Given Read online

  One dim bulb shimmers overhead. It’s eerie to think that this same bulb was shining when Hadley was torturing Raine. There’s the chair she was tied to, and the rope on the floor that bound her. I kneel down and touch it. There’s specks of dried blood on the ground, the chair, and even stuck to pieces of the rope.

  “What a mess,” I say aloud, and instantly regret it. My voice sounds weird down here. There’s a slight echo.

  The day I was here is so vague that I don’t have much memory of it. I was under Raine’s spell, and Hadley was mind-controlling me too. But being in the basement conjures up a ghost of an image. Raine sitting there, her face bruised and bloodied, and Hadley watching us both. Waiting for something to happen.

  I shake my head as if trying to wake from a dream. It feels like there’s still a lingering after-effect of Raine and Hadley’s presence in the room.

  But other than the chair and the rope, there’s not much down here; some old rags, a few pieces of plywood, some two by fours, and an empty cardboard box.

  I walk up the rickety steps as quickly as I can and head into the rest of the house.

  The kitchen is just as bare as the basement. Hadley was using plastic plates and silverware. There’s a little garbage in a trashcan, just some old food. I open all of the drawers and cabinets, going as fast as I can.

  This place just feels wrong.

  It feels dangerous.

  The living room is totally empty but for a few dust bunnies and a package of curtains that was never opened.

  Finally, I get to Hadley’s bedroom. It’s the most lived-in room in the entire house. There’s a mattress and blanket, but no box spring or bed frame, which is pretty bizarre for a girl. There’s a dresser filled with clothes, and I open the drawers and quickly pull them out. But there’s nothing else in there.

  I’m starting to feel like this is a total wild goose chase. What do I expect to find in here, exactly? A DVD of Hadley telling me what her plans were before she was unexpectedly murdered?

  But still, I keep going. After all, I’m here and I’ll likely never get another chance to look around. Hadley must have had something -- a journal or a book or a computer.

  Maybe a digital camera. Something that can shed light on what’s happening.

  The closet has some clothes hanging in it but not much else.

  And then I’m down to the last few boxes sitting piled in the corner of the room.

  I’m working up a decent sweat now, but a lot of time has passed. Shadows are moving across the floor, and it seems like a warning.

  Hurry up, Cam. You’re in danger.

  I pick up each box and unceremoniously dump its contents on the floor. The first box is filled with books and magazines, but there’s nothing strange about any of them.

  They’re just typical chick books, romances, and the magazines are things like US Weekly and InStyle.

  The next box is full of shoes. High heels, sneakers, flip-flops, boots.

  I’m starting to think this was a big fat dead end. I’ll probably have nightmares tonight, but other than that I haven’t accomplished anything.

  And then it happens. I pick up the box that was on the bottom of the pile. It’s been nearly flattened by all of the crap on top of it. There’s clearly not much in here.

  But there is something.

  Papers. Handwritten papers. I pull them out and stare at them, trying to make sense of what’s written on them.

  One seems to be a letter or something, but it’s not dated and it’s not even finished.

  It just says:

  Justine,

  You have to realize that Raine knows less than we thought. But

  she does know enough to be dangerous. She’s formidable, if a bit naïve

  and self-absorbed. Then again, what teenager isn’t?

  As for Campbell, he’s got no clue of his own importance or the

  power he possesses. Nobody has told any of them about their pasts. But

  as we know, the past becomes the present.

  If Campbell and Natalia are going to stand a real chance, they

  need to be together. You see

  It ends there, as if she stopped writing mid-sentence and simply never returned to it. I wonder who Justine is.

  Beneath the letter is a piece of paper with what looks like a scribbled family tree.

  There are branches with names I don’t recognize, and question marks next to some of them, little notes next to others.

  On the bottom of the tree are three distinct branches. And each branch has two names on it. The name in the middle branch is Leonid Veris. Next to it, in parentheses, is my name. Campbell Elliot.

