Believe

Chapter Six: Days Gone By

It was about eight-thirty at night by the time I finally reached my room. I breathed a sigh of relief as I opened the door and flopped down on my bed. I was glad to be away from everybody. My mom was absolutely elated that I was going out on a second date. Eleanor, who had been waiting at the front door with my mom, was very disgruntled and showed it. She told me that she thought I had better not date Matthew and that he came from an unsavory family and she defiantly didn’t want him in her house.


         Dinner was even tenser then it had been the night my mother and I had first arrived. Neither Euan nor Wallace said a word during dinner and Eleanor only spoke when asked a direct question. My mom didn’t understand what the problem was and said as much. Eleanor said that the McCready’s and the Siduous didn’t get along, had never got along and never would get along. My mom shrugged and continued to eat her food, the rest of dinner was extremely quiet.


         I went to my window seat and sat down with a heavy thud. It sucked being caught in-between a family feud, I was sure I felt the same as the Deadstones had felt. With that thought I sat up straighter, would I be killed just like the Deadstones were? Would I drag my mom into something that could easily be fixed if I just stopped talking to Matt?


         I was sure that the McCready’s wouldn’t resort to killing a family again. Too much suspicion was held against both families, they would be blamed immediately if either my mother or I disappeared. I laid my head on my folded hands and continued to look out the dark window. I couldn’t see anything but my own face starring back at me. I jumped as a big crack of thunder shook the house. It made my ceiling fan rattle and my hairbrush drop from my dresser.


         I jumped up excitedly and went to turn off my light. I absolutely loved watching storms. I settled back down into my window seat and continued to watch the storm. I could now see out my bedroom window, I saw the whole area light up as lighting arced across the sky. I continued watching for a while and soon noticed that something was walking across the open area from the forest. When the next bout of lightning crossed the sky I saw that the thing was distinctly human, and was wearing the same shirt Euan had been wearing earlier that day.


         What would Euan be doing out in the middle of the forest when such a bad storm had come in? Wasn’t he worried that he would get hurt? The next time I saw Euan leaving the house I vowed I would follow him. What could he possibly be hiding in the middle of the forest?


         I decided not to worry myself about what Euan was doing for right now. I took a shower and readied myself for bed. I laid down in my bed and images of my day floated over my vision. I just wanted to sleep. I shut my eyes tight and relaxed, soon sleep took me.





         I was sitting in my normal spot on the beach, atop the large rock. It was snowing out and I was crying hysterically. I was confused and really cold. I was dressed in only what looked like a homecoming dress and an overcoat. I was shivering uncontrollably and I knew that I should go inside, but I didn’t want to, I wanted to continue sitting there until I could figure everything out. I was just thinking that the reason that I was crying shouldn’t be that big of a deal and that I shouldn’t sit out here any longer, I should just go in and face everybody, when I heard the rocks skirt behind me. I whipped around, the cold breeze that had been hitting my back was now hitting my face and I could barely see in front of me. 


         I woke up and sat straight up in bed. That was the first time I had a dream like that since moving to Oregon. I wondered what had caused me to have a dream like that one. I rolled over intending to go back to sleep, but then heard Eleanor open my room to wake me up for the day. I sighed and got out of bed, it would be another day of school at Deadstone Creek High.


         The weeks seemed to fly by after that. I fell into the routine of school, homework and dates with my friends and Matt. Matt still hadn’t asked me to be his girlfriend, but we might as well of been a couple. We did basically everything together and went on dates all the time. Euan still wasn’t talking to me and the rides to school became full of awkward silences. I didn’t want to admit to myself that it bothered me Euan wouldn’t talk to me, but I knew it did. He hadn’t gone into the woods since the night I saw him come out of them so I never had my chance to follow him.


Days around the McCready house were starting to become boring. I helped Eleanor keep house, but she was distant and not as friendly as she had been before. I knew this was because of Matt, but I really liked Matt and I wasn’t about to give up the hottest guy in school just to make an old woman and her grandson happy.


         There was only one thing that bothered me. I had continued to have the one dream over and over again. It was just like right before I came to Oregon. It was exactly the same as the first night that I dreamt it. It was the same cold stormy weather with the same shifting of rocks. It was weird and no matter how many times I went to the beach it never went away.


