.
"Okay. I guess it was the other way, then." He turned around and ran down the hallway where we had come from, but as we reached the end and turned the corner, we stood at the end of yet another hallway.
"What the…?" he looked at me. "This can't be right?"
"But…but we came from…" our eyes met in the sparse light.
"We're lost," Jayden said.
I refused to believe it and rushed down the hallway, only to get to another hallway, then rushed down that one only to find myself at a crossroads, two hallways, both looking exactly the same as the previous. Jayden came up behind me.
"What are we going to do?" I asked.
Jayden groaned. "I…I don't know."
"We can't keep walking, can we?"
"I’m afraid it feels like we're only walking deeper and deeper into the house. It's like…it's like it's swallowing us," he said.
I looked up at him, sensing the beating in my chest. I had always felt like this house was alive somehow, like it was its very heart I could hear when I was close to it. Had this monster swallowed us? Was it going to devour us? Keep us here till we withered away? Make us run around from hallway to hallway till we couldn't walk anymore?
That was how it felt.
Jayden walked to one of the rooms and opened the door. The room was exactly the same as all the others.
"I don't like this," I said. "How are we going to get home?"
He walked into the room, then approached the window and pulled the curtains to the side. He pulled the window open and peeked out. The fresh air hit my face and made me feel better, calmed me a little. I rushed to him and looked out as well, but to my great disappointment when I realized that we were up so very high there was no way we could get down that way. It was taller than any high building I had ever been in, the cars below so far away they looked like ants.
"What the heck is this?" I asked and pulled back. Heights always made me uncomfortable, but this was ridiculous.
"I don't remember climbing any tower?"
Jayden shook his head. "I don't think we did. I think it’s all an illusion."
I looked at him. "Magic?"
He nodded, then reached out his hand into the air. As he did, he touched something, a shield of some sort that moved like blubber—or my mom's smoothies—wobbling back and forth in the air.
Chapter Forty-Five
We're being tricked?" I said. "How?"
He shook his head. "I don't know. A spell of a sort, maybe. It doesn't matter. Now we just need to figure out how to get home. If this is all magic, then there is still a way for us to get out."
The house rumbled beneath us and I almost fell to the ground. I stared at Jayden, terrified.
"It's like the house is freakin' alive."
"Fits well with the thudding we always hear, I guess," he said and leaned out the window again to touch the blubbery mass, poking his finger into it, causing it to move.
"It seems to go all the way down," he said. "Enveloping the entire house."
"Can we break through it?" I asked.
Jayden poked his finger into it and made it move. "Maybe if we poke hard enough?" he said.
"Or maybe we just need more force?" I said.
I went to the window and closed my eyes to not accidentally look down at the ground several hundred feet below us, or so it seemed, then stuck my hand into the blubber. It moved forward as I pressed it, but I couldn't poke through it.
I pulled back inside and stared out at it for a little while, an idea shaping in my mind.
"I know that look," he said. "It usually doesn't end well for any of us."
"It will this time. It has to," I said, determined. I had to get back before my mom discovered I was gone. If Melanie was in this house, then we weren't going to find her as long as this strange spell kept us from moving around freely. We had to get out of there, no matter the cost. The clock was ticking.
"Step aside," I said.
"Why?" he asked.
"Watch me," I said and walked back to the end of the room, then started to run. As fast as I could, I stormed across the wooden floors, then leaped out of the window, arms first, closing my eyes and keeping them closed as I slung through the air, the ground lingering hundreds of feet below us. I plunged into the blubbery mass, fingers first. It felt like diving into Jell-O and, seconds later, I was through it, tumbling onto the grass in the lush backyard of the old house. I landed on my stomach and hurt myself, but nothing bad. I opened my eyes and looked up, only to realize we had been on the second floor all the time. A second later, Jayden plunged toward me like he was falling from the sky, and landed next to me with a loud thud.
"Jayden, are you all right?" I asked.
He laughed and rolled onto his back, then approached me, grabbed me by the waist, and planted a kiss on my lips.
I was taken completely by surprise, but I let it happen, closing my eyes and tasting him, finally receiving the kiss I had longed for all this time. He grabbed my face between his hands and laughed again.
"You're crazy. Do you know that?"
I chuckled and nodded. "Yes."
He grabbed my hand in his and, as he helped me up, I turne
d around and spotted Amy and Jazmine standing in the yard, looking at us. My heart dropped as I laid my eyes on Jazmine.
Did she see us? Did she see the kiss?
"This house is crazy," Amy almost screamed. "We got completely lost in there. It is haunted. I tell ya' this place is haunted! If Melanie is in there, then she is lost…forever. The only reason we made it out is because somehow Jazmine found a way out by following a roach. Yes, you heard me right, a freakin’ roach showed us the way out."
Jayden pulled my hand and I was surprised that he didn't even try to hide anything from Jazmine or try to make her feel better.
"We need to get Robyn home," he said. "Let's get out of here."
"You don't have to say that twice," Amy said and turned to walk. We all followed her into the street.
We went to grab my phone by the lake, and I said my goodbyes to all of them, making sure I came home alone, jogging.
"Wait," Jayden said before I left.
I stopped. He reached into the lake, and got his hand wet, then approached me. He came up close to me, then reached his hand up and wet my forehead with water, gently rubbing his hand against my skin.
"There," he said. "Now you look like you’ve been running."
Chapter Forty-Six
Adrian was sitting in the kitchen when I came home, my heart still throbbing in my throat. He grinned when he saw me.
"So, you're jogging now?"
My mom was standing by the sink cutting up beets. She turned and looked at me. I gave her a smile and tried to seem exhausted. On her apron, it read, GOT BLOOD?
She smiled back. "Don't tease your little sister. I think it’s great that she wants to stay in shape." She walked closer and wiped water off my forehead with her finger, then looked at it in the light. "Seems like it was quite the workout there, honey."
