Hello everyone! Look, I'm alive, and I actually haven't forgotten about this story. I have some fantastic news. I'm finished! "We're Damned After All" is completely done and saved on my computer. I still need to go through and edit it, but the writing part is finished. That's good news for those of you who have actually stuck around even though I'm absolutely terrible at updating. There will be 42 chapters and an epilogue. I'll be updating every few days or so, and as promised, there will still be a sequel. I have lots of ideas for it, but I don't have a title yet. Hopefully, I'll be better at updating that story. Thank you for all of you wonderful reviews. As always, I appreciate every single review. All of your feedback is encouraged. Happy reading!
The fury built up inside of me, and everything I'd wanted to scream at her from the moment she brought Anthony and Emily to the house spilled out.
"You bitch! What the hell is your problem? You ruined everything. I bet you're happy seeing me here, aren't you? I don't care how many years I end up stuck in here, when I get out I am going to kill you!"
I stopped ranting for a moment to try and breathe properly. It didn't help. I was panting like I'd just finished running a marathon. Olivia remained calm, staring at me through the bars of my cell like I was an interesting animal at the zoo.
It made me angry, the way she just looked at me. I wanted her to say something back. I wanted her to be as upset as I was.
"You are just an awful person, you know that?" I continued when she remained silent. "You're an awful, disgusting, vile, despicable human being. I was trying to help Emily, but you just wouldn't let me because you're terrible. I never want to see you again. You messed everything up!"
I paused again, this time to come with some more synonyms for the word "awful."
"Really?" she asked, finally speaking. "I messed everything up?"
"Yes," I said, nodding my head vigorously to show my affirmation.
"Huh, that's interesting," she said. "Because the way I understand it, your boyfriend and Emily and Ethan have now successfully made a deal with the Administratio to spare their lives. A deal that involves Lucas dying, by the way."
"You-" I started, ready to go off on her again before what she said processed in my brain. "Wait, what?"
"I was under the impression that this was what you wanted," she said. "Your vampire boyfriend safe, Emily free from the Administratio, and Lucas dead."
I frowned, confused for the millionth time tonight.
"We set it up, genius," Olivia said, exasperated. "The Administratio would never listen to a proposal from vampires if they just asked for an audience. We had to make it look like they'd been captured."
The pieces were starting to come together in my head. "You all planned this," I said. "Every single thing that happened tonight, you all wanted to happen."
"Yes, I'm glad you're catching on," Olivia said. "See? There's no reason for you to be mad."
"Yeah," I said slowly. "I wouldn't be mad at all, except for the fact that you all lied to me. And there's that other minor issue of me being STUCK IN A JAIL CELL."
Olivia rolled her eyes. "We thought of that too," she said holding up a key.
"I'm not going anywhere with you," I said. "You could be lying to me again. You might take me straight to the Administratio and convince them that I was trying to break out."
Olivia sighed. "You really think I'd go to the trouble of stealing this key, just for that? There isn't enough time for me to explain everything, and we need you to fight Lucas, so come on. You're about to make the most amazing escape ever," she said, unlocking the door to my cell.
"What about your secret weapon?" I asked.
"You are the secret weapon, you idiot," she said. "Now, come on."
She grabbed my arm and led me out of the basement. I followed her silently as she moved through the house. Even though I knew no one was here, I still made an extra effort to be as quiet as possible. Paranoia had settled within me, and I felt certain the Administratio was going to come back and catch me.
Olivia made her way into what I gathered was Andrew's bedroom. She opened the wardrobe that was opposite the bed and pulled out a box from the back. The box didn't appear to hold anything of value, – just an old pocket watch and scraps of paper – but it did have a false bottom, which was where Olivia placed the key.
She returned it to its place, grabbed my arm and teleported out of the room. She teleported away suddenly, so I was a bit disoriented when we landed. She'd taken me to the Carsons' beach house. Nicole was there.
"Evelyn! Are you okay?" she asked. She moved to hug me, but I stepped away from her.
Olivia and Nicole exchanged a knowing look. Clearly they'd anticipated that I would be upset, but they hadn't really considered how best to placate me.
"Where's Anthony?" I asked. I wanted to speak to him first to make sure that he felt the full power of my wrath. He'd been avoiding me these past few days, and now I knew why.