         To take my mind off the boredom I had been feeling lately, I had decided to invite my friends over. It had been my mother’s idea, but they had all been all too happy to come. They would be here any minute. I had spent most of the day cleaning, but I was very happy to have them coming to my house. I saw a car pulling slowly up the driveway and hurried down stairs.


         I opened the door and saw four girls hop out of the car. I went out to help them with their things and soon all five of us were piled into my room. I filled them in on what was happening with Matt and me. Then Melissa told us about who she wanted to go after. His name was Ryan. I hadn’t talked to him much, but he was kind of a jerk. After we did manicures and pedicures, we got hungry and went downstairs to get some food and then traipsed back up into my room.


.  Melissa and Jean were seated comfortably on my window seat, McKenna was lying on my bed flipping through a magazine and Blaire sat on the floor next to me. It was quiet for a moment, but Melissa opened her mouth to talk.


         “So…where is Euan’s room?” She laughed and flipped her hair over her shoulder.


         “I actually have no idea. We don’t…talk much.” I spoke hesitantly, knowing the girls would start to talk about it.


         “Don’t talk much? You live in the same house, isn’t talking unavoidable?” Jean laughed and looked at Melissa, Blaire rolled her eyes.


         “He doesn’t exactly…like me, neither do his parents. They are all kind of quiet.” I looked awkwardly away from Melissa and Jean.


         “Oh…it’s probably because you are dating Matt.” McKenna looked up from the magazine and smiled. “Do you think we could find his room?”


         “I doubt it.” I said, looking to Blaire for help. She hadn’t been exactly talkative since I had started going on dates with Matt either. “Most of the doors in this house are locked.”


         “That’s weird.” Blaire said. “Like, really weird.”


         “I know! I have looked for a key but can’t find one.” I started to play with my hair, I was nervous that the girls weren’t having fun.


         “Well, let’s go try and find it. I am ready for some late night fun.” Jean popped up from the window seat.


         “Where would we look?” I stayed on the floor, I didn’t have quiet as much energy as Jean seemed to have


         “The kitchen and the parlor and maybe the front room.” Jean said helping Blair up from the floor.


         “Maybe Eleanor keeps the keys on a ring at her waist…I could so see her doing that.” Melissa got up and smiled at everyone, laughing at her one joke. Momentarily I wondered why we were even friends, then I realized we weren’t really all that good of friends.


         We got up and went down to the kitchen. We searched every drawer as we laughed hysterically, but tried to be as quiet as we could at the same time. It wasn’t working out so well. We didn’t find any keys there. We went into the parlor and were goofing off in there when we heard a door open. We all stopped dead in our tracks and waited to see who else was up.


         The parlor was dimly lit by the chandelier overhead and we all looked at the top of the steps with baited breath. We heard footsteps and then Euan appeared shirtless at the top step. I quickly looked away, trying not to blush. Why couldn’t he have put a shirt on? I heard Melissa’s breath catch slightly and felt anger well up in my chest.


         “Gabriella, what do you think you are doing?” Euan’s words were short and snippy.


         “We were playing a game of…hide and seek…want to play?” I said as nastily as I could.


         “No, and stop making such a racket.” With that Euan turned and stalked back to his room. We all giggled, but decided it was best to go back upstairs. Once up there we stared to talk again as we set up our beds. As I turned out the light and lay down I heard Melissa sigh.


         “You know what? Forget Ryan, Euan is way hotter. I want him.” She whispered into the darkness. I heard Jean mumble something and felt a surge of anger. I knew I shouldn’t feel angry about Melissa liking Euan, but Euan didn’t deserve Melissa. I would not want to give her to my worst enemy.


         The next morning we all got up and had breakfast. The entire time Melissa eagerly looked around for Euan. When he didn’t show up, she left. She told me that I had better mend things with Euan so she could have a chance with him. Since Melissa had driven to my house, everyone had to go with her.


Despite myself, I felt a little sad they had to go. It was nice having friends in the house. Now I was stuck for the remainder of the weekend with a family that hated me. I went up to my room and sat on my bed, wondering what to do.


It was a dreary rainy November afternoon. I spent the whole morning picking up my room and helping Eleanor in the kitchen after the party. I was ready to do something besides clean. Matt had a basketball tournament, but he and I were going to do something later that night, so I had at least one thing to look forward to.


         I sighed and sat on my window seat with a heavy thump, to my amazement I heard a little metal clicking noise. I looked around and didn’t see anything that would have made the click. I decided to see if the noise would come again if I sat on the seat. It was the only thing I had done.


