Chapter 53: It Began with a Box

(DELILAH)

I remembered Bella's cool, gentle arms cradling me against her chest as we walked, her dark hair covering my face like a dark curtain. I could peer through the dark strands, look at the lights and the fair. I could see Echo hanging from Edward's back, her face pressed against his neck, her lips moving quickly at his ear. I could see Edward smiling as she spoke, pressing his cheek against her's. I could taste Bella's skin as I kissed her cheek, like kissing a lily or a rose.

"Look at your mommy and daddy." Bella whispered to me. "Liley, look."

I looked up sleepily, the lights blurring and shifting. Mom and dad were ahead of us, I could see their smiles, hear their laughter, a familiar lullaby. I watched as my mom jumped up, dad catching her and pulling her close to him. I saw her fingertips lightly brush my dad's face, lingering on his skin. And they looked radiant, glowing in the sunset.

"Aren't they beautiful?" Bella asked, her gold eyes going to my face. I nodded, laying my head on her shoulder. Bella's ice cold lips touched my forehead, her hand tangling in my hair. "Beautiful just like you." She whispered adoringly. "Little lovely Lilah."

And my parent spun around, their eyes glued together, like the earth and the moon, my dad's warm hands when he finally lifted me from Bella's arms and stuck me into the car, my head lolling onto Echo's shoulder. The night flying by us as we drove, and my mom and dad's hands clasped in between the seats.

The house was eerily silent. Blaze and I still sat on the couch, neither of us moving, neither of us speaking. Mom and dad were gone, Echo was upstairs. Slowly, I turned to look at Blaze.

"Um…" I began.

"Wow." He said in awe, his eyes wide with shock. "Just, wow."

"That…that about sums it up." I admitted, standing.

"Mom and dad never fight." Blaze muttered under his breath. "Ever."

"It'll be okay, right?" I asked timidly. Blaze turned to look at me, his eyes softened just a bit.

"Yeah, of course Liley. Of course it will be alright. I don't know how, but we'll figure it out." He promised, reaching over to pat my head. Wendy whimpered, sticking her head on my knee. I reached down to stroke her ears.

"I'm going to go and try and find them." He said, standing. "I'll be back soon."

"Okay. Okay." I managed to get the words out. He quickly ducked out the door and I was left alone. I stood shakily, turning to go into the kitchen. Wendy followed loyally as I opened the freezer and pulled out the cookie dough ice cream. I grabbed two spoons from the drawer and slowly made my way up the stairs.

"Go away, Lilah!" She yelled as I was outside our bedroom door. I sighed, opening the door anyway, poking my head into the room.

"I live here." I pointed out. "And I brought a peace offering." She didn't say anything else. I opened the door the rest of the way, slipping quietly into the room. She was sprawled across her bed, her dark hair fanning over the pillow and comforter. I'd been using her bed as a spare desk, throwing my book bag and ballet things on it. She had pushed all of it off onto the floor.

"Sorry." She said, looking at where my eyes were pointed. I shrugged.

"It's okay." My heart was in my throat, the little red book with swirling black patterns was lying on the floor right next to my schoolbag. I kicked it underneath the bed surreptitiously, sitting on the bed next to Echo. "Nothing breakable. I shouldn't throw stuff on your bed anyway."

"It's your room now." Echo mumbled, looking up at the ceiling.

"It'll always be our room." I said aggressively, holding out the tub of ice cream and a spoon. She sat up, leaning back against the wall, taking the ice cream and spoon from my hand. She popped the top of the carton off, dipping the spoon into the carton. I followed suit.

"Aren't you going to ask anything?" She questioned. "You're not going to ask about Christian or why…?" She trailed off hopelessly.

"It doesn't matter." I smiled. "I could interrogate you as long as I wanted…but I know you. And…you're crazy." I couldn't quite keep the affection and admiration out of my voice. "And crazy people do insane things. It's the nature of the world. And…well, it's insane of me to expect that I can talk a crazy person out of doing crazy things. Nothing I ask or say is going to change what it is."

"I'm dating a vampire, and you're just going to let that go?" She asked, shocked.

"Yeah, I'm just going to accept it and move on. It makes my life easier." I explained.

"I'm not sure why you're being so understanding. You either still feel guilty about Isaac…"

"Or I really want you to be happy." I interrupted. "Besides, I don't know why everyone is so upset. It's not like we haven't hung out with vampires our whole lives."

Echo finally smiled, a brilliant thing that lit up her whole face. "When did you become the wise older sister?" She teased.

"I've been working on it since you've been MIA." I admitted sheepishly.

"You're growing up." Echo observed. "You're the best sister ever, Liley."

"I know." I said, clicking my spoon off of hers. She laughed softly and I laid down beside her. And, for the first time in months, we talked. We talked about her first days at college, we talked about my classes, my friends, Eva, Blaze, our parents, the pack. We gossiped, we joked. We ate half the ice cream, feeling the sugar bubbling in our systems, our hair twirling together, black and red.

"I should get going." She said, standing up an hour later. "I don't want to be here when dad gets back."

"Do you really have to?" I asked. "I miss you."

"I'll be back soon, I think I need to let them cool down a little bit." She said.

"Are you coming to my recital? And to my birthday party?" I asked.

"Duh." She answered. "Wouldn't miss it for the world. Just let me know what time to show up." She paused, uncertain or hesitant, I couldn't tell. She ducked down, brushing her lips softly across my forehead. Then she was gone, a shimmer in the air, a ghost of her presence still lingering in the room, like a wisp of perfume.

