The Dead And Buried Part 25

"I knew she kept a diary. I snuck into the house when no one was home."

"You used the trellis," I said.

Nodding, she said, "Kayla told me that's how she snuck out of the house sometimes. I just wanted to read the diary. To see what she'd written about Kane. To make sure she wasn't using him for something. I only wanted to protect my brother, that's all."

"But you never found the diary," Donovan pointed out. "Even when you snuck in again after Jade had moved in. So what happened?"

"While I was looking for the diary Kayla came home with you." She closed her eyes, remembering. "You were fighting. You'd found out she was cheating with Kane. You were furious. You broke up with her. She actually ... begged for your forgiveness. Sniveling, crying. I'd never seen her like that - weak and vulnerable. She tried to explain herself, justify it."

"How?" I said, though I already knew.

"She cheated with Kane because she felt guilty," Donovan answered.

Ellie nodded. "She was stealing the Bodiford Scholarship. Just as you said at my house this morning."

I looked sharply at Donovan. "She told you about the scholarship that day? You knew and didn't say anything?"

Donovan said, "Yes, but it didn't matter. Kane had a lacrosse game that day. After I found out she'd died, that was the first thing I checked. I knew he didn't kill her and I never imagined ..." His eyes went to Ellie. Her small stature, her innocent stare. No one would ever think her capable of murder. But, in protecting Kayla's memory and not telling anyone about her and Kane ... Donovan had also protected a murderer.

"How could you?" he said to Ellie.

"That scholarship was rightfully Kane's," she spat. "It was his future. We have nothing. Our mother works minimum wage. And financial aid is such bull. He'd graduate six figures in debt. Meanwhile, Kayla grew up rich. Never had to work a part-time job on top of her studies like Kane did. She and her mother racked up charge after charge with designer clothes, five-hundred-dollar handbags. Sungla.s.ses worth what my mother makes in a week. The whole family was always so concerned with appearances that they lived over their means and then when her dad got laid off, they had nothing. So now, out of nowhere, she's going to qualify for the need portion of the scholarship. And she was going to take it. She didn't deserve it."

Rage reddened Donovan's cheeks. "She didn't deserve to die!"

Ellie's chest rose up and down, but she ignored Donovan and continued in an eerily calm voice, "You left her alone, sobbing. You slammed the door. And I was standing in the hallway, taking it all in. My brother worshipped her and she was going to ruin his future. Just like that. The anger built up inside me. I was shaking with the power of it. And it just sort of ... exploded out of me. I rushed down the hall and pushed her from behind. It wasn't until she landed at the bottom that I'd even realized what I'd done." She looked back and forth between us. "I didn't plan it, I swear."

"Was she still alive?" I asked.

"No. I walked down and ... it was obvious. She wasn't breathing and her neck was ..." She buried her face in her hands. "I wish I hadn't done it. I wish I had snuck out of the house while she was crying. Or, even if she saw me and ruined me at school ... nothing Kayla could do to me could amount to what I've done to myself. I shouldn't have pushed her. I should have just gone home and told Kane. I should have left. If I had done that one thing, all our lives would be different."

"Does Kane know?" I asked.

"No. And when he and my mother find out ..."

Ellie's mouth snapped shut as if she couldn't bear to finish. But I knew why the tears rolled down her cheeks. Not for Kayla. But because everything she, Kane, and her mother had worked so hard for - all the planning, all the work - it was all ruined now. Because of the one moment of Ellie's life that she lost control. One moment.

"If I could go back in time ..." Ellie said, more to Donovan than me.

"I know," I said. I reached into my pocket for my phone. "We have to call the cops. Don't try to run."

She shrugged. "There's no point. You can't run from yourself. Part of me is glad it's finally going to be over. And I won't have to hold it inside anymore." She leaned up against the wall for support. "Secrets are like a disease. They infect you and destroy you from the inside out."

"I'm at six Silver Road and we need the police right away," I said into the phone and then hung up. The details could wait until they arrived.

The three of us stood at the top of the stairs, in the place where Ellie had pushed Kayla, and waited in silence.

Silence. I straightened. I'd been concentrating so much on Ellie's confession that I hadn't noticed Kayla's energy disappear. Had she found peace? Had she really left?

My mother's pendant had begun to irritate my neck. I reached for it and gasped as it burned my fingers. What the? I looked down. The green peridot seemed brighter than normal, glowing almost.

