Velocity (The Gravity Series) Read online

  “What I didn’t understand came back to attack me. Now I’m in danger.” I pounded the center of my chest, on top of my heart. “Claire freaked out when I told her, and I thought she was going to shake my brains out. It sounds crazy, and I didn’t want you to commit me, too. But she obviously suspected it because she put me on that medication.”

  I remembered briefly how much I’d felt like a zombie when I’d taken my anti-anxiety medication, how strange it was to come out of my gray cocoon when it was gone.

  “I didn’t know the medication stopped her visions!” he shouted abruptly, making me wince. He turned around and ground his hands into his scalp, then gestured dramatically. “I didn’t know. Your mother was lying to me the whole time.”

  “Phillip knows I have the Sight.”

  “Then that just makes it ten times harder.”

  “You already knew about Thornhill, why Phillip wants us to leave town, why the girls died. Didn’t you?” I accused.

  He pulled his suit jacket tight. “Yes. I know. I know much more than you probably do.”

  “Then tell me!” I pleaded desperately, hitting the back of the chair again.

  “I don’t know where to start,” he murmured, his voice cracking.

  “Start from the beginning,” I said evenly. “Tell me everything.”

  He took a deep breath, scrubbing the stubbly beard on his chin. “Sit down,” he said hoarsely.

  I didn’t take his offer. My legs twitched and bounced of their own accord. He went over and pulled a bottle of wine from the modest rack that had been collecting dust. Pouring a hearty shot into his coffee mug, he brought it back to the couch and sat down. His calloused hands were shaking, the skin stained from paint thinner.

  “Obviously there is a lot we never told you,” Hugh began. “But starting from the top could take a while. So for heaven’s sake, Ariel, sit down. All of your pacing is making me nervous.”

  I finally obliged and dropped into the worn recliner across from him. Adrenaline still pumped through me from confronting him, and I practically had to force myself not to jump back to my feet.

  “We didn’t tell you that you might see ghosts because we honestly didn’t know,” Hugh began. “We didn’t want to scare you. You’ve always had that predilection for spooky things like me, so I was suspicious. But you seemed okay. Claire watched you like a hawk on your birthday―I don’t think you realized―but other than seeming sad over Jenna’s disappearance, you seemed fine.”

  I thought back to that day, when I’d felt so strange and had my first dream of the Dexter Orphanage.

  “I wasn’t fine,” I said, my voice catching in my throat.

  “I see that now,” Hugh said, more gently. He leaned back against the couch. “We shouldn’t have expected it to just hit you like a lightning bolt, but Claire said it was like that for her.”

  His words conjured up a brief image from back at the séance I’d had years ago with my friends at the Dexter Orphanage. At the time, I’d thought a lightning bolt hit the table and I passed out. I blinked it away.

  “Why couldn’t you just ask me? Say, ‘hey Ariel, seen any floating sheets lately?’”

  “And who would have sounded like the crazy ones then, hmm?” Hugh asked. “Especially if you didn’t see visions. We didn’t want to make you worry unnecessarily. Claire always viewed her gift of Sight as a curse, like a flaw in her brain. She insisted we not ask you directly. She just wanted the whole thing to go away, you know she did that with a lot of difficult situations.”

  I nodded, biting my thumbnail. She did that all the time, so it didn’t surprise me. I felt a guilty pang of anger against my mother and shifted against the chair.

  “I should have talked to you about it after what happened with Warwick,” Hugh said, more to himself than to me. “With Thornhill doing what they’re doing, and your relationship with Henry, I should have known better. I just thought that Phillip didn’t want you around because you were my daughter. I understand why you didn’t tell us. I just wish it didn’t have to be that way.”

  “Okay, so the beginning is?” I was getting impatient again. I wanted to run, and the urge reminded me of Jenna. Running to clear my mind.

  He rubbed his hands over his eyes and drained his cup, then settled back with his hands clasped between his knees.

