I slowed then, sensing an overwhelming presence. Something that cried out, as if in pain—as if trapped in the pillar-maze of the steadfast trees.
Before I could say a word, a heart-stopping shriek ripped through me, shredding my soul to pieces.
We jolted, turning our lights on Courtney and watched in terror as she tore at her hair, screaming, with arms flailing at an unseen enemy.
She screeched as if she were on fire, and before we could get to her, she took off down the trail, whipping her jacket off and hurling it into the trees. We chased after her as our flashlights sent beams scattering all around, adding to the chaos, and raising my level of panic ten-fold.
"Courtney! Stop," Shane shouted. "You'll get lost!"
She continued running down the trail at a frantic pace, tripping and crying out in pain.
Shane yelled back to us. "She's on fire. Burning from the inside out," he called. "Grab your jackets and prepare to smother her," he commanded.
For a moment, Courtney went out of sight into the darkness. We shined our lights forward, searching for any sign of her as we kept running ahead. With my eyes nearly bugging out of my head, I searched into the trees on both sides.
As we raced forward, the black of the forest turned to an ethereal glow. Moonlight cut through the trees, illuminating a clearing up ahead.
"There it is," Dom shouted. "Keep going!"
I stared, wondering what we were heading into, and my eyes locked onto Courtney's dark silhouette.
She stood in the middle of the clearing with her arms stretched out to the sides and her head tipped back. Her body tensed with every silent scream that tore out of her.
Racing across the long grass, we stumbled through the meadow, focusing only on her. Tripping on granite steps buried in moss and pounding on parts of the ground that felt like stone, my mind scrambled to figure out where we could be. Just as we reached her, she fell back into the grass, and we smothered her with our jackets.
She arched her back in resistance to our efforts as her face contorted in agony.
"Courtney. We're here," Poorva whispered. "You'll be okay. Just breathe. Let it pass."
Poorva's calm voice proved she'd seen this before.
I dropped to my knees and inched closer, wondering if I could help in any way. I placed my hand close to Courtney's leg, offering my support. As my hand came within inches of her, it burst into flames, and I watched in horror as my skin turned black, crackling and peeling.
I jumped to my feet, shaking my hand to extinguish the flame, but its strange purple licks only grew higher. My feet tore out from under me as I ran back toward the shelter of the trees. Streams of purple fire trailed behind me, and with every frantic step, I searched for the opening of the trail.
As I reached the edge of the clearing, trees loomed over me as if they'd huddled together to hide the source of my escape. The flames on my hand extinguished, and I gasped at the sudden darkness that crushed down on me.
I sucked in a huge breath, lifting my burned hand close to my face. There was no pain, and I panted in relief, though I was still unsure if I was injured in some way from the assault.
I fumbled for my phone, realizing it was nowhere to be found. I realized I must have dropped it as I ran in panic, and I turned back to see if it was glowing in the grass. I scanned the meadow, noticing immediately that everyone was gone. They'd all scattered. The lights of their phones had disappeared, and I froze alone in my spot as terror coursed through my veins.
My breath moved in and out of me in short, shallow bursts as I scanned the clearing for any movement. Though the moon lit the meadow with a gentle glow, it was still too dark to see any detail.
By instinct, I crouched to my knees and held myself in a tight ball. No matter how much I opened my eyes, I still couldn't see through the darkness.
My head jerked to the side, following the sound of rustling.
Then the snap of a twig.
I held my breath as I waited in terror for whatever approached me.
Without moving a muscle, I remained crouched in the grass, listening with every fiber of my being.
Then another snap.
My breath sucked in, making a gasping sound, and I smacked my hand over my mouth to silence it.
"Brynn?" A whisper moved through the darkness.
My air whooshed out of me in relief as my tense muscles turned to mush.
"Shane?" I whispered back.
The movement grew louder as he hurried over to me.
"Shit, Brynn. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I think so." I rubbed the back of my hand, searching for any damage.
"Keep your light off," he said. "It's best to stay hidden right now."
"I don't have one. I think I lost my phone," I murmured.
"It's okay. We'll find it. I have mine." He pushed his phone into his jeans pocket.
He huddled down in the grass with me, scanning the open area of the clearing.
"Poorva's still with Courtney in the middle over there." He pointed in their direction. "I'm not sure where Dom and Blake went. They ran off at the same time you did."
I listened for any sign of them.
"Jesus, Brynn," he said. "What the hell happened?" He pressed closer to try to see my hand. "Are you hurt?"
