SIRENS SOUND OFF SOMEWHERE far in the distance. They’re far away from me because I’m dead. I’m dead along with my parents. I’m going to see them again any minute now. That man, that vampire, monster, whatever he is, he killed all of us. No one in the Wren family survived.
Rynne’s here beside me. My last wish before I die. He’s washing off my face, telling me things are going to be okay. But he’s wrong. Nothing is okay.
He holds me, and I hug him back. I’ll hang on to him for as long as I can.
The sirens keep getting louder and their flashing lights pierce the dark night. The constant spinning lights make me dizzy.
He killed them. He killed them…
Why aren’t I dead, too? Why am I still alive? I could feel the darkness and unknown spirits closing in on me after I threw my black diamond. They were tugging at my soul. They wanted something from me.
Everything my parents told me is true. They must have known everything. Why else would they have lived the way they did? Why else would they have taught me everything they taught me? But it didn’t amount to anything in the end. They were still killed. Why didn’t they tell me that every detail in those stories is true? Did all the excitement about Halloween really invite evil to Reverie? Is that why that monster came? But why my parents? Is it the good people who have to pay for someone else’s bad decisions? Is this my punishment for going?
I’ve cried so much. Tears refuse to fall out of my eyes any longer. All my sadness, all of my pain, it keeps coming and going. One minute there’s more pain than I know how to deal with, the next I’m feeling nothing and could swear I’m dead, too.
Rynne and the police are talking about something. I don’t catch any of it. It’s all just distant noises and voices that have nothing to do with me. I don’t know how long any of it goes on before I’m ushered into the back seat of a cop car. Rynne follows me and sits beside me. I’m barely aware of the car moving. The town just looks like a blur outside the window.
I keep replaying everything in my head. I keep seeing his face. Arsen. That’s what the woman called him. She must be the same as him. Their eyes both gave off this otherworldly glow. Their eyes were colors that don’t exist. Everything about them was just a little too perfect.
My thoughts return to Arsen, painting a perfect picture of him in my head. He was so terrifying. He was going to kill me, but something stopped him. I had this urge to look into his eyes… No. It was before that. Something happened to everything I was feeling. It just vanished. I don’t know. Something changed the last time our eyes met. Something inside of me changed, too. I felt like I was searching for something in his eyes, and then he drew back as if in pain. It was so bizarre.
When I come back to reality for a moment, I realize I’m sitting at the police station. Rynne’s still beside me. Even though we’re not talking, just knowing he’s there is a comfort. Knowing he’ll be there when I look is reassuring.
I absentmindedly start playing with the black diamond hanging around my neck. Didn’t I throw it into the living room? Rynne must have gotten it back for me. All of those charms, herbs, salt, crystals, none of it did anything against the thing that killed them. But my parents knew how to fight against any form of evil. They knew…
Parents.
Dead.
My parents are dead. I feel the tears coming again. I guess my body had enough time to recharge and now it’s time to spill tears all over again. Maybe one day I’ll have cried so much that I’ll never be able to cry again.
Rynne wraps a warm arm around me. I know he’s trying to comfort me, but even he can’t make things all right. Not right now. And maybe not ever again.
All I want is my parents, but all I can think about is that horrible scene. All I can see is that vampire. He must have been a vampire. He was ridiculously handsome and he was about to drink my blood. But his eyes were so intense. And then he froze up when our gazes met. What was that? What the actual hell is any of this?
“Tasia.”
I stare at my hands.
“Tasia, try and listen to me for a moment, okay?”
There’s a police officer kneeling in front of me.
“We’re trying to get a hold of your godmother, Fiona Morris. We left a message for her, but until someone can get a hold of her, Carl and Susie Johnson have offered to let you stay at their house. Is that okay?”
Didi and Connor’s parents. I manage a slight nod, even though I don’t really want to go anywhere but back into my burning house.
The officer continues talking. “I need you to answer some questions. How did that fire get started? What happened to your parents? Rynne told me he ran inside your house when he saw that it was on fire and that your parents had already… passed on. We’re looking into examining what’s left of their bodies, but if you know anything about the one who did this, tell us. We’re going to catch this lunatic and make things right.”
