Catching Temptation (In Darkness She Fades (Book 1) Read online

  Catching Temptation

  In Darkness She Fades Series

  Book One

  By

  Sarah Erber

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2014 by Sarah Erber

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States.

  ISBN 978-0-615-96533-8 (e-book)

  For my mother, Louann,

  who encouraged me to keep writing

  and

  to my sister, Ruthann,

  for helping me write the song, Alice Demented

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  1 Rosewood

  2 Rosewood High

  3 Tormented

  4 In Darkness She Fades

  5 The Laws of Rosewood

  6 Friends & Enemies

  7 Five Minutes

  8 Auditions & Accusations

  9 Halloween Masquerade Ball

  10 Jenkins’ Secret

  11 Stricken

  12 Reviving Memories

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Works in Progress

  Prologue

  Airbags explode. My body is in agony as the car rolls down the hill. Sheets of music sail throughout the car. For a brief moment, everything remains airborne. A travel mug crunches against my nose. Glass shatters everywhere and falls like hail. It stings my body. My opera dress disappears out of a broken window. Mom’s body keeps jerking without the protection of her seat belt. The roof slams against the ground and teeters back and forth, creating a moan.

  Gasoline fumes overpower the air.

  Heat scorches my skin as my long white hair dangles to the roof. Mom’s sprawled out form lays motionless beneath Dad who is still buckled to the passenger seat.

  “M-Mom!” I untangle myself from the seat belt and land at an awkward angle. It hurts to move…to breathe. I stretch my fingers toward Mom’s henna tattooed hand. It’s my fault. Hot tears stream down my cheeks.

  Cackles and a strong scent of pine surround me. A rough voice whispers my name, “Temptation…”

  Panic rises into my chest. I grip my parent’s lifeless hands. Scoping out all of the exits, I cannot subdue the tremors shooting through my body, nor can I suppress a nameless fear I have developed over the past month. An invisible pain keeps haunting me and returns stronger every day, like the moon that keeps coming back bigger and bigger, until it reaches its peak, and brings out the madness in broken humans.

  My peak contains monsters.

  Flames lick at the exits. Gnarled hands, the texture of rough tree bark, grip my ankles, hauling me out of the car, and into the darkness of the forest.

  Collapsing lungs voids me of speech. I dig my nails into the cool earth, in attempt to stop the monsters from taking me from my family. I long to fight back, but my broken body refuses to move. Dry pine needles pierce my skin as the monsters drag me across the ground. The cold October air replaces the heat from the fire. Ashes dust the sky, stealing the beauty of the starry night.

  The hands release me on a bed of dried leaves.

  Gasping.

  Inhaling.

  My lungs are struggling to work properly. Sucking in one giant breath for a final attempt at life, my world swirls, but before the darkness can claim me, an ugly monster wearing a strange mask constructed of bones, leans over my broken body. My breath escapes my bloody lips in a gurgled scream. Heart wavering in its rhythmic beating, I feel my eyes bulge.

  The monster grins.

  I die.

  Chapter One

  Rosewood

  I hate cars. Cars lead to accidents, accidents lead to hallucinations, hallucinations lead to doctors, and doctors prescribe visits to psychiatric hospitals. The car jolts as it hits a dry pothole on West Ironwood Drive. Closing my eyes, I try meditating to block my panic attack.

  I touch the keychain photo clipped to my purse of my best friend, Karma Linn. My skin will never retain a milky white glow which Karma possesses. Instead, the Indian blood I inherited from my late mother gives my skin a tanned glow. Mom would always mention how lucky I am to have eyes, the color of jade. I would have been a goddess in India, especially because of my natural white hair; a genetic trait from dad.

  Eyes flickering to my reflection in the window, I wonder – if mom were still alive – would she recognize me now that I have purple contacts and the top half of my hair dyed black. Another jolt from the car causes me to dig my nails into the seat.

  “Why do we have to move to Michigan? I liked Virginia.”

  “For the last time, Nathaniel, stop your silly whining. Your father wanted to move here and we agreed.”

  “Pft! You mean you agreed.”

