Chapter thirteen

"It looks like I've finally found you girls at last," Jerry smiles evilly as he looks down at Julie and Sara. "I'm sorry about all the others, but I just couldn't let them go. They just knew too much."

He keeps grinning evilly as he looks at the two girls, his daughters.

"It doesn't have to end this way, you don't have to do this daddy. We are your daughters," Sara cries out, pulling her sister closer to her.

"You two are mistakes. You were born dead and you should have remained dead."

He moves closer to them.

"I must finish this once and for all."

He is right in front of them now.

"But I need that book first. Where is it?" He yells, looking down at Sara hatefully.

"I'll never give you the book," Sara cries out as Jerry moves even closer.

"Tell me where it is now," he demands, pulling out the knife.

Sara's vision begins to blur as tears start running from her eyes and run down her cheeks.

"NO!" Sara screams out as she holds Julie closer to her.

Jerry grins and steps closer.

"Sara please wake up," Sara hears her mom's voice whisper into her ear. "You're safe here."

Sara wants to believe her mom's voice, but she can't find the strength to wake up. She holds onto her sister tightly, protectively as their father leans closer to them.

"No matter what you do, nothing will help you now," Jerry laughs as he sits on the edge of the bed. "It's only a matter of time now. I will have that book back soon and then I can get rid of you two once and for all."

"Sara," Julie whispers as she looks up at her sister. Sara looks down into her sisters sad, watery eyes. "Please just wake up."

Her sisters voice echoes through her mind as she closes her eyes. She can hear Jerry laughing as he looks at her. When she reopens them, her sister is gone. She finds that she is laying on the grass, alone with her father in a small park. She recognizes the park from the picture she had drawn the other day in class.

"None of this is real," Sara cries out as she looks at her father.

Slowly she begins to disappear as the darkness begins to close in around her. She can feel herself trying to awaken as everything around her begins to disappear in a cloud of darkness forming around her.

"Nooo..." She hears her father cry out.

She can feel him grab her arm, his nails digging into her arm as he tries to pull her back into the shadow realm.

"Let go of me."

"You can't escape."

She begins kicking and screaming, trying to free herself. She finally feels her foot connect against something solid and Jerry lets go of her. She suddenly opens her eyes and looks up, staring blankly into Lexi's face as she feels cold water running down her face.

"Hey don't look at me like that, I didn't throw water on you this time."

Lexi laughs as she reaches a towel out to her. She takes the towel from her and dries her face and hair with it.

"I'm sorry Sara."

Terri sits the empty glass on the table. Sara raises up a little on the couch and sees everyone staring at her. She feels someone sit down on the couch beside her and turns to see Kayla sitting there.

"Is everything okay sis?"

Sara hears Julie's voice and looks up at her sister, letting Julie see the fear and sadness in her eyes as she begins to cry.

"I don't really know what happened. I was in the shadow realm, but it was like I was seeing into the future or something," she pauses to wipe away the tears from her eyes. "Our father was there. He had found us. Everyone else was dead, but he didn't try to kill us though." She looks up at Julie, fear in her eyes. "He kept saying it wouldn't be long now, but he needed the book first."

"I overheard him talking about a book once," Kayla interrupts, causing Terri to look at her both shocked and surprised. "I know sis I should have told you I used to work for their father. But it was only until after I figured out what he was really planning to do." She pauses and wraps her arms around Sara. "You and Julie are not mistakes. You are two sweet and beautiful girls." Kayla tries to cheer Sara up some. She smiles and hugs Kayla back. "Anyways the book I heard him describe was an old leather bound book with a strange symbol on the front of it."

"I left that book at school. It's in my bookbag in my locker. I hope he hasn't gotten it yet."

"Well there is only one way to find out," Chris jumps to his feet excitedly. "We must go back to school and see if it's still there."

Sara and Lexi stare up at him confused.

"Chris in case you've forgotten, we can't exactly just go back there so easily. The police are looking for us and they shut the school down because Mr. Creepsly was murdered in it."

Chris just looks at Lexi and smiles.

She looks even more confused by him. "What is it Chris?"

She looks at him puzzled, wondering why he is smiling at her.

"Well the police aren't looking for all of us. All we have to do is send two or three of us to go get the book," he looks around at them all before he continues. "The news said that the cops were only looking for five of us, so then Kayla, Jeffery and myself can go."

"The cops are looking for you Chris you can't go," Sara cries out, jumping up from the couch and standing in front of him. "You can't go."

