Chapter 22- A (Fake) Change of Mind

“Okay, what is it you want? I risked eternal grounding to come here. I already had to lie to my mom about being at Jade’s house, so you better make this quick.” I was at the house on Young Street in the private library, and Katherine was prancing around the room like a fairy princess as if it wasn’t 11:38 at night. As if she hadn’t said this was important. As if she never told me to come here.

“Fine then. I don’t think you should go with Alec and his so-called ‘friends’.”

“Oh? And why not?” I asked.

“Because Damien has a secret network of ‘double agents’ working for him, and their names are Cecile, Brannen, and Nathaniel.” I looked at her, completely flabbergasted.

“Does Alec know?” Katherine shook her head. I started pacing around worriedly.

“What do I do, then?” I threw my hands up, and there was a loud slapping sound as they came back down and hit the sides of my legs.

“Relax. I have a plan B.”

“And I’m supposed to trust you?”

“Yes.”

“Mm hm. Right.” I said sarcastically.

“I’m serious, Kieyra. If you get sacrificed, then I die.”

“Well, I guess you and Isobel didn’t think that plan out very well, did you?” I smirked. Katherine sighed.

“Do you want to hear my plan or not?” I sat down on the couch.

“Fine.”

“Okay, well, when you get to the town where the first ‘safe’ house is, you fake needing a bathroom break. Then, I’ll meet you in the bathroom with a vervain dart. When you’re about to get in the van, you stab him with it. Then I run into the van and we drive off somewhere where no one can find us. Capiche?”

“Did you honestly just say ‘capiche?” I asked.

“Yes, yes I did. Now are you in?”

“One problem. Alec can read my mind. What do I do about that?”

“Oh, right, I almost forgot.” Katherine took a silver charm bracelet out of her pocket.

“It’s charmed. Get it? A charmed charm bracelet?” When I didn’t find her strange pun amusing, she sighed and continued to explain. 

“It’s got a spell on it so your mind can’t be penetrated; all your thoughts will be secure.” She put it on my wrist. There was a single charm on it, just a silver oval with the words “Per Sempre Mia Sorella” engraved neatly on it.

“What does it say?”

“It’s Italian.”

“Italian for what?” I\

“Look it up.” I rolled my eyes.

“Even if my thoughts are protected, that doesn’t mean he won’t be able to see through my act.”

“Then make it seem like you’re confident, but not in the way that he thinks you are.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

“Well, you and I both know that we have a better plan than him, you just have to make it seem like you have another plan, except one where you’re the one being sacrificed.”

“Are you asking me to act like a martyr?”

“Yes, exactly. You’ve probably watched enough teen angst on TV to know that it’s what teens in the latest vampire movies do…just pretend like you’re Bella from Twilight or something. She’s the one who’s with that Edward Cullen dude, right? Wait-no, even better, be Edward Cullen!” I laughed.

“Um, last time I checked, I wasn’t a hairy dude with a constipated facial expression who sparkles like a fairy.”

“No, I mean the part where he’s all like ‘I’ll go away forever just to keep you safe, and ‘cause you’re dead I’ll go bring myself to evil Italian vampire dudes and get them to kill me’ and crap.” I raised my eyebrows, wondering why she knew all this.

“New Moon was the only movie they had in that weird Bed and Breakfast place I stayed in months ago, okay?” she said, sighing. My phone started ringing (yet again).

“Hello?”

“Get your butt over here! Your mom just called, and my mom almost answered it! I told her you were on your way home, so you better go now!” Jade yelled into the phone, so loud I had to hold it three feet away from my face.

“Um, okay, see you in-” before I could finish my sentence, Jade hung up on me.

The next day, I had my martyr act all set. I had called Alec and told him to come over. All of my family (yes, that includes Dave, Sarah, Katie, and Anna) were out at some new water park three hours away from Carleton Place, and I was at home alone for the whole day.

“Hey, are you okay? You sounded terrible on the phone.” Alec asked when he got to my house. Well, of course I sounded terrible. I had just finished poking myself in the eye with a mascara brush five million times while watching Bambi and that weird Sarah McLaughlin commercial with all the abused puppies on a continuous loop.

“Not really.” I lied. He pulled me into a hug.

“What’s wrong?”

“Well, I just…I just think that maybe everything would be better if Damien went through with the sacrifice.”

“WHAT?” Alec looked at me as if I had gone crazy.

“Well, it’s just, he’s turning my friends against me, and he kidnapped a little girl, and he hurt you just because you wanted to leave, and I don’t want anyone to be involved with this.  I want to get it over with. I’d rather die than have the people I love die for me.”

“Kieyra, we’re going to kill him. No one is going to get hurt.”

“Damien’s too powerful. He’ll kill you. He’ll kill all of you.” Then I put on a show of breathing a little more shakily, and blinking my eyes so much that they water, and even sniffling a little.

“No he’s not. You don’t need to be sacrificed. Damien will die. And even if he doesn’t, then you’ll still live.”

“Yeah, but you won’t. You’ll die along with all the other minions. I can’t let you do that for me.” Then I made sure that my voice cracked at just the right time when I said ‘You’ll die”.

