by Willow Rose
Jazmine couldn't feel what they did to her, but she could hear the sloshing of water and hear them talk about turning her. It was her favorite time of the day—except for when Aunt Tina came or Robyn or Amy—because she would get a peek inside the nurses’ lives and not have to worry about her own. It was the one moment she was pulled out of her prison and able to escape into someone else's life.
Exactly when Jazmine had woken up, she didn't know. She remembered dreaming weird stuff. There was a song. The one by Imagine Dragons, Radioactive. She didn't know why she had dreamt so much about that song, but for some reason, she had lived inside of it. While they were singing it, there had been green stuff coming from everywhere, and she had run to try and get to safety, but never succeeded. She could be walking down a hallway at the hospital and suddenly have green radioactive stuff run down the walls or gush up from underneath the floors, flooding the halls like waves crashing onto the shore. She knew now it was probably just a hallucination, but she had kept dreaming it over and over again. Sometimes, it would mix with the voices coming from outside and then Robyn would be there or Amy or even BamBam.
BamBam. Why doesn’t Aunt Tina bring him anymore? I can talk to him. I can tell him everything, and he listens. I have things I need to tell my friends. I need to warn them.
Often, Jazmine dreamt she was getting up, believing it was actually happening, only to wake up inside of her darkness again, remembering that she was paralyzed.
That was the most devastating part of it. To realize this every time she woke up. Over and over again. Remembering that she was nothing but a mind trapped inside of a useless body.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Amy stared at the picture on her computer. Carina Robinson. Age eighteen. Last seen by some woman walking her dog in the park around midnight. She was heading toward the big lake, wearing a red jacket.
"Carina Robinson," Amy mumbled. "Goes to Shadow Hills High. Was at the lake at midnight on Saturday night. Right before she went missing. No one has seen her since."
Amy swallowed and read it all again, read the entire article about how she disappeared after a fight with her boyfriend, who claimed he hadn't seen her since she stormed out of his apartment and how her mom was asking for help to find her while accusing the boyfriend of all sorts of things. Then she leaned back on the couch with a deep sigh, feeling frustrated.
Saturday night. That was the same night Kipp said someone saw him. A girl. From their school.
Coincidence? Hardly.
Amy closed her computer, then rubbed her forehead. She then glanced into the kitchen and felt compelled to cook something. She got up, then walked out there and pulled out meat and vegetables. Three hours later, Melanie came in and could hardly see her for all the food stacked up on the counter.
"Amy?"
She looked up from the soup she was stirring. Melanie shot her a concerned look.
"What's going on? Why are you in a cooking frenzy?"
Amy wiped sweat from her forehead with her arm, then shook her head without looking at Melanie.
"I…I just felt like cooking, is all."
Melanie shook her head.
"Nope. Not buying it. I know you better than that. Something's up."
She glared at the many pots and pans left on the stove and in the sink, and then at the stacks of meatloaf and mashed potatoes, Shepherd's pie and rice pilafs, not to mention the many chicken burritos with avocado salad and the zucchini soup.
"Yup, something is definitely up, something bad."
Melanie took a chair and sat down at the counter. Amy served her some of the zucchini soup in a bowl. She made one for herself and sat down as well. They ate for a few seconds in silence before Melanie looked at her again, waiting for her to talk.
"So, you gonna spill or do I need to drag it out of you?"
Amy exhaled and put the spoon down. Their eyes met. Amy knew by the look in Melanie's eyes that she might as well tell her everything. She wasn't going to stop asking till she did.
"There's a girl missing…again."
"I heard the Amber alert, thank you very much," Melanie said. "It went off on my phone and the TV while I was watching a show about gazelles on Animal Planet. But what does that have to do with you?"
Amy swallowed. "Kipp said he was seen. By a girl from our school, at midnight by the lake, the same place she was seen last."
"And?"
"He said he ran after her, but she escaped."
"And?"
"What if she didn't escape? What if he…did something to her?"
"Like what?"
"What if he hurt her?"
"Why on Earth would Kipp hurt her?"
"Because she saw him," Amy said, a little annoyed that Melanie refused to understand. "In his…" Amy looked up at the ceiling, then at the walls to check for spiders in each and every corner. Even though she didn't see any, she still didn't dare to say the word out loud.
"Birthday suit. You know."
Melanie nodded. "Yes, I got that part, but why would Kipp hurt her because of that? And why on Earth would he come to you and tell you that she saw him if he had?"
Amy sighed, then picked up the spoon and ate some more soup. "I don't know."
Melanie grabbed a plate and started to pile up meatloaf on her plate and then added a few spoonsful of mashed potatoes. She topped it all off with loads of gravy.
"I think you're being paranoid," she said, shoveling the food into her mouth, hardly chewing it.
It was good to have someone like her in the house since Amy had no idea where to put all the food once she had cooked it. Luckily, Melanie could eat enough for several people, especially since she stopped going hunting at night. Her hunger seemed endless these days.
"We don't even know that something happened to the girl," she said, chewing with her mouth open and pointing her fork at Amy while smacking her lips loudly.
