Forks Read online

  The sky had darkened considerably and I didn’t want to turn on the headlights yet though, in case someone was there. I told myself I would just go around one last turn and then leave. The problem was I didn’t really have a place to turn around. Rounding the last turn, I slammed on the brakes and my wheels skidded in the gravel. I sucked in my breath. Before me was a very old but beautifully kept, Victorian house and in the circular driveway was unmistakably Viktor’s black SUV. I knew this because he was standing at the door, about to get inside.

  The passenger door opened up and out stepped Vincent.

  “Oh crap!”

  I panicked. Without thinking, I threw my car in reverse and punched the gas. Driving backward like a maniac it seemed like only seconds before I was at the mortared columns. I kept right on going through them and swung around on a small patch of grass on the other side. The tires spun out in the grass. My heart was pounding. I threw the car into drive and punched the gas again. The car jolted forward and sputtered, on the verge of stalling.

  “Oh God!” I hit the steering wheel. “Please, please, Peggy Sue, don’t die on me now!” I feathered the gas and she came back. Not wasting a moment, I hit the gas and sped back up the winding driveway. I didn’t even hesitate when I came to the bridge. I put the pedal to the medal.

  Viktor appeared at the end.

  I hit the brakes, bringing the car to a jarring halt. My neck snapped and my head slammed into the steering wheel and then everything turned black.

  Something wet slipped down my face. I lifted my hand to wipe it off and realized it was coming from my mouth. I tried to sit up and my vision waffled.

  “Hey,” a deep voice rumbled at my side.

  I jerked forward.

  The action made me feel like I was going to be sick. I gripped the sides of my head and opened my eyes.

  Viktor was squatting down in front of me. “Hey,” he said his voice quiet. “Are you all right?” he asked, concern etched across his gorgeous face.

  “Um…” Everything came back to me at once. I groaned, wanting to shut my eyes again.

  “Stop crowding her,” another distinct voice rang out from beside me.

  I turned my head to the right. Vincent was sitting beside me, and he had a wet spot on the front of his t-shirt. Mortified, I kept my head down. A plush carpet slowly came into focus under my feet. Oh God! I wished I had somewhere to hide but it was already too late. “Yeah, I’m fine.” I said even though my head was pounding. I heard a constant tick… tick…tick, followed by chiming. Someone sighed and I smelled cinnamon.

  Viktor coughed and moved back.

  A warm hand slid over my shoulder, rubbing it. Instead of making me feel better, the heat of it made me nauseas. “I don’t feel too good.” I tried to shirk off his hand.

  “Get out of her face and let her breathe,” Viktor snapped. He sounded far away. I would have smiled but my embarrassment overruled it.

  “Why don’t you go away? You’re obviously scaring her.”

  Me?” Viktor scoffed. “If you would move and give her some room she could sit up.” He kept his voice quiet but it had a harsh edge to it.

  A cadence of footsteps sounded on the tiles and then muted when they hit the carpet. “My God,” said a female voice, “both of you move so I can give her some water.”

  I tensed, recognizing the voice at once.

  It was Viola.

  I shut my eyes, groaning inwardly. Why me?

  “No one asked you, Viola. Why don’t you get out of here,” Vincent growled. His body vibrated against my side.

  “It’s my house,” she snapped. “I can be here.” A black pair of boots came into my line of vision. “Here,” she said, “drink this.” A glass of water was shoved under my face. “It’ll make you feel better.”

  I grabbed hold of the glass and lifted my head just enough to take a small sip. The shock of her doing something so nice was almost too much to take. “Thanks,” I said and handed the glass back. A slim hand grabbed hold of the glass once more.

  “Better?” she asked her voice sounded too sweet.

  She had to be faking. “Um, yeah,” I said and tried to sit up. As soon as I lifted my head, I felt like throwing up again. I put my head back in my hands and closed my eyes against the sudden pain.

  “Now, see what you did,” Vincent snapped. “Get away. You’re obviously making her sick.