"All of your vampire friends are still with the Administratio," Olivia said.
My anger was instantly replaced with worry. "You left them alone with the Administratio? They could be fighting right now."
"Relax, Evy," Nicole said. "Anthony just sent me a text. Everything's fine. The Administratio just has a lot of questions."
"Really? You've been texting Anthony? I think it's great that you two are such good friends now."
I couldn't help the irrational jealousy I felt. Of course I knew that there would never, ever be any possibility of a relationship between Nicole and Anthony beyond civil tolerance. In fact, I wasn't sure which of them would be more turned off by the idea of it progressing to more than that.
But dammit, my sister was texting my boyfriend, who'd just spent the last few days ignoring me. I had a list of reasons for why I was mad at him that was getting longer by the second, and he wouldn't face me long enough to even hear it.
"Evelyn, we didn't want to lie to you," Nicole said. "We had to do it so that everything would work out right."
"I'm sorry. How does the Administratio deciding that I should be imprisoned for a good few years, qualify as EVERYTHING WORKING OUT RIGHT?"
"We should probably wait for the vampires before we explain everything," Nicole said.
"I don't want to wait for anyone," I said through gritted teeth. "I want my answers now."
Olivia and Nicole just looked at each other again. This was so annoying. On some level, I was thrilled that their crazy, convoluted plan had been successful. I wanted everyone to be okay. But it seemed that their brilliant plan meant that everyone won except for me. I felt left out. I'd been at the center of everything from the beginning. I was the one who was willing to risk everything to help Emily and Ethan first. Why didn't they think I should know about what they were planning?
"Just tell me this," I said, working to keep my cool. "Did everyone know what was going on?"
"Yes," Nicole answered.
"Everyone? You guys, Emily, the Carsons, even Ethan knew?" I asked.
"Emily filled Ethan in on the plan when you left him at the Carsons' house," Nicole explained. "When you disappeared off with Ethan, and we realized we didn't have much hope of finding you, we came up with this plan. It was mostly Olivia's idea."
"Aren't you glad I'm here?" Olivia asked brightly. "We figured you'd have to come, and once we'd discussed the possibilities your power had, we figured that it could be useful."
"Well you're lucky," I said. "The Administratio wanted me to drink that poison to bind my powers. If Andrew hadn't been out of it at his house, I wouldn't have a power to help you guys."
"Evelyn, how often do you think hunters have their powers bound? Andrew had two bottles of the stuff at his house. I moved it. Now when he finds it in his attic instead of the kitchen, he'll think he moved it without remembering. I'm telling you, we thought of everything," Olivia said proudly.
The more I thought about it, the more I could see that this plan of theirs really had been a stroke of genius…not that I was ready to admit that out loud. Pretending to capture Anthony and Emily so that they'd get a hearing with the Administratio, it was impressive. I just didn't understand why I didn't know about it.
"They're gone," Nicole said, looking at her phone. "We need to get back home. Evelyn, just stay here and lay low for a while."
"What? Why are you leaving?"
"The Administratio is going to notice that you're missing when they get back, and we don't want them suspecting that we had anything to do with your miraculous escape," Olivia answered.
"But –"
It was no use. They both teleported out before I could say anything. While I understood the need for them to cover their tracks so that the Administratio didn't get suspicious about them, I didn't like the way they were going about doing it.
I didn't want to admit to them how upset I was that everyone knew what had been going on except for me. Even Ethan knew. Just a few days ago they'd been ready to kill him, sure that he was a dangerous vampire, but now they trusted him more than they trusted me.
I wanted to call Anthony, but I didn't have my cell phone with me. It probably wasn't a smart idea to call him now anyways. The Administratio would probably head straight back to his house once they found out that I was missing. He would probably need to stay there the rest of the night to keep up appearances.
I flopped down onto the couch feeling as useless as I had when I'd been stuck in the prison cell. At least the Carsons had cable.
An hour passed…
…And another…
…And another…
Just as I was dozing off, the phone rang causing me to jump off the sofa. I hesitated, unsure if I should answer or not. Who would be calling the Carsons? As far as I was concerned, no one even knew they had this place…except for Lucas. My paranoia doubled. The answering machine came on.
