Chapter 29- Last Minute Changes

It was finally June.

The month I’d dreaded for nearly a year, and it was here. It was the day before the wedding, and I had woken up to a piece of neatly folded paper sitting on my pillow.

Dear Kieyra,

We have to leave town after the wedding tomorrow. It’d help us if you brought a few friends with you so we won’t look suspicious. You’ll need to pack today-if it’s not too much trouble. I’m really sorry.

                                                           Love,

                                                             Alec

I swear my heart stopped for a moment. It was so soon-too soon. Tomorrow. Out of anger, I ripped the note into confetti-sized pieces and threw them out the window.

Tomorrow.

 I went back onto my bed and screamed into my pillow. Of course, that didn’t do much but get my pillowcase wet, so I began to pack. I went under my bed and got out my emergency duffel bag (god only knows why the hell I had that) and started to fill it with my clothes. I mean, the sacrifice was at the end of the month. I might have been gone for at most four weeks! While going through my sock drawer, I felt a hard lump in one of my socks. I reached my hand in the sock and pulled out a smooth, blue rock.

It was the Lapis Lazuli stone Katherine had given me.

I wondered if it possessed any magical qualities. It just looked like an ordinary rock to me. I wondered if it was a “spinney rock” like the ones in The Last Mimzy (you can Google it), but after twenty spins of the rock I decided enough was enough. What was so special about it, then? After half an hour of pacing around my room, I decided that I’d put it in my pocket and add it to my list of things I needed to ask Katherine tonight.

I was planning on texting Katherine and telling her to meet me somewhere later so that we could talk. Of course, I was still going to trick her, but she needed to know when we were leaving and where we were planning on stopping first to meet Cecile in New York. She needed to think I was on her side if my plan was going to work.

It’s a genius plan, really. I don’t understand how it took me six months to figure it out. I would go with Katherine’s plan and go run away with her, except instead of just running to, like, Texas with her, I’d insist we kill Alec’s “friends” first. We would be “unknowingly” following Alec, and then when we finally got to Florida, I’d run back to Alec and kill Damien. If that failed, I don’t know what I’d do. I wasn’t the type to make a plan B (and besides, I didn’t exactly have much time).

I was in the middle of packing clothes when I received a very worried call from Jade.

“Jade, what’s wrong?” all I heard from the other end of the line was more sobbing and incomprehensible words.

“I don’t understand. What happened?”

“Drake’s missing.”

“Your older brother Drake?”

“Yes! Last night, this girl came in and just took him away. I can’t remember what she looked like. I mean, I keep trying and trying, but…it’s like she took my memory of her face away or something. I just don’t understand! Kieyra, what’s going on?”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Well, I was babysitting Elena, and we heard someone come in the house. I knew it couldn’t have been my parents ‘cause they had just called and said they’d be home late. I told Elena to hide and went downstairs to see who it was. There was this girl in a black cloak holding an unconscious Drake. Then…I don’t remember what happened after that. It’s like my memory’s got holes in it.” I paused for a second.

“I think someone compelled you, Jade. Someone like me.” I said as calmly as possible, but Alec’s words echoed in my mind. The blood of the family of the storyteller. That’s one of the things Damien needed to complete the sacrifice. Of course they couldn’t use Elena, who could heal herself easily. It was either Drake or Jade, and I guessed that an oblivious male teenager would be the easiest target of the two. The “girl in a black cloak” was probably either Ophelia or Ana-most likely Ana, as Ana and Alec seemed to have been the messengers, or at least I thought so.  

“Kieyra? Kieyra? Kieyra, are you still there?” Jade asked.

“What?” I asked, snapping out of my haze.

“Um, my brother’s missing, I was compelled, and there was a vampire in my house!”

“Oh…right, yeah. I’ll…call you back.” I hung up the phone. Just as I put the phone down, I heard my mom coming up the stairs. I quickly hid my duffel bag back under my bed.
”Kieyra, are you ready?” she asked as she barged into my room without even knocking.

“Ready for what?” I asked, confused. My mom sighed.

“The wedding rehearsal! You forgot?”

“Oh my god, mom, I’m so sorry! It’s just, I’ve had a lot of things on my mind lately, and…and…”

“Whatever, Kieyra, just be ready in five minutes.”