  “Daniel, don’t you start either.” Aunt Sally adjusts her rear-view mirror and spots her teenage son mumbling insults. He shakes his hair that resembles a haystack drenched in rainwater.

  I tug my plastic earphones out. They tap against my earrings. The light beat of a song from my favorite belly dancing music, pulses against my neck. “Can you tell us what city–?”

  “No. I’m not telling you what city we’re moving too, because you’ll all complain about how boring it’ll be.”

  I attempted to get this information out of Aunt Sally before we left Urbanna, but Aunt Sally insisted on not saying a word. Karma helped me buy a pre-paid cell phone, so at least we could keep in touch. The mystery of what town I am going to live in sucks, similar to going on a blind date. Not knowing what to expect, entices endless possibilities.

  “Whatever.” Daniel crosses his arms over his football jersey and relaxes in his seat. The leather beneath him makes the sound of tape ripping off skin. “Are we there yet?”

  “We should be coming up to the town anytime.” Aunt Sally sighs and adjusts her stylish bangs to one side of her wide forehead.

  “Good,” Daniel says, “driving for two days in the car sucks ass.”

  “Watch your language. I don’t want Nathaniel learning that kind of slang.”

  I flip my black hair over my shoulders and smirk at Aunt Sally’s scolding. It never fails. Whenever we take a trip, whether to the grocery store or out of town, it always ends up in a fight along the way. Though Nathaniel is only nine, he knows more curse words than Aunt Sally. Dipping my hand into my Indy bag, I pop out a piece of gum.

  A freckled hand snatches it away. Daniel stuffs the gum in his mouth and sneers at me.

  “I hope it gets stuck in your braces.” I punch out another tiny piece. Chewing on the bubblemint gum, my mind drifts. Occupying the same space as my cousins has major disadvantages. Yesterday, Daniel reenacted the car crash with his younger brother’s Hot Wheel cars, complete with dead Lego people. If only dad had another brother or sister, then I would not be stuck with these brats. Once upon a time, I used to think people showed sympathy for an orphan, not repulsion.

  “Mom, Daniel won’t stop touching me!”

  Daniel kicks the back of Nathaniel’s seat, causing him to jolt forward. “Snitch!”

  “Daniel, will you please leave your brother alone. You’re fifteen-years-old and you still act like a two-year-old – there’s the sign for the town. Finally.”

  Out of the tinted glass, I spot a sign resembling an aged tombstone. Spidery vines devour most of the crumbly stone. I squint to make out the words beneath the twisted vegetation.

  Welcome to Rosewood.

  I freeze. The first time I heard the word, Rosewood, came
from a dream I had while the doctors tried to save me from a suicide attempt.

  In the dream, my world is amerced in darkness with chrome outlining objects. A mass of chrome fire glows from the upturned car. Beautiful embers float through the October night air. Creatures in bone masks gather around a body on the ground.

  My body.

  Their lips whisper a curse in my ear as they pour a shining liquid down my throat.

  My body on the ground twitches, before my eyes open. I watch myself scream. The memory of the old monster’s body bent over me still makes my breath stop. His words are something I will never forget.

  “Silus will be pleased. She be da one ta free us.” A flash of his pearly teeth when he speaks catches the sliver of moonlight through the old trees.

  I am like a ghost watching a past memory. It terrorizes me even while I try to die.

  A figure of a tall masked creature emerges from the blazing fire. Double the size of ordinary monsters, with a more distinguishable human body, he carries an unsettling power around him. He is a god among the monsters.

  I remember closing my eyes to seal out the devilish vision.

  His rough hands move in gentle circles against the skin on my back. The monster’s embrace is warm and comforting. I could rest forever in these arms.

  As I wrap my arms around his wide chest, I breathe in the scent of pine trees. A familiar scent, but I cannot recall where I last inhaled the intoxicating aroma.

  The image of my body and the impish creatures fades, so nothing but a sea of darkness exists.

  His voice, rich and deep, rumbles against my forehead. “I’ve waited a long time for someone like you, Temptation.”