  “If she’s sick it’s because you two Neanderthals are crowding her,” she snapped right back. “Obviously she can’t breathe.”

  “Leave,” Viktor snarled. I couldn’t see his face but I knew it was his voice. It was hard and commanding.

  “Whatever!” she snapped and then I heard her footsteps retreating from the room.

  “Amber?” Vincent leaned down. His head was close to mine and I smelled another waft of cinnamon. “What do you need?” he asked, rubbing my back gently. “Do you want me to take you home or to the hospital?”

  “What is wrong with you?” Viktor growled. “She’s fine or will be if you would just leave her alone for a minute.”

  “How would you know what she needs?” Vincent said his tone defiant.

  “Keep it up Vincent,” Viktor warned. He leaned down and pushed back my hair from my face. His fingers skimmed my neck. They were cold and felt good. “I’ll get you some ice,” he said. “It will help with the nausea.” I didn’t hear Viktor walk away but knew he had left the room when Vincent shifted closer.

  “Amber,” he said quietly, his hand slipping down over my back again. “Are you really okay?”

  “Yeah,” I managed. “My head hurts though.”

  “I say it should,” he said. “You hit it pretty hard.”

  I turned and looked at him. His face was shadowed, worried. “I’m so sorry.”

  “What are you sorry for?” he asked, his expression bewildered.

  Because I was spying on you. “For just leaving like that and for coming here,” I admitted.

  “Why did you come here?” he asked.

  “Ah…I just wanted…” I couldn’t finish.

  “What did you want?” he asked quietly.

  “I wanted to see what was down here…I didn’t know…” I tried to explain but my head hurt and the heat from his body was making me feel worse.

  “Shh,” he whispered. “It’s all right.”

  “Vincent,” I said and then stopped. My stomach clenched. I held my hand over my mouth.

  “Amber?” He rubbed my back. I knew he was doing it to make me feel better but each time his hand moved my stomach lurched.

  “Do you need to…”

  I didn’t let him finish. I stood up, looking for a way out. I was going to be sick and I wasn’t about to do it in his house. There were antiques everywhere and the room had a closed up smell to it. It reminded me of my Grandmother’s house. She was a hoarder.

  Viktor appeared and he was holding a cloth with ice in his hand. He was staring at me and he didn’t look happy.

  “Wait?” Vincent stood.

  I was trapped between them both. I spotted the door and headed for it. “I really have to go.”

  Viktor stepped in my way. “Where are you going? His gray eyes flashed and a tremor shot through me.

  “I have to… I have to…” My words clogged in my throat and I felt another wave of nausea. I had to get out of here before I threw up. Pushing past Viktor, I fast walked out of the house and down the stairs to my car that was parked in the circular drive. I ran over to it and jumped inside. Thankfully, my keys were in the ignition. I started my car and threw it onto gear. I looked up and Viktor and Vincent were both standing on the porch. They both had the strangest looks on their faces. I gave a halfhearted wave and left before I made an even bigger fool out of myself.

  As I drove away, I looked in my rearview mirror but they were both gone.

  forty one

  I made it about five miles down the road before I had to pull over and get sick. Afterwards I felt much better. The cool
air lessened my headache considerably too. I grabbed my water bottle out of the car, swished it in my mouth, and spit it out.

  Walking back, I checked Mom’s car for the inevitable dent from hitting the bridge but there was none. “I could have sworn…”

  Birds scattered from the trees suddenly. I turned around and looked into the woods. An overwhelming feeling came over me, like I was being watched. I ran back around the car, jumped in and headed for home.

  Now I was almost home and my mind was going a mile a minute. The lack of a dent was yet another thing to add in a long list of things that didn’t make sense that I was mentally compiling in my mind.

  Making a right turn on Mora Road, I let out a pent up breath. I was almost home. My phone bleated with the telltale sound of a text. Instead of waiting until I got home, I pulled off the side of the road and quickly read the text.

  It was from Ken.

  Ken: CAN U MEET ME?

  “Perfect timing Ken,” I said and texted back.