  “I told you we all went to high school together. But I barely knew your mother until senior year, other than seeing a pretty face from a rich family. She and Phillip were the most bitchin’ couple in school. Athletic, rich, pretty. I played chess, wore big glasses, and had this really bad haircut that I thought was awesome. I thought I was invisible to the likes of her.

  “Until one day at a football game. Your mom was a cheerleader, and I ran the concession stand, to get some work experience. I was out front changing the sales sign on the stand, and she was walking past and tripped. I caught her.”

  I had heard this story before, but I didn’t interrupt him now. Usually the tale cut off there, but he continued. “When I held her in my arms, it was like I felt this electrical charge.” His voice took on a soft tone, and I saw his eyes begin to glisten. He curved his arms as though he were still holding her. “For a moment, I wasn’t even there. I was somewhere else. We had a connection that day.”

  “She came to me after that, during one of our tournament practices. Me, Robert, Noah, and Edgar used to pal around back then, if you can believe it.”

  “Who’s Noah?” I asked.

  “Oh, he’s your science teacher, Mr. Golem. Edgar―McPherson― was part of the prayer group, too, but he was their errand boy. He went to the meetings in school, but not the ones that they held at night. They prayed around a flagpole that used to be where that hideous fountain at your school is now. It makes me crazy to think two men I used to be friends with were murderers. Do you think that says something about me?”

  He questioned me with his eyes. I knew he was actually asking me. I bit my lip. “I think it means that you trusted the wrong people.”

  He smirked, a cold, bitter look, and stared down at his hands. “Yeah. But that day, she walked in, gorgeous, looking like she thought she was entering the lion’s den. She was there for me.

  “Claire came over to my house, and she admitted everything the prayer group had been up to. It was a sham, of course. Their meetings were just a front for Phillip’s weird occult interest. They would meet after school, to do these strange rituals, chanting from obscure books. Your mother’s family was never particularly religious, and she went along with it at first. She had been seeing ghosts for a while, but she’d kept it a secret from everyone other than Phillip. The others could only see ghosts under the influence of the alchemy magic of the rituals.”

  “Alchemy magic?” I asked, raising my eyebrow. I thought about how Eleanor’s necklace had alchemical symbols on the back, about the copper symbol I’d seen in my dreams.

  “Supposedly, they’d learned to manipulate the elements and bend them to their will. But I never saw a display of it. She was scared because the group had met late at night, dressed up in robes and chanted. They sacrificed Deana’s pet rabbit. Cut its throat and bled it on a seal down in the basement of the high school.”

  “Where Alyssa and Susan were found? In the pool room?” I asked.

  He nodded. “I believe so. I mean, the police didn’t show me, but I would assume it was there by your description.”

  I kept silent so he could continue. He stood up while he continued to talk and brought the bottle back to the table. Setting a cup in front of me, he poured a little in. “While I don’t usually approve of underage drinking, you might want this in a minute,” he said softly.

  I took the cup in my hands, surprised, but didn’t drink yet.

  “Why was she so scared?” I asked. “What made her stop going along with it?”

  “Because the rabbit was just practice,” Hugh said. “Phillip was reading all about occult history in Hell. He was planning on trying to sacrifice a girl on
that seal, and was just testing to make sure it was still active. She couldn’t let the girl get hurt, and even though she―” He choked up for a moment, and I sipped a little wine just to take the edge off. “She cared about her boyfriend; she couldn’t let him hurt anyone else. She thought he was crazy.”

  “Why would she stay with him if he was such a psycho?” I asked bluntly, shivering.

  Hugh shrugged, tipping more wine into his cup. “You’ve seen him in action, Ariel. He’s charismatic and powerful, just like his father before him. Just like his son is. Henry will be a lot like his father one day, you’ll see.”

  I bit my bottom lip and scowled down at the floor. “Henry isn’t like him.”

  He tilted my chin up with one finger. “You think that now, Ariel. And I agree, he’s shown goodness toward you. He’s also been a complete asshole to you, kiddo. You can’t…”

  “There were reasons,” I said angrily, jerking away. “And at least he explained them to me.”

  “After the fact. Are you completely sure that you trust him?”

