Chapter 62 #2
“You wouldn’t even speak to me after my parents died. Where have you been all this time if this was all some big plan to get me to Blackmore and control my every move?” I ask, putting my fingertips to my lips.
“I couldn’t bear to face you after what I’d done. I wanted to give you some time to mourn, so I didn’t have to see what I’d done to you. I was a coward—I am a coward. I only came to Blackmore now because of what Juliet had been doing. I had to protect you from her!”
“Juliet?” I clarify, voice shaky. “What does Juliet have to do with any of this?”
He sighs as he gets up. “It’ll be better if I show you.”
I’m a mix of confusion, anger, and sadness as he leaves the room, closing and locking the door behind him. It’s a while before he comes back, but when he does, he has a big box in his hands.
Putting the box down on the bed, he takes the lid off and shakes his head. “Such a troubled girl. I guess she’d been following you.”
I peer into the box, which is filled with hundreds of photographs, all of them starring one subject: me.
“What the hell?” I whisper, reaching for some of the ones on the top.
It’s of me and Beckham, in the cafeteria, having breakfast and laughing.
The next one is me at cheer practice, stretching and watching Coach Steele ahead of the whole squad.
The third one is me and Kai, in my bedroom, his muscular arm holding me at a distance, his hips between mine, our bodies bare.
“What the fuck…” I grab another handful and flip through them, one after the other making me feel like the room is closing in on me.
Me and Beckham in the library, with me bent over a stack of books.
Me and Vinny in his bedroom, our mouths tangled in a kiss so passionate I can feel it in my toes.
Me asleep in my bed, no one in the room with me.
Me in my physics class.
Me in the ladies’ bathroom at Blackmore University, putting lipstick on in the mirror.
Me at the library downtown.
Me in the cemetery, sitting at my favorite old Blackmore headstone.
I throw the photos back into the box and look at my uncle Aaron. “How did you know?”
“She sent me some… I guess to taunt me,” he says.
“Juliet’s mother gave birth the same year you were born.
We’d already left Blackmore, so I didn’t know she was my daughter.
I didn’t know she existed until much later.
She never took the Blackmore name. She was following you to get to me.
She was jealous. She was going to hurt you. I had to protect you from her.”
I close my eyes, slowly shaking my head in confusion. “No, no, no, no, no.”
“I’m sorry, I really am.”
Putting a hand to my forehead, I press my lips together to keep myself from crying. After a moment, I look at my uncle again. “We need to get Juliet the help she needs. She deserves it. She’s family.”
He looks at me for a moment, and a small smile touches his lips as he reaches for my hand. “You’re so kind, Sage. That’s one of the things that made me love you so much.”
Pulling my hand back, I shuffle an inch farther away. “Why am I here, Uncle Aaron?”
“There isn’t a straightforward answer to that question, Sage.” He sighs. “But as soon as I figure out the last three problems I have, we can join Blackmore again. Together.”
“Can I call my grandmother? She’s probably worried,” I say softly, trying to be as nice as possible so he might let me.
“There’s so much I still need to tell you.” He presses his lips together and stands up. “But for now, I think it’s best if you get some sleep, okay?”
“Wait!” I shout, louder than I mean to. “Please, tell me everything now.”
“I think you need time to process everything you’ve learned first before I throw more at you. Trust me.” Leaning down too quick for me to dodge, he kisses my forehead. “I love you, Sage. Sweet dreams.”
“No!” But I’m too slow as I chase after him, missing my chance to get through the door before he closes and locks it again. I scream, banging my hands on the door. “No! Let me out! Please! Please!”
I spend the next ten minutes shouting, banging, and kicking, until I finally fall to the ground, exhausted, wishing I was far away from this dusty room, the pink accents, and the stack of Halloween DVDs.
I need to get the fuck out of here. Now.
I spend the rest of the night flipping through the big box of photos my uncle brought in and find that there’s enough to document every day since I moved to Blackmore. I’m shown in all sorts of compromising positions, including on Halloween.
It’s like Juliet was stalking me from the first moment she met me, and all I want to know is why. And why did she never tell me we were related? Things could have been so different. We could’ve been a real family, maybe.
The creeping feeling of Juliet watching me sinks deep into my bones, so I spend the early morning hours running through every conversation I can think of that I had with her.