A sharp intake of breath came from Ellie. I looked up to see her head rock back. Her eyes shut. Her entire body shuddered as convulsions racked her small frame. I looked at Donovan, unsure of what to do. But before we could act, a strange, guttural sound came from her. She slowly opened her eyes, c.o.c.ked her head to the side, then gave us a bitter smile. And I knew ... it wasn't Ellie anymore.

Tendrils of fear unfurled in my chest. "Kayla," I whispered.

Donovan stared at her with growing horror as he realized what I already knew. Ellie/Kayla looked at him. Before, emptiness had filled Colby's eyes. But now Ellie's eyes were filled with love.

In a soft voice, she said to Donovan, "I'm sorry for what I did to you. You always did deserve better than me." And then, as if in suggestion, her eyes slid to mine.

"You got what you wanted," I said coldly. "Now go. Forever."

"I will," she said. "In just a moment. But, on my way out, there's one last thing to do ..."

That familiar menacing smile spread across her lips. She took an awkward step toward the top stair.

"Wait," I said, suddenly nervous. "What are you doing?"

Ellie/Kayla looked over her shoulder at me. "Getting my revenge."

"No, don't!" Donovan yelled.

"We told the police," I said. "Ellie will be punished."

"A pretty little honor student with a wonderful sob story?" Ellie/Kayla snorted. "They'll call it an accident. She needs to pay."

My mother's pendant burned against my skin. I felt feverish - from the inside out. "Don't do this," I said.

"She did it to me," Ellie/Kayla replied.

"So be better than her!" Donovan said. "Be the girl I wanted you to be. Be the girl I thought you could be."

The hard look in her eyes faltered and softened for a moment. I thought he'd done it. Convinced her. But it was only a fleeting second and her determination returned. I realized it first and without thinking, reached out. I wrapped my arms around her from behind, hoping to have the strength to pull her back, away from the top step. But she was unnaturally strong. The writhing ma.s.s of our bodies tangled together and launched off the landing.

Donovan's eyes widened with fear. His hands reached out for me, but - too late - grasped only air. I screamed loudly in surprise as my feet no longer touched the ground. Ellie/Kayla had jumped, even with me attached to her. It wasn't a perfect swan dive, though. We fell forward and to the side, awkwardly, haphazardly. I let out a second, smaller scream of pain when my head smashed into the wall. And then, clinging to each other, we continued to fall.

Probably only two seconds had pa.s.sed, but everything was in slow motion. It was like my mind knew - this is the last moment of my life. Slow it down, make it last. I was flying through the air.

Ellie lost her grasp. Like a cell splitting in two, we separated, identical expressions of horror on our faces as gravity pulled us down. Ellie's eyes were her own - terrified, confused. Kayla had gone, left us forever.

Left us to die.

But then, suddenly, my body was filled with electricity. My skin hummed with an energy like nothing I'd ever experienced. I felt connected ... tethered ... to something or someone else. And instead of falling, I was momentarily frozen in place. Instead of the pull of gravity, I felt the weightless sensation of floating. Of being held ...

Cradled.

The scent of jasmine filled my senses. The sudden familiarity of it was overwhelming. An ache gripped my chest and my tightened lungs were unable to take in a breath.

But then my feet were planted on a stair. My hand reached out and grasped the railing. And the energy left me. Only a hint of jasmine remained in the air. And at the moment I realized I was safe, I heard the thud of Ellie's body hitting the bottom.

Head first.

Two weeks later, I walked out of the police station after giving my final statement. I sat on the steps to wait for him.

The carpet my parents had installed saved Ellie's life. The police arrived to find her unconscious body at the bottom of the stairs. Donovan and I were lucky that she lived, as it would've looked mighty suspicious if she hadn't. Despite a severe concussion, she was fine.

We left out the ghost stuff and kept it simple, telling the police that Ellie came to my house and confessed to Donovan and me that she was the one who had pushed Kayla. Then, in an ironic twist, she herself fell down the stairs.

A half-truth, but it was the most they were going to get.

The police told me there was going to be some sort of plea deal. So my work was done. No trial. That didn't mean Ellie would get off easy. But the specifics of her punishment didn't matter to me as much as finally knowing the truth about that day and bringing peace to my home.