“No, you aren’t.” The voice coming out of my mouth doesn’t sound like my own. It sounds like a voice coming from somewhere far away. It’s so scratchy and spent. “My parents were killed by a vampire. If anyone in this town knew how to take care of a vampire, it was my parents. And they’re dead.”
“Can you tell us what this ‘vampire’ looks like?”
“He has black hair and bright eyes that look… too green to be green. Tall. Strong. Terrifying…” I bring my hands up to my head and try to block out the memory as I squeeze my eyes shut, but whether my eyes are open or closed, I keep seeing him staring back at me. His gaze keeps searing holes into mine.
The cop frowns. “Is he anyone you know? Did he attack you?”
“No. He did. I don’t know. I guess he didn’t kill me.” I hold out my hands and watch them tremble, and then I shake my head, unable to say anything else.
I don’t know him. I know I’ve never seen him before. But something inside of me, this tightness in my chest, makes me think that isn’t entirely true. I don’t know. I don’t care. I just want him out of my head.
The cop asks me a few more questions, but we don’t get anywhere. It doesn’t matter how much I tell them about what I saw. They don’t know how to deal with a vampire. They’ll never find him or his companion anyway.
A ruckus sounds from the police station’s entrance. I lift my head reflexively toward the noise.
“Ma’am we’re in the middle of—”
“Let me see, Tasia,”
I know that voice and Kenyan accent.
Sure enough, Jazmin forces her way into the building. She’s breathing heavily and knocks one of her plump hips on a desk, but she doesn’t stop. When she has her mind set on something, there’s little even her age can do to stop her.
The first thing Jazmin does when she reaches me is look me over. Her eyes rest on my heart-shaped black diamond for a moment before she brings her gaze to my face.
“Ma’am,” the cop questioning me speaks, “can I help you?”
“No, but I can help you,” Jazmin replies. She reaches out and grabs my hands. “Tell me everything, dear. Absolutely everything.”
Maybe it’s because I know Jazmin. Maybe it’s because she’s a psychic and we share a special understanding of each other. Whatever the reason is, I’m finally able to explain everything down to the finest detail. I look at Jazmin the whole time like I’m only talking to her. I trust her. If anyone in Reverie will know what to do, she’s the one.
“Did you notice anything else out of the ordinary earlier in the day? The week?” Jazmin asks me gently.
Then I remember Wyatt, and what he told me at the party. “I don’t know,” I say. “Wyatt Conway had been trying so hard to get me to come to the Halloween party, and then he just changed his mind. I saw him at the party, and he said something weird. He said someone told him to send me home no matter what it took. And, well, he did that. I went home upset and then… you know the rest.”
Jazmin turns to the cop. “You’d better get that boy in here for questioning.”
“S-sure,” the cop replies.
“Leave the rest to us, Tasia,” Jazmin says. “Get some rest.”
I watch as she leaves with the police officer, and I continue to stare after them when they’re gone.
“Didi and Connor will be here soon,” Rynne says, glancing at his phone.
I’m so lost inside of my head that I almost keep forgetting he’s sitting right beside me—with his arm around me. How can I keep forgetting something like that? I wish he could have done this under different circumstances. I wish he could have done this when I could actually feel happy about it. I wish everything was different.
“You’ll get through this, Tasia,” he tells me.
I ask, “Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”
He gently places his hand on my face, as if asking me to look at him. I do, but I do it reluctantly. His blue eyes are soft and compassionate, entirely different from Arsen’s.
Arsen.
Rynne speaks in a low voice. “Trust me.”
That’s when the tears turn themselves on again. On and off, feelings and no feelings. It doesn’t stop. Rynne hugs me, allowing me to cry into his jacket. His warm hands are on my back, and for a moment, I think I can feel something other than hurt. Just for a moment. He continues to hold me like this, and I let him. I don’t know how much time passes, but it doesn’t matter. There is no place better to be than in his arms.
“Tasia, we’re so sorry.”
I don’t have to look to know that Didi and Connor are here. Soon their warm arms are enveloping me, too. My friends are surrounding me like a protective bubble, trying to ward off the evil surrounding me, the evil my crystal can’t even fight. Somehow they do it. The heaviness threatening to destroy me leaves while they hold me. I almost feel like my shattered pieces can be glued back together.
It almost makes me feel guilty for lying about one thing. And for doing it in the first place.
After I discarded my black diamond, there is one thing I remember: I started the fire.