The Monster Within

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

GO after Dylan. Kill Dylan. My brain wouldn’t process those words. I couldn’t do it. Ever since I’d met Dylan, there was something about him. Something I couldn’t put my finger on. But it was the reason I had memorized his phone number. 555-0851. It was the reason I hadn’t told Ethan about all the times Dylan texted me, or when he cornered me at the river. The reason I felt guilty when the school cop took him away in handcuffs. I couldn’t tell all this to Nora. She hated him. I understood why she felt that way, but for whatever reason, I didn’t share her feelings toward Dylan.

“I want to go after Shannon next,” I blurted out. “You said she was the one who started this. Who wanted to do that spell to mess with people’s free will. She should be next.” I tried to sound assertive. To sound like I was suggesting Shannon because she had been the first one to hurt Nora.

“If we attack Shannon next, Dylan will have time to attack you.”

“How many are in your coven? I need to know what I’m up against.”

“Five, including me.”

“So you, Rebecca, Ben, Shannon, and Dylan.” I nodded. “Shannon needs to be next.” I had no other options. No other way to delay going after Dylan. And I had to delay it. I had to call Dylan and finally hear him out. Even if all he wanted to tell me was more lies, I wanted to hear it. I had to decide for myself if he deserved to die.

“Do you have any idea how angry he is going to be when he finds out what you’ve done?”

“You mean what we’ve done.”

“Yes. It’s not just you he’s going to come after. This decision isn’t yours alone to make.”

I started pacing. “All right. Then let’s talk this through.”

“There isn’t anything to discuss. Dylan is going to come for both of us. He’ll stop at nothing until we’re dead.” She grabbed my arm, forcing me to stop pacing and look at her. “I’m serious, Sam. You don’t know him like I do.”

She was right about that. I didn’t know him. I needed to get to know him, but would that even be possible when he discovered what I’d done? “I’m not ready. Shannon is the easier target. She’s so wrapped up in herself and her popularity that she probably won’t even notice Ben is gone.”

“She knows about you, Sam. Don’t fool yourself into thinking she doesn’t want you dead, too. You killed her boyfriend.”

My eyes widened. “You know about Trevor?”

“Of course I do. I’m trying to save your life. I had to find out everything I possibly could about you. I covered up Trevor’s murder the same way I covered up all the others. I wiped your fingerprints off everything and repaired the fire extinguisher. I even tampered with the security camera. You have no idea the lengths I’ve been going to for you.”

She was right. She’d been saving me over and over again, but I still wasn’t ready to kill Dylan. “Then if you know me so well, you know I’m not ready to face Dylan. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to put us both in a situation where we could get killed. I need time to sort this out. To come to terms with killing him.”

“What is there to come to terms with?” Nora shouted.

I couldn’t argue with her anymore. She had no idea that all this killing was destroying me. “Look, I’m the one doing the killing. Either we do this my way, or we don’t do it at all.”

She stepped back, glaring at me. “I’m not some powerless human you can order around, Sam.”

“Yeah, well, you’re not an evil witch either, so don’t pretend you’ll resort to using magic on me.” I sighed. “We’re not going to get anywhere on this tonight, and all of this is pointless right now anyway. I can’t kill anyone until another attack comes on.”

“Maybe so, but I need to know which witch I’m going to trap for you.”

“Shannon. It needs to be Shannon.”

She shook her head.

“I’m calling Ethan to come get me.” I started up the stairs toward the car where I’d left my purse.

“Wait.” Nora followed me. “I don’t want him knowing where I live. If he sees this place, he’ll start asking questions neither one of us can answer. I’ll drive you home.”

We didn’t talk until we pulled into my driveway. “Please, Nora, I’m begging you. Let it be Shannon.”

“When you’re moments from death, you won’t care who it is.”

That was true, but I still didn’t want it to be Dylan.

Ethan opened the front door.

“Fine,” Nora said. “Now go.”

I was barely out of the car when Nora peeled out of the driveway. She was mad, but I’d gotten my way, so I was okay with it.

“Have a good time?” Ethan asked.

Not exactly. “Yeah, but I’m glad I’m home with you now.” I wrapped my arms around him, nuzzling my face in his neck.

“I’m glad you’re home, too. I missed you.” He turned his head and kissed me.

We stumbled back into the cottage, not breaking apart. His hands were on the sides of my face, and I tossed my purse onto the couch. I missed and hit the lamp, which fell over onto the floor.

“Oops.”

“Leave it.” Ethan brought me into the bedroom. He pulled his shirt up over his head as I sat down on the bed. He leaned back down to kiss me again, and everything went black. No spots this time. Just solid black.

I continued to kiss him, hoping he wouldn’t notice I was having a vision. I’d never seen any of Rebecca’s future, so I didn’t really think this would be Ben’s. That only left one option. Ethan’s.

His face flooded my sight, and for a moment, I thought the vision had ended. The Ethan in my vision looked the same as the one I was kissing. I pulled back and slammed my palms against my eyes.

“Sam, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

“No!” I shrieked. “It can’t be time.”

“What are you talking about?” Ethan reached for my hands and pulled them away from my face. “Sam?”

I saw Ethan lying in bed with me, smiling. He pushed a stray hair off my cheek. “So, what do you think? Should I tell Beth we’ll go?”

I screamed, pounded the mattress with my fists. This couldn’t happen.

“Sam?” It was Ethan’s voice, his real voice, not in the vision. My sight went black, and I cried, big, heaving sobs. Ethan wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to his chest. I cried into his bare chest until I exhausted myself.

It was going to happen soon. I knew it. I didn’t know what Ethan had been asking me about. Beth hadn’t invited us anywhere, so it couldn’t have been today.