I stood up, retrieving my journal from under the bed. I held it in my hand, feeling its weight and the cool cover. Echo, finally, seemed to have forgotten Isaac and I. And I didn't want anything she saw or heard to remind her of it. I liked having my sister back too much to risk that. I debated quickly throwing my journal away, did I really need it anyway? But…mom had given it to me. Her clear handwriting was on the inside cover…'To my Liley Faith, love Mommy.' And it chronicled the fantastic, wonderful, awful thing that had happened, from my first fluttering feelings to what they were now, whatever they were now. I couldn't throw it away, so I needed somewhere to stash, somewhere Echo would never see or think about it.

I combed my room, chewing on the inside of my lip. Echo and I had shared everything growing up…no space in the room was clearly mine or hers. All our things mingled, juxtaposed against each other, old band posters and photographs, my friends and hers. That's when I saw it.

Our entire room was painted a cheerful pale yellow, except one wall. It was made out of red brick, according to dad, there was two layers of brick in that wall. Mom liked it being different, she called it an accent wall. It was right above my bed. And I knew that there was a brick that jutted out slightly from the wall. I'd traced my finger over it growing up, feeling it not quite flush with the wall.

I knelt on the bed and felt the brick, digging my nails in the tiny crack between it and the wall, shifting and wiggling it back and forth. It took me minutes, and I suddenly realized why I'd never tried to do this before. Then, with one great tug, it broke off from the wall, sending dust all over my bed spread. I dropped it on the bed, brushing the dust off my hands. Then I saw something sparkling in the hole in the wall. I paused, confused, reaching into the hole I'd created, my fingers brushing against something cool.

I pulled out the thing in the wall, holding it in my hands. It was small, just about as big as the palm of my hand. It was heavier though…heavier than I thought it would be, it felt like the brick in my hand. It looked like a box. I sank to the bed, holding it in my fist. And it was beautiful…gold with swirling patterns of diamonds, rubies, sapphires. And right on the top, in golden script, there was a phrase carved into the gold.

"Lux et Tenebris…" I read, my tongue twisting among the unfamiliar words. My fingers found the edge of the box's lid, and I slowly flipped it open, holding my breath. The inside of the box was the same gold, but there was something folded and placed carefully into it. I pulled it out, my fingers shaking as I unfolded it. There were two pieces of paper folded together, the first looked like a page from the bible. I flipped it over, reading the portion that someone had highlighted.

So Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me the secret of your great strength."

My forehead wrinkled and I unfolded the next picture. I knew what it was before I even looked at it, I could feel the shiny, smooth texture of photo paper. I scrutinized it closely. I didn't know the girl in the picture. Her hair was long, windblown, she was dressed in layers and layers of black. Her face was turned toward the camera, curls danced across her cheeks, but the most shocking part of the photo was her neon purple eyes, they seemed to leap across time and space to stare right at me. On the bottom of the picture, in black marker and messy handwriting, was written one sentence.

Jezebel is alive.

The words and the picture, the very world blurred. And I could hear someone else talking, a voice in my ear. The room turned into a room with four, white blank walls. And there was a girl sitting in front of me, the same girl with the glowing purple eyes.

"I could have helped you, that was my plan, I think. To come back whole, to come back stronger. To come back without the memories."

"What happened?" I heard my own voice, though my lips didn't move.

"I don't know. It's so hard…so hard to keep everything straight, so hard to remember…" She trailed off, my room returned to normal. I heard the door slam downstairs, heard my mom and dad coming into the house. I took a couple of deep breaths. My heart was pounding in my head.

Nothing moved, everything was quiet. My mom's footsteps danced up the stairways. I threw the box and the picture back up into the hole, quickly placing the brick back in the wall and laying down on my bed.

"Liley? Are you okay?" She whispered, pushing the door open.

"Yeah." I fought to keep my voice normal. Surprisingly, it was easy. Maybe Echo was right, I was a great actress. "Yeah, I'm fine. I gave her ice cream and she left. She seemed okay too."

"That's good." Mom said relieved. "Your dad is downstairs, so is Blazey." She went to close the door.

"Mama." I said quickly. She paused, still inside the door, her head tilted to the side. "I…I've been having dreams. About Jezebel."

"Tell me about them." Mom said, sitting on the bed next to me.

"It's just…I think it's her. She says she can't remember things. She has dark hair, curly like Aunt Stella's, and bright, almost neon eyes. It's all so disjointed…so confusing."

"Jezebel's eyes were streaked with black." Mom pondered. "They weren't bright at all…maybe you've just been thinking of it too much, baby. Worrying. You shouldn't be worrying." Mom murmured.

"But she's dead? She really died?" I asked. "And she can't come back like you and Unca and Stella do?"

"No sweetie." My mom's face fell, looked pained. She traced her fingers over my face. "No…sometimes…sometimes people can't come back." She whispered. "Sometimes goodbye is really goodbye."

"But didn't she leave us anything to help? Didn't she point us to someone else?" I asked.

My mother's face changed again, closing itself off from me. "No, there was nobody else." She whispered.

"Mom!" Blaze yelled. Mom kissed my forehead, vanishing from my room, taking the ice cream with her.

Mom was lying. I knew she was. I could read her face as easily as a book, and whoever that other person was…wherever they were, I was willing to bet they'd put the box, the picture in my wall. And…I was willing to bet what the box was.

An empty golden box. A picture that said a girl who died was alive. A mother's lies. Somebody had left me something. Somebody was trying to tell me something, somebody had left that for me. It's why my name had been highlighted on that page.

Jezebel is alive. Jezebel is alive.