There was just about a week before school got out for Christmas break, and we all should’ve been excited about the upcoming holidays, but something thick hung in the air around my school and even at home. Whispers in the hallway between classes told me Jack Cook wasn’t getting any better. My parents didn’t know when I could overhear their solemn conversations about Cadence and if she was getting in over her head. I continued to worry, to take notes, to discuss with my friends, but I still had no idea what was going on with Cadence.
I was at Lucy’s studying for a biology test we’d be having on Friday, which happened to be the last day before Christmas break, when my mom called. I knew it had to be important because she never called me when I was studying. “Hello?” I asked, bracing myself against the fear that began to grow inside of me each time my phone rang.
“Cass, honey, something’s happened. I’m on my way over. I’ll be there in just a minute.”
A lump formed in my throat. “Is… is everything okay? Is it Cadence?”
“Your sister’s fine, honey. Just pack up and meet me outside Lucy’s house in a minute, okay?”
“Okay,” I replied, hanging up and putting my phone in my back pocket.
“What’s going on?” Lucy asked. Milo and Wes were there, and I could even see concern in Emma’s face, which was rare.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly, packing my books into my backpack. “She just said something’s happened, and she’s coming to get me.”
“It’s not your sister?” Emma asked.
“No.”
“Maybe your grandma?” Wes asked.
I glanced at him. That hadn’t even occurred to me. “Maybe.”
I began to walk out of Lucy’s bedroom, headed for the stairwell. All four of them followed me.
Lucy was on my heels. “Do you think your mom will come in and tell you?”
“No.” I reached the bottom of the stairs and stopped, turning to face them. “I’ll let you know.” I had my coat over my arm and thought I should probably put it on, but I wasn’t thinking clearly so when I turned to walk outside, it was still not on.
My mom’s van was pulling to a stop in the driveway. I told my friends goodbye and ran out to get in. The bitter December breeze cut through my sweater like it was nothing, and I was glad my mom had the heat on high.
“Honey, put on your coat,” she scolded as I clicked my seat belt. “You’ll catch your death of cold.” As if her words, a sentence she’d said to me a million times before, were suddenly poison, she made a terrible face and then backed the van down the drive.
I knew immediately someone was dead. “Mom, who is it?” I asked, names and faces flickering through my mind. “Where’s dad?”
“He’s on his way home from work,” she assured me. “Let’s wait until we get home.”
“No,” I insisted. I thought of my aunt and uncle, my two younger cousins. It could be any of them. But I knew in my heart it wasn’t. “Mom, is it… Jack?”
My mom was headed down the street going slightly over the speed limit, but that didn’t stop her from turning to look at me. “How did you know that?” she asked, her words slow, even if her driving wasn’t.
Tears were already stinging my eyes as I thought about the boy, the man, that my sister had dated for so long. He’d been like a brother to me. Always so kind and considerate. Such an outstanding citizen. “Is he… dead?”
She cleared her throat, and I could see she was fighting back tears of her own. “I wanted to wait until we got home to tell you, Cassidy,” she said quietly.
I settled back into my seat and turned my head so that I was facing the front of the van, but I wasn’t seeing anything. Not the road or the trees or the houses or any of it. I didn’t want my mom to try and drive while she was crying, so I was silent.
We reached our house, and my mom pulled into the garage. In a trance, I got out of the car and followed her inside. I went straight to the couch and sat down, waiting for my mother to situate herself near me. “Cassidy, he was sick. He’d contracted something from a foreign exchange student. The doctors did everything they could to make him better, but they couldn’t save him.”
There was no holding back the tears now as I began to sob. My mom wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into her shoulder, smoothing my hair as she whispered reassuring phrases, like, “It’s okay. It’ll be all right. Take a deep breath.”
But I knew that it wasn’t all right. That nothing was ever going to be all right again. I knew things I wasn’t supposed to know about people I’d never even met—like Jamie and Eliza. My mom had no idea that I was more afraid than anything that Jack wasn’t dead—that he was undead. What if my sister had done this to Jack, created a monster out of the boyfriend she used to love so much? Maybe she’d gone to Paris to evade whatever heat the other vampires had put on her for creating a new bloodsucker without permission.
Or maybe Jack really was dead, and all of this nonsense was just that—childish stories I’d been telling myself in an attempt to make peace with Drew’s death. But what were the chances that two of my sister’s friends would die so close together? Both under very mysterious circumstances. None of it made any sense, and I had absolutely no one in the world I could talk to about any of it.
I was inconsolable for the next fifteen minutes or so until I was finally all out of tears and began to heave air into my body with each breath, shaking, trying to regain control of my spasming lungs. My dad came in, and that made it worse. His long arms created a protective cocoon around my mom and myself, but I knew it was all a façade. There really was no security.
Eventually, I began to still, no longer able to produce any tears or even a noise. My parents continued to hold me, and even though I began to feel a bit selfish that I was so upset about a friend of my sister’s, I couldn’t speak. My dad stood, pulling me up with him, and with his arms still around me, he walked me upstairs to my bedroom. He pulled the covers down for me, and I slipped out of my shoes and fell into my bed.
Dad sat down on the edge of my bed as I wiped at my tear streaked face with the back of my hand. He smoothed my hair and kissed my forehead. “I know how badly this hurts, Cassidy. Jack was like a brother to you. He was a good person. I’m so, so sorry.”
Lots of thoughts filled my mind, like the fact that my dad loved Jack, too, that I knew he was also hurting. But I couldn’t say anything. My body continued to vibrate and every once in a while, it would give a violent shake. “Your sister is in Lincoln with Steve and Alice. She should be home tomorrow, for a little while.”
I knew he added on that last bit, so I would know it wasn’t over yet, that she would be headed back to Kansas City eventually. I guess Elliott hadn’t been successful in getting my sister to quit the team. I only nodded at my dad. I was glad Cadence was there, and I wondered if she’d been there when Jack passed away, but I couldn’t ask that right now. There’d be another funeral. This time, I would go. They wouldn’t be able to keep me from attending Jack Cook’s funeral. I owed him that, at least.
My dad stood and pulled the blinds shut. I thought of all the strange things I’d seen out that window lately and wondered what they had to do with all of this. I shuddered again and closed my eyes, thinking sleep was the only way to escape the nightmare my life had become.
“We’ll call you down for dinner in a while, honey. Try and get some sleep.”
I made a noise that sounded a little bit like a bleating lamb and closed my eyes, happy to let the darkness overtake me. I knew I’d promised to let my friends know, but that would have to wait until later. I let myself drift off into oblivion to a world where people’s friends didn’t die, old men didn’t wear young men’s faces, and no one’s sister ever turned into a vampire.