SALLY.

The car parked a street away from mine and I frowned at Cameron. “Are we stopping here?”

“Yes, we are,” he said simply and got down from the car.

“Why?” I queried.

He didn’t give me a reply. I waited. He said nothing but tapped his foot impatiently on the floor. I folded my arms on my chest and sat back in my seat.

“Sally, get out of the car. We do not have time for this.” He glared at me.

He had driven us to the town of Hollister. Our town. My house was just a few distance from here. The town was desolate, devoid of any living soul. From what Ryan had told me, it was pretty much what I was expecting to find.

“I’m supposed to go to New York. That’s where my parents are.”

“And who told you that?”

I glanced at Ryan, Cameron scoffed and threw his hands in the air.

“Of course he did.” He grumbled. “Listen, if you want to find your parents, they’re not in New York. They’re here and I have to show you.” His tone became gentle. It almost seemed like he was trying to soften a blow.

“We have to leave now. It’s not safe out here; there are hunters around these parts.”

I looked into his blue eyes and saw a hint of sadness. It compelled me. I opened the door and got down from the car.

“We have to walk there on foot. We’d be easily spotted driving a car around,” he continued.

Ryan got down from the car too. “You coming?” he asked Hiro.

“No, someone has to stay with the car,” he replied.

Cameron led the way and we followed. We walked the distance in silence. I was deep in thought. Why did he look at me like that? I glanced at him; he was looking down at the floor. It looked like he was contemplating something.

We got to my street but he kept on walking. I was confused. There was nothing in the direction he was heading to other than an old cemetery.

“Hey.” I caught up to him. “My house is that way.” I pointed behind me.

“I know.” His voice was gruff, “But there’s something I gotta show you first.”

His eyes bored into mine. They held pain, sadness, conflict. There was an internal battle in them; I wanted to know what he was thinking. He walked on and I followed.

It was a bit of a stretch but we got to the cemetery. He pulled open the gates and we entered. The grounds were covered in snow, the headstones peeking out of the white blanket. It was colder in here, empty. No birds were crowing like there usually was when I’d drive my bike past here as a kid. It was devoid of any sound other than the crunching of our feet on the snow. I pulled my shirt tighter around me.

He stopped in the middle of the cemetery. His gaze focused on the headstones poking out of the snow. There were a few snowflakes on them hiding their names from view. Only the first few letters on one were visible. Hill.

A sense of foreboding crawled down my spine, I swallowed. He crouched and wiped off the snow covering the first headstone with his bare hand.

Hillary Jenkins. My insides curled, falling into an abyss. “No,” I breathed and fell to my knees, the snow soaking up my pants. I wiped off the name in disbelief, hoping it would change and another name would be inscribed on the slab. It didn’t.

“No,” I moved to the next one and wiped off the snow. Tears were starting to trickle down my face but I refused to believe it.

Derek Jenkins was boldly inscribed on the cold stone. A wail escaped me. My shoulders shook as I cried bitter tears.

“Sally, what are you doing?” Mom yelled.

“Sally, make it stop.”

Lightning rained down on the car as it flew in the air. My mom’s face was frozen in terror, my dad’s gaze fixed on her. The car caught on fire before it landed back with a crash.

I came out of it unscathed. The storm had stopped. The sky was clear once again. There was a bubble of energy around me. It had protected me from harm.

I could still hear their voice even now. This was all my fault, I had killed my parents. Deep down, I had known something was wrong. My parents couldn’t abandon me in the hands of those people. They’d have fought tooth and nail to have me back. I had buried the memory deep in my subconscious because I knew what I had done. Clinging onto false hope, hope that I hadn’t been the monster they said I was.

All you ever do is hurt people.

All you ever do is take.

All I ever did was bring pain and death. That was my true power. Destruction. I got off my feet and ran out of the cemetery.

“Sally!” Cameron called after me. I didn’t stop. Tears flew out of my eyes as I ran, I couldn’t stop running.