"Evelyn? Are you there? Answer the phone."
I sighed in relief. It was Nicole. I grabbed the phone before she could hang up.
"Hello?"
"Hey, are you okay?"
"No, I'm on the run from the leaders of the vampire hunters because my sister made me break out of their prison."
"I could've just left you there." It was Olivia's voice. Apparently I was on speakerphone.
"Listen, Evelyn, Olivia is going to see you tomorrow, and I'll be there right after school, okay?" Nicole said.
"Tomorrow?"
"Yeah, we have to act like we don't know anything."
"So what did Mom say about me not being there?" I asked.
"She's confused…and upset," Nicole answered. "The entire Administratio is confused. They don't understand how you could've gotten out. They don't even know where to start looking for you."
"That's good though, right?"
"Right," Olivia said. "I think they went back to see the Carsons, but since they were with the Administratio the whole time, it's not like anyone can accuse them of helping you escape."
"We'll see you tomorrow, okay? Try to get some sleep," Nicole said.
"Yeah, fine, bye," I said and hung up.
It seemed as though their plan was going perfectly. The vampires had alibis, so they couldn't be accused of helping me escape, and no one would suspect my sisters, so they were safe too.
I suddenly felt very tired. It was as if everything that happened finally hit me full force, and Nicole's suggestion of sleep sounded pretty good. I curled up on the couch and drifted…
Something was hitting me on my face. It was soft, but seemed pretty determined to hurt me. It just kept on banging at my head over and over again. I tried hitting it away, but I kept missing. I wasn't sure why I couldn't see it.
I realized that it was because my eyes were closed. I squinted up to see my attacker, annoyed by how bright it was. There, standing over me, was Olivia with a pillow in hand. Emily was with her.
"Finally, you're awake," she said.
I sat up, surprised that it was already morning.
"What time is it?"
"Ten," she said.
She shoved a few plastic bags in my face. I peered in curiously and saw clothes and toiletries and a new cell phone.
"You bought this stuff?"
"Yeah," she said. "We don't want Mom to see that your stuff is missing. You should go shower and change."
"Where's Anthony?"
I'd been talking to Emily, but it was Olivia who answered.
"In school, the Administratio is suspicious that the vampires had something to do with your disappearing act. Everyone needs to act like they normally would, so that it doesn't give them a reason to suspect we know where you are."
I grabbed the stuff she bought for me and headed upstairs. I probably would feel better after a hot shower…
"I know Anthony wants to talk to her alone, but they're just going to have work out their poor, fragile feelings later," Olivia was hissing at Emily when I walked into the kitchen.
It seemed they'd gotten coffee and doughnuts for breakfast. Olivia handed me a jelly doughnut, and the look in her eye dared me to call her out about what I'd just heard. I wasn't ready for that argument just yet. I was more interested in what happened yesterday.
"So, are you going to tell me what the hell happened last night?" I didn't really see a need for a segue. I just wanted answers.
"I think you're being a little dramatic about all of this. Everything's going exactly the way we wanted it to," Olivia said. "The plan to kill Lucas is exactly what we originally told you. You're going to use your power to shield us from his senses and we'll attack him, simple. And after he's dead, your friends will be safe."
"Oh, everything's going the way you wanted it to, huh?" I was a second away from slapping her. "Did you want the Administratio to imprison me?"
"Well…yeah."
I opened my mouth to shout every profanity I knew at her, but Emily jumped into the conversation.
"Evelyn, what Olivia means is that we wanted the Administratio to imprison you instead of voting to kill you or take away your powers. It was the lesser of two evils."
"What I still don't understand is why I couldn't know what was going on? Tonight could've gone exactly the way you all wanted it to if I knew what was happening," I argued.
"We needed you to be as realistic as possible," Olivia explained. "We needed the Administratio to believe that you really had no idea what was going on."
"But I really didn't have any idea what was going on," I complained.
"Exactly," Olivia said. "We couldn't take any risks. We knew the Administratio wouldn't let you work with the vampires under any circumstances. And honestly, there was no way to be certain what the Administratio would do to you. We needed your reactions to be authentic."