"I’m telling you. She'll show up tomorrow. She'll be all embarrassed and filled with excuses. I’ve seen this a million times before, coming from where I do. Don't you worry one bit. This has nothing to do with Kipp and whether or not she saw him in his…birthday suit. You can't get all messed up every time something happens around here, thinking it has something to do with you or anyone you know. You'll drive yourself nuts."
Amy leaned back in her chair feeling relieved. No one could calm her like Melanie could.
"You're right," she said and finished her soup. She looked up at Melanie, who had emptied her plate and was licking it clean.
"Homemade ice cream for dessert?" Amy said, smiling.
"Don't mind if I do, "Melanie answered and put her plate down. "But first, I want to have some of that delicious Shepherd's pie. "
Chapter Twenty-Seven
"Robyn!"
I turned around and spotted Jayden as he rushed toward me, waving eagerly, pushing his way through the crowd in the hallway at school. I smiled when seeing him.
"You're back," I said as he came closer. "In school."
He nodded, smiling. "Never thought I'd miss the place, but boy am I thrilled to be back."
I clutched my books to my chest, feeling how I was blushing. I don't know why it was since Jayden didn't usually make me blush, but there was something in the way he was staring at me that made it impossible for me to stop smiling.
He stared goofily at me, then suddenly reached out his arm, grabbed me around the waist, and pulled me into a huge kiss.
"Jayden!" I said when our lips parted, and my cheeks turned from light rose to burning red. All eyes in the hallway were on us.
"People are staring."
"Let them stare," he said, looking happily into my eyes, not letting go of my glance. "See if I care."
Overwhelmed by his sudden affection for me, I pulled back slightly, still finding it hard to really believe.
"You're staring," I said with a whisper.
"I can't stop looking at you. All those hours in the darkness, all I could think about was you and how I
longed to hold you in my arms, to look into those eyes of yours. You have no idea how much thinking I did, and it was all about you."
I swallowed, my heart throbbing. "Really?"
"Really. It's you and me now, babe. And no one can stop us. I won't let that happen again."
I thought about my mom and wondered if she would still be against us seeing one another. My guess was nothing had changed on that account. Even though she had been very nice to his parents while he was gone, she still didn't want to see her daughter end up with him, with someone of his kind. I knew that much.
Duncan. What do I tell Duncan?
I had dreamt about being with Jayden for so long; I couldn't bear to think about Duncan again. This was going to crush him.
I exhaled in puffs.
"You okay?" Jayden asked.
I answered with a nod just as the bell sounded.
"I have English first," he said.
Jayden leaned over and kissed me again, closing his eyes, then smiled as he let go of me.
"See you in fourth, right? Science?" he said, walking backward down the hall and bumping into a girl that he made a thousand excuses to before he finally glanced at me one last time, then left. I stared after him, feeling all kinds of stirred up inside, wondering what had just happened.
I looked down the hallway where all the pupils had left for their classes, then decided to leave instead.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I can't tell you why I did it or what drove me to leave. I just knew I had to go. I couldn't sit there in the school with everything that was going on. I simply couldn't.
I went back to my car and got in, then turned my phone off, knowing my mom could track me if I didn't. And I didn't want that to happen. I didn't want anyone to know where I was going.
I drove down the road and outside of town, then continued for several hours, not even caring that I was missing out on school. I didn't stop till I saw the patrol car and the police blockade surrounding the entire area, telling me to keep out. I parked among a stand of trees, then got out and walked closer, careful to not be seen.
The place seemed almost empty. A police car was parked at the entrance of the old abandoned farm, the officer inside keeping an eye on the scene of the crime, but other than that, there was no one there. I figured they were done gathering evidence from the place.
I slid underneath the tape in the back of the place, then rushed to the house, where I found a door in the back to enter through. The patrol car was on the other side of the house and wouldn't see me walk in this way.
The door was left ajar, so I could open it using my foot and not leave any fingerprints and get myself in trouble, in case they weren't done gathering evidence. I didn't know much about those things, except what I had seen on CSI and read in mystery novels.
I walked inside the old house and looked around. Old dusty furniture and dirt everywhere, including soaked cardboard boxes and newspapers, paint scraped off the walls, and holes covered with plywood was what met me. That and big, gaping glass-less windows.
Jayden had told me he had been kept in the basement, so I walked inside the kitchen and found the stairs. Ducking under more police tape and with my heart throbbing in my chest, I walked down the old creaking stairs into the room that had been the prison holding the love of my life.
I don't know what I expected to find down there, but I guess I was a little disappointed. All it was, was some room with lots of junk on the floor, old water bottles, a destroyed mattress with its springs poking out, and trash everywhere like a hundred homeless people had held a party down there.
To my surprise, it didn't look much like a prison. Again, I don't really know what I had expected, maybe chains and a bowl for water. But, of course, things weren't like in the movies. She hadn't chained him to the walls; otherwise, he would have never been able to escape. And she had fed him on a plate, he had told us. That was what he had used to knock her down.
I walked closer to the pile of trash, then pulled out a wooden beam that had fallen from the ceiling.
Why hadn't he used this to knock her down?
