Senior year + college applications + 5 AP classes = NO time to write. I'm sorry. I know every author's note I post seems to be an apology, but I really am busy. Thanks to Andrew and Haybell for reminding to me to focus on my story. Seriously, I've been so stressed and busy, it's hard to sit down and write. Thank you guys for all of your fantastic reviews especially when I don't deserve them. Just a warning, this chapter is chalkfull of mistakes. I only did a quick once over because I was anxious to post. I know I've been neglecting my writing, but there really aren't enough hours in the day. Plus I have other characters in other stories who tend to get upset when I don't give them all equal attention. (I won't even tell you guys how long it's been since I've updated my other story). But, like I've promised I will finish this story even if it takes 10 years (I really hope that doesn't happen). Anyways, I love you guys a lot and I want to say thank you for reading my writing. I'm thrilled that you guys enjoy my story. :)
I ended up falling asleep while I was up in my room. When I woke up my alarm clock read six AM. I was surprised that no one had come to talk to me. I was even more surprised that I'd managed to sleep for as long as I had. Although, I really couldn't imagine who would even want to see me. I did think that Nicole would come try to find out what had happened though, but she was probably busy dealing with our mother's disappearance.
I remained in bed and stared up at the ceiling. The numbness I had initially felt after the disaster was beginning to wear off. Reality was starting to crash down, and I realized that my biggest problems were not how miserable I was because of my breakup with Anthony. The Administratio would not be lenient or understanding and they were not above the death sentence.
It bothered me to no end that breaking up with Anthony was affecting me this much. I was not the girl who cried over her boyfriend. Besides, it had been me who broke up with him, not the other way around. Still, it was ripping me apart in a way I didn't like.
I sat up when I heard my door open about an hour later. "Hey," Nicole said, walking in and closing the door quietly.
I didn't say anything. I just looked at her.
"You're going to have to talk to someone sometime," she said.
"He's not evil," I said softly.
"Anthony?" she asked.
I was surprised that she didn't get angry about me defending Anthony when there were so many problems that were the result of my relationship with him. But it was good that she was being nice. I wouldn't be able to deal with her if she came in here to chew my head off.
"Yeah, Lucas turned him into a vampire, the way Juana did with Emily. Juana was able to control Emily so it makes sense that Lucas can control Anthony and his brothers." I sounded robotic.
"Hmm, speaking of Emily, does Caroline know about her?"
I nodded. "They were all there. Caroline just looked at her, I guess she'll tell the Administratio about her along with everything else."
"What I don't understand is why Caroline would pass up the chance to kill them. I mean obviously she followed you because she was suspicious, but why not follow through with revenge?" Nicole mused.
"She tried. She's just not that good. Anthony didn't move when she tried to attack him, but Eric and Mark got in the way. She tried to make me do it. She even offered to keep my secret if I killed him, but I said no."
I waited for her to tell me I was an idiot for not taking Caroline up on the offer when I had the chance.
"Good," she said.
"What?" I was sure I hadn't heard her right.
"I'm glad you didn't listen to her. Now, I still think you are an idiot for hooking up with a vampire, but Caroline was probably lying. She would have told the Administratio anyway, and then we wouldn't be able to help Emily – which I still want to do, by the way."
"But she is telling the Administratio. We won't be able to help Emily," I said, morosely.
"Well, we have a better chance than we would've had if Anthony and his brothers died. At least they're people there to keep her safe. I'll stop by to see her the first chance I get."
"When you do, will you tell her I'm sorry? When I thought Anthony was evil, I kind of didn't talk to her…" I wasn't sure how to explain it. I hadn't thought that Emily was involved with Ethan's death, but I just didn't want any kind of connection to Anthony.
"Sure," Nicole said. "But I want to find out what the Administratio's going to do before I have any kind of contact with them."
Before we could say anything else, Cheryl walked in without knocking. Rudeness wasn't her usual style, but my guess was that she was still angry.
"The Administratio's giving you a hearing tonight at eight o'clock," she informed me. "You better be ready on time. Come on Nicole, I need to talk to you."
Clearly the fact that Nicole and I had obviously been in the middle of a conversation wasn't a matter of importance in my oldest sister's eyes.
They walked out, and I wondered if Cheryl really wanted to talk to Nicole or if that was just a ploy to keep her away from me. She was probably worried that I would corrupt Nicole with my traitorous ways. Still, it was possible that she would be telling her about my trial or about Mom.
I left my room, fully intending to do some eavesdropping, but found that Olivia had already beaten me to the punch.
She was standing outside Cheryl's bedroom door in a casual way so that if one of the two walked out it would appear as if she was just walking by.
She saw that I'd caught her but didn't even look remotely guilty. "What are you going to do? Tell on me? Trust me compared to what you did, there's no way I'd get in trouble for anything," she sneered.