  My eyes flutter open.

  His grip tightens. “Why did you try to kill yourself?”

  Something is not right. I am waking up.

  “I need you alive. Rosewood needs you.”

  I try to pull away. I want to stay asleep, but he is making me wake up.

  He grips my waist with one stout arm and removes his mask with his other. Silvery outlining defines the sharp features of his high cheekbones and strong jaw. Pointed ears poke out of his hair. He drops the mask and it disappears into the swirling blackness, but I do not notice. No monster could ever be so beautiful and frightening. His fingernail follows the curve of my jaw. Invisible electricity flows from the tip. He tilts my chin up. “I’ll not lose you, Temptation. I’ll keep bringing you back. You cannot die. Free me.” As his lips touch mine, the death spell over me breaks. Sounds rush around me and the clean scent of a hospital replaces the smell of pine against the monster’s skin. I do not want to go; I long to stay with the strange man. He is different from the others.

  He cares.

  My eyes flutter away the memory. I found it and “it” is not another monster after all, but a simple town. My fingers ache to dial Karma’s number. Of course, impossibility presents itself, because calling my best friend and saying, “I figured out the monster’s riddle,” will kill any chance of proving my sanity to Aunt Sally.

  Zooming past the sign, trees on both sides of the curved road loom over the car like cloaked reapers. The wild tops of the maple trees rock back and forth as if bidding travelers a mournful farewell. A stone wall and an archway line the base of the forest. It looks ancient. Thick moss covers large areas of the wall. Movement beyond the archway demands my attention to the forest floor.

  Shrieking and jolting sideways, I cause Daniel to slam against the car door.

  Aunt Sally screams and swerves the car into the opposite lane. Her French-tipped nails dig into the steering wheel as she attempts to straighten out the car. After a few zigzags, her foot slams on the brake. “Good grief, Temptation! What’s wrong? Are you having flashbacks again?”

  Daniel shoves me off his shoulders, bumping my head against the window.

  “B-Back there in the woods. A creature wearing a strange mask – a bone mask.”

  Silence stretches for a few seconds before Daniel scoffs. “Hold up a minute,” he says, “you mean you almost caused us to have a car accident because you’re seeing things? Are you popping pills again? I don’t care if you still want to kill yourself, but I have better things to do than play chicken with death.”

  “Enough, you two. Temptation, it’s probably a trick of the light. A mirage.” Aunt Sally’s chest drops with a sigh. “Let’s forget about it. Besides, there’s the town up ahead.”

  “I swear to God, if she starts acting weird like she did at our last school, I’m telling the school counselor.”

  I punch the leather seat. It leaves a light imprint of my zodiac ring. “I’m not crazy!”

  “Right.” Daniel snorts. “Seeing monsters isn’t crazy.”

  “I said enough you two!”

  Daniel crosses his arms. I lean my forehead against the warm window. Reaching for the gold locket dangling around my neck, I twirl the thin chain between my fingers. I salvaged it from the accident. To me, the locket signifies a last gift from my parents.

  I thought by moving, I would stop seeing the creatures. Stop hearing their dark whispers. Over the last ten months, I trained myself to ignore their stares.

  The creature in the archway looked stranger than the others did. It possessed a human edge to its features. It wore a bone mask. I have not seen one like that since the accident. The decision to ignore the creature came easy. Dark Temptation rules my life. Sweet Temptation died months ago.

  Shops flash past in a colorful blur, snapping me from my trance. Strange. Nobody is roaming the town.

  Aunt Sally turns left to Weeping Willow Road. An abandoned gas station decorated with poor graffiti stands on the left corner, while a Victorian house in the shape of a Gothic castle, complete with gargoyles, stands on the right corner. Despite the lack of mortal bodies, I secretly enjoy the idea of living in a secluded area. From the signs mounted on the highway, all the major cities start at least fifty miles from Rosewood, Michigan. No psychologists here; only my freedom.

  I smile and crane my neck for a better view of the manor. My fascination with the old house twists into dread. I swear I just saw one of the gargoyles move. Squinting at the stone wings darkened from the angle of the sun, I think that whoever created these beasts possessed a good eye for detail. The gargoyle’s granite skin glistens in the sunlight.

