Touched (12 page)

 “My God,” said Keira suddenly, “I forgot something at home. I’m so sorry, I have to go get it,” and she flew out of the office.

“Wait!” called Amanda.

Keira ran through the main door of the school, down the road towards home, paying no attention at all to the people calling behind her.

As she ran a fierce energy rose through her. She was running for her life, deflecting her scent. They were closing in. Keira ran from one road to another camouflaging her energy.

Keira ran all the way home. When she got there she dashed up into her room to pack and get out immediately. It was horrifying to realize that the Shadow Vampires had now pulled Amanda in. She had to stay there until Amanda came home, and tell her everything. Amanda was in danger now, too. It was easy to see that she was desperately in love with him and convinced that he loved her too. Keira had to tell her the whole truth right away. Amanda’s life depended on it.

CHAPTER 15

Keira packed hurriedly, taking only what was truly important to her. Her life had changed so much in such a short time. She could hardly remember the days when she was just like everyone else, went to school, had a family, some place to come home to. Now she couldn’t stay around.

In a few minutes, she heard a knock on her door.

“Let me in,” it was Amanda, breathless. She had chased her home.

Keira opened the door and let her sister in. “Thank God you’re here,” said Keira.

“Are you completely crazy?” Amanda was furious. “What in the world is going on?”

“I’m so sorry for all this,” Keira started.

“What’s wrong with you?” Amanda’s eyes filled with tears again. “You ran away suddenly for no reason. Mrs. Heighten was waiting and was going to report it, but I told her you were fine. I said you had a stomach ache, that our parents knew you were home, everything was okay. I lied for you.”

“Thank you,” said Keira.

“Don’t thank me,” Amanda said. “I don’t like to lie.”

“I know you don’t,” said Keira, “and neither do I. But sometimes there’s danger.”

Amanda’s tapped her knuckles against one another. It was something she had done since childhood when she tried to block bad news out.

“What kind of danger? What are you talking about?” Amanda asked, her voice getting high.

Keira took a deep breath. She no longer had a choice. She had to tell her sister everything. She didn’t know if Amanda could take it, but time had run out.

“Listen to me, Amanda, she said. “I know this will sound far out, but every single thing I’m going to tell you is true.”

Amanda’s eyes grew larger. “I’m listening,” she said. “I have no choice but to listen, do I?”

 “I told you some of this before and now I have to go into more detail. I told you that I started getting weird powers after the accident, right?”

“Right,” Amanda said, as if she couldn’t bear to hear another word.

“It was when I was close to Cooper.”

“And?” Amanda said.

“Cooper wasn’t a strange guy,” Keira went on, “he wasn’t human.

“Oh God,” Amanda said then, taking a quick breath. “This is getting crazier than before.”

“Hear me out, please,” said Keira. “Cooper was hybrid, part Shadow Vampire, part Torch.”

It didn’t mean a thing to Amanda. Her face grew tighter and sterner. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she cried.

“I know you don’t, but you have to listen to me. There are creatures among us that are unlike anything you can ever imagine. They’re not part of the human race. Some of them are Vampires. Some feed on humans and destroy them. The Shadow Vampires feed off misery. They make it worse, drink a human’s vital energy and then consume the thoughts in their brain.”

“You sound totally insane,” Amanda’s face was stark white. She seemed about to turn away.

“I know I sound that way, but believe me, I’m not. I’m smarter than ever,” Keira cried loudly. She couldn’t let Amanda get away from her now. Amanda had to hear what she was saying. She had to realize that she was in danger, too. Keira felt a vein pulsing on her neck and her blood rushing. “Listen to me,” she said again, her voice getting darker and rougher now.

Amanda shuddered and tried to go.

Keira focused her energy on her and kept her where she was. Even though Amanda tried to move now, she was frozen, stuck to the spot.

“This guy you’re with, your new boyfriend,” Keira continued.

“You mean Percy?” Amanda’s voice was thin and scared.

“He’s not your boyfriend, really.”

Keira watched Amanda struggle to move, as if she were caught in quicksand, unable to. Clearly Amanda didn’t want to hear another word, but Keira forced her to stay put.

“He’s NOT your boyfriend,” Keira repeated.