"Oh shut up, I want to listen too," I said, not in the mood to go back and forth with her.
She rolled her eyes but didn't antagonize me anymore.
"Are you sure you didn't know about Evelyn? Anything at all? There was no suspicious behavior? You never saw her with him at school?" Cheryl was drilling Nicole wit questions, and I hated myself for putting her in that position.
"Nothing," Nicole lied flawlessly. "I mean I caught her skipping school once, and she told me she was hunting. She might have been seeing him, but I really didn't think anything of it. Or she could've actually been hunting. I really don't know anything."
"I really hope you aren't protecting her," Cheryl said.
"Of course I'm not protecting her. Why would I? What she did was wrong. Did you ask Olivia all these questions you're asking me?" Nicole asked, a little accusingly.
"No," Cheryl admitted, "but I really don't think it's likely she would know anything. If she did, she would've told on Evelyn the second she found out. She's really not as close to Evelyn as you are."
"Well I don't know anything about Evelyn and that vamp," Nicole said.
"What about when you were just in her room? Did she tell you anything then?" now Cheryl just seemed desperate for information.
"She was telling me about what happened with Caroline and the vamps."
"Vamps? As in more than one?" Cheryl clung to the little piece of new information. I didn't mind Nicole telling Cheryl about Eric and Mark, she would find out sooner or later.
"Apparently the vamp she was with had brothers," Nicole said.
Cheryl was quiet for a moment. "I need you to do something for me."
Nicole sounded wary when she spoke. "What is it?"
"I need you to find out as much as you can from Evelyn about whatever it was that she was doing with that vampire."
"What? I thought Evelyn was having her hearing tonight. We'll find out everything then," Nicole said, voice still wary.
I could practically see Cheryl rolling her eyes. "Like she's going to tell the whole story. If she can get away with it, she'll tell them as little as possible."
"You know, you could try talking to her. She might tell you whatever it is that you want to know," Nicole suggested.
"I seriously doubt that," Cheryl said curtly. "Just find out what you can, okay? I heard that Caroline said she saw Emily as a vampire. Obviously Evelyn's been keeping more secrets than she's been letting onto."
At that point Olivia turned around and stared at me, her mouth hanging open slightly. She mouthed Emily's name obviously looking for some kind of confirmation about what she'd just heard.
Not in the mood to deal with her, I turned around and walked back to my room. On a whim, I looked at my phone and saw that I had three missed calls and two voicemails, all from Anthony. He'd tried text messaging me too. I deleted everything without looking at it.
I realized about ten minutes too late how bad my impulsiveness was. I should've stayed to listen to Cheryl and Nicole's conversation. Cheryl might have let on to more of what she knew. But, it was too late to change that now.
Instead, I spent my day lying on my bed allowing the numbness to seep into my system. I didn't want to freak myself out. The only thing in my favor would be that my mother wasn't going to be at the hearing.
Around lunchtime Cheryl came into my room. I was hoping for Nicole, but at least it wasn't Olivia.
"You need to eat," she said, setting down two slices of pizza and a bottle of water on my nightstand.
"Sure, thanks," I mumbled waiting for her to leave.
She didn't.
Cheryl just stood there. A normal person would have at least had the decency to appear a little awkward, but not my big sister. She stood there, probably relishing in my discomfort.
That was an unfair description. Cheryl really didn't have a vindictive bone in her body. No, she was too rational for that.
Finally, she spoke. "So," she began.
"So?" I repeated cautiously.
"I'm not allowed to question you," she said. "Those are orders from the Administratio."
"Okaaay," I said, drawing out the word. I wasn't sure exactly where she was going with this.
"But that doesn't mean you can't tell me anything without my questioning you," she continued.
I stared at her blankly for a moment. "What do you want from me Cheryl?"
"I want to know what you were thinking. That vamp was related to Lucas, of all people. He probably has something to do with Mom being missing. And if you could only hear the rumors that are going around! Caroline's been telling everyone what she saw…"
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I was going through the worst crisis of my life, and my sister was worried about how I embarrassed the family. "I'm so sorry this has been difficult for you. I can't imagine what you're going through right now," I said. I regretted the words as soon as they were out of my mouth. It didn't help that my voice had carried a distinct sarcastic undertone.
Cheryl glared at me now. "You think I'm upset because people are gossiping? Or that I care that that petty woman who can't keep her mouth shut refuses to tell me anything about what she saw? Our mother is missing. And you seem to very well connected to why that is."
I took a breath. "Anthony didn't have anything to do with Mom going missing. That was all Lucas." It was also Juana, but I wasn't sure it was the time to give away her part in this mess.
"So that's his name," she said with a bit of triumph in her voice. Obviously she'd come here looking for information, she seemed pleased with herself for being able to obtain this tidbit.
