Chapter 11: Guilt by Association
I leaned up against the brick house, sliding down to the ground, while my head fell between my knees. I needed to get back on track, to find Grace no matter what the situation unfolding in front of me had become. I heard the voices panicking around me, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at their faces. Not to mention his, the man who lay dead, I assume in a pool of blood.
I felt Dante’s strong arms around me.
“How could this have happened, Annabelle? We’re trying to prove that Scarlett’s innocent, not bring on a whole other world of trouble. I think she’s in shock.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” she sobbed.
“Maybe you should have Elizabeth take you to look for your parents. We need to find Grace, and then Scarlett needs a few days off.”
“Fine,” she cried.
“No,” I opened my eyes.
“What do you mean no? Do you realize what she’s done? We need to find what Grace wanted us to find, Scarlett. That means poking around the house, leaving fingerprints, looking in the woods, leaving our footprints.”
“Then we’ll just have to figure something—” Before I could finish my sentence, there were sirens blaring in the distance.
“We need to leave,” Dante said as he jumped up, he yanked me up with him. When we got in the car, I looked out the window. Annabelle just stood there waiting for us to invite her in, or waiting for her punishment. I didn’t know. Behind her, Grace appeared. I jumped out of the car and ran toward her.
“Grace,” I whispered. “I need to get out of here, get in the car,” I begged.
“No, no, no, no.” She stomped her foot. “You need to find it,”
“Find what?” I said out of patience. “You know what it is and why I need it, so just tell me. Tell me where you are Grace, if you’re in danger, and I need to get to you, help me.”
“I can’t.”
“Where did I last see you, Grace? I don’t remember.”
“In the woods.” I was back sitting in the passenger seat, staring at Annabelle, at Grace.
“How did I get back in the car?” I asked, dazed.
“You never left…” he said as he sped off.
“I think I’m going crazy. What if…I’m just imagining everything?”
“Your fine, Scarlett,” he said, irritated.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“A small motel a few miles away, we need to leave the car somewhere though, in case there were any witnesses,” he explained.
“Okay,” I shrugged.
All this craziness was starting to feel normal for me. Sitting next to a dead body less than five feet away, was less horrifying than I felt it should be. Now I didn’t think of that man, his family, how tragic it was for a life to be lost. I thought of any way to get away from it all, make a clean break and leave no evidence behind.
I felt a cold, boney hand touch my shoulder. I looked to my side without turning my head. The old man sat in the backseat wearing the plaid jacket, and worn blue jeans he died in. Blood ran out of his stained lips, and his under eyes—which were dark purple—accentuated his cold, blue eyes.
“You’re going to fry for this; I’m going to make sure of it. All of you,” he grumbled in a raspy voice.
“I’m so sorry,” I said out of breath, the fear that pulsed through me seemed to have made my lungs collapse.
“For what?” Dante asked as he took his eyes off the road for a moment.
“Oh, you’re sorry are you? Well then I guess that makes everything alright now, doesn’t it?”
“Who are you?” I asked, wondering why he would be wandering around Alexis’s house, and if he had something to do with Grace. He just stared. “Did you live in that house?” I asked.
“Who are you talking to Scarlett?” Dante demanded. I held my hand up and shushed him.
“What does it matter to you?” He was gone before I could answer.
“It was the man that Annabelle shot,” I said, staring straight ahead at nothing.
“What did he say?”
“He said he would make sure we got caught,” I muttered without any emotion, what did it matter anymore? There was no hope of finding Grace.
“No he won’t, he’s dead. What could he do?”
“There’s no way to know until it happens.”
He pulled into a bare spot in the woods; the car was pretty well hidden. We got out of the car and continued our journey on foot. When we arrived at the secluded motel, Dante walked right up to one of the rooms and tried to open the door. “What are you doing?” I asked.
“Well for one, this place is closed, and two even if it weren’t we don’t want any evidence we were around here anyway,” he explained, as he held his hand out.