As she looks up into his eyes, he sees that she cares a lot about him. He pulls her close and hugs her tightly.

"Don't worry Sara, I will be alright," he whispers into her ear. "I'll be back soon." He kisses her on the forehead before letting her go. "What was your locker number again?"

"It was locker 213. The combination is twenty-three, six, fifty-two."

She watches as they begin to walk out the door, following them as they walk out to Jeffery's car.

"So who's driving?" She hears Chris ask as they stand by Jeffery's car.

Chris doesn't get an answer though. Instead Jeffery just climbs into the drivers seat. He starts the car as Chris and Kayla climb in.

Sara watches as they back up and drive down the driveway. Soon they are back on the highway, speeding towards Mason county. Chris leans back and closes his eyes, falling asleep as they drive down the highway.

"We will be arriving at the high school shortly," Jeffery says, waking Chris as he turns off the highway suddenly.

They drive down the road until they reach the little country store.

"Does anyone want a soda or something to drink?" He asks, parking the car by the gas pumps.

Chris and Kayla just nod as he climbs out of the car and heads towards the store. Kayla turns around to look back at Chris, noticing that he seems to be distracted by something.

"Hey Chris are you alright?" She notices the look of worry in his eyes. He doesn't say anything back, he just rests his head on the window and closes his eyes again. "Chris?" He hears the worry in her voice and looks over at her, trying to give her a faint smile.

"I'm sorry, I'm just a little worried," he pauses as he looks at her. She just smiles back at him warmly. "I just hope Sara and the rest of them will be alright while we're gone."

"I'm sure they are all going to be fine," Kayla smiles again and places a hand on his shoulder. "You care a lot about Sara don't you?" She stares into his eyes affectionately. "I can tell that you do."

Chris doesn't say anything back to her, he just stares back into her eyes and smiles. Before either of them can say anything else, Jeffery opens the drivers door and climbs inside, reaching them each a soda.

"I hope coke is alright, it's pretty much all they had."

He climbs back out, removing the gas lid and beginning to pump the gas. He has his back against the car, watching the other cars going by as he pumps gas into his own car. Kayla leans over to Chris so that only he can hear her.

"I need to talk to you later," she whispers to him as Jeffery puts the gas cap back on and begins to climb back into the car again.

Soon they are back on the road, heading towards the high school. Chris sits there, continuing to stare blankly out the window as he wonders what exactly Kayla wants to talk to him about. He is so lost in his thoughts that he doesn't even realize that they have stopped until he hears a car door slam shut.

"Chris?" She asks, touching his shoulder gently.

"Huh, what...are we here already?"

He shakes his head as he raises up. He climbs out of the car and walks with Kayla over to where Jeffery is waiting.

"This place looks kinda creepy at night," Kayla whispers as she looks over at Chris and grins.

"And here I thought is was creepy during the day," Chris whispers back, smiling back at Kayla. He lets out a low chuckle as they walk towards the high school. "So what did you want to talk to me about?" He whispers as they walk across the parking lot slowly.

"Chris I feel so terrible for helping Jerry. I'm the reason he nearly got Julie and he knows where Sara is at. The only thing stopping him from coming after her is the fact that he needs this book." Kayla whispers, looking around her worriedly.

She has a bad feeling about being at the high school.

"Kayla everything is going to be fine. I believe if Jerry had the spell book then he would have came after Sara and Julie by now," Chris tries to sound encouraging as he looks over at Kayla. "All we have to do is get the book first and then we will figure out how to stop him from harming anyone else." A sudden thought pops into his head as he stares towards the double doors. "How exactly are we supposed to get in if the doors are locked?" He wonders out loud, looking towards Jeffery as they walk quickly towards the entrance.

"I don't think we are going to have to worry about the doors being locked," Jeffery slows down as they approach the main entrance. The heavy metal doors were standing open slightly. "Be careful." He warns them, pulling the left door open wider and slowly entering the high school.

Chris glances at the doors as he walks past them and sees fresh pry marks on the frame.

"Sara's locker is this way," Chris tells them, leading them through the school.

He stops as soon as they reach the row of lockers where Sara's was. Her locker door is standing wide open. They rush over to it and look inside, expecting it to be empty. But there on top of her school books is the old leather bound magic book.

"Wonder who pried the door open if they didn't take the book?" Kayla wonders, more to herself than to anyone else. She had a feeling she already knew who had pried the locker open.

Why didn't he just take the book with him? She wonders as she picks the book up. She suddenly thinks back to the dream Sara had told them about earlier.