  “Yes.” Was I completely sure? I decided I was. “Can we get back to the story? You still have a lot to tell me, right? How did you stop the sacrifice?”

  “Right.” He sighed again. “Now, my memory of the time isn’t concrete. What I do remember is that me and my merry band of dimwits stormed in. Claire and I didn’t even have to convince my comrades that ghosts and supernatural forces existed, just that Phillip was crazy. We had all felt like something was wrong in town. Come to find out, they didn’t have the right supernatural equipment anyway. It was a doomed failure.

  “That was it? They just backed down?”

  Hugh nodded. “Realistically, I’m surprised Phillip let us get off so easily. When it was over we threatened to go to the authorities, but he said it had all been a nervous breakdown. He apologized to Claire, not even knowing that she was the one who had outed him until later. But she broke up with him and left the prayer group. They disbanded soon thereafter. We naively thought it was over.”

  “Why didn’t you move out of Hell?”

  “That’s something I can’t really explain, kiddo. Her family was here. We just wanted to stay here. It’s a good town if you take the supernatural crazy evil energy aspect out.” He tried for a little smirk, and I let out a short laugh back. The tension dispelled a little, and I drank the small amount of sweet-sour wine.

  “When I found out the Rhodes’ were back in town, my radar went off. Something was wrong; especially when Thornhill gained steam. I didn’t realize it was related until Phillip moved back and took over. I researched into the past―family records, newspaper articles―and found out that John Dexter, the man who used to own the Dexter orphanage, was an occult enthusiast who planned to bring a realm called Dark to earth.”

  “I already know that part,” I said quickly. It was weird to think we had both been looking for the same things at the same time without knowing it.

  He looked surprised, and maybe a little impressed. “So you do. You always made a good detective. Phillip was modeling Dexter’s ritual, trying to find out as much about it as he could. But he was hasty, too eager, and he acted before he discovered the complexity of the ritual.

  “Claire told me there was no way, that it was just friends getting together. She kept defending them. I think a small part of her always regretted what giving up her friends entailed. She lost her popularity and her ranking. When Jenna, and then the little girls, went missing, it was like the fear crept back into her. But she didn’t admit it. Not to me, not to anyone.”

  That brought up Ambrose Slaughter’s revelation into my mind, and it still stung just as much as when I’d first heard it.

  “Do you know that she tossed a coin to see who would give up something precious?” I asked, bitterness undisguised. “With Jenna’s mom, Rachel. Rachel lost.”

  He frowned severely, seeming genuinely shocked. The power left his voice, leaving it hushed. “I didn’t know anything about that. She never told me. Is that true? Who told you that?”

  “Ambrose Slaughter.” I neglected to clarify that it had been in a dream after his death.

  “The Slaughters can’t always be trusted―” Hugh began, but I cut him off.

  “I believe him about this. He was telling the truth.”

  “Ariel. I’m sure your mother wouldn’t put you in danger.”

  “Really?” I challenged. “She changed when she went to those meetings. It was like they were brainwashing her.”

  “I saw that. I know it was all she could think about.”

  That subject was still too raw. Claire would normally have been sitting there to defend herself, but she was gone. Never coming back.

  “How do you feel about the ghosts? Was it hard to believe at first?” I asked, trying to get the subject off of her.

  He pulled at his bottom lip with his thumb and finger, looking deliberately away from me.

  “What?” I frowned. He was still keeping secrets from me.

  “You’re going to make me lay it all out in one sitting, aren’t you?” he asked with a weary smile.

  “Yes.” The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and my scalp began to prickle. How bad was it?

  He squeezed his eyes shut. “Your mother wasn’t the only one. I used to see ghosts, too.”

  CHAPTER 2

  I COULDN’T STOP my jaw from dropping open. My mouth dried up. “What?”

  “I saw spirits. Only for me, it didn’t start in puberty. I just saw them for as long as I could remember. I had these really warped dreams about things that I’d only come to understand later. I tried to ignore it and pretend that the dead men staring at me weren’t in the room. But then, when your mom told me about what she was seeing, I told her the truth. We kept each other going.”

