Chapter 23

Amaris went with Anna’s family to the police station where they filed a report with the officer on duty. They were advised not to go home tonight to give the investigators time to go out and take a look and document. They were told that there had been a rash of break-ins. Most of them sounding like theirs with the home being broken into and things destroyed, but no one was hurt and nothing taken, just vandalized.

Anna’s Mom and Dad opted to goto the drive thru burger place at the edge of town near the highway since it had taken so long and they still needed to find a hotel for the night. It turned out that they had to goto the next town over since the police had been advising everyone that was broken into to goto the hotel for the night the small one in town was full.

They rented two adjoining rooms so that they could go back and forth between the two. Anna and Amaris’ room was a “party room” as it had an adjoining door on the other side as well. The place was not very updated, but it was clean and bright. They all sat at the small table in the room and ate their meals as a family. Anna’s Mom had said that they were keeping the school closed for a few more days so Amaris could stay with them at the hotel or their house once they got everything cleaned up. Amaris thanked them and told them that she would help them get everything back in order when the police gave them permission to go back to their house. Amaris was feeling guilty as she suspected that the reason their house had been broken into was that the men that were looking for her had gone looking at their house too.

Anna’s Dad had found a deck of cards in the glove box of his car so the four of them played cards late into the evening. When it was time for bed they said good night and closed the adjoining door between the rooms but did not lock it. Anna and Amaris had a queen size bed in their room which they were sharing. The girls took off their clothes and slept in their T-shirts and underwear. As they settled down to sleep, Amaris’s mind began spinning with all the things that had happened in the past 2 days. Finally, as she was dozing off, Anna’s voice quiet in the darkness whispered “Mari, are you awake?” Amaris rolled over and faced her. “I’m still awake. Not sure I will be able to sleep with the everything running through my head.” Anna rolled to face Amaris “Are you worried about Gran?” She said tucking her hands under her face. “Yes. I know I told the police about what happened, when we were at the station, and they said that they would contact the authorities up the mountain, but we have not heard anything.”

Anna looked at Amaris with an odd look. “So, what did you mean when you said that this Adam guy told you that Mr. Bruce was in love with you?” Amaris blushed. She knew that Anna could not see it in the dark, but the thought of Lyle being in love with her was both fantastical and alluring. She had to admit to herself that she did find him very attractive, but so did half the girls in school.

Finally with a sigh, Amaris whispered “Honestly I do not know what to believe. So much has happened, and everytime I try to get answers, something else happens. His brother Adam said that Lyle was chosen to guard me because he loved me. However Gran had told me earlier that Grover was originally guarding me, and when he got too old Lyle was chosen to come here and take the teaching post to keep and eye on me. He has been teaching at the high school for 3 years. That can’t be right. If the reason he came here to teach was because he was chosen because he was in love with me then I would have been 14 when he fell in love with me. I did not really know him until this year when I had his class. I must have misunderstood Adam. However he did kiss me.” Amaris admitted, as Anna sat bolt upright in bed. She covered her gaping mouth with both hands as she let out a silent scream of surprise. Anna laid back down and grabbed Amaris’ shoulders and said “Really!!! No Way!!” Amaris nodded. She suddenly felt like she was not sure that she should have admitted this. Lyle was still technically her teacher after all.

Just then a light came from the night stand behind Anna followed by a vibrating sound.

Anna’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion and then she rolled over as she said aloud “Who could be calling me this late at night? It’s an unknown number.” As Anna looked at the screen Amaris reached up to grab her arm to tell her to let it ring, but Anna had already answered it. “Hello?” There was a long silence from Anna as an unintelligible voice on the other end spoke. “Oh hey! Hi. Yes she is here. We went to a motel by the highway since our house was ransacked too. Do you want to talk with her?” After a beat Anna handed the phone to Amaris. “Who is it?” She mouthed. Anna answered by making a smoochie face and then laughing and heading off into the bathroom.

Amaris took the phone, looked at it, and took a deep breath and said “Hello?”

“Amaris? Why did you leave? Where are you? Never mind I think I know where you are. I’m coming to you. Stay put.” After that the phone went to a dial tone. Amaris did not know what to think. She had only said one word. She put the phone down on the night stand and lay back down.

A few minutes later Anna came walking out of the bathroom and stood in the doorway. She leaned on the frame and struck a pose “so what did the hot teacher want?” And started laughing. Just then both girls turned toward the 2nd party door as they heard the handle turn, but nothing happened as their side was locked. The girls looked back at each other and then Anna shrugged her shoulders. “I checked it too when we came in. Maybe we have some late night neighbors.” There was a scraping and a rattling noise coming from the door now. Amaris jumped up and ran to the adjoining door with Anna’s parents room. Anna followed her and Amaris open the door to Anna’s parents room at the same time the party door on the other side burst open. Amaris flung open the door and ran inside. She immediately ran to the door leading outside, only to hear the same rattle and scrape coming from that door handle. She flew across the room as the men reached the adjoining door. Anna and her father yelled at the same time “Go, we’ve got this!” Amaris did not look back she went into the bathroom and grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her hand and punched out the window above the toilet.  After using th towel to clear the glass, she  swung her feet out, and slid down to hit the ground just as she heard growling. She looked around and saw nothing and realized that it was coming from back behind her. They brought dogs with them? Great so that meant that they could track her. Amaris had felt off and anxious all night, but now that she was outside and being chased, she was focused and in over drive. She decided to run down the embankment and follow the base of the overpass for a little while. It was a dark cloudy night. It was supposed to storm. It was actually lucky, as tonight would have been the full moon, and she would have been exposed. She could still see well enough to start jogging through the under brush. Suddenly Amaris could hear something moving fast in the underbrush and her heart accelerated and her adrenaline kicked in and she began to run as fast as she could go. The trees trunks and branches began flashing by her. Feeling a fantastic burst of energy, she felt like she was flying through the air. As she sailed over a drainage ditch wall, she looked down and realized it was a very long drop to the cement below. She realized her mistake too late and began to panic. As she began to fall, the moon was finally breaking through the clouds to highlight the whole area even more.  She knew it was going to hurt when she hit the ground, however the pain came before she hit the cement. Excruciating, mind numbing pain that made her loose all sense of consciousness.