Echoes

by Michelle Rowen

  No, I was frozen in place because of something I’d just seen.

  Or rather, something I hadn’t seen.

  When Ethan rolled his shirt sleeves up, I’d gotten a glimpse of the skin beneath. The wound, the one from the knife the Upyr used yesterday, the one that had bled so much I thought he’d need stitches to close it up...

  It had already healed.

  Chapter 11

  There had to be another explanation. There had to be.

  But the longer I thought about it, the fewer explanations I could think of. There really was only one possibility left staring me in the face.

  Ethan was an Upyr.

  He had the strength, he had the knowledge, and he had the healing ability. It’s very likely he’d hypnotized Bree into forgetting about that journal—a journal he might have found personally threatening. Maybe it said something important, something that her great-great-grandfather knew about fighting against Upyri.

  I was so distracted by all of this that Ms. Carlson even pulled me aside in English and asked if I was ill. I shrugged it off but she insisted I head to the nurse’s office. Instead I sat in the hall by my locker for twenty minutes with my knees pulled up tight to my chest.

  By the end of the day I had managed to compose myself. At the very least, when I stared at my reflection in the girls’ washroom, I didn’t look like I was ready to freak out.

  I looked calm, controlled. I had to remain that way or I was in big trouble.

  Bigger trouble.

  In both classes we shared, I studied Ethan’s face, trying to see any sign that he was blatantly lying to me, using me, lulling me into a false sense of security before he killed me and let one of his friends take over my body.

  I tried to pretend I hadn’t started to piece things together until they began to resemble an ugly Frankenstein monster.

  Ethan wanted to go to the warehouse after school to try to trap a monster. I’d offered to be bait.

  As far as I was concerned, the plan was still on.

  “That Upyr might not come back this quickly,” he warned. “He’s off finding a new shell. That could take time.”

  “It’s worth a shot.” I forced the words out.

  “I agree.”

  “Where are the other Upyri? Still trapped somewhere?” I looked around nervously, a line of perspiration sliding down my back.

  “Yeah, probably. We’ll find out where when we get some answers from the Upyr. I’m guessing that they’re waiting for a certain time to help the others escape. The only question is when? And how can we stop that from happening?”

  I swallowed. “Good question.”

  I heard a buzz and pulled my phone from my bag, glancing at the screen and grimacing at what it said.

  It’s over.

  Just two words, but I knew exactly what they meant.

  “You okay?” Ethan asked.

  There was a loaded question if ever I’d heard one. “Peter just officially dumped me.”

  There was silence for a moment. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I was going to break up with him anyway. It’s better that he did it first.”

  He didn’t reply to that, but I felt him watching me.

  We walked the rest of the way in silence. The sight of the abandoned warehouse looming in the distance filled me with icy apprehension.

  I shifted the strap of my bag to my other shoulder, trying very hard to stay strong and look relaxed. “So tell me what I should do if I’ve got one of them chasing me. Walk me through it.”

  He looked uneasy. “I’ll be with you the whole time.”

  I shook my head. “No, you need to stay hidden.”

  “Yeah, fine. Okay.” He glanced around at our surroundings. “So if you can get him here, run in through these doors.”

  I followed him into the unpleasant but familiar dark, damp and dusty interior of the warehouse. He reached up to flick on the single light, which cast the room in spooky shadows. The thick metal door to what we’d be using as a prison had a small open window on it, about four inches square at eye level. The key hung on its chain next to it.

  I took this all in with a sweeping glance, my heart pounding hard and fast.

  “So how am I supposed to get him in the room?” I asked.

  He moved toward the door, looking inside, before glancing at me. “A firm shove should do it. And don’t worry, I’ll be able to help once you get him this far.” He pulled out a knife from the bag he carried. “I’m armed now. Silver blade. I swear I won’t leave this at home again.”

  He placed the knife and bag on the table next to me.

  “Do you have a phone on you?” I asked. “My battery died right after I got Peter’s text and I want to call my mom and let her know I won’t be home for a bit.”

