Unraveling Soren by Marisa Maichel (books under 200 pages txt) 📕

four hundred dollars in cash, and three debit cards, and four credit cards. I called the numbers on all of them and checked the balances. She’s got over a million dollars in all.”

“I found this,” Ethan said, holding up a white stick.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Pregnancy test. It’s positive.”

I put my hand on the table, then felt a piece of paper. It was a pamphlet about donating human eggs.

“Look at this,” I said, holding up the pamphlet.

“That settles it,” Louis said. “She had a boyfriend slash sire that got her pregnant, and she got into a fight with him and he killed her in a fit of rage.”

“I did not,” said a male voice. We all spun over to the entryway. There was a male vampire standing there. He had short blond hair, blue eyes, and was looking grim in a leather jacket and boots. “I’d never kill Verity.”

“Max, what are you doing here?” Father asked, stepping forward.

The vampire nodded toward the dead female. “I’m her sire slash boyfriend. She was my soulmate.”

“I’m so sorry,” Father said. “Are you the one who found her?”

“Yes, and I called Ethan. I moved her here because I thought she’d be safe. I was wrong.”

“It’s not your fault, Max,” Louis said.

“Oh, but it is. My last words to her were unforgivable. Now she’s gone, and so is our baby.” He looked at me. “I know who you are. You’re Reese. I haven’t seen you since you were a baby. You’ve grown up well.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“You’re welcome.” He looked at the dead girl. “Verity. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I’ll be with you soon enough.”

“Don’t say that, Max,” Louis said. “Can you tell us who her family is?”

“Of course. Their name is Slaughterman, which you’ve already gathered. The youngest daughter, Vanessa, is a stripper and a prostitute. The two parents, Sophia and Arthur, own an art gallery and Arthur is an insurance lawyer. The oldest brother, Christopher, investigates insurance fraud in his father’s practice.”

“We’ll have to contact them,” Father said. “Come with me, Reese.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The house was in an upper-middle-class section of town. Close to Roth High School, a small school smack dab in the middle of North Hampton High and Martin Luther King. I had dressed in a blazer and my father made himself look like a cool cop in a leather jacket and heavy leather boots.

He rang the doorbell, and immediately, a dog started barking.

A woman opened the door. She was tall, with long brown hair and blue eyes. She wore a professional business suit that was pressed and gold jewelry that matched.

“Hello, is your name Sophia Slaughterman?” Father asked. “My name is Mordecai Emerson. I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

“What bad news?” The woman looked and sounded worried.

“Do you have a daughter named Verity? I’m afraid she’s dead.”

Sophia stared at us in shock, and then burst into tears.

“I knew it,” she said. “I knew that she was gone. How long has she been dead?”

“Just a few hours,” I replied. “My name is Reese, by the way.”

“Was it him?” she asked. “Was it her boyfriend?”

“No, it wasn’t him,” Father assured her. “He’s the one who found her, and he called us right away. We’re friends of his.”

“What’s going on?” A tall, grey-haired man who wore thin glasses came into the room and eyed us. “Who are these people?” he asked.

“Art, these are police. Verity’s dead.”

“Oh, we’re not police, just friends,” Father said.

“Verity’s dead?” Art looked stricken. “I knew it. I knew she’d wind up dead. It’s all my fault.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked.

“She and I…we got into a fight. Words were said. I slapped her.”

“You what?” Apparently, this was news to Sophia. “I knew it. I knew you had hurt her! Did you rape her, too?”

“No, Sophia, I didn’t-“

“When Verity was fifteen years old, she was raped,” Sophia told us. “It was by someone we thought was our friend. His name was Nales.”

There was a shocked pause. Then I reacted.

“Nales!”

Father grabbed me around the waist, pinning my arms in place.

“Was his name Brian?” he asked.

Sophia shook her head. “No, it was Puck, I think.”

I groaned, going limp in my father’s arms.

“That’s Cartwright’s dad’s name,” I said.

“Maybe it was Cartwright,” Sophia said. “I don’t know anymore. She said both of those names often after it happened.”

“Reese, calm down,” Father said. He looked at the Slaughtermans. “Brian Nales’ son Michael was responsible for raping Reese’s girlfriend and getting her pregnant.”

Sophia and Arthur groaned, both of them sinking to the floor.

Father carried me out to the car. He set me in the passenger seat and buckled me up.

“Stay calm, son,” he said. “I’ll finish the interview.”

I took several deep breaths. My heart was in my stomach. I had to call Sarah, make sure she was okay. Oh, but school wasn’t over yet. She’d still be in class. She’d hate me if I got her in trouble for having a cell phone in class.

I closed my eyes and before I knew it, Father was getting back in the car, and I was being roused from sleep. I’d accidentally taken a short nap. School was now over, and my father didn’t look happy.

“Father?” I asked.

“Son,” he replied. “Are you hungry?”

“I’m stressed,” I said. “I’m angry. Why didn’t I see it before?”

“No one could have known, son.”

Sarah was now working two jobs, one as a waitress, the other one as a barista at the bookstore café called Pon’s. I got her schedule from Mom and went over to Pon’s.

She had put in hoop earrings and applied dark red lipstick which went well with her dark skin tone. She wore a blue apron and was being spoken to like an underling by a man in a business suit. I growled, but she still smiled and remained cheerful. She handed the man his coffee, and he put a dollar in her tip jar.

“What was his problem?” I asked.

“Bad investments,” she replied. “What would you like, Reese?”

“I need to ask you a few questions. When’s your next break?”