“Sweetie, talk to me. What happened?” Ethan whispered in my ear.

I tilted my head back and kissed him, not saying a word. There wasn’t time for words. In the morning, I’d have to talk to Nora. I’d skip school if I had to. I needed her to find a way to save Ethan. I knew that meant bringing him back to life. That was it. I pulled away from Ethan. I couldn’t beat around the bush anymore. I needed an answer.

“Ethan, how did you bring me back? You have to tell me, and you have to tell me now.”

He shook his head. “I told you it doesn’t matter.”

I took a deep breath. I couldn’t worry about what Ethan would think of me when I told him the truth. I had to say whatever I needed to get him to talk.

“I didn’t come back normal. Something went wrong.”

“Sam—”

I put my finger to his lips. “Let me finish. I need to know what you did, so I can fix this.” I was trying to avoid telling him he was dying.

“Fix what? Sam, you’re the same person you’ve always been. Except you aren’t sick anymore.”

“Yes, I am.”

He sighed. “Is it because the cancer is gone? I thought you’d be happy to be healthy, to not have to worry about dying.”

“I do have to worry about it. I worry every day. I am dying, Ethan. Right now.”

He grabbed my face in his hands. “Listen to me. You only think you’re dying. I promise you, you’re fine.”

“No, I’m not. Think about it. Figure it out. That day at the gas station. The dead guy in the back of the car.”

“I know that freaked you out. I’m sure that was the last thing you needed to see after what happened to you, but—”

“No!” I stood up. “You’re not listening to me. That guy died because I killed him.”

“Sam, you’re talking crazy now. What, do you think the universe had to balance out you coming back to life, so it took that guy’s life?”

“I took that guy’s life.” I held my hands out to him. “With my bare hands. I killed him. That’s why I wasn’t in the car when you came out of the store.”

“You went to the bathroom, remember?” He reached for my forehead. “Are you coming down with something? Do you have a fever?”

“I don’t have a fever, and I didn’t go to the bathroom that night. I started to feel like I was suffocating in the car, so I got out. I fell onto the ground. I was dying. Again. I panicked, and that guy came out of the store. He tried to help me, to take me to the hospital. But I did something. With my hands. I stole the life right out of him. He aged from my touch, and I was saved.”

“Okay.” Ethan scratched his head. “Maybe there were some side effects from bringing you back. You’re hallucinating.”

“Yes and no. I see things. Glimpses of the lives of the people I killed. Or at least the lives they would’ve led if I hadn’t killed them.”

“People you killed? Sam, you didn’t kill anyone.”

“Yes, I did. It wasn’t just that guy. Herman. Do you remember Gloria telling us about him?”

“The guy who crashed into the telephone pole?”

“Yes. That’s not really how he died. I killed him. I was having an attack, and I needed to get away from you before I hurt you. I took your car, and I almost crashed into Herman. He got out to yell at me, and I killed him. I drove his car to the top of that hill and staged the accident.”

“Okay, that’s enough.” He got up and crossed his arms. “Either you are really messing with me because you don’t want to sleep with me again, or we need to take you to the hospital to get checked out.”

I stared at him in disbelief. He thought I was making this up because I didn’t want to have sex with him? “I killed Trevor, too. I made it look like he tried to break into the school.”

“Trevor?” Ethan kicked the bed. “Damn it, Sam. Trevor is missing. And that guy who broke into the school was in his seventies.”

“No, he wasn’t. He was Trevor. I drained the life out of him. That’s what I do. It’s how I kill people to keep myself alive. I take their life force, drain it out of them.”

“Stop it!” Ethan’s face was bright red. “That’s enough.”

“You don’t believe me.” My bottom lip trembled. Ethan had never not believed me.

“I believe you’re sick. I believe I screwed something up when I brought you back.”

I stepped toward him. “Then tell me how you did it.”

“You’ve become obsessed with this, and it’s messing with your head.” He reached for my hands. “Please, let this go. Let me help you.”

“You can help me by telling me the truth about what you did. I have to know. It’s a matter of life and death.”

“No, it’s not. No one is dying because of you. You’re confused.”

I tore my hands from his. “Why won’t you tell me? How bad is it that you aren’t even willing to say it out loud?”

He ran his fingers through his hair and tilted his head back. I waited for what felt like an eternity for him to speak. I couldn’t take it anymore. “Ethan!”

He looked at me, his eyes red and puffy. “I would’ve done anything. Anything.”

“I know. I’m not going to be mad at you. I don’t blame you for any of this. I just need to know.”

“What will knowing change?”

It might change losing him forever, but I couldn’t say that. I hated having to keep so much from him, but after how he’d reacted to me telling the truth about what I’d become, I couldn’t tell him he was dying. He’d think I was crazy. He probably already thought I was crazy.

“Can’t you tell me simply because I want to know?”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Yes, it is. It’s words. Say them.”

He shook his head. “If I tell you, it will only make you worse. Those things you said about you killing people, that scared the shit out of me. I can only imagine what you’d say if you knew the truth.”

He did think I was crazy. My confession hadn’t done anything but ruin my chances of finding out the truth. Ethan was a dead end.

But he wasn’t the only one who knew I’d come back from the dead. Nora knew. Except if she knew how I’d come back, she would’ve told me. We’d shared a lot. It would’ve come out eventually. That left me with one option. Dylan. I had to call him. I had to set up a meeting to get this all out in the open.

I had no idea if he’d found out about Ben yet. If he had, then I was dead. He’d kill me. But I had to try. He might have the answer I needed. And if he did kill me, well, Ethan and I would end up together after all. Six feet under.