VANISHED (#1 in the VANISHED series) #NaNoWriMo2019 ✔

t e n ✔

Me too, Stel... me too.

***

The drive to Charlotte, North Carolina, took a little under four and a half hours. They made it there in record time—Arielle's foot was jumpy over the pedals and she sped more than she usually would. They chose not to investigate anything until their next haunt, the Queen's University, scheduled for the following day. Stella had sent in paperwork to fake apply to the college, and they had a tour-guide administrator who'd welcome them and show them the campus.

Both were too physically exhausted and emotionally drained to attempt any more paranormal contact or questions for now. And both needed to recollect themselves and figure out how much more they could take.

Stella was raised in all the tumultuous adventures and the stories her mom gave her of spirits and hauntings and the dead communicating. Yet this adventure took its toll on her. She was more silent than usual, stuck in her thoughts, typing out lengthy texts to her mom that Arielle wasn't sure she wanted to read over her shoulder.

And Arielle, curious as she was, hadn't witnessed such occult events in her life. No matter how many TV-shows Jade made her watch, no matter how eager she was to obtain her answers and move on with her life, doubts drifted into her gut. Since they'd departed the Cemetery, panic coated her limbs in a slick sweat. She worried continuing their trip might send them both into an insane asylum. Because Stella's patience ran thin, and Arielle's feelings pulled at her insides like wolves tearing at flesh.

They were in pain; was such an intense voyage a good idea?

We do it for Jade... it's all for Jade.

Arielle's nightmare-mode activated the second her dampened curls met the pillow, the instant she sealed her eyelids. But that night, new images joined the old ones. Flashes of the creepy girl morphing into Jade, taking on Jade's perfect figure but retaining her marble eyes and pallid skin. Of her silhouette crawling up a set of creaky wooden stairs, moaning, claws digging into each step with a sickening crunch. Then she spoke—secrets, secrets, Arielle... do not keep them... secrets, secrets.

She's saying my name? What the fuck?

When Arielle woke, bright and early, her rib-cage on the brink of explosion, she found Stella at the foot of her bed, lacing up her boots.

She side-glanced at her with one brow arched. "Ari? You okay?"

Arielle touched her sweaty forehead and dragged her hand down her face. "Ugh, no. More... more nightmares." She shoved the blankets off, realizing they, too, were wet from her perspiration.

Stella rested one foot on her opposing thigh and squinted. "You kept mumbling. Secrets, secrets... so yesterday got to you, huh?"

Frowning, Arielle stretched and got up. "Uh, duh? Didn't it get to you?" She glanced out the window to see busy streets and people walking by, checking their watches. A homeless man trudged past pushing a cart, and a young woman waited as her dog did its business at the edge of the sidewalk.

She stormed to the curtains and drew them shut—no one needed to peek in and see her in her light-weight pajamas.

Whirling around, her gaze met Stella's. "You seized and drooled, Stel. And the candles blew out on their own, and the stones flew—"

"Hey, slow down." Stella rose and folded her arms, discomfort drawing over her expression. "I never said it didn't get to me. If anything... I'm more terrified than you, since I now carry the weight of my fears along with yours, remember? All you felt rests in my body and... I can't get it out." She huffed. "What I meant was... you fared so well with the whole black mass thing at the Penitentiary, but the second we drove by the Cemetery, you spiraled. And you were worse yesterday when we visited it. And then last night... honey, you were whispering and breathing loud and harsh."