“Percy loves me,” Amanda spit back. “You’re jealous of me. You always were.”

“He wants you to think he’s your boyfriend,” said Keira. “But he doesn’t feel a thing for you. He can’t. He’s one of the Shadow Vampires. I recognized him right away. And he recognized me.”

“You’re completely insane,” Amanda started crying, “worse than mom. You belong in a hospital.”

“I’m telling you the truth. He’s with you because he wants to get to me. He’s on a mission to kill me.”

Amanda desperately tried to regain control. She shook her shoulders as far as she could, trying to toss away these horrible ideas.

“Keira, think a minute. Why would Percy want to kill you? He doesn’t even know you.” She refused to take any of this in. It was way beyond what she could fathom.

“I destroyed the Shadow Vampires a while ago in an attack,” said Keira. “They’ve reconstituted and are out for revenge. I’m one of their prime targets. They’re afraid of what I can do to them. Their bigger mission is to destroy all goodness, to plunge the world into an era of fear.”

“Keira, you’ve gone insane. Insane, insane!” Amanda started weeping. “Percy loves me more than anyone in the world ever did. I never felt so safe and good as when I’m with him.”

“That’s how I felt with Cooper, too,” Keira felt like crying too. She saw that Amanda wouldn’t believe her, no matter how hard she tried. “I never felt so loved by anyone, or so much love for anyone as I did for Cooper.”

“And?” said Amanda, “it didn’t work out for you so now you want to destroy my happiness too?”

“That’s not it,” said Keira, “not at all. Believe me.”

“So, what happened between you and Cooper? Everything you thought was a lie?”

Keira couldn’t say that. “No, it wasn’t a lie. It was just that we came from different worlds, maybe even different species. We only met for a little while. But Percy’s different. He’s not hybrid. He’s all Shadow. And his shield is up.”

“What shield?”

“The Shadows don’t have human feelings, they just seem to. They have energy that pulls you in, intoxicates you, makes you feel so special. And adored.”

“Yes, that’s right,” breathed Amanda.

“But they feel nothing back inside.”

“It’s not true,” Amanda spoke louder now. “Percy loves me. I feel it in every bone.”

“It only seems that way, believe me.”

Desperate, Amanda wrestled as hard as she could and finally pulled herself free of Keira’s grip. She stood up suddenly and stared at Keira with pure hatred.

“You just want to destroy something precious to me,” she yelled. “You want to destroy everything. Mom’s right, you were like that from the moment you were born.”

Keira put her hands over her ears. She couldn’t hear another word of this, couldn’t bear to take in Amanda’s hatred.

Just then there was a knock on her door again. “What’s going on inside there?” It was their mother.

Amanda flung the door open, and her mother rushed in.

“I can hear the two of you shouting from downstairs,” her mother said. “I’ve had enough of this. I was resting.”

Keira covered her head with her hands. Her mother’s energy was toxic. She felt as if rocks were falling all over her.

“Keira’s telling me horrible things,” Amanda cried, “trying to spoil my new relationship.”

“Well, it’s par for the course, isn’t it?” her mother said. “What else can you expect of her?”

But this time her mother’s words were just too much for Keira. They weren’t true and they weren’t fair. There was a lot they could expect of Keira. She’d been there for everyone and she had come back to help her sister now.

“Shut up,” Keira turned to her mother, with fury. “All my life you’ve been filled with poison towards me. I don’t deserve it and I don’t accept it! Take what you said back.”

“I won’t, “said her mother defiantly.

“It’s time you looked in a mirror and faced yourself,” said Keira, “instead of hating and blaming everyone else.”

Her mother turned white and gasped. She’d never been spoken to this way before. “How dare you raise your voice to me?” she shrieked “how dare you say things like that?”

“I’ll raise my voice as much as I like and show you what happens to wretches,” shouted Keira, the anger rising through every vein, the veins in her head pounding.

Both Amanda and her mother grew stiff and silent. Keira’s strength and tone terrified them. They had no power over her anymore.
“You’d better say something nice to me before I leave,” Keira growled. She wasn’t letting her mother off the hook.

“There’s not one thing nice I have to say,” her mother was relentless.

