Nefarious (4 Ch. Sample)

Chapter One

Rylan Somers stood, with her arms crossed, on the dock her gaze on the three-story white stone house in front of her. The dock was the first place on her parent's property she had gone. It seemed like it would be easier to go to the dock, walk the long walkway to the first set of stairs, then the small patio to the second staircase up to the larger patio. From there she could either enter the house through the kitchen or up the outdoor staircase to the second-floor balcony, that would take her to the living room and the master suite.

Rylan was now rethinking her decision. The drive up to the house didn't look so bad. The front and the side yard by the driveway were overgrown with weeds and vines, yes. But now standing on the dock looking up at what used to be one of her favorite places on earth, the house looked ominous. Everything was overgrown with grass, weeds, vines and thorns. The windows reminded her of dark hallow eyes staring back at her with an echoing a question; Why are you here?

How many times she had asked herself that same question over the past couple of months. Maybe it was worded a little different like 'Why am I going there?' or 'Why would I want to go there.' But every question had the same answer.

"I don't know." Rylan said to the house her words getting carried away by the breeze. She tucked a strand of her super dark brown hair behind her ear. But it did no good. The off the lake blew her hair loose again.

Over the past six years the place had gone downhill. After that summer night back in 2004 Rylan never wanted to come back to this place. It was forever tainted in her memory now. A bloody night with great lost for the town of Oak Harbor, Washington. So, everyone said.

For Rylan there were only quick hazy flashes from that summer night. Her most clear memory was one she wished was lost. The guilt had subsided over the years. She had learned to live with it. But maybe it was only easy because she had left this place and the people, vowing never to return again, for the sunny beaches of Florida to live with her only remaining family members; her Aunt Linda, who's late husband had been her dad's only brother and her cousin Marlysa.

Rylan wasn't so sure that guilt was going to lay dormant much longer. The one person in the world that could drag it all back to the surface and make her deal with her sins still lived in Oak Harbor. Someone she hadn't seen or talked to since that summer.

Rylan squeezed her eyes shut, fighting the memory; fighting the voices from that night. Music played in the background. Laughing was going on all around the deck and the backyard light up with twinkle lights at the Somers' home. There was nothing but fun in the air. A celebration, a sweet sixteen party for the Somers' twins.

But she wasn't there with her twin Rydel the entire night. No, she had made plans with someone that had off-limits written all over them. Someone that should have been with his girlfriend instead of off in in a yacht docked at the deck. Then maybe he would still be alive today.

What killed Rylan the most was that Anna Lindley believed a lie from that night. In her mind Derek Morgan, her loving committed boyfriend, had died a heroic death protecting her best friend from a masked killer.

Rylan was a little surprised at the sharp pain the memory caused in her heart. If only she could forget that memory to the dark past of her life. Unfortunately, it was the only clear memory from that night. And the only clear sound from that night was a loud night piercing scream that echoed around them stopping them both before they could make their sin even more sinful.

After that scream, and still to this day, Rylan had no memory of the attack on her or the scene at the house. She remembered no more until she awoke in the hospital a few days later. She still had scars on her body from that night. Rylan remembered the doctors saying how surprised they were that she lived through the ordeal she had gone through. Stabbed twenty times in the chest, arms and legs. With slash marks on both her arms and legs. Apparently, she had fought her attacker.