It felt like I was a chore, the more people that came into this, the more baggage I gathered, the more weight Dante took on. Before I knew it, we were in the room, it wasn’t dirty like I expected, apart from some dust, it was really nice. The lights didn’t work, and truth be told, I was afraid, but I needed to be alone.
“Would you mind if I stayed in a different room?” I whispered.
“What’s wrong now?” He asked, though I got the distinct impression that he didn't care.
“Honestly,” I said, holding back the tears that were stinging my eyes. “You, I think maybe tomorrow, you should go home to your family. I can do this by myself.”
“What? What did I do?”
“You’re not acting like yourself. You’re not acting like the Dante I used to know. The Dante that was happy to see me no matter the circumstances. I mean, you never would have talked to me before, the way you have been. And you know what? That’s okay, I understand, I know what you’ve been through, and I don’t want to put you through it anymore. I can see that you‘re not happy here”
“I think it would be safer if you stayed in here tonight,” he mumbled.
“Fine, I’m really sorry about everything, but remember I never asked for any of this, including your help,”
“I should have told you this before…” he sighed, “…I figured you knew and just didn’t say anything but, now…” He trailed off. “Okay so you know how I grab your hand and my powers work for you?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, last night when you fell asleep, I held your hand, and I could see your dream. I guess you must have forgotten it, but someone—I didn’t see who—killed me. You went after them, and they killed you, too. I thought that I could help you find Grace, then disappear so you wouldn’t get hurt.”
“If either of us gets hurt, it will be because of me.”
“No, it won’t. I didn’t see much, but it really looked like it was my fault.”
“I don’t understand, why were you holding my hand? Why don’t I remember the dream?”
“I don’t know,” he interrupted. “I’ll go if you want me to, tomorrow, but I want to find Elizabeth first. I won’t leave you to do this alone.”
“Not every single one of my dreams has come true,” I stated. “You don’t have to do this,” I begged, the least desperate I could manage. “If you’re not leaving for yourself, then I’d rather you stayed. I know I’m going back and forth here, but I didn’t mean that I never wanted to see you again.”
“I don’t think I can take that chance, if I’m not around, you won’t get killed because of me.”
“Fine, then go,” I huffed. No matter how angry I was at Dante, no matter how unsure I was of what would happen in the future, and how awful that felt, I couldn’t know for a fact that we wouldn’t ever be more than this, that we wouldn’t be anything.
“Scarlett,” he sighed. “Don’t make this any harder than it has to be. Would you rather have me stay and die?” He walked away, over to the bed and lay down.
“I’d rather die, than never see you again,” I whispered under my breath. I know I told him to leave, but I thought I would at least see him again, someday.
I grabbed a blanket
and sat in the window seat across the room. The view was beautiful; I could just make out the sunset behind the dark-gray clouds. It would rain tonight; I imagined the drops rolling down the window and bolts of lightning, lighting up the lake. As soon as I thought it, it began to pour. The lightning looked just as I imagined lighting up trees, and the water. I felt a few tears stream down. I felt like an idiot.
I felt his hand on my shoulder.
“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” he said under his breath.
I sniffled then fake laughed as best as I could manage. “For you to think that you had that kind of power over me is hilarious,” I said, never turning away from the window.
“I can see that you’re hurting,” he whispered.
“Maybe I was, but I’m over it now,” I mumbled. He turned me towards him and kissed me on the forehead.
“I know I am,” he said, almost embarrassed.
“You are what, over it? Good.”
“No, hurting,” he mumbled.
“What’s that point of telling me that, of saying sorry? It doesn’t change anything. I don’t need you. I’m not going to die without you, but yes it hurts. It hurts a lot to find out someone you’ve wanted to see for months was standing in front of you all along, and then they just leave.”
“It kills me knowing that I would be the reason you die if we stayed together. That would forever change anything we could have had between us.” He tilted my face up so I would look at him.
“Well that’s your choice. I can’t force you to stay.”
“I don’t have a choice.”
“You do,” I said as calm as I could manage. “You can change the future; if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that. One time I had a dream that my mom sent me to my aunts for a week, she had a trip to go on. One day she told me about the trip, the night she was going to drive me over to my aunts, I faked that I was sick, and you know what? It never happened.”