  Passing a few rusted mailboxes with missing numbers, we drive down the quiet street. Forest brush, giant oaks, and maple trees cover most of the scenery. Even though the windows are up, I can hear the leaves of the trees rustling together. Victorian houses, in desperate need of repainting, pop in and out of sight. Many of them display “for sale” signs. I squint into the trees near the vacant homes and notice huts carved out of logs the size of large doghouses. Carvings of faces cover every inch of the huts.

  Weird.

  Hippies must live in town. I remember going to a carnival as a child and meeting an old hippie artist. He carved the most amazing designs on old logs, willow branches, and even a whale’s tooth.

  Aunt Sally slows the car and swerves onto a cracked driveway. An old Victorian-styled home looms in front of the car. Broken windows and chipped wooden siding accentuates the poor condition of the home. The overgrown vegetation in the yard bends with every gust of wind.

  “Here we are – home sweet home!”

  My cousins and I gawk at Aunt Sally as if she suddenly sprouted horns and a tail, while announcing her undying love for anarchists.

  “Aunt Sally, please tell me you’re joking.”

  “Yeah, Mom. What’s up with the dump?” Daniel leans over the passenger’s seat to get a proper view. “You said we’d be moving into a mansion. Even Dracula wouldn’t live in this house.”

  “Good grief, stop complaining. I know the outside needs some work, but the inside is beautiful, and I’m surprised at you, Temptation. I thought you liked these kinds of houses.”

  A figure lurks past the upstairs window.

  No.

  Not there. Not there.
I blink the image away. “I do, but this house doesn’t feel–” An indescribable chill tickles my shoulders. Somehow, someway, I know someone is watching me through the sunroof. Past the dirt and grime collected on the second story window stands a dark outline of a man. “Lock the doors!”

  “Temptation!”

  “Someone’s in the house. In the upstairs window.”

  “See, Mom. This house sucks.” Daniel launches into the conversation, ignoring the fact that I just hallucinated again. “Let’s–”

  “Shut up,” shouts Aunt Sally. She tugs the keys out of the ignition. “I’ve had enough! Everyone out of my car and start carrying things into the house. I don’t want to hear another word from any of you.”

  “But–”

  “Temptation, those windows are covered in moss, dirt, and God knows what else; there’s no way you could see anything through them. If you keep this up, I’ll have you tested for drugs again. If this is a desperate attempt for attention, you need to get over it. Everyone out of my car!”

  Daniel and Nathaniel curse under their breath while trudging out of the car. Daniel shoves my shoulder. “Way to go, Temptation, you pissed Mom off.”

  “She’s your mother, not mine.” Thank the Gods, I’m not related her by blood. I grab my over-the-shoulder backpack and hop out of the car. Silky hair spills down to my waist like a broken bottle of ink flowing over sand. Raking my fingers through my hair, I follow behind my cousins. The scent of pine carries on the light wind. As I cross under the porch, Aunt Sally sticks an old-fashioned key into the rusted keyhole. The dark metal around the keyhole depicts a screaming demon.

  I hug myself. A few strands of black hair sliced through my view of the door.

  Aunt Sally jiggles the brass handle. The door does not budge. With a slight bump of her thigh against the wooden door, it squeaks open. The horrible sound mimics nails scraping against a chalkboard. She disappears into the stale-scented house. A singular cloud crosses over the sun, shadowing the porch and yard.

  I swipe the scent from my nose and follow behind my cousins into the hot living room. I almost forget the dark creatures. Almost. Textured wallpaper designs in brilliant red and gold cover the adjoining walls. Over the fireplace, in the corners, and around the built-in bookcases, pieces of torn wallpaper stick out. Aged furniture pokes out from underneath white sheets layered in dust. Odd paintings of women in elegant gowns hang on the walls. I stare hard at their faces. Their eyes look so wild; so dangerous. I flip on the light switch. A decorative mask lays on the fireplace mantel.