  “Sure.” He fished into his pocket and pulled out his phone and handed it to me.

  “Thanks.” I looked up into his face trying to find the answers I knew wouldn’t be there.

  “You’re trembling.” His expression shifted to concern as he stroked a long strand of dark hair off my forehead. “I swear, it’s going to be okay, Liv. I won’t let them hurt you. No matter what I have to do, I won’t let that happen. Try not to be scared.”

  “No?” I swallowed hard. “I’m standing in a dirty warehouse with a boy I barely know, getting ready to trap a monster who wants to kill me. You don’t think I should be scared?”

  He grinned a little at that. “Well, when you put it that way...”

  I drew up on my tip toes, slid my hand behind his head, and kissed him. He inhaled sharply as if he hadn’t expected this, but wrapped his arms around my waist to pull me closer to him.

  “You keep surprising me,” he whispered when we parted.

  “Do I?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good surprises or bad surprises?”

  “Good ones.”

  I exhaled shakily. “I’m sorry, Ethan. If I’m wrong about this, I’m so, so sorry.”

  His brows drew together. “Sorry? For what?”

  I braced my hands against his chest and shoved him backward with every last ounce of my strength. He staggered the couple of steps into the room behind him. I grabbed the door and slammed it shut. He grabbed for a handle that didn’t exist on his side of the door. His wide eyes appeared at the tiny window.

  “Liv, what are you doing?”

  I was shaking all over, but I grabbed the key from the side of the door and put the chain around my neck so the key hung next to my locket. My lips still tingled from the kiss.

  “Olivia! What are you doing?” he demanded again.

  I turned my back on him and went to the table, shoving his knife into his bag and throwing in the cell phone along with it.

  “I said I was sorry. I meant it. But I don’t know what else to do right now.” I grabbed my own bag and pulled out a bottle of water and a wrapped sandwich that I’d bought earlier in the school cafeteria when I’d prepared for this, moving close enough to the door to shove both items through the small window.

  He looked very confused. “Olivia, let me out of here. We need to talk about this.”

  “Are you an Upyr?” I was barely able to get the sentence out since it hurt my throat so much.

  His eyes widened. A heavy pause wrought with his surprise hung between us. “What? I’ve been helping to fight against them. I’ve been telling you everything I know about them. Why would I do that if I’m one of them?”

  “I honestly don’t know.” I shook my head, feeling my brain rattle around inside. “I don’t know, I don’t know. But there have been too many things...too many weird things that I can’t figure out. You made Bree forget about the journal—I don’t know how, but you did! And you shoved Peter so hard this morning—nobody has that kind of strength. Nobody human.”

  “Olivia—”

  “And your knife wound...the one from yesterday. It’s already healed. I saw it, Ethan. Explain that to me if you can.”

  He stared at m
e through the small window, his gaze fixed in shock and confusion that I would trick him into a locked room with a kiss.

  “There’s an explanation, Liv. There is.”

  “What? That you’re a special kind of vampire hunter? One who heals up all nice and fast? Maybe you’re, like, half-Upyri and you use that strength inside you to fight the monsters. I think I’ve seen that movie before. It’s fiction. And this is...I don’t know what the hell this is, Ethan. But there’s only one way for me to find out. Besides, this was your plan in the first place. If you’re human, then that water and sandwich should be enough to last you for a day. If you’re not—then it won’t be.”

  Anger replaced the confusion in his gaze. He slammed his fist against the metal door. “Damn it, Olivia. Let me out of here right now!”

  I moved closer to the tiny window, but not close enough that he could reach through it and grab me. “I have no choice, don’t you see that? If I’m wrong, then you have every right to hate me for doing this. But if I’m right—if you killed the real Ethan and stole his body, then I hate you. I hate you so much I’ll want to watch you burn.”

  The sound of him yelling my name echoed in my ears as I ran out of the warehouse.

  Chapter 12

  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.”