“And how do you plan to stop this?”
“I never said I knew how I would stop it, I just said it‘s not impossible.” Before he could say anything, there was a knock on the door. We shared the same worried glance then hurried to the peephole. It was Elizabeth; I unlatched the door, and gave her a big hug.
“Oh hello,” she laughed. “I have some good news and some really good news—”
“Tell us,” I interrupted.
“How did you find us?” Dante demanded before she could answer.
“Patience,” she said. “First of all, the man Annabelle killed was wanted by the police. He was a serial killer. I don’t think they’re planning on searching too hard for who killed him.”
“And how did you find us?” Dante pressed.
“My son, he’s been away. He came home and my husband told him about everything. Anyway, one of his powers lets him find anyone, as long as he has something that belongs to them, something they’ve touched,” she threw me my hoodie; I must have dropped it with everything that was going on.
“Then he could find Grace?” I asked with enthusiasm.
“Do you have something of hers?” she asked.
“No,” I sighed.
“I’ll be right back,” she said as she ran back to the car with Lily following behind her.
Her son got out of the car. His hair was dark and curly, just like his father’s. When he got closer, I could see his eyes, they were like none I'd ever seen before. They were baby blue and they made him look so innocent, yet I could just tell he wasn't.
“Where’s Annabelle?” I asked. Elizabeth leaned closer.
“She’s in the car. I wasn’t sure if Dante was still mad,” she whispered in my ear. “This is Cooper.”
“Hey,” he said with a huge smile on his face. He put his hand out, as if he was waiting for a handshake. I put my hand in his, and he brought it to his lips. I introduced myself and Dante, who was grumbling a few feet away.
“So what do you think we should do?” I asked anyone who would answer.
“We should go to your friend’s house…” Cooper said without a second thought, “…get something of hers and find her.”
“Okay, let’s go.” It made a reasonable amount of sense, but I hoped that her parents wouldn’t shoot me onsite if they found me breaking into their house. They would kill me, even if I just went to the door and asked for something of hers. “Should we get Dante’s car or—”
“Let’s just go there first, then we can stop and get Dante’s car,” Elizabeth said.
When we got to the car, Annabelle was fast asleep in the passenger seat with her face pressed up against the window. Lily slid into the middle row while I climbed in the back. We were all dripping wet though the walk to the car wasn’t very long.
“Dante,” Lily said, it was obvious that she was flirting. “Sit next to me.” He did, but he left the seat in between them empty. Cooper climbed in back with me leaving no room between us. Dante looked back at me; his glare was like a knife.
“I’m so happy you decided to come with us,” I told Cooper. “Since we can’t go back to that house, I’d lost hope in finding Grace.”
“Glad to help,” he smiled.
I smiled back. Dante turned around. Lily moved over next to Dante. Things were getting kind of weird.
“Which way do I turn?” Elizabeth asked. I wasn’t quite sure where we were to begin with.
“Go right, follow the road until you come to Chestnut St. and then go left,” Dante answered.
Cooper put his hand on my knee. We couldn’t get to Grace‘s house soon enough. I was ready to jump out of the car then.
We were down the street from Grace’s house; I could hear my heart thumping in my chest.
“Do you want me to come with you?” Cooper asked.
“I’ll go,” Dante offered.
“No, I think I can handle this,” I replied as I got out of the car.
There were no cars in the driveway, so I went up to the porch. I could feel all of their eyes on me. I knew what they were thinking—what they would have done different, that I was making a mistake. I tried to shake the thought.
I went to the living room windows, there were three. I knew from experience the one in the middle had a broken lock. I lifted up the screen and pushed up the window, and I was in. I walked down the hall to her room. So many happy memories were running through my head, now blackened with everything that happened. I tried to focus on the fact that not much could go wrong. We would find her.
