Prophecy Girl (Lacuna Valley #1)

Chapter Fourteen

WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE BOY? Was boldly written in crayon on the paper taped to Sam's bedroom door. The paper was clearly torn from one of her old diaries, all of which were strewn across the room with their pages open for the world to see. Sam leaned against the door frame and surveyed the scene. It looked like a thief had made their way through the room, though she couldn't imagine what would be missing if anything was. She'd taken her backpack with the diaries and the map to school with her. Maybe her mother was looking for the map. Or maybe she just wanted to torture Sam by tearing her room apart.

She felt like she should care more, but this felt like something else that wasn't important enough to fit on her already full plate.

"She used my crayons," Violet whined.

"Yeah. She did a lot of things." Sam patted Violet on the head and reached to pull the note off the door, but then left it there. Maybe their father would come home early and have to see it. She knew it was unlikely that he'd get there first, or that he'd do anything about it even if he did, but it wasn't worth trying to make her mother's life easier. She'd probably just tell him that Sam was sleeping around, or her new boyfriend was a drug-dealer, or some other lie that would make her look like a concerned mother and Sam like a troubled teen.

The note was another clue that her mother's search was based around Nick. Which was good, because that meant she didn't have it yet, but bad because her mother was right.

"I don't want to be here anymore," Violet cried and handed Sam the note she'd found on her bed. "Let's go, please let's go," she whimpered and pushed her face into Sam's side. Sam looked at the note, which was also written in crayon.

You can talk to me whenever you want to, baby. You know I'm here for you when you need me. Love, Mommy.

That note made Sam sick to her stomach. In any other family it would be an honest and caring mother reaching out to her daughter, but with her mother it was a trap. She didn't care about Violet. She cared about being able to use Violet to get what she wanted.

"Hey, we're going to be okay, it's okay," Sam said, even though she knew it sounded pathetic.

"It is not okay, Sam! It's not okay, it's not!" She shook her older sister as she cried. "We need to leave. We need to get out of here. We need to talk to Zach, maybe we can stay at his house. Maybe they can get us away from her. Something. It's not okay!"

"Okay, okay, calm down." Sam sat down and pulled Violet into her lap. "I didn't mean to say it's okay, just that it's going to be, alright? We're going to be okay. We're not going to stay here. But, hey, we can't go stay at Zach's house, alright? That's not a good idea." No need to tell her that it definitely wasn't safe there, especially for Violet with their mother and the werewolves gunning for her. "I have an idea, okay? Go get Sara and any clothes you need, I'm going to make a phone call."

"And Penguin, too?" Violet sniffed.

"Yeah, okay, I'm sure you can bring your rat, too." Sam rolled her eyes and headed into the kitchen for the phone. "Hey, Mary, I'm glad you're home. I could use a favor... but first, how do you feel about rats?"

Mary agreed to let them both stay, with Penguin the rat and Chloe the cat, without even pausing to think about it. She sounded excited they were coming. Sam insisted Mary ask her mother first, and heard Susan hurriedly agreeing with a loud "Of course!".

Mary said her mother would pick them both up in twenty minutes—all without ever asking why Sam and Violet would need to come and stay with them for a while.

Sam told Violet to hurry and pack and went to her own room to do the same.

She went to her dresser and blindly threw things in her bag. She grabbed the broken hair clip and then stopped, staring at it in her hand. She ran her finger down the cracked glass. It had broken when her mother threw her into the wall. She thought about throwing it away. The only memories it held were of Nick, and then being thrown into a wall when it broke, but she couldn't bring herself to just let it go. She threw it into her bag, and then dug her hand in to bury it at the bottom.