 Keira lifted her hands over her head then, about to pour her energy onto her mother. But in a swift moment, she thought better of it. With all her strength, she contained herself. She didn’t want to leave that way. She didn’t want to live with the thought that she had harmed her mother, possibly irreparably.

“One day you’ll see the truth,” Keira said, her breath coming in gasps and flames shooting from her eyes. “One day you’ll learn what it means to be a real mother. Right now, you have no idea.”

“Get out, get out,” her mother shrieked so loud that they could barely hear someone banging on the door downstairs.

“Who’s that?”  Keira asked alarmed.

“Probably Percy,” said Amanda. “He must be worried, since I didn’t return to school. He wants to come in and help me.”

“Percy?” Keira’s skin grew cold. She had to get out of here this minute.

“Stay away from him, I’m warning you,” she yelled to Amanda.

But Amanda couldn’t bear any of this for another moment. “Mom’s right,” she started yelling. “Get out of here, leave the family, leave the house. Go! Just go! Haven’t you done enough to us already? Do you want the whole town to hear about this now?”

Keira grabbed her things, preparing to run out the back door, away from Amanda, away from her family and everything she had once held dear. Then, suddenly, she stopped and faced Amanda head on.

“I’m going!” Keira said, her voice suddenly resounding like a strange gong. “But just remember what I said. Be careful! You’re still precious to me!”

Then Keira turned and, filled with intense energy, fled, like a bird, down the stairs, out the back door, across the lawn, over the blocks and far, far away from the place she used to call home.

CHAPTER 16

Keira decided to go to the open cottage near the lake, the first one she and Cooper stayed in, where they’d vanquished the Shadows. She knew how to get there, and it was a safe place for her to return to now. It would be painful, hold too many memories of him. Help would come for her in the open cottage, it had to. At every turn in the juncture, something had come to guide her. She had to trust in that.

By the time she arrived, evening was starting to fall, and a few stars appeared overhead. She looked up at them as she stood at the front of the cottage. The stars were spread out like a canopy, covering and protecting her. As Keira gazed at the sky one star sparkled intensely, seeming to come closer to her, telling her that the universe hadn’t abandoned her, that it was watching her every step of the way.

Keira walked through the bramble to the main entrance, pushed the shattered gate open and went in. It was strange being in the cottage she and Cooper had stayed in, the place where they’d been so close and happy, without him now. Keira suddenly felt lonely and sad. She walked around the open cottage slowly, wondering what it would be like to have him here with her now.

She sat down on the couch and let herself wonder if she’d ever see him again, even for a few moments. She yearned so much for the sight of his eyes, the deep mellow sound of his voice. How cruel it seemed that the two of them had been brought so close together, only to be torn apart. She wondered if he ever felt that too, even for a second? Was he happy in his new world and with his new love? Was the ring bringing him new powers, way beyond what she could ever know? Would she even recognize him if they were to meet again?

As she sat there musing in the fading light, she decided to walk down to the lake and watch the moon rise over the trees. It would be good to get outside and take a walk. She left the cottage and took the short walk to the water, enjoying every step of it, leaving the awful day behind her.

When she got to the lake, she saw a woman was standing at the edge of it, her back to Keira. Usually this place was empty, and Keira wondered who it could be. She walked over to where the woman was standing and stood beside her.

The woman turned, looked at Keira, and smiled gently. She was in her forties, with long auburn hair, dressed in a beautiful orange silk dress. She had large, amber eyes and smooth, silky skin.

“Lovely to see you,” the woman said.

Keira was fascinated. She was also soothed. The woman seemed tremendously familiar, though Keira’d never seen her before.

The woman flashed her a golden smile. “Beautiful evening, isn’t it, Keira?”

Keira? She knows my name, thought Keira. Did she follow me here? Nothing surprised her anymore.

“Yes, it’s a wonderful evening,” Keira said.

“Why don’t we go and sit at the bench over there?” the woman suggested.

Keira nodded and followed the woman to the empty bench a few feet away. At first, neither Keira nor the woman said a word to each other as they sat looking out at the lake. There’s some reason she’s here, thought Keira. There was no pressure between them or sense of time passing. The woman seemed happy just to sit there, quietly.