Destiny (Vanish Book Four)

by Daise, Sonny

  “Honestly, I don’t have the first clue of where to begin,” he sighed. “We need to be ready, though I’m not totally sure how to do that. Then, we need to find your father and kill him.”

  “Yeah, I know. I just have a really bad feeling about all of this. Your mom, Grace, everyone we left behind could be in danger.”

  “Everyone…” he mumbled. I turned toward him and for one moment, we shared an intense look.

  “Rose,” I whispered.

  I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before. He had tried to use her to get to me once, and I had no doubt in my mind that he would do it again. This time I knew he would be smarter about it. He would keep her, the third piece to his puzzle.

  I threw on a black hoodie and gathered my hair into a bun, then I put the hood up, and we were both running out the front door.

  We ran through the trees so fast I couldn’t even see where I was going, but I knew I was headed in the right direction. When we finally made it to the car, we both jumped in. Dante started the car, spun it around and began driving down the winding road at about seventy miles per hour. I held on, trying not to let him see my fear. A part of me was afraid we would die in a fiery wreck before we made it to the hospital.

  He pulled up to the front doors of the hospital, and I jumped out. I ran through the doors, and people looked at me, alarmed, but I had no time to slow down. I knew when my father, and my sisters saw that I had traveled this far away from the hospital, they would take their chance.

  I ran to the door, and my heart slowed down just a bit when I saw Rose lying in her hospital bed. I went over to her and sat down. It didn’t look like her condition had changed much. Then, I noticed a piece of paper rolled up and stuck behind her ear. I pulled it out slowly—it was from my father.

  We’re far past trying to reason with you Scarlett, you betrayed us. So let me make you a deal. You come to us tomorrow night at midnight. We’ll meet in the parking lot of the old abandoned factory on Grove Street. Come alone, and I won’t kill every-single person you’ve ever cared about. If you don’t, I’m starting here, with Violet and Rose.

  I dropped the paper to the floor. My hands were shaking, and I couldn’t breathe. I had no other options; I would have to do this. I picked the paper up and crumped it into a ball, and then I stashed it away in my pocket.

  “I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” I whispered to Rose. “Not again.”

  “She’s okay,” Dante sighed as he walked through the door.

  “Yeah, she is.”

  “Did something happen?” he asked as he stared at my face.

  “No, nothing at all. I just hope she’ll be okay.”

  I went to visit Violet, after all, it might be the last time I would see her. She was fast asleep, and I didn’t want to disturb her. Dante grabbed my hand, and we walked back out to the car.

  He drove slowly the whole way home. He kept asking me every few minutes, if I was sure that I wanted to leave, that I didn’t want to go back. I told him no, that I knew they were safe—for now. He didn’t question me and for that, I was grateful.

  We made it home, and he lay down on the couch. I stood over him and looked down into his eyes, when his brown eyes turned green.

  “We’ve taken on another one of your powers,” Skylar said. “I don’t think Dante knows, just me.”

  “What power, what are you talking about?”

  “I saw something today, as he was heading up to their hospital room. I saw the note Scarlett.”

  “You saw?” I said, dumbfounded.

  “I saw,” he repeated.

  “Well, what do you think I should do, huh? Everyone I know could die if I don’t go.”

  “Yeah, I know that, too. I saw the note, remember?”

  “I have to go alone. You’re going to have to let this go, Skylar.”

  “Yeah,” he cleared his throat, “I know that, but that’s not the only thing I saw….”

  “Well, what is it?” I wondered.

  “You’re going to die. They’re going to get your powers, and then they’re going to kill us all anyway.”

  “No,” I barely whispered. “No. What should I do Skylar? Please tell me what I should do, because I honestly don’t know.”

  “Kill them,” he said simply, as if it was the easiest thing in the world. “I don’t know if anyone should go with you, I don’t know how that would work out. But I do know that you can’t tell Dante, he will stop you.”

  “How am I supposed to keep this from him?”

  “I’ve been saving up my time,” he answered. “I need to go now, but tomorrow night, I’ll take over.”

  “Okay,” my voice trembled.

  His eyes turned back to brown, and I knew I had to get my head straight. I wiped the tears from my eyes and put on a fake smile.

  “What did he do?” Dante asked.

  “Hey, hey, Skylar has helped us out so much, don’t you even try and—”

  “I was joking,” he laughed. “Seriously though, what’s wrong?”

  “I’m just worried about Rose,” I sighed.

  Before he could question me more, there was frantic knocking at the front door. I got up and ran to the door. When I opened it, Grace was standing there with mascara running down her face. She looked at me and smiled a little.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked as I wrapped my arms around her.

  “I—I can’t. I can’t say it, because if I say it…” she trailed off as new tears darkened her already mascara-covered cheeks. “If I say it, then I won’t be able to pretend it isn’t true.”

  “Tell me Grace. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this upset.”

  I led her over to the couch and went to get her a glass of water. Then, I sat down next to her, with my hand on her shoulder.

  “With everything that’s happened, my mother decided it was finally time to come clean.”

  “About what?”

  “My dad… might not be,” she shook her head as more tears ran down. “He might not be my real dad.”

  “What?” I blurted.

  “Yeah, that’s what I said. That’s about all I could say to my mother after that.”

  “So what did she tell you?”

  “She said there’s a chance that a man named Charles might be my father, she didn’t tell me his last name.”

  “I’m so sorry, Grace,” I whispered.

  “Do you think I could stay here?” she asked.

  “Of course,” I said.

  Dante went upstairs to give us some room. Grace and I made some popcorn, huddled up under a blanket, and watched horror movies all night. It was a lot like the old days, and for a while, I forgot about all of my problems. Once Grace fell asleep, however, they all came rushing back to the front of my mind.

  It was eleven o’clock in the morning. That left roughly thirteen hours until my meeting with the Alliance. I got up off the couch and went to go check on Dante. He hadn’t come down since we started watching movies.

  When I reached the top of the stairs, there was nothing but dead silence. I peeked inside each room, unsure of which he would have decided to go in. After I opened every last door, one thing was abundantly clear—Dante wasn’t here. Where had he gone? What was he up to?

  I had no choice but to go out and look for him. I always expected the worst, and this time was no different. I tried to keep my mind clear until I could find out what exactly was wrong.

  I walked through the trees toward the house. Then I went to the apartments. Still no Dante.

  As I stared in front of me, I noticed that the air looked thick. It moved like the air over a barbeque on a hot, summer day. I started to get dizzy, so I looked in a different direction, but it was the same. I couldn’t tell if I was seeing things, or if it was actually there, but if it was there, what was it?

  I walked forward a little bit. It started getting harder and harder to breathe. Soon, the wavy air was moving faster and faster until I could hardly see through it, tho
ugh that could have been from the lack of oxygen.

  Before I even realized I had fallen to my knees, I saw a figure, darting through the trees. No evil can come here, I thought to myself, but I didn’t really believe there was no way around it.

  The figure came closer. Whoever it was, they were thin and wearing a black trench coat. The hood was up, but that was all I could really make out.

  They came closer and closer, until the black of their trench coat was all I could see. I got up and held my fists in front of me. Once I was standing, there was nothing around me but darkness. I heard the click of a lighter, and then standing there with a candle in her hand, I saw Ann.