  On either side of my and Leonid’s names, are two separate branches. One says Alessia Terris and in parentheses, Natalia Moore. And on the other side of me, Sasha Terris and in parentheses, Raine Marsden.

  My mouth is dry, and I lick my lips. What is this? Is this some kind of game Hadley was playing, making up names for us all? But somehow I don’t think so. At the top of the page, she scrawled that phrase again: “The past become the present.”

  The family tree has other names going up the branches. Weird names that I don’t recognize, and then next to some of them, names of kids in Santa Anna.

  Becca has a question mark next to hers.

  Aidan’s name has an asterisk and a little jotted note. “Can he be Leonid’s second in command?”

  I shake my head at the absurdity of it all. Aidan second in command to some dude named Leonid? What planet am I living on?

  Then again, nothing can truly surprise me anymore. And nothing can truly be beyond possibility, either. There has to be something in this family tree that can help me.

  After all, Hadley was truly one of them, a real witch with knowledge of their history and inner workings.

  I fold up the papers and stuff them in my back pocket.

  “How pleasant to find you here,” the voice says from behind me.

  I spin around. Reed’s standing in the doorway, his arms folded, a big grin plastered across his face.

  “Holy shit, you startled me,” I say, breathing heavily from the shock of seeing him here.

  “Startled you? You’re in my house,” he says, still with that smile on his face.

  But his eyes are dark and the smile doesn’t touch them. He’s watching me very closely.

  “But that’s all right, Campbell. I don’t mind. You’re a friend of Natalia’s after all, and any friend of hers is a friend of mine.”

  “This isn’t your house,” I say, trying to stay calm. “This is Hadley’s house.”

  Reed starts chuckling and then he breaks into a wild laugh. “And who do you suppose bought this house for her to stay in?”

  “Oh. Well…I’m sorry. I thought it was unoccupied.”

  He looks around the room. “You’ve certainly made a mess of things in here.

  What, pray tell, were you looking for?”

  I shrug. “I don’t know. A necklace to help Natalia.”

  His eyes bore into mine. “A necklace?”

  “Yeah. I thought Hadley might have had a spare or something. Hadley was powerful, so…”

  Reed nods, but I can’t tell if he believes me or not. “Well, did you find anything useful?” he asks.

  I wonder if he can read minds. Or if he can somehow tell if I’m lying by the way my eyes move or my heart rate goes up. “I didn’t find anything. There’s nothing here but clothes and books.”

  His smile fades and then returns. “Come with me, Campbell.” He turns and walks out of the room.

  I wonder if I could jump out the window before he has a chance to get to me. But I know he’s probably ten times faster and stronger than I am. Even if I did manage to get out the window, he’d grab me on the front lawn. So I follow him into the hallway.

  “Come downstairs,” he says. “I have something for you. Something that might help.”

  “I don’t know,” I say, trying to sound calm and casual. “It�
��s getting late and my mom’s expecting me back soon.”

  “Relax, Campbell, this will take just a second.” He opens the door to the cellar and starts trotting down the stairs.

  I stand at the top of the stairwell. “You know what, Reed? I really have to go.”

  He looks over his shoulder and his eyes darken. The smile drops. “Come downstairs, Campbell.”

  Suddenly, my feet begin to move of their own accord. Like in a nightmare.

  Slowly, I’m going down those steps. The wood creaks beneath my weight.

  Reed is standing at the bottom, waiting for me. “I just put a teeny tiny spell on you, Cam. Just to nudge you in the right direction. You weren’t being very cooperative.”

  “Let me go, Reed.”

  “You want to go? Make it happen, Cam,” he challenges. “Turn around and leave.”

  But we both know that I can’t. I keep walking until I’m at the bottom of the stairs. Back in the godforsaken basement.

