The Sturniolos' Assistant

Chapter 17: Positive

"Fuck!" Chris shouts when we realize Matt's not here. My stomach's never been in tighter knots. If something were to happen to Matt, I'd lose it.

"H-he went back?" I ask.

"Fuck!" Nick yells.

I hurry back into my room, and they follow me. I grab the duffel bag of stakes and hand one to each of them. They give me a look like they know what the stakes would be used for.

"Just in case," I say. I throw the duffel bag over my shoulder and call Sam, then we get in Jack's cart, and I drive as fast as I can to the beach. Sam doesn't bark at Nick and Chris anymore; he must sense that they're good now. 

Nick and Chris give me directions and when we get to the spot on the beach, no one was there. Not even Matt. We get out of the cart and call out his name. It's getting lighter outside, but the sun isn't out yet.

"Where are the bodies?" Nick asks.

"And the blood?" Chris says, kicking the sand. They said this was where they witnessed the killings, but it doesn't look like anything happened here.

"Matt's not here and he wasn't on the path coming here. What if they..." Chris' voice cracks. He clutches his head and his breathing gets faster.

"Okay, hold on. Maybe he's-"

"Dead?" Chris cries.

"No, wait just listen-"

"Malia, how could you be so calm right now? Matt could literally be dead!" Nick yells.

"Don't you even care?" Chris questions me.

"Of course, I care," I snap. I take a deep breath. "I care a lot about Matt. And trust me, I'm freaking out, too, but we need to be smart with our next move." I look at my phone. "There's less than two hours 'til sunrise. They can't be in the sunlight. And I hate to say it, but they've already eaten tonight, so maybe Matt is safe." I know there's a very real chance he's not, but my gut is telling me that he is.

They don't say anything, but I know they're thinking the worst. I'm trying hard not to. Chris' breathing is still fast and Nick hasn't stopped pacing back and forth.

"They didn't come after you, right?" I say.

"Yeah, but why?" Chris asks.

"I think some people are here to get turned into vampires and the rest are here to be... food. They wanted us to drink the punch for a reason. They want us to be like them. They don't want to kill us," I try to explain.

"But Matt didn't drink it," Nick says through tears.

"If one of them got to Matt, then they'd be trying to get him to drink it now," I say. "Let's go to their villas."

"What if he's not there?" Chris asks.

"Then, we'll keep looking."

"What if Louis and the rest of them are there, too?" Nick asks.

"Then we have to- uh- kill them." I answer. Their eyes get wider. Yeah, it's not something I'm looking forward to either. "I know, I wish it wasn't this way, but it is. You two are half-vampires and in order to reverse the effects, we have to kill the head vampire."

"Who's the head vampire?" Chris asks.

"I think it's Cassie. I mean, it could be anyone of them, but she seems to be the one in charge. Right?"

"We're not like vampire slayers. Why are we pretending like we can do this and not get killed?" Nick throws his arms up in the air.

"We don't really have a lot of options. As long as we find Matt, maybe we can make it off of this island. Alfred called for a ferry last night and said it would be here in the morning. Then we'll get people who are trained to fight and they'll come kill the vampires."

Nick gradually stopped pacing and Chris seems to be breathing normally now. It's hard to have a positive energy when the odds are stacked against us, but I've got to keep a cool head and make them think that everything is going to work out in our favor. And if I don't have hope that Matt hasn't been turned into a vampire or hasn't been killed, I'm going to fall to pieces.

We get back in the cart and I drive us to the east side of the island. I remembered where Cassie told me her villa was, so we followed the roads and passed all the villas to get to the one on top of a hill. It looks like the one we were staying at with four rooms. Maybe this is where James, Louis, and Ray were staying, too.

I park close, in case we need a quick get away, and grab a stake. We peek through the windows and don't see anyone inside, but we also don't see any furniture or luggage in there. When we sneak around to the back of their villa, there are two entrances to what looks like an underground tunnel on the side of the hill.

"They're under there, aren't they?" Nick sighs.

"Yeah, looks like it." Chris shrugs. 

I glance over my shoulder at the pale blue sky with no sun in sight. It's Sunday morning now. I can't believe it's been twenty-four hours since Matt and I were sleeping side by side.

I don't foresee this morning being as peaceful, but if we find Matt alive and well, then this morning will be perfect.