She’l hurt her if you come, Bo.”
“She won’t have to know.”
“But what if she does? What if she finds out and does something to my mother? I can’t risk that.”
“Surely you don’t expect me to just sit here and wait while you go meet Trinity by yourself.”
“You don’t have a choice, Bo, and neither do I.”
We stared at each other for a few more seconds. I could tel that Bo was far from convinced that he should let me go alone.
“She’s my mother, Bo.”
I poured al the emotion—al the fear, al the love—into my eyes, hoping he’d see it. And he did.
Bo sighed. “I won’t be far. Just cal out if you need me. I’l hear you.”
“Thank you,” I said, stretching up on my toes to touch my lips to his. When I would’ve pul ed away, he slipped an arm around my waist.
“I love you,” he whispered, tucking his face into my neck.
I closed my eyes for just a second, savoring the sound of those words. I felt my heart spread wide to take them in like a flower blossoming under the light of the sun.
“I love you, too.”
“I’l give you a minute or two head start and then I’l fol ow.
Stick to the backs of buildings and houses, and stay in the trees and shadows whenever you can. Remember, you can run as fast as the wind.”
“Got it.”
With a tight smile more for Bo’s benefit than mine, I turned and took off like a shot, racing down Sebastian’s driveway.
On any other evening, I might’ve enjoyed flitting from yard to yard, through the trees and within the shadows, making dogs bark at the wind and children puzzle over it.
It was amazing that they seemed almost to be standing stil as I sped by. I even paused, ever so briefly, to help one little girl.
I was darting through her back yard just as she was screwing up her face to cry because her puppy had managed to wrestle a dol from her arms. As I breezed by, I snatched the dol from the puppy’s mouth and tossed it back at the child’s feet. The look on her face was so comical I had to laugh, a sound that I imagined drifted back to her like the rustling of the leaves in the wind.
Beyond that, however, there was no joy in my quick trip.
After leaving the little girl’s back yard, my mind returned its singular focus to Trinity and my mother.
When I arrived at my house, I was confused to see that Mom’s car wasn’t in the driveway. I couldn’t decide if that was alarming or comforting. I gave it only a passing thought, though, choosing instead to focus on the girl that lay just beyond the brick wal s of my home.
The door was unlocked, which caused a chil to wiggle its way down my spine. I slipped through and closed it snugly behind me.
I stopped inside the foyer to smel and to listen. Absolute silence greeted me, as did the familiar smel s of home. In a layer of scent just beneath those I’d always found inside the house, there was the dark, dank aroma of earth. It bounced around in my head like a key without a lock until it slid effortlessly into a memory, releasing a realization that surprised me.
I had smel ed that strong scent before. I’d smel ed it in the woods the night of Summer’s pre-Hal oween party, right before I’d been attacked. A voice had whispered “T” and I had assumed it was Drew. But Drew smel ed of pine; I would always remember that, too. It was etched in my mind along with the terror of him biting into my flesh and the heartbreak of him begging for Bo to kil him.
I didn’t think it was possible for my muscles to hold any more tension, but I felt them squeeze in response to my thoughts, as if preparing for the battle of a lifetime. When my sensitive ears final y picked up on a tiny noise, I sprang into action, moving soundlessly toward my bedroom from whence the muffled thump had come.
When I rounded the corner, my bedroom door was open.
Trinity was sitting on the end of my bed, flipping through an old photo album of a cheer camp we’d attended together in the ninth grade. She didn’t even bother to look up when I stepped into the doorway.
“This was when you started to change. After Izzy died.
You were never the same after that,” Trinity observed. “At the time, I hated you for it. I felt like you thought you were better than us, like you were special somehow since your sister died.” Trinity looked up at me, her blue eyes sincere and ful of regret. “That’s the first day that you were better than us. I just didn’t know it.”
I had no idea what to say to that, so I said nothing. I simply watched as Trinity looked back down at the album and turned the page. Upside down, I could see a picture of Summer, smiling widely as she stood beside Trinity posing for the photo. Trinity gently brushed her fingers over the image.
“Summer was good like that before I turned her into a monster. I drained her of compassion. I fed off it like an animal. Little by little, I could see her changing, but I just didn’t care,” she said with a bitter laugh. “My entire life, al I’ve ever cared about is myself. And my grandmother. She was the only other person I truly gave a crap about and she died because of it.”
Trinity flipped the album’s cover shut. It closed with a thud of finality. She laid it on the bed beside her and then rubbed her palms on her jeans. After a long pause, she raised her eyes to me.
“I wish she’d kil ed me that night,” Trinity final y said, her voice trembling with emotion. “I don’t want to live like this anymore, Ridley.”
Understandably skeptical, I stood motionlessly in the doorway, examining Trinity. I looked closely for signs of subterfuge, for signs of the evil I knew her to be capable of.
But rather than finding indications of either, I saw a girl I’d known most of my life trying to come to terms with the consequences of her actions. I saw Trinity overwhelmed by guilt.
She real y looked terrible, but not in a way that others might recognize. Her long blonde hair was freshly brushed and neatly wound at the nape of her neck. Her skin was clean, as were her nails. Her clothes were spotless and fashionable. In fact, her outfit was something I might’ve seen her wear before both of our lives were turned upside down.
No, the change wasn’t something that a stranger could see. But, nonetheless, it was there and I was beginning to think it just might be sincere.
“Why are you here, Trinity?”
“I wanted you to know that I’m leaving. I just wanted to talk to you first, to apologize.” She paused to swal ow back tears I could hear in her voice. “I’m so sorry, Ridley. For everything.”