Tormented (Evolution Series Book 2) (6 page)

“Smartass,” he said with a smile, which I returned.

I got out of bed and joined Aiden on the sofa. “I guess I’ve been hanging around you too much, hey?” I joked, bumping my bare thigh against his.

“All jokes aside, how are you feeling?”

I didn’t want to think about how I was feeling. I would have preferred to squash any feelings I had about the last time I was at my house. I wanted to pretend they didn’t exist; otherwise, I didn’t know how I was going to cope with going through what I was about to do.

“You know I can help you with that.” He was offering to do what he had done for me shortly after I had seen my mother’s body lying in a pool of blood.

I shivered at the thought of her lifeless eyes staring up at me, as if pleading for me to help her. Yet I couldn’t. There was nothing I could do. She was gone, and I still felt as though I had failed her somehow. Why I felt like that, I didn’t know, but the fact remained that I did. And maybe, going back to find who did this to her might bring some sort of closure for me. I could only hope.

“I may just take you up on that,” I said, knowing without a doubt that I wouldn’t be able to get through it without his help.

He leaned forward, placed his mug on the coffee table,
then
got to his feet. “I’m
gonna
go find Dave and Anna to let them know that we will be heading off soon.”

He walked over to the bed, threw off his towel, and put on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. The guy had a massive walk-in wardrobe off his bathroom, and yet he still preferred to leave his clothes lying around everywhere. I just hoped they were clean.

“Yes, they’re clean,” he said, as he strolled over to the door. “I won’t be long.” He left, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

It wasn’t as if I could distract myself by getting ready, because I had nothing to change into. I would have to grab a heap of clothes when I went home. And there I was, thinking about home again and all the memories it held. Damn. I was probably going to need Aiden to work his magic before I even got there.

Not knowing what else to do, I picked up Aiden’s iPhone and browsed his latest music downloads.

Before long, he was back. “You ready?”

I took a deep breath. It was time to go home. Time to face my demons. Time to find my mother’s murderer. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Aiden sat down beside me and laced my fingers with his. “Let’s do this.”

I closed my eyes and thought about home. I wanted to land us in my old bedroom, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself from thinking about the lounge room where my mother’s bloodied body had lain.

When we landed, I was too afraid to open my eyes. My heart was jumping inside my chest, and my stomach felt as if it was going to empty all its contents.

Aiden squeezed my hand. “You can open your eyes.”

I shook my head. “No, I can’t.”

“We’re in your room.” He sent some of those feel-good thingies pulsating through my body, but it wasn’t enough. I thought I was ready, but I obviously wasn’t. I couldn’t even open my damn eyes. “Want some help?” he asked.

I nodded. The next thing I knew, all my fear and anxiety about returning home were gone. I didn’t know if I’d ever get used to how he could manipulate my feelings so that I wouldn’t have to deal with the raw emotion that consumed me moments ago. I opened my eyes. He was right. We were in my room.

Nothing seemed to be different; it was as if I had only been there yesterday. My double bed was still covered in the same sheets. I let go of Aiden and ran my hands through my knotted brown hair. I walked over to my dresser to get a brush and heard a familiar bark come from outside. “Tyson.”

I rushed to my bedroom window, pulled the curtain to the side, and searched for Tyson in the backyard. But he wasn’t there. My eyes drifted to the left where a furry black head was bobbing up and down behind Mrs. Carson’s fence. I guessed that answered the question about what happened to him. I had often wondered where the big fella was living and had hoped someone was looking after him, and it turned out someone was. Mrs. Carson may have been nosey as hell, but she always did have a soft spot for my dog.

“It looks like she’s taking care of him,” Aiden said, coming up behind me.

“Yeah, it does.” I let go of the curtain and turned around. I hoped that maybe one day I could get Tyson back, but then I
realised
he was probably better off staying with Mrs. Carson. We were hardly ever home, whereas she was always home. And maybe having a pet would give her some other purpose in life apart from snooping on all the
neighbours
.

Before we went downstairs, I needed to get changed. After having a go at Aiden for putting on clothes just left on his bed, I found myself doing the same. Once dressed, I braced myself,
then
turned to Aiden. “Let’s do this.”

CHAPTER 6

Walking down the hallway that I had walked a million times before felt surreal. Everything still looked the same, but I knew that it wasn’t. My stomach lurched with each step that I took down the stairs. I had to wonder what I would have been like if Aiden hadn’t worked his magic on me only minutes ago. I probably would have collapsed down the stairs, possibly joining my mother on the other side. Actually, that wouldn’t be a possibility for me. There was no “other side” for me. I often wondered just how great the whole being immortal thing would sound in a thousand years. Would I still be so eager to live life, or would I just
be existing
without any hopes or dreams, or even enjoyment?

I couldn’t ponder what could be any longer because we were about to round the corner to the last few steps before we reached the bottom, which was only
metres
away from where her body had lain. Aiden grabbed my hand. My fear subsided almost instantly, allowing me to take the last few steps.