I shook my head. "No, I don't think so." I rubbed my hands together to check, and everything felt normal. "I'm not sure what that was, but it scared the shit out of me."
"Did it burn you?" he asked.
"No, not at all." I lifted my hand and smelled it. "It's fine," I said, but then hesitated.
It wasn't fine. It was far from normal.
My hand had erupted in purple flame, sending me running for my life. But there was no pain, no damage—only a steady hum that continued to course through my body. The vibration awakened my senses to a height I'd never felt before. At first, I assumed it was my adrenalin, but as I sat in the grass, I realized it was more than that.
"Something feels different," I murmured.
My vision became more clear in the darkness, and my hearing piqued at every rustle. But it was my skin that felt it the most. Every little hair prickled at the slightest motion as if picking up on everything that existed around me.
"There's someone else here," I stated. "They want us to find them. To acknowledge their presence."
Shane pulled back from me and went rigid.
"It's like the flame ignited on my hand when they were close," I mumbled. "Like the flame had sensed their closeness."
Shane fumbled in his jeans and pulled his phone out. He turned on the flashlight and beamed it directly on me.
I lifted my hand to block the blinding light.
"What are you doing?" I spat. "Shut it off."
He turned the light off me and aimed it into the woods behind us and then out into the clearing. He was searching for something... or someone.
"Shane," I hissed.
He turned the light off.
"I feel it too," he said. "He's still here, waiting to be found."
Chapter 15
Someone was here in the woods? Waiting to be found? Shane's terrifying words sent chills through me.
"What the hell are you talking about?" I gasped. "Who's waiting to be found?"
I considered the possibilities of the urban legend of Hell's Gates. Could it possibly be real? If there was any truth in the legend at all, then I was screwed.
Sitting here in the deep woods, in the middle of the ghost story that plagued our town, I questioned my sanity for having been so naive. I swore to be more respectful in the future and not mess with things I didn't understand.
I stared at Shane, waiting for him to tell me who he was talking about. Then I heard him take a deep, shaky breath.
"Tommy," he stated.
"Who the hell is Tommy?" I asked, nearly breathless.
I wasn't sure I even wanted to know.
"My friend who went missing seven years ago," he murmured. "I feel his emotions whenever
I come here. He's lost and scared." He paused, attempting to hide the sound of his constricting voice. "I hate this place. It tortures me." He dropped his head to his knees.
I froze in silence. Shane was somehow still connected to the boy who went missing.
No one knew if the kid had died from exposure or worse. The wolf population had been growing, and they were known to hunt in packs. I forced my thoughts to halt. The idea of a boy being mauled by wolves was too much to consider. I squeezed my eyes shut at the thought of the suffering of his poor family. Not knowing what became of him must be torture.
"It's part of your grieving," I said, hoping to soothe Shane. "Holding on to the person you loved. Wanting to fix what happened."
He lifted his gaze. "It's more than that, Brynn."
I looked at him, seeing mostly just his shadowy outline, but as I gazed harder, the details of his face became more evident. His eyes glistened with wetness, and his lower lip trembled.
"Tell me," I whispered.
He pulled in a long, deep breath.
"That time Laney and Dom dared me to go into the woods," he started. "I knew I shouldn't have gone. It wasn't right to tempt evil like that. But I went anyway." He paused, collecting his next words. "When I got out of their sight, I slowed and hid behind a big tree, in case they followed. I wanted them to think I'd kept going."
"And what happened then?" I encouraged him to tell more.
"Running between the trees..." He cleared his throat. "Was a little boy. He looked lost and frightened. I called to him to help him find his way out of the woods, and he stopped short, staring at me with a confused gaze." Shane dragged his hands through his hair. "I stepped closer to him and was terrified by what I saw. I stared right into Tommy's face. Only he hadn't aged at all. He was still nine years old, though it had been a couple years since he'd gone missing."
My hand flew to my mouth.
Shane swallowed in an attempt to loosen the tightness in his neck. "I ran, after that. Right out of the woods, past Laney, and smashed right into Dom as they laughed at me." He paused. "I've regretted running ever since. Just like Ms. Kelly's first rule. Tommy needed my help, and I left him there. Alone."
"Shane," I gasped. "It's not your fault. It wasn't real. It's some twisted way the mind deals with grief and loss. You can't let it torture you like that."
My heart broke for him. He'd been carrying that guilt for years, and it must have been eating him alive.
"It's not like I want it to be like this," he snapped. After a slight pause, he added, "I've been working at strengthening my abilities, so I can face this again. So I can find him."
My eyes widened.