Maybe this isn't the room she kept him in. Maybe there are more rooms in the basement?
I walked to the end wall, then back up the stairs and started to search for other ways to get down to the basement but found none. This was the only basement in the entire house.
I shrugged, then looked outside where a second patrol car had arrived, maybe to replace the first. I looked at my watch and realized it was time to head back if my mom wasn't going to find out I had been gone.
Why did I come here?
I decided I didn't know, then rushed out the back door again. As I passed the barn in the back, I sensed something and stopped. There was something there, a noise, like a knocking on the side of it, and then there was something else.
Something sounding an awful lot like Jazmine's voice.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
"Jazmine?"
I spoke between gasps. I was standing completely still, my legs shaking beneath me. Could it really be her? It couldn't; could it? I had to be making this up. Was I hearing things? Just as I decided I was probably just losing it, I heard it again.
A very clear cry coming from inside the barn.
I walked closer to the entrance of the old barn. I held my breath as I waited to hear from her again when there was a very distinct sound of someone calling from inside of it once again. And there was no doubt in my mind it was Jazmine's voice.
"Jazmine?" I said and pulled the heavy barn door open just enough to slide through and enter.
My heart was pumping as I walked in.
"Jazmine?" I called again, fear rising inside of me. How was this even possible? I knew she was in the hospital.
"Are you in here?"
"Help," I heard her voice say. It was coming from behind the big old tractor that was parked at the end of the barn.
"Help me, Robyn. Please!"
"I’m coming, Jazmine," I said and hurried toward the voice, not caring any longer how she could be here when I knew she was paralyzed in her bed at the hospital. It was her. I knew it was. I just knew it.
"Please…help me," she wailed, and I hurried.
I passed the tractor and then stopped behind it, looking around me, frantically trying to figure out where her screaming was coming from. There was nothing there. No Jazmine, not even a door.
"Help," I heard the voice again, then realized it was coming from beneath me.
I looked between my legs and kicked away a bunch of straws of hay covering the floor, then realized I was standing on a hatch of some sort. There was a handle, and I reached down and pulled it, while Jazmine's cries for help grew louder and louder coming from beneath me.
"I’m coming, Jazmine. I’m coming!"
"Help, Robyn, down here, help!"
Jazmine's yells turned to screaming and yelling, and I rushed as fast as I could, desperately pulling the handle. The hatch seemed to be stuck, so I had to put all my effort into opening it. I pulled and pulled with all my weight, which wasn't much thanks to my mom's overly healthy cooking, but finally, it moved, and I managed to get the hatch open. As soon as I did, the screaming stopped like I had flipped a switch or something.
"Jazmine?"
Surprised at this, I looked down into the hole beneath me but found no Jazmine. There was something else, though. Something that made my heart skip several beats and my stomach churn. Fighting not to throw up, I reached inside the hole and pulled it out, whatever it was. Then I put it on the floor, so I could take a better look at it.
Overwhelmed with fear, I then clasped my mouth and fought my desire to scream.
Chapter Thirty
WE NEED TO TALK. THE LAKE AFTER SCHOOL.
The Snapchat was from Robyn. Amy received it in the middle of sixth period and tried to hide her phone while reading it. Luckily, the social studies teacher didn't notice anything, but after reading it, Amy could no longer concentrate. Her eyes
met Jayden's across the classroom, and she knew he had received it too.
What was going on?
Amy had looked for Robyn during lunch break, but she hadn't been there. She had asked around, and no one had seen her all day, which was strange to her because Amy had seen Robyn in the hallway this same morning when Jayden had kissed her, and she had turned all red and mushy.
Amy had ended up spending the rest of lunch break staring at Kipp, who was entertaining the cheerleaders. She couldn't stop wondering if he had killed Carina Robinson or if he was keeping her somewhere to make sure she wouldn't talk. Amy wanted him to stop the girl from talking, but not at any cost. She had thought he could simply have a friendly chat with her, use some of his irresistible charm to make sure she didn't tell anyone. That was all. Not kidnap her or even worse.
He might not have done anything. Maybe Melanie is right, and she'll be back soon.
Amy nodded and looked down at her phone where Robyn's message screamed at her. She knew that it had to be serious. Otherwise, Robyn wouldn't text her like this and ask to meet up.
Did it have to do with Carina Robinson or with Kipp?
Amy shook her head and put the phone away, feeling all kinds of anxiety arise inside of her. How much did she even know about Kipp? He was an orphan living next door with his foster parents. He was a merman and had a way with girls. That was about it. He had shown up when the killings in the neighborhood were at their highest.
Ruelle killed them. She kidnapped Jayden too, remember?
Amy couldn't really get the pieces to fit together in all this. She didn't understand how Jazmine's mom fit into all of it. Jazmine had seen her attack that couple on Make-out Mountain; Jayden had seen her attack Ruelle, and she had lost that earring close to the body of Sam Walters. If Ruelle had killed Alyssa Heckler, attacked Jazmine, and kidnapped Jayden, then was she the one who had killed all the others as well? Was she the one who had attacked Melanie and turned her into a wolf?