"I thought you weren't supposed to be questioning me. Just leave me alone, okay? I don't need you to psych me out when I have a hearing coming up in a few hours. I'll practically be walking to my execution, so I don't need my last few hours to be full of this crap." I was being touchy when I knew full well that I had no right to be. The entire hunting community had a very good reason to be pissed at me and calling for my blood, but that didn't mean I had to be rational about it.
"You know, I really don't want the Administratio to punish you tonight. I actually really hope they don't. You know too much about everything. I want them to find Mom and then have her punish you."
I rolled my eyes so that she wouldn't see how much the idea of that kind of punishment terrified me.
"Speaking of Mom and how much our little sister here has to do with her disappearance maybe Evelyn would like to enlighten us as to why Mom called her on that day she went missing," Olivia said as she walked into the room.
"Olivia, get ou—" Cheryl started.
"Oh, come on you know you're curious about it too," Olivia cut her off. Then she looked at me. "Well? Spit it out, it's not like you have any more secrets."
Cheryl was still focused on admonishing Olivia. "Were you eavesdropping?"
Olivia laughed at the question. "Of course I was eavesdropping. It's not like you tell me anything, so I have to get creative about extracting my information. Besides it's not like Evelyn wasn't doing the same thing when you were talking to Nicky earlier."
I threw a pillow at Olivia as if the soft, fluffy object would actually hurt her and felt my blood boil as she laughed cruelly.
"Evelyn," Cheryl said sharply.
"What? You were talking about me. If you could listen in on a conversation where people were talking about you, you would do it too. Besides, she" I jabbed a finger in Olivia's direction, "was doing it too."
"And speaking of that conversation you had with Nicole, I'm not going to tell her any more than what I've already told you."
Cheryl just shook her head. "I can't do this. Come on Olivia," she said walking out of the room.
When they were gone, I took a bite out of the pizza Cheryl had left me. It tasted like cardboard with cheese on it. I forced myself to eat both slices and I chugged the entire bottle of water.
When I was finished I stared at my closet wondering what I should wear for the hearing. I wanted to look respectable. Hearings were rare for hunters. There usually weren't very many trouble makers such as myself, but because of their rareness, they were usually a big deal. All hunters sixteen and up were allowed to come and input from everyone was allowed and even encouraged.
I settled on some hunting gear – nondescript black pants and a black shirt with black boots. I showered and changed into the clothes even though it was ridiculously early to be getting ready for the hearing and then I spent the next half hour combing the knots out of my brown hair.
I stared at myself in the mirror thinking about how much everyone said I looked like my dad. I wondered what he would think about me now. Possibilities swirled around in my mind before I pushed the thoughts away not wanting to let my imagination run away.
Nicole brought my dinner up, and I had to wonder if she'd done so with some prodding from Cheryl to drill me with questions. But when she set down the square of lasagna in front of me, she didn't say a word.
She leaned against the wall and watched me use the fork to cut up the lasagna. "Do you know how many people are coming?" I finally asked.
She shrugged. "A good bit – everyone who had any kind of relationship with Ethan or Emily, and then everyone who's been trying to find Mom."
I nodded. I was expecting a big turnout. All of the hunters could come of course. But this was a juicy story. The daughter of a member from the Administratio was dating the nephew of the vampire who killed her father. Future criminals would find my indiscretions hard to beat.
Nicole went and opened my bedroom door to check the hallway. I stared at her curiously.
"There seems to be an eavesdropping epidemic going around in this house," she explained.
"Oh," I said. I focused on my lasagna so she wouldn't see my guilt.
"I talked to Emily today," she said casually.
"What? You did? What did she say? I thought you were going to wait to talk to her?" My questions came out so quickly I was surprised she understood what I said.
Nicole waited for me to calm down. "I was going to wait. She called me. I made sure Cheryl and Olivia weren't listening. She's really worried about you. She feels bad that you're in trouble, she wanted to expose herself."
"What?!" Before I could go ballistic, Nicole stopped me.
"Relax, I talked her out of it. She said she's been having more trouble with her memory, but for the most part she's okay."
"Oh, that must have something to do with Juana." I paused. "Did she say anything else?" I asked hesitantly. I refused to ask outright about what I wanted to about the most.
"She said Anthony won't talk to her, or anyone," Nicole told me, catching on to my ambiguous question. "She really wants to talk to you. I told her she'd have to wait to see how the hearing plays out."
I sighed. I couldn't wait for this trial to be over. Nicole stayed with me while I ate; we were silent most of the time.
Finally, Cheryl came into the room. "Come on, it's time to go."
I took a deep breath, time to face the executioners.
I know I make you guys wait a lot, so if you review, I'll send you a preview of the next chapter by Saturday, 10/3. :D