"We need to leave now, this was just a trap to get to Sara and Julie!"

She turns around to look at Jeffery and Chris with fearful eyes.

"Kayla there you are. I've been trying to call you but you seem to have been to busy to answer your phone," a voice behind her says, bursting out with laughter. "Now I see what you've been up to. And Jeffery it's been too long. I haven't seen you in such a long time."

"Jerry I should have known you were here," Jeffery steps in front of Kayla and Chris as he stares at Jerry.

"You're not going to be able to stop me this time. Now Kayla just give me the book and I won't hurt you," Jerry pulls out his hunting knife, pointing the sharp blade at them. He grins evilly at Kayla and she shivers with fear. "Just give me that book now."

"No I won't let you harm Sara and Julie!" Kayla screams, gripping the book tightly and taking a few steps backwards.

Jerry takes a long look at her and grins.

"Kayla after everything I've done for you, you're going to side with them!" Jerry's knuckles turn white as he grips the knife handle tightly. "You don't know anything about Sara and Julie. They are mistakes and I have to fix that."

He steps closer and Kayla grabs Chris's arm frightened.

"How can you say that about your own daughters Jerry?" Kayla yells at him. "When I was helping you find out where they were I had thought it was because you wanted them back, to be a family again. It wasn't until I overheard you and Arthur talking that I realized what you were really planning, so I saved Julie."

Jeffery steps closer to Jerry, trying to protect Chris and Kayla.

"You're going to try and stand up to me again Jeffery," Jerry shakes his head, laughing loudly. "You can't stop me this time." He steps closer and pushes Jeffery out of the way, knocking him to the ground. Jeffery slowly stands back up and starts to head towards Jerry again, but Jerry grabs him and slings him to the ground again. "Now I need that book." He demands hatefully, stepping in front of Kayla and Chris.

He swings the knife towards Kayla, but Chris jumps in front of her quickly, pushing her back slightly. The knife slices him across the chest and blood begins lightly soaking his shirt.

"Chris!" Kayla cries out as he falls to the ground. She looks at Jerry terrified as he begins to reach for her. "I didn't want you to hurt anyone."

"I didn't want any of this to happen to you Kayla," Kayla's heart begins to race as he raises the knife up, letting it hover just inches from Kayla's throat. "Just give me the book and bring the girls to me and I will forget about you betraying me."

"I'll die before I let you harm those two sweet girls!" Kayla yells, looking right into his eyes. She feels the knife blade press against her skin. She closes her eyes and holds the book tightly against her chest as he leans closer.

"In case you've forgotten, you already died once remember. Or at least that's what everyone else thinks. Goodbye Kayla."

She keeps her eyes squeezed tightly shut and waits for him to slide the knife across her throat, but for some reason he doesn't do it.

"Some other time," he mumbles, removing the knife and running down the hall away from them.

She opens her eyes slowly, glad to see that Jerry was gone.

"Chris are you alright?" Kayla kneels down beside him. She smiles as he begins to move and reaches down to help him sit up. "Let me see how bad the cut is."

She helps him raise his shirt just enough to see the wound across his chest. She can hear someone running around the halls behind her and thinks it is Jerry coming back.

I wonder why he just took off like that? She thinks as she uses Chris's shirt to wipe away the blood from the wound. What had him so frightened?

"How bad is it?"

He flinches slightly as she wipes the blood away again. She looks down at him, smiling as she stands back up.

"Its not too deep so I think you will be alright." She smiles as she puts an arm around him and helps him to his feet. "You risked your life to save me." She continues smiling warmly at him. Her smile quickly disappears however as a beam of light sweeps over them. "Time to go." She whispers to Chris.

As they walk over to help Jeffery up, they begin to hear someone running towards them.

"Don't move!" A voice cries out as the flashlight beam sweeps over them again. "What's going on here?" The figure asks, sounding more frightened than anything. "Chris is that you?"

"Yeah I just forgot something in my locker." Chris stares at the light heading towards them as the figure slowly approaches them. He can just make out the man's features as the light shines in his eyes. "Do you mind lowering the light principal Moss?"

He uses his hand to shield the light from his eyes.

"Chris what happened to you?" Principal moss asks, noticing the blood soaking through his shirt. As the principal lowers the light, Chris can see how truly frightened and worried he was.

"It's nothing, I just fell," Chris tries to hide his wound as Jeffery stands up slowly. "What are we going to do now?" He whispers to Jeffery as they step back against the wall.

