Graveyard Bonfire by Nichole Alexander (best book club books of all time .TXT) 📖

My mom cought me, she walked in and I was talking to my corner. "I know but I'm scared." "Niki? Who are you talking to?" I quickly turn around to see my mom standing in the door way with a look I have never seen before. "No one." I lied through my teeth, but she doesn't understand what I see. "Okay. Well, dinner is done. Your plate is on the table. Come downstairs soon, okay?" "Okay. I will. Just give me a minute." She shook her head and closed the door behind her. I could hear her walking down the stair and throught the kitchen. I took a quick look at my dark, webed corner and realized that Jace is no longer there. "Jace?" I waited a minute and realized that he was gone. I knew he had to meet Jaz at a resturant for a date. I opened my bedroom door and a note fell from above my head. I opened it and writen in blood was, She is no longer safe. I got her, where's your precious Jace now? I closed the door and looked in my full lenght mirror, and seen Max standing behind me with a knife, my mom's favorite cooking knife. I turned around and she wasn't there.

I ran downstairs and into the kitchen. Behind the table was something I never expected to see. I broke down in tears. "Jace!" Pause. "JACE! I NEED YOU!" I was dramaticly looking around the room for Jace and as soon as I truned around he was there over my mother's body. "Where where you?" He looked at me with the I'm sorry eyes. "You were with her. I knew it. You had to go on the date after I told you I was scared and I had a gut feeling. We both know that my gut feelings are never wrong. And you left anyway. And look what you did. Becasue you weren't here, my mom died. You know very well that I can't protect myself let alone my mom!" "I'm sorry, Niki." "No, Jace. There is no I'm sorry's anymore. My mom is dead. I have no one. Incase you don't remember my father left me when I was three and I have no clue where he is. And now because of you, my mother is dead." I look at him, feeling a little bad for flipping out on him but knowing that I told him something bad was going to happen. I sat down at our dinner table. I took a deep breath and looked at Jace. "Listen, I'm not saying you can't be with Jaz, I'm just saying that you have more important things than Jaz. You need to help me get rid of Max. You need to help me and my friends get rid of Max. It was assigned to you, you can't just back out of this for a girl. And you know that. Your exact words when I first met you, 'I will protect you with what is left of me. No matter what I will be there for you. It is my assignment. Now what's your name?' Jace, you can't leave me like that." He walked over to me and gave me a hug. "I'm sorry. I won't leave you. You're right. I shouldn't have left you, you obviously needed me tonight. This is my fault. Niki, I am so sorry." "You can prove to me that you are sorry be helping me kill Max. He shook his head and gave me a hug.

That night, I didn't hesitate at all. I went over to Alex's house. His parents weren't home so I banged on the door as loud as possible knowing that he would be in his room on his laptop. As I was banging on the door I couldn't help but repeat in my head, come on Alex, get out of the chat room and answer your door. With about 45 seconds of banging, he answered the door. He had black hair, a thin line of eyeliner, leather pants, and a leather jacket. He was the "bad boy" of the group. Alex was the one that all the girls liked. But he kept telling me that he only likes one girl. I ask him who and he always changes the conversation. (I know he likes me, I just like messing with his head). "What's up sweet cakes?" I couldn't help but smile a little, then remember why I was really there. I felt my face get red and tears build up in my eyes. "Why don't you come in? You want an energy drink?" I shook my head. We walked into the kitchen and he handed me a Monster. I sat down and I instantly started to cry. "What's wrong, Niki?" I gave him my give me a hug look. He caught on because he gave me a hug. "My mom died." He hugged me tighter and said something. Something that you would never expect a bad boy to say. It kind of gave me chills. For all the years that I've known him, he has never said he was sorry. "Where was Jace? Did Max kill her? Where were you?" He loaded me with these questions but it felt like I got hit with a freight train. "Well, Jace was with Jaz. Max did kill her. And I was in my room looking for Jace." "Why were you looking for Jace?" "I told him I didn't feel comfortable with him leaving at that time and as soon as my mom came in he left. I guess he saw it as a perfect opportunity to leave." Alex smiled at me. "Did you tell David or Kate?" "No. I wanted to tell you first." "Why me?" "Well..." I hesitated. "Your house was closer." It wasn't really a lie because his house was closer but the truth is, is that I knew that he would hug me and tell me everything will be okay. That and he likes me and I like him so, makes since. After that, Alex texted David to tell him and from him, he IM-ed Katy. I slept on Alex's couch and he was in his room upstairs.

By morning, all of us knew about my mom and decided to meet at The Blue Dolphin. It is a lovely place, great food, but expensive. We all discussed how we were going to get rid of Max. "Well. I can tell you one thing" Kate said as she was stuffing her face with a $2.50 egg, "it sure isn't the same thing as we see in movies. This is something different." We all paused to take a look at her. She looked up from her plate to look at us, "What?" We laughed. "Well, Jace and I were talking last night and he said that we were going to need something called a Nupla." David looked so confused when he said Nupla. But I instantly knew what he was talking about. "I know what that is. It's a shovel brand. And I know how to get rid of Max. I read it online last night." Alex looked at me funny. "I couldn't sleep, so I did some research on how to get rid of a ghost." He shook his head like he understood, but I could see it in his eyes that he didn't understand. "We have to find something that belongs to Max, go to her grave. Dig it up, and set whatever it is we find on fire then throw it in the grave." They all looked at me weird, everyone except Alex. He was used to the freaky, creepy things. After a few minutes of contemplating this theory everyone decided that it was the only thing they can do. "We're in."

 After we were done eating we went to my house to do some research on Max. When I walked in I stared at the spot where the paramedics took my mom and told me that she was officially dead. Kate came up behind me and put her hand on my shoulder. Then we headed upstairs. "She has been around for so many years, you think that someone else would have seen her." David was getting frustrated with tracking down Max. He just about threw his phone at the wall. “Found it!” Kate yelled so loud I thought that the next-door neighbors would call the cops. “Found what?” “Well, I found where she lived, why she died, and how many other people have seen her. According to this newspaper on google, fifteen people died after they seen her. And all of them were protected by Jace.” “Wait. How do they know about Jace? He told me that we are the only mortals that know about him.” “I don’t know but, that is what Kendra said.” “Who is Kendra?” “She was the only girl that knows Max and is the only one that is alive to this day. It just happens to be that Kendra was friends with all fifteen people. But not at the same time. You know, three friends here, they died. Then get four more friends, they die. You know, and so on.” “So she is still alive today, maybe she can answer any of our questions.” I thought maybe Kendra could help us, could help us figure out things that Jace won’t tell us about. Then Alex interrupted me. “What questions? We have everything we need right here. Her address, down the street, the green house. We can grab something of hers from there. No one has been in that house since she died. The odds of not finding something, is slim to none. We don’t need to procrastinate, when we know how to kill her and it is in arms reach, we don’t hesitate. We jump on it.” “Alex, maybe Kendra can tell us what Max wants. Maybe we could be the ones to set her free properly instead of through hatred and sacredness. Alex, we need to know why Max is killing people.” He let out a big breath and finally said, “Fine. Only for you.” I gave him a hug and smiled at him.