Threatening Souls (FREE PREVIEW)

CHAPTER ONE

Rebekah: Marywood, Florida

November 12, 2009

You can do this, Rebekah Jensen thought as she stared at her blank expression in her bedroom mirror. Today is just like any ordinary day.

Taking the brush off her wooden dresser, she began to brush through her tangled, light-brown hair, knowing she was lying to herself. Today was anything but ordinary. It was her last day in Marywood, Florida, the town she'd lived in her whole life, and that saddened her tremendously.

From behind, Rebekah heard her door open slightly, and she jumped—not because she was frightened, but because she didn't hear a knock. She was very peculiar about her privacy and the desire for others to knock before they entered, and for the most part, her parents followed her wish. Her older twin brothers, on the other hand, chose to ignore that rule. In a fit of frustration, Rebekah threw her brush down on the dresser and turned to face one of them. "I'm going to kill you!" she screeched before coming to an abrupt stop as the oldest brother—Nicholas—stepped in front of her, closing the door behind him and sitting on her bed, making himself comfortable.

"I can see you're not dressed," Nick observed, analyzing her up and down. Willingly, he jumped off her bed in an almost mocking gesture and parked himself in front of her dresser.

Rebekah took one look at her pink plaid pajama pants and white tank top before looking at Nick again. Her eyes narrowed. "Well, yeah! Obviously, I'm not ready yet!"

"Mom's going to be mad," Nick pointed out. "She wants you downstairs, and as usual, you're running late."

"Get out!" Rebekah bellowed, pushing him towards her door. "Tell her I'll be downstairs in about a minute!" She then slammed the door shut behind him and turned back towards her dresser.

Rebekah sighed and began peeling off her bedroom attire. Then, she shifted through the many pairs of pants she owned. The day was a cold Thursday, and Rebekah knew that she would need something semi-warm if she was going to survive the dread of her last day at Marywood Middle School. Ultimately, she decided on a pair of baggy, dark-blue jeans. After randomly putting on a red V-neck and a black wool jacket, Rebekah dashed out of her room, shooting down the stairs as fast as she could. Nick was right about one thing: she usually was running late in the mornings.

"Rebekah," her mother, Katie, greeted as she made her way into the kitchen and sat down in between her two brothers. "Nick told me you'd be down here soon." Her tone suggested that she was the one who had sent Nick in the first place.

"He did, didn't he?" Rebekah said, shooting Nick a glare as a bowl of oatmeal was placed in front of her. Looking up at her mother, she watched as Katie placed bowls of oatmeal in all five of the spots on the dining table.

"Mark, will you get your father?" Katie asked Nick's twin. "He should be out back in the garden."

Mark left the kitchen, and within a few moments, he returned with their father, Paul. Rebekah began to dig into her oatmeal as soon as the others sat down at the table, singeing her tongue.

"Now, I want all of you to come straight here as soon as school gets out," Katie ordered. "We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, and I want you all to do any last-minute packing."

"Why do we have to move?" Nick complained, making Rebekah roll her eyes. "Mark and I only have a year and a half left until graduation, and it seems cruel that you'd force us to graduate in a foreign city on the other side of the country—"