When I got to the end of the hall, the door to her room was no longer there, just drywall as if it never existed, as if she never existed. It felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. I put my hand where the door should have been and closed my eyes imagining us walking to her room. It was supposed to be there. I could imagine it so clearly, and when I opened my eyes the door was there.
“Whoa,” I said, out of breath.
I opened the door and there it was—Grace’s room just as it had been that night when we got ready for the party. I decided to grab a few things in fear that one might not work. The first thing I grabbed was her locket with a picture of her grandmother in it. The second was her favorite blue and green plaid shirt. She was wearing it before we got ready for the party; she hung it on the chair where it remained now. I thought that would be best, the first item we could try.
I couldn’t bring myself to leave just yet. Not without looking at the wall covered in pictures of all of us together. I grabbed one of me and Dante from what seemed like so long ago, and put it in my pocket.
Lights came in through the window. Someone was in the driveway. I heard them chattering. They sounded so happy as they approached the front door. How could they be happy at all with what happened to their daughter? They just block off the room and forget that she existed all together. I heard a gasp. The window—I forgot to shut it. I locked the door, and tried to open one of the windows. The first one stuck, now I remembered there was no opening her windows, no matter how hard we tried,
it never happened.
I sunk down under her computer desk and waited. Then in front of me a Dante-sized swirl of blue and green light appeared. He was standing before me no more than a second later. I got out from under the desk and hugged him.
“I never thought I would get out of here,” I shrieked.
“What the hell?” I heard Grace’s dad say in front of the door. “This is too weird,” he whispered under his breath. “Honey, I think you better come here.” Good, I hope I ripped the Band-Aid and the scab off that covering the door provided.
“It just appeared out of nowhere?” Her mom asked.
“I wonder what’s behind it.”
Umm, your daughter’s room maybe? “What is wrong with them?” I said in disgust.
“Let’s go.” He held his hand out. I grabbed on, and left a single tear for my forgotten friend on her bedroom floor.
We popped up a few houses down from the car. I went to walk back to the car, locket and shirt in hand, but Dante grabbed my free hand.
“Wait,” he whispered. “I think I might be making a mistake.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know I should, but I just don’t think I can. Leave you, I mean.”
“Is this because of Cooper?” I asked. “Since we're being honest, I wish that creep would keep his hands off me.” I felt bad. He was our only hope, but that didn’t mean he could put his hands on me.
“No it’s not because of him; it just took him being here to make me see.”
“I don’t understand that at all,” I said, breaking free from his grasp and walking back to the car. I hopped in the back with Cooper. “Will either of these work?” I asked. He grabbed them, and closed his eyes.
“I can see where we need to head, but it’s hazy. It should become clearer as we go. It’s easier when it’s something they’ve recently touched, but this should work.”
“Where to?” Elizabeth asked.
“Head south,” he answered.
Dante opened the car door and got in. He looked back at me; instead of anger, I saw sadness.
“So, what do you plan to do once you find your friend?” Cooper questioned me.
“I don’t know, go home, I guess.”
“That’s a shame; I was hoping I would see you around.” He put his hand back on my leg.
“I doubt that you will.” I shook his hand off.
“Do you have any idea of where we’re going yet?” Elizabeth asked as we sat at a never-ending stoplight, Cooper grabbed the plaid shirt and sighed.
“It’s cloudy. It’s getting clearer even just sitting here, but I still can’t make it out yet.”
“We’re going to need to stop soon,” she said.
“I’ll drive for a while,” Dante offered.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Elizabeth said.
“I’m a good driver,” he promised.
“I think we should stop. We need to get a better idea of where we’re going anyway, plus my parents own a small cabin, fifteen or so miles away from here,” Elizabeth said.
“Alright,” Dante answered. “Will there be enough room for everyone?” I knew what that meant, will Cooper be anywhere near Scarlett? I didn’t mind though, it was nice seeing how much he cared or at least how jealous he was.
“Eh, it will be tight, but more than comfortable,” she answered.
Lily babbled on and on to Dante. He kept up the conversation, looking back at me every once in a while. Trying to make me jealous, maybe, making sure nothing was going on back here, for sure.