Nothing stands out, though, and it makes me angry.
I should be able to remember one thing she said that was a red flag, right?
She was either incredibly careful, or I’m a terrible friend.
I did shut her out when I started to get closer to the Hallows Boys, so maybe it’s my fault that I can’t remember anything. My whole world became my guys, and I need to apologize for that.
Turning on Hocus Pocus again, I roll myself up in the blanket and lie back on the bed, flipping through the pictures while I listen to the TV.
Most are taken from a distance, but some are closer.
Especially ones where I’m with the guys.
It’s like she was more willing to get caught for the juicy photos, because there’re more shots of us being intimate than anything else.
The rest of the majority are shots of me from behind, walking through the hallways at school or through town or through the cemetery.
I fade into sleep with the feeling that I’m being watched, and my nightmares are filled with creepy-crawly sensations that cover my skin.
“Sage?” My uncle’s voice pulls me from sleep with a gasp, and I sit upright too quick, making myself dizzy.
“What?” I say, looking at my uncle.
“I brought some more stuff to help you understand what’s been going on since you’ve been in here. Do you want something to eat first?”
Shaking my head, I run my hand down my face and sit up straight. “I’m not hungry.”
“You’re going to make yourself sick if you don’t eat something soon,” he says as he puts a bag down on the table.
“I’m fine,” I say, watching as he pulls a piece of thick cardstock out of the bag first and puts it to his chest.
“I don’t want you to panic, okay? I’ll explain everything, and it’ll all make sense.” He smiles, then extends the card toward me.
I choke on the spit in my mouth as I read the card aloud, heart dropping to my stomach.
“Please join us for the funeral of Sage Grace Blackmore, one p.m. in Blackmore Cemetery, January 14th.” My eyes seek him out, and he chuckles, like it’s one big joke.
“I don’t understand,” I say, my mouth hanging open. I search for something else I can say to him, but nothing comes out when I try to speak.
“I got to Blackmore on Christmas and tried to talk some sense into Juliet. I’d recently tried to bond with the girl, and I thought maybe I could put an end to this whole stalking thing.
” He sits down on the edge of the bed. “She told me it stopped, but I caught her following you again. The night you snuck out of your grandmother’s and went down to the crypts. ”
I sit and stare at him, speechless, unable to breathe, and wait for him to continue.
“She followed you through the cemetery, down to the crypts and waited. She was taking pictures of you, Sage. I didn’t know what she was going to do.
It was the middle of the night, and you were all alone, but I sat back and waited.
I wasn’t going to step in unless you were in danger.
” He sighs. “Then Juliet started going for the crypts, and I knew you’d gone into the Hallows Crypt, so I cut her off and confronted her.
She pulled a knife on me, and I had no choice but to defend us!
I wasn’t going to let some sick girl hurt you! ”
My head slowly shakes in disbelief. “What happened…?”
“It all just happened so fast. I never meant for the girl to die, but all of a sudden, she was just bleeding out on the cemetery ground,” he says, sighing and running a hand through his hair.
I feel like I’m going to be sick, but shock takes over as I let him continue.
“I knew you would get caught up in it. I knew it would hurt you. I wanted to save you from the imminent pain of losing a friend like that, so I grabbed you and brought you here. I didn’t know that Hallows Boy was going to torch the place till I went back and saw him with the gas cans, and at that point, I couldn’t get Juliet’s body back out of the crypt. ”
“What?! Which Hallows Boy? What happened?” I gasp, desperate for morsels of information about my guys. “Are they okay?”
“Beckham burned the crypt down while Juliet was inside, and I had to come up with some sort of explanation of where you were,” he says simply, and my mind spins.
“There’s a former Hallows Boy who works at the police station.
He’s helping me try to get Benjamin out of prison, and I have a few more connections left in Blackmore after all, because it was easy enough to get them to lie on the death certificate and say it was you.
All I had to do was sign my name and say I had identified your body. Easy.”
“Easy,” I repeat in disbelief. “Do you even hear yourself? Murder, corruption, faking my death?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
“Now, Sage, you need to let me finish the rest of the story.”
I grit my teeth, anger simmering inside me. “Go on, then.”
“So, everything was fine, right, but then I saw those boys at your funeral, and they had gotten cozy with Joyce Spencer, who knew far too much about all of us for her own good—”