Fated Dreams (Book One In The Affinity series) (34 page)

“Thanks again,
Zack,” I said as we walked together into the parking lot.

“No problem,”
he said, opening the passenger door of his car for me. I was about to step in
when I heard a noise behind me, but before I could turn around to see what it
was, I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head, and then…nothing.

My world went
black.

I was suddenly in a red and white room,
sitting on a wooden chair with my hands and feet tied. Something tugged at my
hair, and I looked behind me to see Stephanie Brown lift up her scissors, about
to cut a big chunk.

“Don’t do it,
Stephanie,” a deep voice commanded from the corner of the room. I glanced over
and saw Ryan standing in the shadows, staring at her.

“If I can’t
have you, no one can,” she hissed, snipping a piece of my hair off.

She disappeared
into vapor right before my eyes. I blinked, and in her place stood Ryan. He
held the scissors in his hands and glared at me. “If I can’t have you, no one
can.” The scissors changed to a black-handled butcher knife, and he raised it
up over his head.

I awoke from
the dream into a nightmare. The back of my head throbbed, and when I tried to
move, I realized that just like in the dream, my hands and feet were tied. It
all came back to me; stepping into Zack’s car and the sharp pain on the back of
my head. Someone had taken me and tied me up. After the dream I just had, I
knew exactly who that was.

I opened my
eyes. I was sitting on the cold ground, leaning against a tree in front of the
waterfall. My coat was on, but I had forgotten my mittens in my mom’s car, not
realizing I’d need them. It was a frosty December day, and I was freezing. It
didn’t help that I was so close to the waterfall. The wind was blowing the
chill from the water towards me; my hands were turning red from the cold. I
started to shiver.

There was a
figure standing near the cliff with his back to me. He was wearing a heavy
black coat, but underneath was a gray hoodie.

“Hello, Ryan.”

He spun around,
yanking the hood down. The wind whipped through his dark blond hair. “How did
you know it was me?”

“I dreamed of
you, and I remembered you looked just like him.”

His smile told
me that he was happy that I had finally figured it out. Like all of this was
some kind of game. “I’m sorry I had to knock you out, but it was necessary to
get you away from him.”

“How did you
know about this place?” I asked, stuffing my hands under my jacket.

“I know
everything about you.”

“How could you
do this? We were friends,” I said, really disappointed that it was him. If I
had to choose, I would almost prefer it be Zack.

“Friends,” he
said, shaking his head with a low chuckle. “I liked you, but I knew you
wouldn’t want to date me, so I never told you about my feelings.” He had a
far-off look on his face. “Soon after I moved to New York, I started dreaming
of you. I thought it was because I missed you, but it was odd, your face was in
my mind almost every time I went to sleep.” His face darkened. “Then one night
I had a dream of you and him. I knew I was dreaming of the past because I had
never met the guy you were with, but in the dream, I seemed to know him. I
dreamed of times that I would follow the two of you. You would walk hand in
hand, smiling at each other.

“The whole
time, I thought of ways to hurt him, so you would be with me. I would wake up
each morning hating some guy I had never even met.” He stood at the edge of the
waterfall, staring out at something I couldn’t see. The ropes were so tight, I
could see him, but nothing beyond that.

“I don’t
understand. Why you? You’re not related to Tony. You look just like him, but
you weren’t on the list.”

He laughed
darkly, gazing out at the breathtaking view. “My dad’s grandfather changed his
last name to Crenshaw when he was looking for a job. Turns out it’s hard to
find work when you’re related to a murderer.” That explained why we couldn’t
find the fourteenth family.

“Ryan, how
could you do this?”

He turned
abruptly, his attention on me again. “I’ve changed since you knew me. Back then
I could let you go, just because I was afraid to ask you out. But now, I know
that you are mine. I found you first this time. You didn’t even know Lucas
existed when we were friends. We were meant to be together, and I won’t let you
be with anyone else. I will kill to make that happen.” His face was distorted
with rage, his dark blue eyes wide with madness, just like in my dreams.

The sweet boy
that I liked so much three and a half years ago had turned into Tony, a person
that killed two people just because he didn’t get his own way.