Looking back, we'd all been haunted by the dead and buried. Not just the house. We'd carried ghosts inside of us, making our spirits weary. Dad, Marie, and I with my mother. Donovan, Faye, Kane, and the others with Kayla. And perhaps heavier than the ghosts were the secrets we carried.

But we opened ourselves up and now, just as the house was free, so were we. At last.

At first, Dad and Marie still wanted to sell the house and move. It was like we'd flipped places. I was the one telling them the house was safe and we should stay. Colby helped me convince them. His mood had lifted and he was back to his sweet, cheerful old self.

Kane removed himself from qualifying for the scholarship - which might have been taken away anyhow. He was now hoping for a partial lacrosse scholarship to a state school. After everything that happened, I couldn't be his friend. But he needed someone now more than ever, with what his family was going through. So I told him something I'd learned from Kayla's diary. Something that made him give Faye another shot. They both deserved a chance at happiness.

Shuffling footsteps came from behind me and I looked up to see Donovan settling down next to me on the stairs. The tightness lifted from my shoulders. Just having him beside me made the sky seem brighter, the temperature warmer.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his blue eyes lit with concern.

Those were the same words he'd said that day, when my mother had saved my life on the staircase. I knew it had been her - the jasmine scent, the way she'd held me. I'd worn the pendant ever since, but never felt her presence again. Still, the gemstone that used to give me only anguish now filled me with a sense of tranquility. How my mother had managed to possess me - to save me - I don't know. Maybe her pendant had opened a door like the Ouija board had done for Kayla. Maybe Donovan was right when he'd said it doesn't hurt to believe in a little magic now and then.

I wove my fingers through his. "I'm great. How'd it go in there?" He'd had to give his final statement also.

"Fine. I'm just glad it's done." He brought my hand up to his mouth and kissed it. "And that you're all right." He took in a deep breath. "Talking about that day ... remembering you falling ... I was so scared that you were ..." He shuddered and squeezed my hand.

"I'm here," I rea.s.sured him. "It's over."

He reached out to touch my face and let his thumb trail down my cheek and my jawline, sending a pleasurable shiver through me.

He spoke quietly, his eyes never leaving mine. "I spent months in this ... limbo. I was alive, technically, but only going through the motions. Kayla had done these awful things and suffered a terrible end. I felt all this guilt. And everyone in school, aside from a couple friends, turned their backs on me. I think I just ... lost faith in humankind." He took another deep breath. "But then you came along. You woke me up. Made me see the good in the world again. You saved me, Jade."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little box. "I wanted to give you a little something, a token or ... whatever." His cheeks reddened as he stumbled over his words. "To tell you how much you mean to me."

I opened the black velvet box. A pair of drop earrings sat nestled inside, the gemstones a deep, dark green. Almost a match to my peridot pendant, but these weren't peridot. They were emeralds.

I didn't bother hiding the blotches on my neck. I was pretty sure he was used to them by now.

"For your collection," he said.

"Thank you." I ran my finger over the smooth stones. "They're beautiful."

"I chose them because, um, well I looked up the meanings online and I wanted, um ..."

Seeing him so nervous was the most adorable thing I'd ever witnessed.

He took a moment to catch his breath and tried again. "Do you know what the gemstone means?"

I couldn't help the smile that overtook my face. "Emerald is called 'the stone of successful love.'"

"Yeah," he said, matching me smile for smile and blush for blush. "That."

When I was in elementary school, I wrote my first book. It was only around ten pages long and involved a house that swallowed children who walked by. So I would like to thank my parents, for continuing to buy me horror books even after they read that. And thanks to my teachers for encouraging me. That little girl with the freaky story didn't grow up to become a serial killer. Just a writer.

As always thanks to my agent, Scott Miller; my editor, Aimee Friedman; and the fantastic team at Scholastic, including Lauren Felsenstein, Nikki Mutch, Becky Shapiro, Stacy Lellos, Bess Braswell, Elizabeth Parisi, Starr Mayo, Rachel Horowitz, Janelle DeLuise, Abby McAden, and David Levithan. You all rock!

Huge props to:.

Susan Happel Edwards, for keeping me sane. Relatively.

Rebecca Micucci, for jewelry design info, letting me borrow all your gemstone catalogs, and being hilarious on a daily basis.

Much love to:.

My parents, extended family, and the outlaws.

Mike and Ryan, who are always the highlights of my day.

Copyright 2012 by Kim Harrington.