Free Betrayal (Vanish Book Two) by Sonny Daise

wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t have had to leave—he
wouldn’t have had to lock up Skylar.
    “Can I talk to you, alone?” I asked his dad.
I let go of Dante’s hand, and his dad followed me out of the car
around to the back. “So what should we do? Should we go check on
your family?”
    “I don’t think you really have that option,
and you need Dante. They will be fine without him,” his dad assured
me.
    “I’m not going to make him stay for me,” I
argued while the tears streamed down my face. This was my fault,
and nothing that anyone said would change that.
    “Stop pushing him away Scarlett. Life is too
short—”
    “That’s not what this is about,” I
objected.
    “I need to go be with my family. It will be
hard, but I need to be there when they find out,” he sighed.
    “Okay. I’m so sorry; I don’t know what to
say.”
    “Good-bye Scarlett,” he said and a second
later, he was gone.
    I got back into the car. I knew that Dante
was still crying, but his head was down, and I couldn’t see his
face. I stayed silent for a while, when he stopped, he looked up at
me. I put my hand on his cheek. I heard something hit the back
window.
    “Did you hear that?” I asked.
    “No.”
    “I’ll be right back,” I said as I climbed out
of the car. Standing near the back of the car, was the person I
thought I had seen among the crowd of ghosts. Looking as beautiful
as ever, and nowhere near what she had looked like recently. What
the one ghost had said, ‘there’s one of them among you.’ now made
sense.
    “Grace, oh my God.”
     
     
     

Chapter 6: Revelation
    I sat down on the dirt road. Dante didn’t
seem to notice how long I’d been gone. I couldn’t believe what I
was seeing before my eyes. How could this be? Even though for a
brief moment, I thought I had seen her in the crowd of ghosts, I
thought it was impossible, and it slipped my mind.
    “You’re dead?” I cried.
    “Yes, I was dead all along,” she sobbed.
    “When did you die?” I asked.
    “The day before the party at Alexis’s”
    “So it wasn’t you? Did you see what
happened?”
    “Yes,” she whispered.
    “Did Ann think it was you or did she
know?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “So what about Dante?” I questioned, hoping
she would know what I was asking her.
    “It wasn’t him. It was Skylar.”
    My best friend, the girl that I knew, the one
that I loved was dead, but I couldn’t help feeling relief flowing
through me. She wasn’t the one who attacked me the other night. She
wasn’t the one who would say anything to hurt me.
    “I can’t believe this, now it all makes
sense. I have hated you since we saved you from that mansion, but
it wasn’t you.”
    “Nope.”
    “Well I don’t know what we can do about this,
but I promise we’ll do something.”
    “You’re my best friend and I love you to
death, but don’t make any promises you can’t keep,” she smiled, and
then she was gone.
    I walked over to the passenger door and got
in the car. Dante was calm, just staring ahead at nothing.
    “I’m really sorry,” I whispered.
    “I just wish I’d gotten to say good-bye.”
    “You did, and if that wasn’t enough, you’ll
have another chance,” I promised.
    “Thanks.”
    “I need to tell you something.” I waited for
him to respond.
    “What?”
    “I just saw grace…” I looked over at him.
“She’s dead; she has been since the night before the party.”
    “What are you talking about Scarlett? Grace
has not been dead since before the party.”
    “No, she has. I guess ghosts can take over
someone’s body if they’re dead or dying,” I tried to explain, but
even though we had powers, this still seemed too weird to be
true.
    “What? So….”
    “It wasn’t you; it was Skylar,” I said with
so much excitement. I felt horrible. His dad had just died, and
that’s all I could think about.
    I soon realized he wasn’t offended, when he
leaned over to kiss me. It felt like this was our first kiss.