“I just started. Can it wait?”

“No, it can’t. There’s been another death. A female vampire this time. The family knows the Cartwrights and Nales families.”

Her smile disappeared. Then she turned to the back. “Lucy, when’s my break?” she called.

“In one hour,” came an answering feminine voice.

“I get off in an hour,” she said. “You can read a book or something. We just got a shipment of the latest Stephen King novel.”

Instead, I explored the mall, stopping at the food court, played on my phone, tried on boots at the shoe store, and went into Hot Topic where I bought a Supernatural Castiel figurine and a few band shirts.

I went back and Sarah was chatting away to a pretty Asian woman while she untied her apron. The Asian woman took over, and Sarah met me at a table by a large young adult fantasy section.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“Ten years ago, the girl was raped by either Brian Nales or Puck Cartwright,” I said. She looked down at her hands, and I knew she was remembering her own experience. “And since Michael Nales is dead, we can’t ask him. And his parents hate us for keeping the baby.”

“They hate me,” she corrected. Her eyes filled with tears.

“Baby, I’m sorry,” I said, taking her small hands in my large ones. “This is a bad time, but..,” I gave the signal to Duke, who was hiding in the corner, and then I pulled out a small black box and got on one knee. “Will you marry me?”

Her tears spilled over. “Yes, yes, yes! I will marry you!”

Surprisingly there was some clapping. Apparently I hadn’t been as subtle as I’d hoped. I slipped the gold diamond ring on her left ring finger. When I stood up, she wrapped her arms around my waist.

“I’m so glad you did this,” she said.

“I’m sorry there’s not a big crowd…”

“That doesn’t matter! We can do a bigger one later. Yes, I will marry you.”

I kissed her, then. She got into it, and I had to slowly break apart from her. She looked disappointed, but she smiled and looked back at Lucy.

“Congratulations,” Lucy said, smiling. “You can go ahead and take the rest of the day off if you want.”

“Thanks, Lucy,” Sarah said. She turned and looked at me. “Ready?”

“Always.”

I grabbed her hand and we left the bookstore. I nodded to Duke, who turned the camera off.

Sarah spotted him and grinned at me.

“What do you want for dinner?” I asked.

“I think Zie’s making steak tonight. Steak and peas and mashed potatoes.”

“What else is going on?”

“Um…what else?” She was avoiding my eyes.

“Sarah, tell me.”

“Okay, okay. I think…I think Mom killed Kellan.”

I was not expecting that. “I agree,” I replied. “She’d do anything for her children, even her stepchildren.”

“Even me and Sabine. I think…I think she also killed my mom. Mom didn’t die from alcohol poisoning. Her blood was drained. I read the autopsy. Don’t ask me how I got it.” She looked at me.

“I’m sorry, Sarah.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Yeah, but she’s my mother. Her mistakes are a reflection of me.”

“No, her mistakes are a reflection of her. I know why she did it. She did it out of love. She’s acted more like a mother to me and Sabine than our real mother ever has.” Tears pricked her eyes. She grabbed a tissue out of her purse and dabbed at her eyes. I felt responsible, even though I knew I wasn’t.

She got into her car, and I got into mine. We drove to the Nicolai house.

Mother was sitting on the couch reading a women’s magazine when Sarah and I appeared in front of her.

“Hello, children,” she greeted with a smile. Then she noticed Sarah. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

“Did you kill my mother?” Sarah broke in. Mother’s eyes filled with tears.

“I had to. She would have killed you! She hit you! She abused you! She stole your money, and you were helpless! I had to do it. I’m so sorry, Sarah.”

She hugged Sarah, who tensed, then relaxed in my mother’s arms. She kissed Sarah’s head, then ran her fingers through the curls.

“I love you, baby,” she said. “You needed me, and I could see that. My instincts said to keep you safe, so I did.” She looked over at me. “And I love you as well, Reese.”

“You killed Kellan,” I said. Her eyes hardened.

“He called the girls whores and Jezebels! He was toxic to Kieran! I did it to keep my children safe!”

“Mom…can’t…breathe,” Sarah puffed. Mom slowly released her grip, but held on to Sarah.

“YOU WHAT?!”

Sarah jumped, and Mother turned and hissed at Kieran. His face was red, his hands were shaking, and he was huffing.

“YOU KILLED MY BEST FRIEND! YOU BITCH! I’LL KILL YOU!”

He leaped toward Mother, who shoved Sarah into me. Kieran pounced on Mother, and began pounding the shit out of her. Alexander rushed into the room and grabbed Kieran around the waist, pulling him off his stepmother.

“She killed him! She killed him, Father!”

“I know! I know!”

“YOU KNEW?! YOU SON OF A BITCH!”

Kieran turned and headbutted Alexander, who dropped Kieran. Kieran scrambled over us, and then he paused and looked at me and Sarah.

“On second thought,” he said, pulling out a knife, “I’ll just kill one of you. Or both of you. I’m not picky.”

He grabbed Sarah’s arm and squeezed it. I saw red and I bit Kieran’s hand. He screeched in pain, then his incisors grew. He leapt on me, and started squeezing my throat. Alexander peeled Kieran’s fingers off my throat, and then carried him to the front door and threw him bodily out the door.

“I’ll send your things to your new address, wherever it is,” Alexander said. “Stay away from this family!”

Kieran cursed and spat blood into the grass.

Sarah’s arm was bruised, but thankfully not broken. She stayed up in her room, and I heard her crying. Mother herself was crying on the couch, Alexander’s arm around her.

I went for a drive around town. I went to