It's Halloween, and Karina notices something strange in the town where she lives. Among the pumpkins and fake tombstones, people are... vanishing. It seems into thin air. The clock is set and time is running out... Can she stop who, or what, is caus...
Charlie was driving with Hannah in the passenger seat and me feeling like a third wheel was stuck in the back. But that didn't matter because we were at Lauren Chambers' party and it was almost time to put the plan in full gear.
"Charlie!" Lauren greeted at the door, "Aren't you going to give the birthday girl a kiss?" Wow... did she really just pull the birthday card? We hadn't even been inside the house for two minutes!
Poor Charlie quickly leaned in and pecked her on the cheek and retreated before she could get her arms around him. The three of us dodged into the crowd 'away' from Lauren.
Now that we were inside, I checked the clock on my phone. 11:16. I had four minutes before I could text Salem the all clear. The rest of the plan would start when Salem was inside the party.
The minutes ticked by to the pounding of music as I found a quieter spot to hide from my friends. They couldn't know what I was up to.
Finally, my phone read 11:20. It's go time.
'Made it inside. I'll take the ground floor,' read the text that I sent to Salem. Ducking out of my hiding place, I eyed a white pine door that looked as good a place as any to start hunting down Georgia. The door was locked.
I moved down the hall to the next door. The handle started to turn...
Someone grabbed my wrist, pulling me away from the unlocked door.
A startled squeak left me as I ripped my wrist from the unknown person's grasp. "Snooping are we?" a voice whispered right beside my ear. Too close. They were too close for comfort. I reeled back on my heels, putting distance between us so I could get a better look at the person's face.
Jake. It was only Jake.
I didn't let myself breathe easy though. Would he tell Lauren I was snooping around her house? I doubted she would even remember who I was.
A smile split his face. "Did I scare you?" mischief played in his eyes.
I let my own smile return his. It was just a joke. "You almost gave me a heart attack." I confessed with an exasperated laugh.
His smile grew, "I'm guessing you were looking for the bathroom?" Little did he know that he just gave me the perfect excuse in case someone worse caught me snooping. I should have thought of that myself.
I nodded and he pointed to the door to my left. "You were close," he complimented playfully, "but that's the one you need."
"Thanks," I said and hurried into the bathroom. I locked the door behind me and decided to check my phone again. No new messages. I wondered if Salem was inside yet. I had no way of knowing.
Splashing cold water on my face to cool my racing heart, I told myself that I could do this. A little bit of courage was all it took to do extra ordinary things. Georgia's life was on the line. Before leaving the bathroom, I checked everything for a sign that Georgia might have been there. There was nothing. On to the next room then.
Five minutes later I found myself back in the center of the raging party. I hadn't found any trace of Georgia on the first floor. I also hadn't seen or heard from Salem all night either. I quickly texted him that the ground floor was clear. Again I got no reply.
With a sigh, I gazed at the party going on around me. People were dirty dancing and a various others were making out in corners. I jumped when a hand landed on my shoulder as my phone vibrated with a received text.
Since my phone was already in my hand, I decided to check the test before checking whose hand was currently on my shoulder. I assumed it was a drunk party goer anyway and shrugged it off.
Found you, the text read. It was from Salem. He was here after all.
The hand came back.
I whipped around, ready to punch some teenage boy in the face. But I didn't punch anyone. The hand belonged to Salem. He was standing there looking down at me with the same serious look he always wore. "Did you find her?" I had to scream above the extremely loud music. If I went to anymore of these parties I would surely go deaf.
His lips formed no, but the sound never reached my ears. This wasn't going to work. We couldn't have a conversation in a room where we couldn't even hear ourselves think properly.
I pointed out of the room while mouthing 'let's go' before leaving the crowded party space. My ears were ringing by the time Salem and I made it to the quieter room. "Did you check upstairs?" I asked.
"Nothing," he answered absently. He was looking at a white door across the room we were in.
"What now?" I said what we were both trying to figure out. The door we had entered through opened. Hannah stepped through. Her light brown eyes lightened when they landed on me with Salem. Excitement came off her in waves as she bounced over. "Who's this?" She was considered tall at 5'8" but she still had to look up to Salem. She pushed a lock of her wild brown hair out of her face.
"I'm Sal." He didn't offer anything else, just Sal. I guess he didn't want her to question why his name was Salem like I had. So just Sal it was.
Hannah winked at him, "Okay Sal. You and Karina have fun now." She left the room with one more wink in Salem's direction. She didn't even give me enough time to explain that she had already met Sal as Salem, and I didn't understand why I was the only one who remembered.
"Where do we look now?" I asked as soon as the door shut behind Hannah.
Salem was back to gazing at the door.
"What is it?" I followed his gaze, trying to find what he found so interesting. When he walked the short distance to the door, I tagged along as he pulled it open. Wooden steps led down into the darkness, and I understood Salem's fascination. The basement. It was the last and most obvious place to check. The air in the basement was stale and damp. Water droplets seemed to hang in the air. The last step creaked as I stepped down from it. Despite everything, the basement was a well kept addition to the rest of the house not a cramped hole for rats to live.
The basement was huge! It had multiple rooms and had to of spanned the entire length of the house. Salem and I had to split up again to finish the search before we drew attention to our absences. I had already cleared three rooms and was almost done with the fourth when I found it.
A small indent in the floor was hidden underneath the corner of a large desk. I pressed it and the sliding of stone brought my attention to the wall behind the desk.
"Salem!" I called to the other rooms, "I think I found something!"
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A/N
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BE MORE POSITIVE!! XD
Dang I haven't uploaded in a while... I have a valid excuse though. I'm lazy... AND I just graduated from High School. So, congratulations Class of 2017??