Nothing that I had imagined to see when I returned to the scene was there. Nothing. Not even a single drop of blood remained on the carpet. At first, I wondered if someone had put in new carpet, but the two-year-old coffee stain beside the sofa blew that theory.

“I don’t get it,” I said, turning to Aiden. “How is this possible?”

“I don’t know.” He knelt next to the spot where she had died and touched the area where her blood should’ve been.

“But she was right there. You saw her, too. Right?” I was starting to sound a little hysterical. I had expected to see blood, police tape, and even the white chalked outline of her body. But there was nothing. The room looked exactly as it had before she was murdered.

He got up off the floor,
then
sat on the arm of the sofa. “Of course I saw her. Maybe they were able to get the blood out.”

“Maybe,” I agreed, even though his theory didn’t feel right. There was only one other person I trusted who might be able to tell me what happened. I just wasn’t sure how welcomed I would be. After all, I had just disappeared without even saying good-bye. But I had to try. Besides, I was sure Aiden could make her forgive me. “I’ve
gotta
find Chelsea,” I said more to myself than to Aiden.

CHAPTER 7

We had to pop into Aiden’s house in Paradise Waters to pick up his car because apparently it looked a little strange to others when you turned up somewhere without a car. I argued that we could just say we took a cab, but Aiden didn’t agree.

Personally, I thought he was just itching to get behind the wheel again. After all, neither of us had driven a car since we were last on the Gold Coast. There wasn’t much need for cars in Thailand. Most people got around on scooters or rickety old motorbikes because the streets, or rather the dirt tracks, were barely wide enough for one car. And on some tracks, if there were two cars trying to pass in certain sections, one would inevitably roll down a hill or something. That was why we mostly stuck to transporting, walking, and the occasional use of the rickety old bikes.

We were seated in Aiden’s BMW, on our way to Chelsea’s house. It was strange being surrounded by
civilisation
after avoiding it for the last three weeks. I had always thought there would be no way that I could ever move, yet there was something to be said for living with only the simple pleasures in life.

“We could go back, you know, after all this is finished,” he said. Aiden had dropped his mind barriers so I knew he felt the same way about Thailand as I did.

“That would be nice,” I said with a smile, although I couldn’t see that day happening anytime soon. For some reason, someone was hell-bent on tormenting me, and I had a funny feeling that I had only seen the beginning.

“Are you nervous?” he asked, pulling up outside Chelsea’s house.

“Is it that obvious?” Never had her little townhouse seemed so daunting. I was eager to speak with her to find out what had happened with my mum, and what her funeral was like because I hadn’t been able to risk coming home for my own mother’s burial. I got out of the car and walked hand in hand with Aiden up the pathway to her house. There were lights on in the lounge room, and I could see the flicker of light coming from the TV, so I knew someone was home.

I knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer.

A few moments later,
the door was opened by Marie
, Chelsea’s mum. The moment she laid eyes on us, she just about passed out. She looked like she had seen a ghost, and I had to wonder just what had everyone thought had happened to me… to us.

Thinking about it, I
realised
the cops should’ve been going nuts, trying to figure it out. First, they had a murder on their hands, then the murdered victim’s daughter was missing and so
was
the daughter’s boyfriend and his family. Knowing how the police usually worked, I figured they would probably think Aiden had something to do with it.

“Thanks,”
he said, sounding unimpressed by where my thoughts were going.

“Yeah, well, you thought it, too,”
I replied in my
defence
. Once my thoughts had picked up on what the police would be thinking, Aiden came to the same conclusion I did.

Only that wasn’t what was on Marie’s mind. She wasn’t thinking about my mother’s murder. She was wondering why we were back, and why we had all disappeared to begin with. After everything that our families had been through together, why had we just up and left without saying good-bye? Her daughter was heartbroken. Her expression had changed from shock to annoyance. “You’re back, hey?” Her tone was cold.

I couldn’t blame her for resenting me. After all, she did think that I had just taken off right after Chelsea was kidnapped. But what I didn’t understand was why she thought we had left? Why didn’t she have any thoughts about my mother’s murder?

Neither Aiden nor I could answer that question. All we could go by was what she was thinking at the time. And it wasn’t as if we could just come right out and ask because whatever was going on, I was almost positive it had something to do with the bastard that was stalking me.

“Um… yeah,” I answered evasively. “Is
Chels
home?”

She didn’t answer right away. She was assessing the situation, deciding whether she should tell us that Chelsea was over Ben’s house, or if she should lie and say she would get Chelsea to call me when she got home. Pity for her, she didn’t
realise
that she had just inadvertently told us what we wanted to know.

Marie’s conscience got the better of her, and she decided to tell the truth. “She’s out with Ben.” By the irritation radiating from her, I could only wonder what Chelsea’s reaction would be.