Ana Awakens: A YA Paranormal Murder Mystery Novel (The Clermont Coven Trilogy Book 1)

by Alina Banks

  “Yeah, about a week ago. None of the news reports said much about what state the body was in, which is something that was similar to before, but there have been rumors going around that Lucas was eaten.” Sabrina shuddered so violently even I could feel it, and James wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. “There were even pictures at one point. When they were found, they were confiscated, but most people saw at least one of them, and seeing Lucas like that…he didn’t deserve to die like that.”

  James looked at me. “It is possible his body was eaten by wild animals after he died. The only people who know for sure are his family, the police, and whoever did the autopsy. Had I made the decision to kill a person, I could imagine leaving them out for the animals to eat. Had someone not come across the body when they were out dog walking, it’s probable that the entire body would have been eaten, and then no one would have known exactly how he died.”

  Nodding, I raked a hand through my hair. “I know talking about that isn’t easy, so thank you for telling me, even though I was right. I really didn’t want to know.”

  “Like I said, things like that don’t happen in Clermont. Not normally.” Sabrina’s eyes met mine. “We have been told to be more careful than usual, which is a sign that something is going on, but there’s no reason for us to believe it’s going to be anything like what happened before.”

  While we walked, waiting for the bell to let us know lunch was over, I thought about asking Sabrina what she knew about what happened before, but those were the questions I knew I wasn’t ready to hear the answers to. Especially not when I was sure it had something to do with my grandparents and why Mom left Clermont. If, for my whole life, I’d been lied to about how they died…Mom wouldn’t have made that choice if she didn’t have a very good reason for it, and yet, I still knew I was going to react with anger, because she hadn’t been honest with me. She was the one who’d always told me that being honest is the most important thing, even if it meant hurting someone. Not being honest would make her a hypocrite.

  Chapter Four

  Even though the teachers were new, the classes were the same as they were before. Well, mostly. History was the only real difference, as everyone else had already started on an assignment, and I needed to make a start on one myself. They’d all had the chance to choose their subjects, because they’d had time to think about it in advance. My history teacher, Miss DeBell, chose a subject for me: the history of Clermont. I wanted to know more about what had happened before Mom left town, so in a way, it was a good thing I’d been given that specific subject. Yet I felt this uncertainty, making me wonder if that was my spider senses tingling again. Was there any reason for them to tingle? I knew my maternal grandparents had been something more than I knew before, so maybe it was partly due to the fact that I was going to be learning more about them for the first time. Whatever I knew about them before, I was sure Mom hadn’t told me the whole truth.

  Walking to the bus stop, I thought about what I’d learned. A student had gone missing, and there was a chance he’d been murdered before the body was left out for animals to eat. I didn’t want to believe something like that was possible, but I didn’t know anything about Clermont. What I did know, was that it was only a couple of weeks ago when Mom made the decision that we were going to be moving back. She owned the house here, so we didn’t need to find somewhere to live, and that made it easier than most of the previous moves. There had been times when we’d spent a month or more in a motel while Mom and Dad hunted down a place for us to live.

  I ran my tongue over my bottom lip, thinking again about Mom’s spider senses. They were definitely connected with how strange things seemed to be in Clermont.

  When the bus arrived, I followed a number of other students inside, including Dante and Wayde. Others stayed at the stop, obviously needing to go a different route. According to Mom, that bus would get me to a stop about half an hour away from the house, which I’d then have to walk. Not a bad thing right then. I needed the time to think, to begin to understand what it meant to be in Clermont, and being able to walk through part of the town would help me to get a sense of how everything felt. I took a seat in the middle, not really paying too much attention to what was going on around me. That was a mistake. My bag started off next to me, until someone grabbed hold of it, and I didn’t have time to stop that from happening. Of course, it was Dante and Wayde. I was the new girl, and I needed to be taught my place. Had I actually cared, I might have tried to get my bag back, but I knew what they wanted. Instead, I just watched as they threw it around.

  When it looked as though they might toss it out the window, someone from the back of the bus made his way down to them. I didn’t have any idea who he was. My bag was in his hands in seconds, and when he turned, I realized it was the boy I’d seen before, sitting with his book under a tree. He placed it on the seat beside me and I gave him a smile. Then he returned to the bullies. For a long time, they all looked at each other. I had no idea if he was saying something to them or not, but their faces went white, and they looked over at me.

  “Sorry, Ana.” I didn’t know which was which, so I couldn’t have said if it was Dante or Wayde who apologized first. “That won’t happen again.”

  “Yeah, sorry,” the other said.

  Nodding, the boy returned to his seat at the back of the bus. Dante and Wayde sat down too. After that, the bus ride was uneventful, apart from one point. A couple of stops before mine, the boy made his way back down the bus, and I looked at him. “Thank you.” My voice was so quiet, I didn’t know if he’d be able to hear it. “You didn’t have to step in like that.”