  Reed’s very close to me now and his eyes are on mine. His eyes seem to have grown larger somehow. Like they’re swallowing his face. Which is a weird thought to have. I mean obviously his eyes can’t swallow…his…

  “I’m going to try and make this as painless as I can, Campbell. Even though I don’t really like you very much.”

  “Hey…what…what…” my mouth is going numb and my words are slurring.

  “But things will be better for everyone—especially Natalia—if you’re just…removed from the situation. I’m very, very sorry about this. Truly. Now just relax.”

  The world is going dark. My vision is narrowing into a tunnel, just a small circle of light and sound. The rest is black.

  I feel Reed’s hands around my neck. He can snap my neck with one quick motion. One second, maybe less, and I’ll be dead.

  Somehow, in this moment—everything slows down. The whole world slows down. And yet inside of me, deep inside of me, I’m awake and aware and conscious. A part of me I never knew existed is awake. A part of me that’s stronger, wiser, that knows all there is to know.

  If you die, Natalia will be destroyed.

  She needs you, Campbell. She needs you to live. You have the strength, Campbell. Fight. Do it for her.

  In my mind’s eye, that piece of paper from Hadley’s room is blindingly vivid, as if it’s on fire.

  He’s got no clue about his importance, or the power he possesses, it says. The words are huge now. They race across the screen of my consciousness rapid-fire.

  The power I possess.

  I remember how I broke my bonds at the amphitheater when I needed to save Natalia. That strength and power that filled me, like nothing I’d ever felt before. Was that really something I’ve always had?

  YES.

  And now I know it’s true. Because it’s filling me again.

  The tiny tunnel of light, the pinprick of remaining consciousness, widens again in a millisecond, and suddenly I’m back in my body and Reed is strangling me.

  He throws me to the floor and climbs on top of me. He looks like a madman, his true face without the slick mask he normally wears. His teeth are grit together and his eyes are wide and crazed. “Why won’t you die, you little shit?” he cries.

  He must have thought he could kill me with a lazy twist of his wrists, and here I am still alive, even as he tries to throttle me with all his strength.

  I can’t breathe, but I know I’m stronger than him. My body is thrumming with heat and life and vigor. I grab Reed’s wrists and pull his hands from my neck. His eyes get comically wide now, and his mouth makes a tiny, shocked O.

  “Get the fuck off of me, Reed.” I push him to the side and he goes rolling across the floor. Instantly, he’s on his feet again.

  “I should have stabbed you in the back, gutted you like you deserve,” he whispers. And then he says something in a language I’ve never heard, and a blue bolt streaks across the room and hits me in the chest.

  I feel the energy of it, and I can tell it was supposed to kill me. But Reed can’t hurt me right now. I smile as the look of fear crosses his face for the first time. He’s realized the blue bolt hasn’t hurt me, and now he’s scared.

  I start towards him, enjoying this moment, knowing how powerless he must feel now.

  “You can’t do this,” he says. “It won’t last. You have no control, and before you know it, you’ll be weak again.”

  I slap his face and he falls to the floor. “You’re wrong, Reed. You don’t know me, you don’t know a fucking thing about me.” I pick him up and heave him into the basement wall. Bricks smash and crumble against his back.

  He tries to fight back, but nothing he does can hurt me. I break his wrist in an instant, snap it the way he tried to snap my neck.

  I need to kill him now, because if I let him go he’ll never leave Natalia alone.

  He’ll never stop.

  But as I look at him, I realize I don’t have it in me to murder anybody.

  “You see?” I whisper, letting him go. He falls backwards and lies there, cradling his broken wrist. “You don’t know me at all. I’m not a killer like you, Reed.”

  And then I turn and go.

  Chapter Three

  Natalia

  I spend the rest of the afternoon eating a grilled cheese sandwich and zoning out in front of the TV. My mom is asleep in her room, and when I checked on her, she stirred a bit, but then rolled over and nodded right back off, her breathing heavy and deep. I’m not sure what kind of spell Reed put on her, but she seems to be okay, at least physically. She’ll probably sleep for a few more hours.

