CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

We take Rand’s car, since we left Caden’s black and burning on a road. I wonder what the residents thought when they saw the smouldering remnants of the vehicle, scorch marks etched into the road and pathways as if fireballs had been thrown. I wonder what the lady who actually saw it thought.

“Do you know the address?” Caden asks as he gets behind the wheel.

“It’s–” I begin. But then I realise that I have no idea where Kira lives. “No, I didn’t ask.”

He slumps back in his chair. “Great. How are we meant to get there then?”

“I know where it is,” Sarah says from behind us.

I send her a look which I’m sure reads as, how in the world do you know where Kira lives?

“What? I’m capable of making friends too, you know.” I study her for a moment, then shrug. She has a point.

“Kira invited me. She gave me the address.” She hands a small slip of crinkled paper to Caden.

He skims it quickly, then turns the key in the ignition. As the engine roars to life, I ask, “How far away is it?”

“Not sure. Maybe ten minutes?”

It takes us twenty.

Kira lives in a particularly empty part of town. Her house is wedged between forest parklands on one side and an old, half-demolished petrol shop surrounded by a chain-link fence on the other. The opposite side of the street is more populated, but only by a small amount. There’s a warehouse of some description, a large fancy house surrounded by a tall brick wall, a few vacant blocks of land, and a couple of cottages on the far ends of the street.

It’s the perfect destination for an out-of-control party.

Or a paranormal murder.

Caden parks the car and we hastily hop out. All the lights in the house are turned on and there are people everywhere: on the front lawn, on the sidewalk, crammed inside. Even in the freezing temperatures, the snow melting at their feet, they still seem to be having a good time, chatting and drinking from plastic cups, sporting thick coats to ward against the cold. There’s even people venturing into the forest by the side of the house, leaving a trail of steamy breath in their wake.

The chaotic sight is accompanied by the loud, thumping base of the music, which spills out onto the street, pounding loudly in my ears. I can’t even imagine how loud it must be inside.

I turn to Caden and Sarah. “I’m gonna go in and try to find Lauren. While I’m at it, you guys should probably check the land around the house. It doesn’t look very sus at the moment, but that doesn’t mean there’s now one lurking around.”

They nod.

“You sure you don’t want one of us to come in with you?” Sarah asks.

I shake my head. “I’ll be fine. Besides, if there is someone out here, then it’d be better if one of us didn’t go looking alone in case something happens.”

“What if they’re inside the house?”

“Then they’re inside the house. I’m gonna be surrounded people in there,” I say, gesturing to the raging party. “They’ll barely be able to keep an eye on me, let alone try anything.”

Sarah nods. Caden’s eyes flick to the house and then back to mine, deciding.

 “I’ll meet you back here when I’m done.”

“Okay,” Sarah says. Caden looks down at his feet. Then they turn away and walk towards the forest and I watch them until they’ve disappeared.

I face the house. There are already people on the front lawn watching me. Many are a couple years older than me and a few are vaguely familiar. I bet that most of them go to my school and know exactly who I am. I bet they’re wondering, what the hell is she doing here?

A part of me is wondering the same thing.

I walk forward, my gaze fixed on the door. I ignore the eyes that follow my every move and the whispers that are somehow louder than the pounding music. I’m here for Lauren. What my peers think of me is out of the picture. I can’t let them get to me – not tonight.

I reach the door, and a rather muscular boy who had been standing in the entrance steps out of my way. He doesn’t say anything, and neither do his mates who are all standing by the entrance, watching me. I step past them and into the house.

Immediately, my ears are assaulted by the loud music, the hammering rhythm taking the place of my heart beat. In here, barely anyone looks at me, and those who do don’t look long enough to realise who I am. Everyone’s busy talking, dancing, drinking. My eyes notice a couple making out in the corner. I look away.

I keep my hands close to my body as I weave through the crowd that pulses in time to the music. The crowd is an ocean that ebbs and flows. It pushes against me as I push against it, heading deeper and deeper into the stuffy over-crowded house.

