The Secret Keeper

Eve’s P.O.V.

Holly.

I couldn’t believe it, at first. But after blinking a few times and rubbing my eyes to the point that they were almost sore, I knew that that really was Holly standing in front of me.

She looked awful. Her blonde hair was matted and dirty, and her once-glowing skin was now pale and grimy. She looked like she hadn’t eaten in days. Her clothes hung from her frame loosely.

I gawked at her. What happened?

She looked up at me, and recognition sparked in her eyes. “Eve?” she gasped, her voice hoarse and grating.

“Holly…” The word sounded strange, coming from my throat. Her name had been a taboo ever since she disappeared. I’d thought about her more often than not, but I hadn’t really talked about it…

I ran over to her and hugged her, not really thinking about what I was doing. She seemed surprised for a minute, before gripping me back.

“I missed you,” I whispered, choking back tears.

“Me, too,” she whispered back, in that same dreadfully gravelly voice she’d used before. It almost sounded like she’d been smoking, something I knew she would never do.

Evan cleared his throat again. “Hel-lo? Whatever happened to a good-old-fashioned execution without interruptions?”

I still tensed at his choice of words, despite what Bo had told me. It hurt, more than I liked to admit. I didn’t like the whole idea.

Holly just blinked at him with a confused look passing over her features. “What?”

Faye glared at Evan, while he just rolled his eyes. “We were kind of in the middle of something before you came.” He gestured to a surprised and angry-looking Bo with the gun.

Holly seemed to be able to put two and two together. “Wha… Why… Bo!” She ran over and hugged him around the middle, staring disdainfully at the gun.

I just stood still where I was, too numb to even react. Holly had just… deserted me, for Bo. And the worst part was that… I wasn’t even dreaming. No, this was all too horrible to be a dream. I wasn’t that creative.

Bo looked at me with pain in his eyes. I stared back. Evan looked a little annoyed, and Faye just looked confused.

“Well, now that that’s settled…”

Evan cocked the gun. My eyes widened.

I couldn’t let him do it. There was some part of me, some really messed up part, that loved Bo and Holly more than anything. And I couldn’t let anything happen to them, not if I could do anything to stop it. It was almost like it was hardwired into my brain. I couldn’t do this.

“Stop!”

I lunged for Evan again, only to find that I hadn’t moved anywhere. Faye, having anticipated I was going to do that, grabbed onto my ankle at the last second and I hit the ground with a thud. I cried out in pain. When I looked at it, there were claw marks on my ankle and blood oozing out of it.

Before I knew what was happening, all of the Creatures surrounding the clearing seemed to come to life, sniffing the air. I looked around frantically, wondering what was going on.

Faye was smirking wickedly. “Did we forget to tell you? Creatures love blood.”

My heart nearly stopped.

I barely had time to register what she’d said before someone – or something – was on top of me. It took me another second to realize that it was Bo. His hands were glowing, just like I’d seen him do in my Vision. My jaw dropped. What was he doing?

The Creatures came nearer and nearer, seemingly unaffected by him.

But as they got to a certain point, they seemed to run into a wall. Literally. They fell back on the others, looking around in panic and confusion.

I glanced at Bo. He was concentrating on my face. I didn’t know what he was doing. I guessed he was using his Power, being a Shield.

“Eve, listen,” he whispered. “The only way to end this is to kill Faye and Evan. And the only way to do that is to… to stake them.”

My mind groggily registered what he’d said. Then, my body went numb. “I can’t, Bo! They’re my friends!”

He just looked at me incredulously. “Eve, I know, but you have to do this. Please. It’s either Faye and Evan, or Holly and I. Make your choice.”

My mind went blank.

How could I choose?

I had known Holly since I was in fifth grade, when she had just moved to Witch Hazel. We had been best friends right off the bat. She always defended me when I was made fun of, and I was always grateful to her. She knew everything about me, things I’d never told anyone else. She was like my sister, and a close one at that.

Faye was close, too, but she didn’t even compare.

And Bo… I didn’t know anything about him. He’d been that ever-existing protection I needed. My guardian angel. And even if he didn’t care about me thatway – the way I so desperately cared about him – he had to feel something.I was just too blind – and too stupid – to see what had been right in front of my face the entire time. And I had lost Bo.

Evan had tricked me. Faye had tricked me.

Well, that wasn’t much of a choice, after all.

I eyed a sharp stick by my left hand. There was another by my right.

Without thinking, I leapt up from under Bo and grabbed the sticks. I rushed over to Faye and plunged it into her back without a second thought. She crumpled to the ground, her eyes glazed over and blood pouring out of her chest. I almost gagged.

The Creatures’ path took a sudden turn. Instead of heading toward me, they were headed toward their master’s corpse.

Gross.

That left Evan. He hadn’t really noticed what I’d done until now, but it didn’t matter. I ran over to him and climbed up the boulder faster than I had thought possible of myself. Evan stood, facing me, with a smirk on his face.

“You wouldn’t.”

Anger pulsed hot in my veins. It had totally taken over, making myself lunge forward and embed the stake deep into his heart.

His eyes widened for a moment. Evan fell hard, collapsing like a sack of potatoes. But then I made the mistake of thinking he was dead.

As I climbed down the rock, I heard the bangof the gun, and Bo fell to the ground, clutching his chest.