  He was getting emotional again. I didn’t know how to comfort him without making us both cry.

  “You said ‘used’ to see them. What made you stop?” I asked.

  He bit the inside of his cheek. “I used to ride motorcycles. I bet you never knew that about me.”

  Random topic switch. “No.” There were a few Harley Davidson helmets and other memorabilia down in the house’s basement, but I’d never given them much consideration.

  “Well, I used to ride them all the time. I had this cherry 1982 Honda Interceptor. She was a beaut, but dangerous. You knew it when you rode it. But at eighteen, of course, I was fearless and thought we were immortal. I’m sure you know.”

  Actually I hadn’t really felt like that at all. I’d spent most of my time feeling finite and vulnerable. “What’s your point?”

  “We felt like nothing bad could ever happen, and just feeling that feeling is tempting fate. Your mom used to ride with me. She loved it. We were out riding one night, and it started to rain. My tires skidded out. We spun out and hit a tree.”

  He was silent for a long minute, undoubtedly relieving his memories. Then he continued, “Knocked me out. I was an idiot about not wearing a helmet. I was in a coma for almost three days. And when I woke up, I couldn’t see the dead anymore. I had minimal brain damage. Lucky it wasn’t completely scrambled. It’s like the accident broke the channel.”

  My hand still cupped my mouth, my eyes wide. “And mom?”

  “When we were both well enough to leave the hospital, Claire told me that she couldn’t see ghosts anymore, either. I believed her, because I never thought she’d lie to me. This whole time, I took for granted that her experience would be the same as mine. She was so eager to forget all about it. She hid it really well, Ariel. I didn’t know until…what happened. I knew she took the Valium, but she told me it was for panic attacks. We promised we wouldn’t get back into ghosts again.”

  “So when she said you didn’t have a choice?”

  “She meant that I lost my abilities, but she apparently didn’t. When she said that, part of me realized her lies.”

  “Is she the one who stole the necklace back?”

  Hugh
drained the rest of his cup. He looked ten years older than he had a month ago. Gray patches were beginning to grow at his temples, and there were more wrinkles lining his forehead.

  “She knew that they were some kind of a cult, but from all I can tell, she didn’t know they were after you. Other than you being my daughter. We had a moment of worry when the Ford girl broke your nose. But that seemed like just a spat between girls.”

  We sat in silence for a while, both looking at the floor. My brain was full to exploding, and I felt dead tired. But somehow I still didn’t feel satisfied.

  “I think it’s time we go to bed,” Hugh said, standing up and taking our cups to the sink.

  I hopped up. “But I have so many more questions.”

  He turned and put his hand on my cheek. Bags dragged down his eyes. “You’ve gotten more than enough information for tonight. Get yourself a good sleep to absorb what I told you. We can talk in the morning.”

  I was about to protest, but he was right. My head was spinning enough to make me dizzy, and I felt like I could pass out right there. “Okay.”

  We changed out of our mourning clothes, stowing them away in the bag in which we bought them. I shut the door to my room, turned off all the lights except for the bedside lamp, and changed into my pajamas. Sliding underneath the cool sheets, I fully expected to fall asleep instantly.

  Instead, I turned from side to side, punching the pillow to fluff it up, but the tension in my neck wouldn’t abate. I stared up at the ceiling, missing the stars that were on my ceiling in my old bedroom. My best friend, Theo, had put them up, and my thoughts turned to her. She’d found out I was dating Henry and had gotten really mad at me for not telling her. I’d barely spoken to her since then, and she’d left on winter vacation. She hadn’t gotten back yet, even though New Year’s had already passed and school was back in session. Was she still out of town? Probably.

  I reached for the phone on my bedside table, and tapped my contacts. I stared at her name, my fingers itching to call or at least text her. But she was more than likely still mad at me, and I didn’t want to play my dead mother as a card to win back my friend. That wasn’t fair to any of us. I set the phone back down and punched the pillow again.