I sat on the seat hard and it clicked again. The only logical explanation was the window seat itself was making the noise. I slid off of it and lifted up the yellow cushion which covered the seat. Underneath I saw the cushions hid a hinged lid. I slipped my fingers into the small crevice and lifted up. It came up easily and inside was a multitude of things. I found some old parchments and what appeared to be a coat of arms or something. It was shield shaped and I flipped it over so its front was facing me.


         It was painted gold and was divided into four sections. The top right hand section was what looked like a ball of flames. The top left was a puddle on the ground with a person laying on top of it. The bottom right was a tear drop and the bottom left was completely empty. I looked at it, trying to understand what it could possible mean. All the sudden my hands started to tingle, almost like they sometimes did when Euan touched me, only this was more of a burn then a tingle.


         I wanted to drop it, but it seemed like I couldn’t let go. The burning got hotter and I was sure that my hands were going to be burnt when I was finally able to let go. I tried to force my mind to make my hands let go, but no matter how hard I tried my hands seemed stuck to the shield. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t cry for help, Eleanor would dislike me even more for snooping.          


The burning grew hotter and hotter. I wanted to cry, but no tears fell from my eyes. The burning sensation started up my arms and I felt my entire body start to get warmer. It was so hot I could feel it melting my skin, but nothing was happening. My arms and hands still had all of the skin intact. I could feel it boiling on my arms, but my arms still looked as normal as they did when I had picked up the shield.


I started to freak out, I wanted to let go of the stupid shield but I couldn’t. I stood up and tried shaking my hands, but the shield stayed firmly in place. Silent tears started rolling down my face as I starred helplessly at the shield. I was so hot. My body tingled and vibrated with a single pulse. I could feel the heat working its way up my arms. It burned so badly, I had never felt such physical pain in my entire life. 


I just sat there staring at the shield willing myself to let it go. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I was able to let go of the shield. It landed with a dull thud atop the many papers that littered the bottom of the secret drawer. I quickly whipped the tears away from my face. My breathing started to get shallower and I knew I need to sit down. The burning instantly went away and I could no longer feel my skin boiling. It was as if it hadn’t happened at all.


I was totally freaked out. I had no idea what had just happened. I wanted to cry. I wanted my mom to come in and tell me things were alright. She could not do that though, I hadn’t asked anything of her since my dad died. My heart seemed to be going at one hundred times its normal rate. 


I breathed in slowly in an attempt to get control at myself and started shakily over to the secret compartment. The shield seemed to glow feebly up at me. I looked down at it, wondering what had just happened. Honestly, I had I just gone crazy or something? I wanted desperately to tell someone, but I knew no one would ever believe me.


         I put my hand back into the drawer. I had no wish to touch the coat of arms again and was very careful to avoid all contact with it. In normal circumstances I wouldn’t have put my hands back into the secret compartment, but I had to figure out what had happened with the shield. Maybe there was something in the compartment that would explain it.


My hand closed on a crumpled piece of old parchment. I carefully unfolded it and looked at the writing on the page. It took me a little while to understand the scrawled handwriting on the paper.


The hand had written:


         There will come a time when the first son of a first son will be forced to carry out the fate of his family.


         He will face ultimate doom with no one by his side, all will fail him. He will fail in the task that has been set before him, but there will be reason for hope.


         The rest of the paper had been ripped off. I had no idea of what this could possibly be. Did one of the McCready ancestors try their hand at writing a story? Or perhaps it was some kind of prophecy? The McCready’s were an old family, maybe one of their ancestors had requested they have their fortunes told and they got this.


         That was silly, a prophecy? No one could possibly believe that prophecies told the truth. It was probably just an old horror story that someone had tried to write, the person had gotten disgusted and had thrown it in here so no one would know he had tried to write a story.


         I continued to look through the cluttered drawer for another hour. I had found an old watch that had the initials C. W. M engraved on the inside, an old piece a paper with various name and injuries on it and a picture of a beautiful woman. The woman had long dark curly hair and, from what I could tell from black and white picture, dark eyes. She had an oval shaped face and wore some of the finest clothes that century. For some reason, the woman seemed really familiar, but I could not think of what was familiar about her. I looked all over for a date or a name but never found one. I placed it back in the window seat along with everything else I had found.