"So you didn't tell me anything because you were worried about my acting skills? And you were ready to just let them do whatever they wanted with me? What if they'd voted to kill me?"
My voice became shriller with each question. When I finished yelling I just stood there staring at Emily and Olivia. There were no more words to express my outrage and frustration, and I knew I was on the brink of tears.
"We weren't going to let that happen, Evelyn. Would you just calm down?" Olivia said. She already looked bored with the conversation.
"Evelyn, your relationship with the Administratio before all of this was shaky at best. They don't like that you're getting along with vampires. If they suspected you even a little, they might have interrogated you. It was safer for you to know as little as possible," Emily explained gently.
"And by as little as possible, you mean nothing at all, right?" I said petulantly. "So what if they interrogated me? I wouldn't have given anything up."
Olivia sighed. "You've spent way too much time around vampires. It's like you think it's a normal thing. You might see that Emily and Ethan and Anthony are different from the normal vamps, but the Administratio doesn't. As far as they're concerned, what you've been doing is borderline insane. When Emily says that they'd interrogate you, she means they might torture you to find out as much as they can."
My heart sank at her words. "Torture me? That's archaic."
"Yeah, well a hunter befriending vampires is kind of unprecedented. We agreed as a group that it would be safest for everyone if you didn't know anything, okay? I'm sorry if that hurts your feelings or whatever, but that's the way it is. Can we move on now?"
Olivia didn't sound sorry at all, but she was right. There were more important things to worry about. I noticed Emily was still looking at me sympathetically, but she didn't say anything.
"Alright, is there anything else you haven't told me?"
"Just that you're going to have to stay off the radar until we kill Lucas," Olivia said. "The plan is exactly what it was before. We'll use your power to have the upper hand on Lucas, and once we kill him, you're going to have to come clean to the Administratio about everything and hope they give you a free pass."
"Hope?" I said weakly. "As in you didn't think far ahead enough when you were cooking up your brilliant plan about what would happen to me after we killed Lucas."
"I don't see why I have to be the only one who thinks around here," Olivia complained. "I got you this far, didn't I? And I don't even want to help your vampiric boyfriend. I'm here for Emily. I only made sure he'd be safe for you."
Something dawned on me as she spoke. It was like a light bulb went on over my head. "You didn't want to risk me backing out. That's why you didn't tell me anything," I accused. "The Administratio might still vote to have me killed now that I've broken out of their prison. You were worried that if you told me, I wouldn't do it because my fate's the only one still up in the air!"
Olivia stood up, and I saw the wild, angry kind of glint in her eye that took over her when she fought vampires. "Can you please get over yourself for one second? You're not the only one taking risks here. Nicole and I could get in serious trouble for helping you with this mess you've started. We made this plan without you because you went off alone to help your vampire best friend – which, by the way, was a decision you made without us.
"You can't just go off and do things like that and then come back and expect to be in the loop. Do you understand that you when you left to help Ethan, we had no idea where you were? We were worried, and we didn't have any way of knowing if and when you'd come back. Disappearing like that was dangerous and stupid and immature. You need to grow up. Now that you know everything, do you not want to help?"
"Of course I still want to help," I said quietly.
"Good, I don't want to hear any more complaining about what we did and didn't tell you. We came up with the best possible plan that we could, and so far, it's been going well. If you have problems with it, deal with them on your own time," she said.
Emily rubbed my shoulder gently while I sat in silence. Because I was at that awful point in the argument where I realized that I was in the wrong, I had nothing more to say to Olivia.
"Is Anthony coming here soon?" I directed my question to Emily because I was honestly afraid that Olivia would lash out at me again.
Before she could answer my question – as if on cue – Anthony walked into the room. I felt like it had been so long since I'd had any alone time with him. I wasn't even sure what I was feeling when it came to him. I expected him more than anyone to take my side, but he went along with the plan to let me get imprisoned just like everyone else.
An awkward silence fell over the room. Anthony and I weren't looking each other in the eye. Emily had become very interested in her fingernails, and Olivia was staring Anthony down. Not that that was unusual. Olivia always looked like she was ready to attack Anthony.
A few seconds passed and then simultaneously, Anthony and I looked each other in the eye and said, "We need to talk."