  “I did.” He glanced at me, smiling. “Let me know if you have any more trouble with them. I’ll make certain that they don’t dare do anything to you again, because they both know better than to cross me.”

  Before I had a chance to ask his name, he was moving again. He got off, and I watched as he walked away. There was something about him that said I could trust him, but I didn’t know if that feeling was something I should trust, or if it was just me getting used to having Mom’s spider senses. If that was what it was. I had no idea, really. All I could do was put things together, in the hope that they all made sense, but there was a chance they didn’t. Maybe I should ask Dad about it. Or Mom. I wanted them to tell me the truth, but at the same time, I still didn’t know if I wanted to know everything. Their decision not to tell me had to have been made for a reason.

  “Hey, sweetheart.” Dad was in the kitchen, looking like he was about to start on dinner, which meant it was likely Mom was working late. “How was your first day?”

  “It was school.” I shrugged. I wanted to mention the things I’d learned. Dad had to know about the Conways. The fact that he’d never said anything either…no matter how I felt I knew, logically, they had a good reason for not saying anything. “Dad…” I nibbled my bottom lip. “Was there anything special about my grandparents?”

  “They were well known in Clermont. Part of the reason your mom wanted to leave town was because she knew she wouldn’t be able to get away from people who knew them, and she needed a chance to come to terms with their deaths in her own way. I’m not going to say I agree with her choices, but I know it wasn’t easy for her to come to terms with it all.” He studied me. “They were often involved in local fundraisers, making sure that Clermont could be the very best town it could be. I know the same would have been expected of Delilah, had she stayed, but she wasn’t like her parents. She was good with people, so she was happy enough at all those functions. It was the fact that she would have needed to give away money when she wasn’t going to be earning anywhere near as much as her dad did. He was good with investments, and we still have the ones he set up, but neither of us are particularly skilled when it comes to that kind of thing.”

  Nodding, I brushed a hand through my hair. I knew, somehow, that Dad still wasn’t telling me the whole truth, but it was enough that I didn’t feel the n
eed to push. “I met the daughter of one of Mom’s old friends, I think.” I shrugged. “Sabrina said her mom knew Mom.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. Like I said, she was always at one of your grandparents’ parties, helping them get donations for good causes in town, and I know it was thanks to them that some of the local businesses managed to stay afloat during bad times back in the late nineties.” Dad smiled. “I’d always liked your mom’s parents, and I do miss them, because they were as much a part of my life as my own parents. Their deaths really did change things for everyone. Not having them here, along with your mom making the decision to leave, meant that some of those businesses ended up failing. Had your mom been here, she might have helped, because one of those businesses was owned by the family of the man who was going to marry her sister.”

  “You know more about Clermont now than you did a couple of days ago.”

  Dad nodded. “I’ve spent a lot of time today going around old haunts, learning what Clermont is like now, because it’s been a long time since I was last here. Going around town…everything was different, but that’s to be expected. I…” He sighed. “It’s been hard, to see it as it is now, and not have been here to go through that. Friends of mine I managed to keep in contact with did let me know a little about what was happening, but your mom didn’t want to hear too much about the old place. The memories would hurt her, so I kept things from her. It wasn’t until she decided we needed to be here for Mom that things changed for her, and I know that’s because she was close to Mom, in the same way I was close to her parents.”

  Dad and I sat in silence as we ate, neither of us felt the need to talk about anything. There was one important thing I hadn’t yet brought up, and I knew I should, because if they didn’t know what was going on, they might well find themselves in danger.

  I looked down at my food for a few seconds, as I tried to find the right words. “You said you went out to explore the town earlier.” I ran my tongue over my dry lips. “Did you hear anything about the school?”

  “You mean the boy who was killed?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yes, I was told about Lucas, and I plan on telling your mom when she gets back, although I don’t see any reason she wouldn’t have heard about it already.” Dad looked at me. “How are you feeling about that?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know. There’s something about it that makes me think we’ve walked into something horrible here. Sabrina said it wasn’t the kind of thing that normally happened here.” I shrugged. “She knew Lucas and was probably one of the people who were out there looking for him.”

  “Before we moved, Lucas’s father was one of my closest friends. I saw him today. He said the worst part was not knowing for two weeks what had happened to his son. Finding Lucas, even in the state he was in, at least meant they could truly grieve for him.” Dad’s eyes met mine. “I want you to promise to be careful. I have no reason to think this was anything more than a horrible one off, but that doesn’t mean you should take risks.”

  “What kinds of risks am I likely to take?” I shook my head. “I might have had a chat with Sabrina and her boyfriend James today, but that doesn’t mean they’re friends, and I have no reason to be going out with the two of them.”

  “Ana…”

  “Sometimes things have worked out, and sometimes they haven’t.” I looked back down at the food in front of me, feeling the same uncertainty I’d felt so many times before, when I thought I might have met someone I could be friends with. “For now, I’m going to be wary, and…I’m not going to count my chickens, Dad. Mom might end up wanting to leave Clermont, and if she does, you know what’s going to happen. We’ve done it so many times before. I have no reason to think anything is going to be different this time.”