         I closed the drawer and put the cushion back on top to the window seat. I sat and stared out the window. Matt would be coming in a little bit to come take me somewhere. The usual thrill I got in my stomach when I thought of Matt coming was absent. I wasn’t really excited for the date; it just gave me something to do. I liked Matt, but it was nothing how I had imagined having a boyfriend would be like.


         I had expected it to be full of fun dates, which Matt had accomplished, but also I had expected to feel something when he touched me. I had expected to feel like I had met him before. That is what my mom had always said that she felt when she had been with my dad. I felt almost nothing with Matt. I always had fun, but I didn’t feel like we fit together somehow. He never called me beautiful. He never said that he really liked me. In fact, I wasn’t sure he had ever complimented me at all. I didn’t want to tell any of my friends this, they would think I was crazy for thinking Matt and I weren’t a good match. They would say that I was the luckiest girl on the Earth. They wouldn’t understand what I was talking about.


         I didn’t want to tell my mom. She was so happy that I had finally found a guy to go out with. I knew that she had been afraid that I would be a high school reject, someone nobody wanted to date. She was so pleased that I was dating the most popular boy in school. I didn’t want to crush her happiness. She hadn’t had enough happiness since my dad died.


         Perhaps I was just thinking all this because it was such a gloomy day. I liked Matt, I liked Matt a lot. I looked over at my clock, it was later then I thought it was. I jumped up and ran to my dresser drawers. Matt had told me to dress warm today, we were going to explore. I pulled on a pair of older jeans, a plain t-shirt, a hoodie and a pair of hiking boots. I ran downstairs and pulled open the parlor closet to grab a hat then ran through the front doors.


         Matt had told me to meet him at the end of my driveway, we had long since realized that Matt was not allowed any closer to the house than the street. To my surprise Matt was waiting at the end of the driveway, but not in his car. He was on foot and he held out his hand to me as I drew closer. I took it hesitantly, where would we be going on foot?


         We walked without talking toward the north. All the while I kept thinking about how the McCready’s must feel when they see me go out with Matt. I was sure they felt a little betrayed. They had opened up their house to my mother and I and the kept us fed and warm. How do I repay them? I go out with their worst enemy’s son. All in all I was feeling extremely miserable before Matt spoke.


         “You are quiet today Gabby,” Matt looked at me but I refused to meet his gaze.


         Great. Matt had decided to be Captain Obvious today. Instead of saying this I replied. “I know, I haven’t really talked to anybody today. Where are we going?”


         “I am going to show you something. It might make you think differently about the family you live with.” Matt said this with a peculiar glint in his eye.


         Why was he so determined to show me what was wrong with the McCready’s? Maybe he knew that I was feeling bad about betraying them. It still didn’t make sense, but I had to take into consideration that the McCready’s and the Siduous’s were enemies. I knew I was explaining away matt’s behavior. Just like I had been explaining away the feeling I felt every time I saw Euan. 


         We continued to walk in silence a little further, all the sudden Matt turned to walk into the forest at the edge of the road. I balked as he turned and he looked back at me. I knew that we were going into the East Woods, the place Eleanor had told me not to go three months ago. Matthew raised an eyebrow. I wasn’t going to be able to explain to him why I didn’t want to go into the woods. Somehow I felt like I would be betraying the McCready’s even more if I went into the East Wood.


         “What’s wrong Gabby? You aren’t afraid of the forest are you?” Matt smiled, but I didn’t return it. I was trying to talk myself into going in. It sounded really dumb for me not to go in just because Eleanor had said not to, but somehow I knew she would know if I went in.


         “No.” I said. “I just don’t know if it is such a great idea.”


         “Why? It is just a forest and you said you liked to explore.” Matt tugged my hand gently. “Come on. What harm could it do?”


         “I guess none.” I followed him into the forest. It wasn’t really hard to follow him and there was even a small path that we were able to follow.


         “Why is this path here?” I asked looking down at it curiously.


         “I don’t really know. I only know where it leads. Now you are going to have to be quiet and walk quiet. We are coming up on what I want to show you.” Matt crept forward slowly and I followed carefully.


         What did he want to show me that required me to be so quiet? The woods seemed to be just as quiet as we were. I could hear no birds chirping or small creatures running along the ground. It was eerie and I wished we could hurry up just a little. We moved along at a snail’s pace and the silence of the woods seemed to press upon my ears. Matt barely made a sound as we moved and I only occasionally broke a dry twig on the ground.