When I got to the wedding rehearsal (which was greatly cutting back on my packing and planning time), Jade, Tegan, and Alec were there, along with Dave’s kids, of course. Mariana Wilkins was also in town. The “official wedding planner”, mom’s friend Joanna, stood at the altar, telling everyone what to do and where to do it. She directed me to stand at the front with Anna, Katie and Sarah, and sent Jade, Tegan and Alec to the very back row of chairs in the “friends of the family” section, along with little Farrah and Sarah’s friend Sydney. I was told to just stand at the back of the line of the bridesmaids holding a bouquet of purple flowers. After Joanna decided that there were far too many bridesmaids, she told me, Anna, Katie and Sarah to sit at the front and then told our friends to come sit with us. Did I forget to mention that Joanna can be a very indecisive person? After that she switched the flower colors five times before going back to purple, and (with my mom and Dave’s permission) brought me in and out of the line of bridesmaids at least six times before deciding on the bride and groom’s children being out of the wedding ceremony. Nathen, being the favorite of the family, was chosen to be the ring bearer. Even Farrah got to play a part in the wedding as the flower girl alongside my cousin Alexa. Sarah and Sydney spent the whole three hours we were sitting there texting and chatting, which eventually drove Joanna to send them away from the golf course where the wedding was taking place. I didn’t bother talking to any of my friends until after it was over. Jade was still shaken up over Drake’s disappearance, so she didn’t talk much. I talked to Tegan for a few minutes about an end of school trip later that month, and, even though neither of us would be able to go on that trip if Tegan joined us to escape Damien, I thought it would be better to tell her later. Just before Tegan left, I told her to meet me at the library at 7 o’clock tonight, and then told Jade the same thing. I waited to talk to Alec until all of my friends had left.

“Did you get my note?” he asked quietly, refusing to make any eye contact with me.

“Yeah. Why so soon?”

“One of my friends told me that Damien was planning to leave earlier to get the “capture of the doppelganger over with”. We’ll have to get a head start.” He said.

“Oh. Okay. Hey, can you-”

“Meet at the library at 7? I know, I read your friends’ minds.”

“You know, that mind reading thing you have is kind of rude.”

“I can’t read your mind anymore, so what does it matter?”

“I have a bracelet. I got it to prevent creepers like you from hearing my thoughts.” I said jokingly, grinning at him. He laughed.

“So I’m a creeper now?”

“Yes, but not a very good one. The best creepers have crazy pedostaches.”

“What the hell’s a pedostache?”

“Pedophile moustache. Obviously.” My mom came running towards me.

“Kieyra! Kieyra I need you to-Oh, am I interrupting something?” she asked, looking at Alec.

“No, I was just leaving. Goodbye, Kieyra.” Alec left.

“Well he seems nice.” My mom said, smiling. “Anyways, I wanted to know if you could babysit Nathen for me. Dave and I need to go over a few more last minute changes about the wedding.”

“How many fricking last minute changes do you need to make?”

“Oh, Kieyra, saying “fricking” is not lady-like.” I rolled my eyes.

“I’ll babysit if you stop criticizing the words I use. And be home by six thirty.” I said, knowing that, in her mind, six thirty meant seven.

“Deal.”

I’ll admit it, babysitting Nathen was definitely going to reduce my packing time, but I wasn’t going to see him for awhile. Come to think of it, there was a fifteen percent chance I would never see him again (yes, I’m making that number up. I don’t feel like making another tree diagram to, as my math teacher would say, “organize all possible outcomes for the situation”, thank you).  

                                             ………………………..

“Kieyra, come play Mario Kart with me!” Nathen whined, tugging at my shirt.

“No, Nathen, I can’t! I’m busy!” it was already seven fifteen, and Dave and Mom still weren’t home. I was scrambling around, packing my stuff, and Nathen kept whining and bugging me to play Mario Kart with him.

“What are you packing for, anyways?” he asked.

“I’m…um…packing an emergency bag. Just in case Earth gets taken over by aliens and I need to run away.” I said, knowing that Nathen was gullible enough to believe anything I told him.

“Oh.” He said. I tried calling Alec and Jade’s phones again for the fifth time, and, just like before, it went straight to message. I started panicking and paced the house like a crazy person.

“Kieyra, can you play Mario Kart now?”

“I said no, Nathen!” I yelled. Finally, Mom and Dave’s car pulled into the driveway and I ran out, desperately trying to get to the library.

“Kieyra, where are you going?” my mom asked, grabbing me by the shoulder.

“Library!” I said quickly, running off.

“BE BACK IN AN HOUR OR YOU’RE GROUNDED!!!!!!!!!” My mom called after me, but I didn’t even look back. I just ran. Just as I got to the library, I saw Tegan, Jade and Alec leaving. Great. The one time I actually wanted Alec to know what I was thinking, he couldn’t because I was wearing that stupid goddamn bracelet.

“Guys, wait!” I screamed from down the street. They didn’t hear me, so I tried screaming louder.

“Guys! I’m here!” they turned around. “I’m sorry I was late! My mom made me babysit, and I told her I had to be here at seven, and…and…” I caught up with my friends and stopped to catch my breath.

“It’s okay, Kieyra. We have time.” Jade said.

“Speak for yourself! I have to be home at eight!” Tegan said.

“Let’s just go inside.” Alec said. We went into the library conference room where I used to go to an extremely boring day camp when I was younger.

“Okay, we’re in the library; now whaddaya want?” Tegan asked.

“Well, did I tell you guys about the curse?”
Tegan and Jade exchanged confused looks.

“I guess not.” I said.