“It won’t happen. We’ll kill him. You don’t need to die.” Then I buried my face in his chest and made weird crying noises.

“Yes I do.” I fake-cried, rubbing my eyes so they turned red. 

“No you don’t. There are other ways. All we have to do is drive a stake through his heart. That’s all. It’s as easy as that.” Then, he pulled away, noticing something different.

“What?” I asked, a little confused, still fake crying.

“I can’t read your mind.”

“What do you mean? Is something wrong with me?” I asked, though I already knew the answer.

“I just…I can’t. No matter how hard I try, it’s like something’s preventing me from getting inside your mind.” I shrugged. “Maybe it’s this bracelet. Where’d you get it?”

“Um, Katherine gave it to me.” I suddenly regretted saying it as soon as I did.

“You saw Katherine again? After I left? She gave you something? Are you two planning something I don’t know about?” Alec looked at me suspiciously.

“No, Katherine Wilkins, Dave’s daughter. She gave it to me when I got home.” I lied.

“That makes sense. She probably put a curse on it.”

“You’re not going to ask me to take it off, are you?” I asked, kind of worried that he might find out the plan.

“No, of course not. I trust you.” Hearing him say that made me feel guilty. He trusted me, and I was betraying him.

“Um, thanks, I guess.” I backed away from him, going upstairs into my bedroom, hoping Alec might decide to just leave, but he followed me upstairs.

“Please don’t do this.” He spun me around and held my hands, looking at me in a way that made me want to forget all that I had discussed with Katherine and tell him about our plans.

“I have to. It’s the only way.”

“No it’s not. Kieyra, stop being ridiculous.”

“I’m not being ridiculous!” Okay, maybe a I was being a little bit ridiculous and melodramatic, but it was for a good purpose.

“I’m not letting you do this.” He growled.

“Alec, it’s my body, my life, and my decisions. If I’m going to go sacrifice myself to save you guys, then so be it.” I then realized how extremely ridiculous I sounded, but at the same time it seemed like a valid reason to die. The doorbell rang downstairs. At first I ignored it, but then it started ringing over and over again. I went to answer the door.

“Took you long enough! You really should give me a key.” Jade walked in as if this were her house and not mine.  Alec ran downstairs and appeared in front of Jade.

“Whoa! Geez dude! I’ll never get used to that.”

“Kieyra’s gone crazy.” He said, his tone nothing but seriousness.

“Well, we all knew that.” Jade laughed, but when Alec kept the same serious, worried face Jade frowned.

“You’re serious. What’s wrong with her?”

“She wants to sacrifice herself to Damien.”

“What! Kieyra, is this true?”

“It’s the only way.” I said for the second time, even though I knew it wasn’t true.

“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MIND?” Jade screamed, shaking my shoulders.

“Clearly she is.” Alec said.

“Kieyra-”

“It’s my decision.”  They both were looking at me as if I belonged in an insane asylum.

“If you guys don’t like my decisions, I don’t care, because there’s nothing you can do to stop me.” I reminded them. They went into the other room and started talking, thinking I couldn’t hear, forgetting that us vampires have an over-developed senses of hearing.

“What are we supposed to do?” Jade asked.

“I don’t know. She’s not giving up on this. She thinks it’s the only way to prevent us from getting hurt.”

“If you asked me, I’d say she’s been watching a little too many teen-angst based vampire movies.”

“She’s probably just scared. I’ll try to talk some sense into her.” Yes, Mr. I-think-I’m-so-smart, I’m scared. That’s totally it, I thought, rolling my eyes, suddenly happy I had protected thoughts now.

“I’ll talk to Tegan. She’s known Kieyra longer than I have, so she’ll probably know more about her sudden change of mind.” Yeah, right. Tegan has the attention span of a squirrel and cares about what I have to say about as much as an average kid cares about eating their vegetables. They came back into the front hall.

“Um, you guys should probably go now. My family’s gonna be home soon.” I said, even though I knew that they weren’t coming home for another two hours.

“’Kay. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Jade said, leaving. Alec came up to me and looked me right in the eyes.

“Last chance to change your mind.” I shook my head.

“I’m not changing my mind.”

“Then I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” He said, though he didn’t move.

“Alec, I’m not gonna go do it tonight. I’ll be here tomorrow, I promise.” I smiled. He started to leave, but before he could, I grabbed him by the wrist.

“I promise.” I repeated.

“Just think about it, okay?” and even though I knew what I was doing and hated lying to him, I just lied again.

“Okay.” I waved good bye and watched him leave, counting his steps, wanting to yell at him to come back so I could explain. I watched as he drove away in his shiny silver car, and I watched as it turned the corner at the end of my street, and wondered where he was when he wasn’t with me. I wondered where he lived, and if he had any friends, and if he ever visited Katherine, wherever she was. I wondered if I’d ever see his house, if he even had one. I wondered a lot of things at that moment, but there is one thing that stuck in my mind, one question that I’d been wondering for the longest time, a question I’d wondered every single day since I fell into the hole.

Why me?