  There’s a heaviness in my body, the kind of heaviness you get when you’re getting sick. I’m having a hard time keeping my mind on the television, and I grab a blanket off the back of the couch and pull it down over my body, wrapping myself into a cocoon and drifting in and out of sleep.

  I’m woken by a knock on the door. I freeze, not sure if I should answer it. It could be Reed, back and ready to use more extreme methods to convince me the fate of the world is in my hands. Yes, he brought me home from the school like he said he would, but that doesn’t mean I can trust him. He’s just buying time, retreating for a little while until he figures out his next move.

  The knock comes again, harder this time, and followed by the doorbell ringing. If I don’t answer it, he’ll probably just show up in the family room.

  I heave myself off the couch and into the front hallway.

  I peek out the window.

  Cam’s standing on my front porch, his hands in his pockets.

  My heart speeds up.

  I open the door.

  “Hey,” he says.

  “Hi.” I don’t say anything else, wondering why he’s here, wondering if I should just shut the door in his face.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t call first, I just… I didn’t want to give you a chance to say you didn’t want to see me.”

  I nod, not denying that I would have refused to see him. Truthfully, I’m not sure what I would have done if he’d call first. I’d like to think I would have told him to screw off, but now that he’s here, in front of me, my heart aches, and I can’t help but be glad he came.

  “Your car’s back,” he says.

  “Yes. The… the police brought it back this morning.”

  “Let me guess,” he says. “Reed found it.”

  “How’d you know?”

  He opens his mouth to say something, then shuts it. “Can we go for a walk or something?”

  His face looks hopeful, but there’s something else, there, too. Something different about him. These past few weeks, Cam has looked a little tired and worried.

  But now his eyes are bright and alert. His cheeks are flushed from the cold, and he’s wearing my favorite blue sweater, the one that makes me want to curl up in his arms.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Your mom?”

  “No.” I shake my head, even though lying and blaming it on her wo
uld give me an easy out. “She’s sleeping.”

  “Okay.” He doesn’t say anything, just stands there, looking at me, that same look on his face.

  If he’d pushed me, I probably wouldn’t have gone. But the way he’s just standing there, the way he’s not putting any pressure on me, almost like just standing near me is making him happy, pushes me toward him. I miss him. A lot.

  “I guess I could go for a little while,” I say. “Let me just grab my coat.”

  I take my puffy red coat out of the closet and slide my arms into it. It’s my winter coat, but it’s getting dark, and a cool wind has kicked up outside.

  “Okay,” I say once I’m outside. “Let’s go.”

  We walk down the driveway together and out into the street, our legs falling into a rhythm. The movement starts to make me feel a little better, makes the tension that’s been building up in my muscles dissipate just a little bit.

  We walk around the block one whole time without saying anything, and when we get back to my house, Cam looks at me, his eyebrows raised in a question, and I nod. We start another loop.

  “How’d you know Reed was back?” I ask finally. I can’t help myself. I know I said I’m done with everything – and I am – but I’m worried about Cam.

  “I ran into him at Hadley’s house.”

  “At Hadley’s house? What the hell were you doing at Hadley’s house?”

  “I broke in to see if I could find anything.”

  “Cam.” I shake my head. “That wasn’t a good idea. Why the hell would you do that?”

  “I needed to,” he says. “Becca, she… Aidan…” He trails off and takes a deep breath. “Aidan killed Becca. Or at least, he thought he did. But she’s alive and so --”

  The tension immediately flows back into my body, my muscles tightening, my stomach turning inside out. “What are you talking about?”

  “Aidan came to my house this morning and told me he killed Becca. And so we went to the police. But when we got to her house, she was alive. I think she came back from the dead.”

  That must have been what the policeman was talking about this morning when he said Cam was involved in another investigation. My chest tightens, and the wind kicks up, blowing a cold gust into my face. I struggle to walk against the wind, struggle to find my voice.