“Wait- my Aunt Lisa told me about a curse once…the Petrova curse. The one that involved my family.” Said Jade.

“That’s the one.” I said. “It involves my family too. Well, really, it just involves me. Long story short, I’m the ‘vampire Petrova doppelganger’ that Damien wants. Anyways, because of this curse thingy, I kind of need to get the hell outta town. With you guys.”

“Why do you need to get outta town?” Tegan asked.

“Because I need to hide.”
”Isn’t the curse supposed to happen on the summer solstice?” Jade asked.

“Damien’s impatient and wants his doppelganger.” Alec said.

“And why do you need us?” Tegan asked, still confused.

“To avoid suspicion.” Alec said impatiently.

“Suspicion of what?”

“Well, if you saw two teenagers wandering the continent, alone, wouldn’t you be suspicious?” Alec asked Tegan.

“Maybe…but where do we play into this?”

“She never stops asking questions, does she?” Alec asked, turning to me. Tegan frowned.

“No, sadly she doesn’t” I sighed.

“Just answer my question!” Tegan snapped.

“Okay, okay. Well, I’ve seen these things before where people from our country get to take a few people from a foreign country here on tours. You guys could pretend you’re from, like, France or something.”

“I can’t speak French.” Tegan said.

“Who cares?” I asked, annoyed. Tegan made a “pouty face” and sat down.

“If I come, I’ll have to bring Elena. I can’t leave her here unprotected.” Jade said.

“That’s okay; the bigger the group, the better.” Alec said. Tegan looked at me uncertainly.

“Kieyra, I don’t know. I’ll get in too much trouble.”

“Tegan, it’ll be fun. Haven’t you always wanted a vacation away from your family?”

“Well…yeah…but still, it’s different.”

“You know I’d do it for you. And you owe me for tying me up to a tree.” I reminded her, remembering that day when the bus crashed and Tegan vervained me.

“Ugh, fine.” Tegan finally agreed.

“How are we supposed to sneak out?” Jade asked.

“We could volunteer to clean up after the wedding.” Tegan said. We all looked at her, confused.

“What does that have to do with anything?” I asked.

“Well, parents love it when we volunteer to do jobs we don’t wanna do, right? So Jade, Kieyra and I could volunteer to clean up, and then in return ask if we can sleep over at Kieyra’s house afterwards. Then we could sneak out of Kieyra’s house and go.”

“Tegan, that’s…that’s actually a good idea.” We were all surprised-Tegan was never the one with the good ideas. This was probably the first time one of her ideas was actually logical. Well, you know, as logical as a plan to run away to escape an evil British vampire could be.

“Great! Then I could meet you guys at Kieyra’s dad’s house where we’ll get the van. Kieyra, you did get the keys to the van, right?” Alec asked, looking back at me. Dammit! That’s what I forgot! I thought. In all of the madness that had happened when I went to my dad’s for Christmas, I had forgotten to get the keys to his van.

“Um…well…I sort of forgot.” I said. Everyone groaned.

“I can’t go back in there- I don’t have a key, and my dad’s got all sorts of vampire traps.”

“I’d go in, but I’ve never been to your dad’s house, so I wouldn’t know where to look.” Jade said. We all looked at Tegan.

“What?” she asked, with a puzzled expression.

“You’ve been to my dad’s house. You know where the keys are.”

“Oh no, no no no no no. No! No way in hell am I going in there!”Tegan exclaimed.

“But you went in there when you figured out what I was. You got the vervain dart from him.”

“Kieyra, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but your dad’s kind of crazy.” Tegan said.

“Relax, he’ll be sleeping. He goes to bed at, like, 8:30 now.” Tegan looked at her watch.

“Speaking of eight thirty, that’s what time it’ll be when I get home! I’m so dead! I gotta go!” Tegan dashed out of the library.

“I should get going too.” Jade said, following Tegan out. I was left alone in the conference room with Alec. I started to leave, but Alec stopped me.

“Kieyra?”

“Yeah?”

“There’s been a change in plans. Instead of going to all of the safe houses, we’re only going to the one in Florida. Nathaniel, Cecile, and Brannen will meet us there.”

“Okay.” There wasn’t really much to say to that. It’s not like it affected my plan that much.

When I got home and went into my room, I found Katherine sitting on my bed. Instead of flipping out on her like I usually would have, I breathed a sigh of relief. I had forgotten to text her, so her being here saved me a lot of time.

“My friend told me that Damien was collecting his sacrifice early.” Katherine said.

“What’s the plan?”

“Original plan still stands.” I said.

“Okay. I have a friend in New York that’s agreed to hide us. Her name’s Annalyn. She used to work for Damien; she’s the one who told me that Alec’s friends were working for Damien. Oh, and I brought you something.” Katherine handed me a book with “How To Handle Living With Your Evil Doppelganger” written on the front. In smaller letters, it said “Ellie M. Wilkinson”.

“This might explain a lot.” She said. Then she hopped out of the window and vanished into the night.