Murderer.

Monster.

Devil.

The words echoed in my head, reverberating in my brain. I ran faster.

You can’t run from your deeds, you coward.

You are and you’ll always be evil.

I stopped. I panted heavily, trying to catch my breath. My legs were hurting, the muscles throbbing. The pain wasn’t enough punishment for what I’d done. I looked up. I had stopped in front of my house. It looked different. It was blanketed in snow, the lawn overgrown. My house had always been sunny and cheerful but now it looked gloomy, the opposite of everything it had always stood for.

You did that.

I moved forward, pulled back the gate and trudged through the snow that covered the lawn. I was cold but I felt frozen inside. A blizzard was blowing in me. I pulled open the door and stepped in. It was just like I’d left it but also different, so, so, different. There were cobwebs everywhere, dust on every surface. My backpack was still lying on the floor where I had left it, I picked it up. I looked towards my parent’s room and my heart clenched. I took a shuddering breath. It was too painful to go in there. I moved monotonously, taking the stairs one after the other.

I got to my room and pushed the door slightly. Just like everywhere in the house, it was covered in dust.

We’re up already.

My mom would always yell out every time my alarm rang. I remembered her smile, her laughter and how it always echoed through the house when she was with my father. She used to make silly jokes. My dad would throw his head back and laugh out loud even though I never found any of it funny.

He would adjust his glasses on his face and say. “You’re something else, Hill.”

“Sally.” I heard a voice behind me as footsteps rushed up the stairs.

I didn’t need to turn to know who it was. My lips wobbled, I bit down on it. I had always cried in front of people. This time was no different, I wanted to bawl my eyes out, scream, wail at the unfairness of the world. I should’ve died in that crash, not them. They didn’t deserve it. I should’ve died with them. Why was I spared?

“I’d like to be alone, please,” I croaked out. My voice was failing me. I bit down hard on my bottom lip as it trembled, I broke the skin and tasted blood. The footsteps receded. I fell to the floor and finally, I screamed. 


CAMERON.


I looked back once more at her. Her shoulders slumped as she looked down at the floor. She was trying to keep it together and was failing terribly at it. The only time I’d ever seen her shed a tear was the day Petra had splashed smoothie on her face, embarrassing her in front of the whole school and even then she had taken it and not broken down.

She was strong even though everyone thought she was weak. Her strength was in her weakness. It hurt to see her this way. It had taken everything in me to drive her here and show her their graves. I knew how much she loved her parents. Their family always reminded me of mine and what I had lost.

When I’d found her at the base, I had known this day would come but I had hoped it would arrive later than sooner. I walked away, heading back down the stairs.

Staying here wasn’t safe, I wasn’t lying when I told her the place was surrounded by hunters. But I could give her a few more minutes to mourn her parents and then we had to leave.
I heard a scream echo through the house. It shook and then stopped. It was one of grief, despair, pain. I had screamed out like that one too many times to recognize it coming from someone else.
Ryan was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. He looked mad for some reason.

“Why did you bring her here when you knew her parents were dead?” He whisper-yelled.

I could sense the pain hiding underneath his anger. Just like me, he also knew the pain of losing one’s parents.

“I had no choice, she wouldn’t have believed me if I did.” I walked out of the house.

“You could’ve at least softened the blow by telling her instead of showing her.”

I sighed and rubbed my face. I cracked my neck. My shoulders felt stiff. I was just tired of it all.

“I couldn’t tell her. It was better this way, trust me.” I hated seeing people in pain and I hated it even more when I was the one causing the pain.

“Let’s go check on Hiro. We’ve been gone a while.” That should give her some time and then I’d come to get her.

Ryan sighed. “I just hope she’ll be fine,” he said worriedly.

“She will be. She’s stronger than she looks.”

We walked back to the car and immediately we got there, I knew something was wrong. The passenger door was wide open, Hiro was missing.

Shit!