  Me: Sure. Where?

  I waited and a moment later, my phone bleated again.

  Ken: At the Visitor’s Center.

  Great I just past the visitors center ten minutes ago.

  Me: Yep. Be there in ten.

  Jerking the wheel, I swung the car around and headed back in the direction I had just come from.

  About fifteen minutes later, I pulled into the Visitor’s Center. It was now twilight and what was left of the sun was waning fast. I glanced at the clock. I was glad I told Mom I wouldn’t be home until later. Ken’s car wasn’t parked at the Visitor’s Center but instead at the Timber Museum. I cut across the road and pulled up beside Ken’s squad car but he wasn’t in it. “That’s weird.” A shiver of unease slipped over me.

  I watched the clock counting the minutes. Ten. Now fifteen had passed and there was still no sign of Ken. My stomach grumbled. I looked in my bag for my emergency protein bar and then remembered I ate it for breakfast the other day at school. I slid my hand in my pocket and pulled out my Red Hots. They weren’t much but it was better than nothing, so I popped a handful in my mouth and slid them back in my pocket.

  I wasn’t sure what to think. Had Ken wandered off to take a leak in the woods and got lost? Or maybe he was in the Visitor’s Center but even from my vantage point in the car I could see the center was locked up tight for the night, no lights on inside. Lifting my phone up, I checked my texts again.

  No new texts.

  I waffled between irritation and worry as the clock continued to tick off the minutes. I had been sitting here for nearly a half hour now.

  I texted him back.

  Me: I’M HERE WHERE ARE YOU???

  Ten minutes later, my phone bleated. “Finally,” I sighed, lifting up my phone.

  Ken: Meet me in the Timber Museum, the back doors open.

  “What the…?” I glanced over at the museum and it looked just as dark as the Visitor’s Center. Another uneasy feeling washed over me but I pushed past it and climbed from the car. Maybe he bought Mom something big and he hid it in the museum, I tried to reason to make myself feel better, but he icky feeling in the pit of my stomach didn’t fade.

  I walked the short distance to the Museum, my heart picking up speed the closer I got. It was almost completely dark now and the spotlight on the side of the building came on. I jumped and only after a minute of heavy breathing did I realize the light was motion activated. I took a step around back and the light clicked off again, plunging me into complete darkness. It took a moment for my eyes to readjust and then I saw the door. Grateful, I ran over to it and turned the knob half hoping it was locked but it was unlocked and turned easily in my hand just like Ken said.

  Taking a breath, I pulled it open and stepped inside. It smelled like wood, and had a musty odor too, like it had been closed up for a while. Boxes were stacked to my right, making large dark shadows across the floor. I hung back by the door wanting to keep it in sight.

  “Ken,” I called. “I’m here.”

  Nothing.

  The only sound I heard was my own breathing and my heart pounding in my ears. Footsteps sounded over my head. I walked forward but only a step or two and then stopped. Nothing about this felt right.

  “Ken,” I called again and waited.

  The heavy footsteps made their way across the room above and stopped directly over my head. I stood there waiting, suddenly afraid to call out. A large thump vibrated the entire ceiling, followed by a dragging sound.

  “Eeep!” I jumped, holding my chest. My heart was working double time and I didn’t think it was planning on slowing anytime soon, either. I ducked around the boxes, moving as silently as I could.

  The heavy footsteps started again just as I did. It was almost like they were following me across the room. And then I saw the staircase.

  A door creaked open.

  Thump. Thump. Thump. The heavy footfalls landed on the stair tread making their way down to the room I was in.

  A dark form rounded the railing and stopped. A flashlight flicked on blinding me. I lifted my hand to shield my eyes from the bright light. “Ken,” I croaked.

  “Not quite,” said a familiar voice and the light shifted and he placed it under his face. “Surprise!”

  Jason’s face was cast in the eerie white glow of the light like people do when they are about to tell a horror story around a campfire.

  I took a deliberate step back.