Jeffery feels something on the wall behind him, pressing against his back. He reaches up and feels a fire alarm handle. He wraps his hand around the handle, getting ready to pull it.

"Get ready to run," Jeffery whispers to them as he pulls the fire alarm. "Now run." He cries out over the wailing of the sirens.

The principal jumps and drops the flashlight as he runs over to try to turn the alarm off. With Chris safely between them, Jeffery and Kayla run down the hallways and out a side door, setting off another alarm as they run out into the parking lot. They lay Chris in the back of the car and take off, flying down the deserted city streets.

"Wonder what everyone else is doing?" Chris mumbles to himself as he looks out the window.

~

Terri looks down at the screen on her phone as it begins to ring again. 'Unknown caller.' She sends the caller to her voicemail and closes the phone. She sighs and places the phone on the coffee table. She doesn't notice as Julie walks in and sits down beside her, to distracted by her thoughts. Terri places her head on the arm of the couch and closes her eyes.

"Hey Terri," Terri raises her head up slightly and sighs as she looks over at Julie. "So what's bothering you?" She notices the worried look in Terri's eyes.

"It's nothing really, I've just got a lot on my mind this morning," Terri sighs again and leans back on the couch. Julie gives her a warm smile, urging her to continue. "It's just that I've been worried about Michael, wondering if he is okay. And now after two years of thinking my sister was dead, it turns out that she is still alive." She pauses and looks down at the floor. "It's just a lot to deal with."

"I'm sorry, I'm sure everything is fine," Julie tries to cheer Terri up and make her feel better. Terri looks back up and Julie smiles at her again. "So is Michael your boyfriend or something?" Terri shakes her head and giggles a little. "What's so funny?" She asks, a little confused by Terri's reaction to her question.

"No he's not my boyfriend, he's just my friend. Though most of the time he acts more like my big brother then anything else," Terri smiles as Julie laughs a little. "I'm sure you're right though." She clears her head and sits back up on the couch. "Thank you."

"It's no problem, like I said before if you ever need someone to talk to, I am here for you."

Julie pauses and looks towards the door suddenly as she hears soft footsteps coming towards them. The door swings open and Kayla steps into the room, holding the door open so Jeffery and Michael could enter. They walk into the room, carrying an unconscious Chris between them. They carry him over to the couch and lay him down on it gently. Julie and Terri look from Chris to each other worried as Kendra, Sara and Lexi enter the room. Nobody seems to notice the girl standing just inside the room by the doorway, Megan.

"What happened?" Kendra sounds worried, raising Chris's shirt up and cleaning the wound across his chest with warm water. She looks up at her brother, silently demanding an explanation from him.

"It was Jerry, he tried to get the magic book from Kayla and when he swung his knife at her, Chris jumped in front of her to protect her."

Chris opens his eyes suddenly, but closes them again quickly as the light blinds him.

"What happened, where am I?"

Chris groans, opening his eyes again, slower this time, and looking around the room momentarily confused. He tries to sit up, but feels a searing pain shoot through his chest.

"Don't worry Chris, it's okay you are safe now. And it's just a little cut, you are going to be fine."

Kendra places her hand on him gently pushing him back down. He looks towards Sara and smiles. Sara moves closer and smiles back at him.

"That was a very brave thing you did Chris."

Sara places her hand in his and looks into his eyes very affectionately for a moment before turning away quickly, trying not to let him see her blushing. As she turns her head away, she notices the girl standing quietly by the door and raises up cautiously. She walks over to Kayla, her eyes never straying off of the strange girl.

"Who is that girl?" She whispers to Kayla. Kayla follows Sara's gaze and looks towards the girl.

"I'm not sure, she was with Michael when we picked them up on the highway. Her name is Megan, but that's all she has said since we found them walking up the highway."

Sara glances around at everyone else before walking towards Megan, smiling at her slightly.

"Hey I'm Sara. It's Megan isn't it?" Megan looks at Sara shyly and smiles.

"It's nice to meet you Sara," Megan replies. She glances over at Michael before turning her attention back to Sara. "I have something that I think you should see." She pulls a flash drive out of her pocket. "Do you have a computer?"

"Yeah there's an old computer in my room. I think it might still work," Sara takes the flash drive from Megan, turning it around in her hands. "So what's on this flash drive anyway?" She asks as she leads Megan to her bedroom.

"I'm not exactly sure, all of the files on it seem to be locked. I haven't been able to figure out how to unlock them," Megan tells her, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

Sara puts the flash drive into the computer and opens the folder that pops up. She tries to open one of the sub-files, but she can't seem to open any of them. A single word pops up on the screen every time she clicks on a file, password. The only file on it that seems to open up is one with a single picture of her sister Julie in it.

