Fear (Book One of Fear Series)

Chapter Six: The Proof

“You remember, don’t you? You remember seeing one.” Andrew sat up straighter. “The sky went red, didn’t it?”

  Silent tears began to fall from my eyes, but Andrew didn’t seem to notice. He went on.

  “It wore a long black cloak and it had white skin and black eyes? It carried a pitch black sword? I made you feel paralyzed? It probably—”

“Stop!” I yelled. “That is enough! I. . .I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“But, Zoe,” Andrew pushed, “you have to have had an encounter with one. There’s never been a Hunter for thousands of years who hadn’t seen one before they turned twenty-one. Think really hard. Search your memory for even a trace of something like I just described.”

“I said enough!” I snapped. I rose from the couch and hurriedly wiped my eyes. “I’m done with this crazy talk. I’m going to actually call the police now.” I turned on my phone and started to dial 911.

“It killed one of your parents, didn’t it?” Andrew said, still seated on the couch. I froze, my back still turned to him. “Right in front of you. It killed your mom or your dad.”

“What are you talking about?” I spit out bitterly, though I knew exactly what he was referring to. The memories flashed before my eyes and I shivered. The black eyes stared at me. That sinister smile on its horrible pale face mocked my pain, my sorrow.

“Zoe, you know what I’m talking about.” Andrew’s voice grew quieter, softer, tender. “I know that you’re remembering; remembering something horrific, something tragic and gruesome. But you know that I’m telling the truth about this now. There’s no other explanation for what you saw. What you witnessed that day wasn’t human. So who was it—your mom or your dad?”

I stood there for a long time—minutes, at least—contemplating on whether I should tell him the truth or not.

  He waited patiently. I concluded that lying to him would only set him off into another fit of trying to explain this insanity that was making more and more sense by the minute. It was scaring me almost to the point of fainting.

  I slowly turned and walked back to the couch. I sat down quickly to keep from falling over. Andrew stared at me and it felt like he was looking into my soul. In that moment I knew that I had to cooperate.

“It was my dad,” I whispered. “I was seven. Exactly—it was on my birthday.”

Andrew reached out and put his hand on my shoulder. I jumped and he pulled away quickly, looking down in embarrassment.

“I’m sorry for you. But there’s something that you need to know about your father.”

“How do you know anything about my father?”

“Well, Hunters are always born from Hunters.”

“You mean. . .”

“Your father was a Hunter.”

“Now that’s going a bit too far.”

“Do you trust me?”

“No.”

He shrugged. “Fair enough, but I swear on my life that I’m not lying to you.”

“Just for a minute, let’s say that I believe you. What happens now? We’re trapped in here, aren’t we? You said the house was surrounded.”

Andrew smiled. “That’s why I have these.” He held up three silver bands.

“And those are?”

“Teleports.”

“Oh, of course, my bad,” I grunted sarcastically.

He motioned for my arm. I hesitated.

“Trust me, just this once, to save our lives.”

I took a deep breath and held out my arm. He clasped the band around my wrist. He did the same to himself. He pressed something on his band and ours both glowed blue. I gasped. He smiled at me, and I actually smiled back in spite of myself.

“Here we go,” he said.

  I nodded; my eyes were glued to the bright light coming from my wrist. And with that, he pressed against his band.

  Everything went white.