I check everyone’s face, searching for some sort of familiarity. I know it’s pointless to search for Lauren – she could be anywhere. So I search for her friends instead. If anyone knows Lauren’s whereabouts, it would be them.

I check the kitchen – a mess of discarded plastic cups and chatting people – but find no one. I check the hallways and most of the rooms and come up with the same result. But it’s hard. No one stays in one place for long. And each passing second is a second in which the feeling that I don’t belong here grows.

I hug my ice cold hands closer to chest.

Eventually, I step out into the backyard. It’s more ‘plastic cup’ and snow than grass, and there are people everywhere, their breath floating upwards in white clouds. It’s not as crowded as the house – and not nearly as loud – but it’s still heavily populated. I sigh quietly and descend the steps from the porch.

But I’m in luck. The first face I come across belongs to Piper, and I feel a weight lift off my chest as I approach her, chatting with a bunch of people I don’t recognise.

“Hey Piper,” I say and her light blues eyes shift to me, along with the eyes of the three teenagers around her.

She looks surprised. “Melissa? What are you doing here?”

“Lauren invited me,” I say.

She looks down and to the side for a second, muttering something under her breath. When she looks back at me, a somewhat forced smile graces her face. “Would you like a drink?”

“Uh, no thanks. I was just wondering if you’d seen Lauren.”

The smile droops into nonexistence. “Not for a while. But I saw her in one of the hallways earlier.” She starts to turn away.

“Okay, thanks for the help.”

She looks back. “No worries,” she says disinterestedly, then falls back into conversation with her friends. I head back inside.

I walk down all the hallways again, not expecting Lauren to still be there but checking anyway. She isn’t. And when I check the living room again, she isn’t there either.

It’s as I’m heading to the kitchen for a second time that I hear her voice, and I turn to see her standing by the table in the dining room, which has been pushed to the side to make more space for everyone.

“Lauren!” I shout over the pounding music. Somehow, she hears me, and looks up from her conversation with a boy I recognise from school as Shaun.

“Melissa!” she exclaims, a cup of some unknown liquid sloshing in her hand. “You came!” Out the corner of my eye, I notice Shaun slink off to somewhere else.

“Yeah,” I say loudly, hating that I have to shout to be heard over the music. “It sounded like too much fun to miss!” She smiles.

Enough with the lying already, a voice groans.

“Hey, um, I know this might sound odd, but are you okay? Has anything strange happened?”

“What? No, I’m fine! Why wouldn’t I be?”

I shrug.

“Would you like me to get you a drink?”

No.

“Sure!” I smile.

“Wait here!” She says before walking off.

But I don’t wait – my plan was never to wait. I make for the front door, stepping out into the fresh air, and pass through the groups of people on the lawn without a look in their direction. Caden and Sarah are waiting for me out front.

“Did you find her?” Caden asks.

I nod. “Yeah, she’s fine. What about you? Did you see anyone?”

“No, just a bunch of people getting drunk and making out,” he says.

Sarah wrinkles her nose. “What fun. Why do people even like coming to these things?”

I shrug. “Beats me.”

That’s when the house erupts in noise. And not the music and talking kind of noise – in fact, the music turns off – but the shouting and screaming kind of noise. Suddenly, everyone is rushing out the front door and escaping hurriedly down the sidewalk. Like a roach’s nest that has been sprayed with pesticide, they all pour out, writhing and shrieking as they flow onto the road and don’t turn back.

I make eye-contact with Sarah and Caden. Bingo.

My heart is already pounding in my chest, nerves flitting in my stomach like butterflies, but I don’t let myself freeze with fear. We rush forward as people rush out, an endless stream of drunk teenagers with fright smeared onto their faces like paint. By the time we’re inside, the house is almost completely empty, the last stragglers running out the door behind us or the one out the back, making it hard to miss the lady with her hand around Lauren’s neck.

All three of us freeze in our tracks.