“Ryan, don’t
let Tony do this to you. You were one of the nicest people I knew. You could
never hurt anybody. Ryan, please don’t do this. Be better than him,” I begged
him with all my heart. It hurt me to see such a great guy turn into a
psychopath.

He stalked
purposely over to me, his scuffed boots nearly touching my now wet sneakers.
“Be better than him?” he snarled. “I am him. He didn’t get the girl he wanted,
but that ends here. She will finally be his.”

“I’m not
Katie!” I yelled. He only grinned at my outburst. I lowered my voice. “I may
look like her, but I’m not.”

He smirked at
me. “You have her soul; I know you figured it out. I heard you and your
boyfriend talking about it. How do you think I knew about this place?” He
raised his arms, gesturing to the waterfall. “Except for the part that you are
soul mates. That’s a joke, she was meant to be with Tony. And you are meant to
be with me.” He started pacing on the wet grass in front of me.

“Talk about a
joke. If she wanted to be with him she would have. And I never felt that way
about you, even when we went to school together. If we were soul mates, don’t
you think I’d be attracted to you? I don’t love you, I love Lucas.” I started
to yell again. I was upset for so many reasons. For one, I was tied up, and the
ropes were painfully cutting into my skin. Two, he was talking about hurting
Lucas to get me, and I couldn’t handle that. Three, I felt like I’d lost a good
friend. Even though he was doing this to me, I liked him so much. Back when I
was a scared fourteen-year-old, he was my lifeline in a sea of unfriendly,
snobby kids.

His face turned
dark with anger. He pulled his hand back and slapped me across the face. The
slap was so strong my head swung back. My cheek stung where his hand hit me. I
was shocked. All my sadness over the loss of a friend disappeared instantly. He
wasn’t the Ryan I knew. I didn’t know the person standing in front of me. This
person tried to kill me three times, followed me, terrorized me, and most of
all, he was responsible for my broken heart, my misery for the past month. He
was trying to keep me from the man I loved, and for all of this…I hated him. I
no longer felt bad for the loss of my friend. He didn’t have to succumb to
Tony’s darkness. It was wrong to hurt people, and if he didn’t see that, he was
no friend of mine.

I slowly turned
my head back to look at him. His face was still full of anger, showing no
remorse for hitting me. “That’s how you treat someone you’re supposed to love?
I think I’ll stick with Lucas, he’s ten times the man you are.” I whipped the
words at him, wanting them to sting, but I only angered him more. His face
turned to fury as he drew his hand back. He almost hit me again, but instead,
he took a few breaths to control himself, stepping away from me.

Something had
been nagging me since I opened my eyes, and I suddenly remembered. “Where is
Zack?”

His wicked
smile reappeared. “He’s fine. He might have a headache, but once somebody finds
him, he’ll be okay. I don’t have a problem with Zack. Lucky for him, he’s not
your type.” He leaned against a tree, talking to me as if we were speaking of
the weather. “He’s in the trunk of his car. I couldn’t have him alerting anyone
that you were missing. It would ruin my plan.”

“What plan?”

“You’ll find
out soon enough.” He chuckled. “How was your trip to my family’s home town? Did
you have a fun ride down that hill?”

“Oh, that’s
right, your pathetic attempt to hurt Lucas and me. As you can see, it didn’t
work. His car even came away without a scratch. I do appreciate the extra time
with him though. Thank you.” I beamed at him, knowing that it would tick him
off, but at this point, I didn’t give a shit.

The smile
vanished as his face hardened. I don’t think he appreciated my humor.

“Don’t worry,
I’m not finished yet. Your time with Lucas is over.” He had a piece of rope in
his hand, and he played with it as he spoke.

“What are you
going to do? Why did you bring me here?”

“We’re waiting
for a special guest.”

“Who?” I asked,
afraid of the answer.

“Well, your boyfriend,
of course. You see, Lucas received your text to meet him at your special
waterfall. When he gets here, he’ll find you tied up. Of course he’ll try to
untie you, but when he leans over, he’ll slip and fall to his death. With him
out of the way, you will finally realize we were meant for each other. Lucas
dies an accidental death, and we live happily ever after.” His voice was smooth
and captivating, as though he was telling a dramatic tale to a small child.