  “No, you don’t, but I want us to stay here. How about you invite Sabrina and James over for your birthday? Not the day, necessarily, but I think it would be nice for you to have a small party, maybe with a cake.” When I looked up, Dad was smiling at me hopefully. “That way, you can get to know them a little more outside of school, and hopefully come to see them as friends.”

  “Maybe.” I wasn’t going to make any decisions right then, even knowing Dad was probably right. It would be good to get to know them out of school, which was something I’d never done much before, since I’d been getting ready to leave by the time I’d finally made friends with someone. Sabrina making the decision to be friends with me first was new, but then, it most likely had something to do with who her mom was. Had it not been for the fact our moms were friends, it was entirely possible she wouldn’t have made the decision to be there for the new girl. I tried to tell myself not to think that way. It wasn’t going to do me any good to second guess the choices other people made. “I’ll see how this week goes and then talk to them on Friday. I…it’s been such a long time since I had friends, I’m not even sure I’d be good company for them.”

  “Being good company isn’t important to people who really are your friends. Trust me, I’ve been there myself, and the friends I made were there for me even on the worst days of my life.”

  Chapter Five

  School, as the days passed, became normal. I wasn’t surprised, to be honest. Most of the time, it was easy for me to slip into the routine of school, even if I didn’t normally have friends. That part was the true surprise, because Sabrina made certain I had someone to sit with at lunch every day. She was there to help me with math, and nine times out of ten, Sabrina was the one who reminded me to double check all my work to make sure I hadn’t misread a number. It wasn’t unusual for me to make mistakes due to my failure to pay enough attention. I also had her in my geography class, and for me, that subject was easier than it was for her. James was in my art class, and he chose to sit with me. I actually enjoyed spending time with him, more than I thought I would. He taught me some of what he knew about magic, while also helping me to get better at drawing, which was something I never thought I was going to be good at.

  There were plenty of classes I had no friends in, but that didn’t matter anywhere near as much as it might have before. I knew I’d see Sabrina and James at some point, which was more than enough. There had never been a time when I had people I could reliably spend time with.

  On Friday, I made the decision to head into school early to finally start on my history assignment: the history of Clermont. Sabrina had told me that the library had some books on the subject, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready for what I might learn. Not that I had any reason to believe I was going to see the whole truth in the history books.

  Sighing, I thought about the choices I was making. Was I ready to learn something more about this town? If things worked out differently, I would have already been calling Clermont home, and I would have always known my grandparents.

  When I stepped into the library, the librarian was already standing behind the desk. I gave her a smile before heading to the history books, because the first thing I wanted to do was read about the town alone. One of the shelves was full with books on Clermont, and I stared at them for a few seconds. I’d done assignments on town history before, but I’d never once seen that many books on the history of one town. I ran my finger over the spines, reading the names of each of them, trying to decide where to start.

  I grabbed one at random and went to sit at one of the tables. With the book laid out in front of me, I took a moment to grab one of my notebooks, so I could scribble down anything that could be useful for my assignment, even though I wasn’t sure which period in time I was going to write about. The book started before Clermont even was a town, which definitely gave me an interesting starting point. At first, it was a trade station on the outskirts of the wilderness. It was there for anyone who might have needed something before they headed out, and it was where people gathered to talk, and people especially liked to talk about those who had gone missing. They seemed to agree that it was just bears who attacked anyone who dared to venture into
their territory. At least, that was what the book said. It was a logical conclusion, why would it be anything else?

  Reading that, my spider senses started to tingle again. People had gone missing even before the place became an actual town, but it didn’t seem like anyone had taken the time to ask the question of why it was happening.

  I made my way over to the librarian. She gave me a smile. “Can I help you with something, Ana?”

  “How many times have there been periods when people have gone missing in Clermont?” I ran my tongue over my bottom lip. “It’s just...I’m reading one of the history books, and there were people going missing back when it was just a trading post.”

  Alice made her way over to me, a pile of papers in her hands. She took the seat opposite me and stacked the papers neatly on the table. “It’s important for you to remember that Clermont is a very old town. It is no secret that it’s steeped in superstition. Those are things that aren’t often written about, because, to those authors, the stories of magic, supernatural beings, and the possibility of there being something more than what they could see, was something they couldn’t understand the importance of.”

  She took a breath and continued. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve heard stories about the hospital and how it worked miracles. Considering how many people came out of there cured of ailments resistant to conventional medicine, I can’t help but think that those stories might be true.”

  “Miracles helped along by human sacrifice?”

  Laughing, she shook her head. “The first healers didn’t call this place home until the late 1800s. The deaths had happened long before that, so I highly doubt they had anything to do with healing. Those deaths and disappearances fed into the belief that there was an area locally that had access to other realms.”