"Where did you find this?" Sara stares at all the locked files on the computer screen in confusion.

"I took it from Thomas. Nobody else knows about this. I was going to tell Michael, but I just couldn't."

She pauses and looks over at Sara. Before she can say anything else, Chris walks into the room. Sara quickly closes out of the files as Chris walks over to her.

"Hey what's up?" He looks over at the computer screen curiously.

"Nothing we were just talking, so how's your chest?" Sara quickly tries changing the subject, trying to draw his attention away from the computer.

"It's still a little sore, but I think I'll make it," He grins as he looks at Sara. "I was actually on my way to my bedroom when I noticed that your door was still open. And I couldn't help but overhear the two of you talking about some kind of locked computer files." He pauses when he sees Sara's mortified expression.

"So what, were you eavesdropping on us?" Megan looks at him nervously, more out of fear then being nervous. Chris looks back at Megan and shakes his head slightly. "How much did you overhear exactly?"

"I didn't hear much, I just overheard something about a flash drive with some locked files on it that no one else but the two of you knows about. I didn't mean to eavesdrop on you, it's just that your door was open and I couldn't help but to overhear the two of you talking."

Sara can see the sincerity in Chris's eyes as he apologizes.

"Chris please you can't tell anyone else about this," Sara pleads, begging him silently as she looks into his eyes. He looks back up at her and smiles.

"Don't worry Sara, I'm not going to say anything to anyone else," he tells her. "In fact, I might be able to help you unlock the files if you want."

"What do you mean, can you really unlock the files Chris?" Sara looks at him slightly suspiciously.

"I can try, just let me sit in front of the computer and take a look at the files."

Chris places his hands on the back of Sara's chair, waiting patiently on her to stand up. She glances over to Megan quickly before loading the files back up. She stands up slowly and Chris slides into the seat. He stares at the files for a moment before clicking on the first one.

"Well Chris lets see what you can do."

Sara smiles as she sits down on the bed beside Megan. As soon as it asks him for the password, he types something in and it pops up incorrect. He smiles when he sees a hint icon appear in the corner. He clicks on it and a single word shows up on the screen. 'Name.'

"Now we are getting somewhere, let's try Sara first," he smiles as he types Sara's name out on the keyboard. Incorrect. "What about Julie?" He wonders out loud. Incorrect again. "Okay what about your mom's name?"

He types Kendra's name on the keyboard. It doesn't work either. Nothing he types in seems to work. After having no luck with Jeffery or even Jerry's names, he sighs, about to give up. His eyes happen to glance down at the hint icon again and he sees that there are now two words there. 'Full name.' He smiles as he types Julie Grierson into the password box. To his amazement, the files unlock and all these weird charts and documents pop up.

"Wow Chris you did it!" Sara exclaims excitedly as she jumps up from the bed and looks at the computer screen. She gives Chris a quick peck on the cheek. "Now the question is, what the heck is all of this?" She stares curiously at the documents on the screen.

"Its mostly just copies of Julie's birth certificate, blood work, heart rate charts and other medical charts. Hmmm this is interesting though. I thought you said Julie was in a coma."

Chris stares at a patient document showing copies of prescriptions for pain killers and sleeping pills.

"Yeah she was supposed to have been in a coma why?" Sara asks as she stares at the document in front of her. "Can you print these out for me Chris?"

"Yeah I'll print them off for you. And if she was in a coma then why would they have been keeping her on a medically induced coma?" Chris asks as he begins printing out the documents for Sara.

Megan grabs the documents as each one comes out of the printer.

"This doesn't make any sense." Megan whispers to no one in particular as she reads over the medical documents. The signature at the bottom of one of the pages confuses her even more. "Hey Sara isn't your moms name Kendra?"

"Yeah, why what is it?" Sara looks over at Megan with worry. Megan just reaches the document she was looking at out towards Sara.

"Take a look at the signature at the bottom, your mom is the one who signed this, giving the doctors permission to keep Julie asleep after she woke up from her coma six months later," Megan explains as Sara takes the document from her and begins reading it. "When she woke up, your mom had the doctors keep her asleep."

"Why would she do this?" Sara looks down at the document with disbelief. Megan and Chris look over at her as she sits back down on the bed. "I think it's time I was told the truth about everything." She says, suddenly jumping up and storming out of the room.

Chris and Megan just stare after her as she leaves the room.