She’s the same one from earlier – the one who I had seen watching Lauren. But now she’s doing a lot more than just watching. She holds Lauren up against the wall with one hand, her feet dangling in the air. Strength, I decide. The lady’s ability is definitely strength.

I can only watch in horror as Lauren claws at the lady’s hand on her neck, gasping for air.

“Get away from her!” Caden shouts. I notice the hand he holds around his own neck, the slight pain on his face, and remember his ability – his sole ability to feel the pain of others. I remember the events of earlier today and cringe. Whatever pain I was going through, he was probably going through tenfold. I run a hand over my recently healed arm.

The woman looks back at us, smiling nastily. “She’s all yours,” she says, letting go of Lauren. She steps away from the wall and into the centre of the room as my friend’s weak body crumbles to the floor.

My eyes leave the woman, latching onto Lauren who is gasping for air. My thoughts turn panicked. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to help her. I know I can’t approach her, not with the lady standing a mere metre or so away. And I can’t exactly tell her to leave.

Yes, you can, whispers a voice. And while the voice is wrong, it is also right: I can’t tell her to leave, but I can make her leave.

Leave. Now, I say in my mind, projecting the words to her.

After a moment, she looks up at me, shocked, before standing on weak legs and crossing the room to the door. Her eyes are on mine the entire way, as if she’s trying to figure out who I am. I make her shut the door as she leaves, feeling guilty through and through.

"Who are you?" I ask the lady the moment the door closes.

She ignores my question. "I just thought I’d drop by to tell you a little something about your mother,” she says.

I freeze. “What did you say?”

"She was a lovely lady. Lovely, lovely lady,” she continues, and it feels as though she’s talking more to herself than to me. “But she was way too trusting; never suspicious enough."

“What are you talking about?" I ask.

"And the poor thing was getting better,” she says, mild remorse crossing over her face. “It really is tragic. So, so tragic.”

My blood turns cold. "What did you do to her?"

She smiles sadly. “I have no idea what you’re talking about – I didn’t do anything. I was just attending to her early one morning when she started having a heart attack. There was nothing I could do for the poor dear. She was gone in under a minute.”

And that’s it – I snap.

I launch myself at the lady, my fingers ready to claw out her eyes, her hair, her skin. But Caden grabs me, wrapping an arm around my waist. I fight against him, shouting and kicking.

“Melissa, don’t,” he says sternly under his breath. “Can’t you see? She wants you to get angry. She wants this.”

“I don’t care,” I say, anger burning away inside me. “She killed my mother!”

The woman regards me with humour. “Don’t be stupid,” she says. “It’s not like she was your mother, anyway.” And for the briefest of moments, her eyes fall on Sarah. She smiles darkly and I spare a glance at Sarah who is standing statue still, her eyes afraid.

The lady knows what she’s doing and she’s enjoying it. My anger burns hotter.

“What do you have against me?” I demand. “Why do you hate me so much?” I finally rip free of Caden, coming to stand a few steps in front of him.

“Oh, honey, I don’t hate you. I just really don’t like you.”

“Why?” Now I’m more curious than anything else.

She laughs, the sound silky smooth. It gives me chills. “Well isn’t that the question of the century.”

“Answer me,” I get out through gritted teeth.

I’m ignored. “Well, as nice as this has been, I have other more important things to do, so…” She raises an arm, and suddenly there’s a gun aimed directly at my head. I stiffen. “Time to say goodbye,” she says, smiling. Always smiling.

I don’t know what to do, and I get the feeling the no one else does either. I could probably knock her over with a gust of wind, but the risk of her pulling the trigger before she falls is far too great. Plus, if she shoots and the wind knocks her aim off, the bullet could end up hitting Sarah or Caden instead.

The lady presses down on the trigger.

And then suddenly there's a thump as something hits her in the head. She collapses to the ground and I look in shock at where my friend stands behind her, a frying pan in her hand.

"Lauren?" I ask, filled with astonishment.

Lauren drops the pan, breathing hard. "You're welcome."

And then the window next to her explodes inwards and all hell breaks loose.