“Accidental?” I
felt sick to my stomach.

He pushed
himself away from the tree. “Well, I will help out there. I’ll be hiding, and
when he bends over to help you, I’ll push him over the edge.”

“Is this
because of some stupid dreams? You’re going to kill Lucas over a delusion you
created because you were dreaming of me. That’s psychotic. You’re not him,
Ryan; you don’t have to follow his fate. Do you want to go to jail for the rest
of your life like he did?”

A shadow
crossed his face. “Oh, I’m not going to jail. I’m not going to kill anyone. It
will be accidental, remember? He just stood too close to the edge, and simply
slipped. With him out of the way, we can be together.”

“You’re more
delusional than Tony was. At least he knew that Katie would rather die than be
with him. She loved David, just like I love Lucas.” The ground was so cold my
butt was starting to go numb. I moved side to side to get my circulation going
again.

“He dumped
you!” he yelled, coming toward me. “I would never do that.”

“He did it to
protect me. We would be together right now if it wasn’t for you!” I screamed so
loud, my throat hurt. I was so angry I wanted to rip his face off. I realized
something. “Wait a minute, I didn’t text Lucas.”

He slipped
something out of his pocket and held it up…my cell phone. “Oh, I did that for
you, while you were out. He should be here any minute.”

Oh no! He was
going to hurt him. I couldn’t allow that. Panic started in the pit of my
stomach, rising to my throat. “Ryan, please don’t do this. Just because you
were some psycho freak in a past life doesn’t mean you have to be now. You can
break the cycle, you can be better than him,” I begged, pulling at the ropes
around my wrist.

He laughed.
“Psycho freak, is that how you see him? He was driven; he knew what he wanted
and went after it. What’s wrong with that?”

Crap. I really
didn’t want to do this, but I didn’t see an alternative. “Please, spare Lucas,
and I will be with you. You don’t have to kill him!” My voice was shrill as I
begged him not to hurt the person I loved the most. I had felt what it was like
not to be with him anymore. I couldn’t imagine the pain if he died.

“Sorry, but for
some reason, I don’t believe you. You’d say anything to save your precious
Lucas.” He bent down and caressed my cheek with his hand. I cringed at the
touch, but tried not to show the revulsion on my face.

There was a
rustling in the woods, and the sound of heavy footsteps. Someone was coming. I
hoped Ryan didn’t hear it, but he glanced in the direction of the noise, and
then back at me. He smiled, patted my cheek, and picked up a roll of duct tape
that was sitting on the ground beside him. When I realized what he was about to
do, I yelled, “Don’t come!” I was cut off as he slapped a long piece of the
thick tape tightly to my mouth.

I screamed at
Lucas as loud as I could, to stop him from coming any further, but of course,
he couldn’t hear me. The stupid tape was blocking my screams. I struggled with
the ropes around my wrists, pulling with all my strength, but they were so
tight they wouldn’t budge. The ropes were cutting into my skin. I was sure my
wrists were going to be bruised and bleeding. Despite the cold, my brow was
starting to sweat from the constant thrashing.

The footsteps
were getting louder. My throat felt raw from shrieking, and it wasn’t doing any
good. He couldn’t hear me, but I had to warn him somehow. If I could just get
these freaking ropes off!

I saw Lucas
emerge from the trees and into the clearing. He stopped when he saw me, his
face turning from confusion to shock.

When he rushed
over to me, I didn’t feel his presence. It was as if he wasn’t standing in
front of me. I could see him, but the link between us was gone. It was Logan. “God, Sarah, what the hell?” he exclaimed, ripping the tape off of my mouth,
pulling some skin along with it. Ow.

“Look out!” I
yelled, just as Ryan pushed him off the cliff.

“NOO!” I
screamed. Grief overwhelmed me, I really liked Logan. He was just starting to
get his life together and I believed, just like his family, that he was a good
person, and could make something of himself. And now because of me he was going
to die.