  “What’s the matter, Amber,” he asked his voice peppy, upbeat. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”

  “Jason, where’s Ken?”

  “I’m afraid he got called away on urgent business.” He swung the light around, blinding me again and laughed—it sounded maniacal. The light flashed to his face and he wiped something dark from his mouth. It looked like blood.

  “What are you doing here?” Fear seized me and kept me from running away.

  “I came to meet you,” he said and his body twitched. “Didn’t you get my text?”

  “You didn’t text me…” I started to say and then I realized, it wasn’t Ken at all, it was Jason.

  “No, I didn’t or… did I?” he laughed, bending slightly from the force.

  “What did you do to Ken?” I demanded, trying not to show my fear. I slipped my hand in my pocket, looking for my pepper spray. My fingers wrapped around my Red Hots but no spray—I left it in the car along with my phone. I inhaled slowly, trying to reign in my fear. It wasn’t working though.

  “I tried to warn you,” he said and took a step forward. “But now it’s too late, your damaged goods.”

  I swallowed hard. “What did you try to warn me about?”

  “Them,” he spat, rage barely contained exuded from him.

  I shuddered. “Who are you talking about?”

  He twitched again and swung the light in my face. “Amber, don’t play dumb, it’s not becoming of you,” he said and then added, “at least not to me.”

  “Sorry, I don’t know…”

  “Puhleeze,” he cut me off. “Tell me.”

  “Tell you what?”

  “That I’m right and you’re wrong!” he yelled. “Tell me you’re sorry.”

  “Sorry,” I said just to pacify him.

  He lifted his hand to his ear. “I can’t hear you, Amber.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “See,” he said. “Now that wasn’t so hard was it?”

  “No,” I lied. “It wasn’t.” The words left a vile taste in my mouth.

  “How do you like the museum? It’s nice right?” he asked completely changing the subject.

  “Yeah, it’s great.”

  “The carpentry class from Forks High School built it,” he said, flashing the light around the room. “They did a nice job don’t you think?”

  “Wow, really?” I feigned interest.

  “Yeah, talk about cheap labor,” he laughed.

  Slowly, I took another step backward.

  “Amber, Amber, Amber…” He shook his head.
“What am I to do with you, now?”

  I didn’t know what to say.

  “They got my buddy Kirk,” he said, sobering.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Come on,” he snapped. “You were there.”

  “When?”

  “At the party, when we were trying to save you from them,” he snarled.

  “Save me?”

  “Yes, Amber,” he sighed. “Remember when Kirk got you,” he scathed the word. “He was trying to save you from them, for me. He didn’t want to, but I made him and now because of you, he is gone.”

  I couldn’t stop the words from flowing from my mouth. “What did I do? He attacked me!” My anger was overriding my sense of self-preservation.

  “Oh Puhleeze,” he scoffed. “He was doing it for your own good.”

  “How is attacking me for my own good?” My ire rose. “He could have really hurt me!”

  “Those Vampires are the ones that are going to hurt you. God,” he exhaled. “How stupid are you?”

  “Me stupid?” I yelled, all my anger bubbling to the surface. “You’re the one blabbing about fake creature’s non-stop. You’re the one that’s stupid!”

  “You still haven’t figured it out?” His entire demeanor changed.

  “Figured what out?” I spat, sill not realizing how tenuous his hold on reality was.

  He lifted his hand and scrubbed it over his face. A dark streak appeared on the side. When he moved the light and I could see it was red.

  Was that blood? Oh God! Reality came crashing down on me. I was arguing with a lunatic.

  “I will just have to save you from yourself,” he said. “Just like me and Kirk saved Sandy.”

  “Sandy?” I asked drawing a blank and then it dawned on me who he was talking about. Ice ran through my veins, freezing me. “Sandy, from Thriftway?” I breathed. “Clarke’s sister?” She was also the supposed girlfriend of Viktor’s or Vincent’s but I didn’t add that part.

  “Someday you will thank me for this, just like her.” He pulled out a knife. The blade glinted in the light.