         Matt suddenly stopped in front of me and I crept up slowly next to him. He put a finger to his lips to tell me to be quiet and pointed to a spot off to our left. For a minute I couldn’t see anything. After carefully searching the undergrowth I looked up and saw a thin stream of smoke. I looked at Matt and raised my eyebrow. He motioned me to come and stand in front of him. I did what he asked and saw that from his vantage point that there was a small clearing.


         The thin smoke I had seen earlier was coming from something that looked like the incense my mom used to burn. I tried to move closer but Matt caught my arm before I moved more than three steps. The clearing was surrounded by the small flat rocks that I had seen at my beach. So far as I could see there was nothing really special about the clearing. I looked at Matt and opened my mouth to ask him what was up with the spot he had taken to me to when he pointed to the clearing.


         I whipped around to face the front and saw that someone was entering the clearing and it wasn’t just any someone…it was Euan. I felt the nervous and excited feeling I always felt when I saw Euan. I calmed myself down, knowing he couldn’t see me and knowing that even if he could see me, he wouldn’t talk to me.


I stared fixedly at the clearing as Euan went around the inside of the stones muttering something under his breath. When he reached the spot close to where Matt and I had hidden, he looked up. I could have sworn he was staring directly at me, but I wasn’t able to tell because Matt grabbed me from behind and covered my eyes with one hand and my mouth with the other. There was a few brief seconds while Matt and I stood like that then he let me go and I continued to watch what Euan was doing.


         I looked back at Matt as he released me. I opened my mouth to ask him why he had done that, but he held a finger to his lips and pointed forward. I turned to face the clearing, slightly disgruntled.          Euan had completed walking around the clearing and sat cross-legged in the center of it. He looked out in front of him and started saying something else under his breath and slowly, his eyes closed. I stared at him totally forgetting that Matt was next to me. Euan continued to whisper words; I stared at his lips wondering what he was saying. I wondered even more what he was doing and started to move forward.


         Matt grabbed me above my elbow. I jumped, but managed not to make a sound. Matt motioned for me to follow him. I dully followed him wishing that I could have stayed back near the clearing to see what Euan was doing. We left just as quietly as we came; neither of us said a word until we reached the street.


         “So…I don’t understand.” I said as we walked side-by-side down the road. “Why did you want me to see that?”


Matt seemed to be struggling on what to tell me. “You said that you thought there was something weird about the McCready’s. I knew there was something weird about the McCready’s so I decided to find out what was weird.”


         “And you just so happened to stumble upon Euan in the woods?” I asked skeptically, putting my hands on my hips. The image of Matt skulking around the property entered my head.


         “No,” Matt looked me dead in the eyes. The friendliness that I usually got from them had totally disappeared. The look he gave me was more hostile then any look I had ever gotten from Euan. It took all of my will power not to step away from him. “I followed him there.”


         “So you were lurking outside of my house?” What was going on? Why was Matt so mad at me?


         “Don’t flatter yourself.” Matthew said nastily. “I was watching to see were Euan went. I had seen him go toward that end of his property when I dropped you off one time. I wanted to know what he was hiding over there, so I followed him one night. When I came to the spot where he was at he was chanting and humming. It was like I had stumbled onto a cult of some kind! I thought you might like to know what was going on in your own backyard.”


         “Well I appreciate the effort Matthew Siduous,” I answered coldly. I had been a bit taken aback by the ‘don’t flatter yourself.’ comment earlier, but now I was angry. “It seems as if I won’t be needing your efforts any longer.”


         I walked past him back down the road. I felt him grab my arm and whipped me around to face him. I almost slammed into his chest but he held me away from his body. It wasn’t until that time that I realized Matt had never even given me a hug.


         “Gabby…I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” Matt looked remorseful, but wouldn’t meet my gaze. “You just put me on edge because I thought you believed me to be a stalker.”


         I felt my anger ebb away. He did look sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have implied that he was lurking around the house. I took one of his hands and he looked up at me surprised. I smiled a little and pulled him back down the road.


         “Don’t worry about it, Matt. I’m sorry for implying those things and for being so angry.”


         Matt just smiled at me. As I turned to face front I thought I saw something black move among the trees. I was sure it was just my imagination, but I still couldn’t help but feel as if I was being watched. The rest of the walk home I kept checking over my shoulder and moving closer to Matt. I was sure that there was something…or someone, watching us.