Shane had an ulterior motive for our project. A personal connection.
"Does Ms. Kelly know?" I asked.
He nodded. "Yes. She's trying to help. I think this project could be the one to finish it."
Figures. The project I show up for has to be the biggest one our group has ever dealt with.
"And do you think Courtney's torture is linked somehow?" I asked.
He blinked slowly and stated, "I'm sure of it."
A voice called out from the darkness, making us both jump.
"Blake?" Dom's voice shattered the silence around us.
"Dude, what the fuck?" Blake's voice squeaked out of the trees. He stumbled out from behind a massive pine and hurried over to Dom. "Where's everyone else?"
"We're over here," Shane called to them.
He stood and reached for my hand, lifting me with him. We moved closer to Dom and Blake, and regrouped.
"I think Poorva's still over there with Courtney," Dom said, glancing at me briefly.
His gaze jumped back to me again as if trying to figure out what had happened—if what he thought he saw was real.
I instinctively dropped my hands to my sides to try to hide them.
Something strange had changed about me, and everyone knew it. They all saw the same thing—glowing purple fire shooting from my hand. And their initial silence about it told me they hadn't seen anything like it before.
Insecurity washed over me, and I frowned at myself. Typically, my insecurities were around what people thought of me at school or if I'd be outcasted. Now, this new situation rose above all my other concerns, making them seem trivial.
But at the same time, my power was captivating, and there was no way I should be feeling insecure about it. Instead, I should feel empowered and embrace it. But I couldn't help it. Being like everyone else was so deeply engrained in adolescent mentality, it was difficult to break away from its pull. Plus, I'd already invested so much energy trying to convince myself and others that I didn't care, I at least had a head start.
"So, you gonna tell us about that shit?" Dom nudged at me.
Blake chimed in. "Don't be a dick. She hasn't even had a chance to figure it out herself. Give her half-a-minute, anyway." He stared at me, too, anxiously waiting for a reply.
"Well, can't you figure it out," Dom said to Blake. "You seem to know what's going on most of the time."
Blake continued to examine me as if trying to use his skill to understand what might have happened.
"It's a manifestation of her power. As if it grew too quickly and exploded out of her," he murmured through deep thought. "Something triggered it. I'm not sure what."
I rubbed my palms together and felt an electric charge that lingered in my hands. It sent heat up my arms, and I extended my hands in front of me to cool them. As I held them out, a gentle purple glow cast off my palms, and my mind lit up with images of the clearing, but from a time long past.
I moved my hands across the clearing, and more pictures entered my head—a wooden structure, almost like an altar, with stone stairs leading up to it. Another architectural feature stood at the far side, with an ornate masonry arch that spanned the length of it. A massive wooden chair sat in the center under the arch, surrounded by several benches.
I coughed in surprise and pulled my hands back into me.
"Shit," Dom hissed. "You're fucking magic."
"No, shit, asshole," Blake spat, staring at me in shock.
Their comments shot me back to the moment.
"Is it weird?" I whispered.
They looked at one another as if searching for the right words—words we all knew would include terms like odd, bizarre, insane...
Shane shook his head. "No," he said. "It's not weird. It's powerful. More powerful than anything we've seen." He stepped closer to me, reaching for my hands. "We've heard of this kind of thing from Ms. Kelly, but we haven't reached the level where we could actually see our gifts. So, yeah, that purple shit is kind of a mindfuck right now."
I lifted my hands to his, and he grasped my fingertips. Then, he reached farther and took my entire hands into his.
"The heat is intense," he said.
"Easy, boy," Dom teased.
Shane ignored him and looked into my eyes. The glow from the other's flashlights made it easier to see each other's features.
He gasped and dropped my hands, stepping back.
"Shit," he said. "This place isn't a burned-down orphanage." He blinked as if trying to see the images from my mind more clearly and then swallowed hard. "It's something else. Like a theater or arena of some kind."
Blake stepped back from us with cautious movement into the vast space of the clearing.
Of everyone in the group, I'd always considered him the most powerful. I mean, his ability to read thoughts, even from a great distance, was mind-blowing. But the more time I'd spent with the others, the more I'd realized they were all powerful, each in their own ways.
And now, I'd finally joined their ranks.
And it scared the shit out of me.
And apparently, it scared the shit out of Blake, too.
He'd turned away from us, uncertain what to think of my purple hands, and headed to the middle of the field.
"Come on," Dom said. "Let's get Poorva and Courtney, and get the hell out of here."
> We followed after Blake and gathered around the girls. They sat in the grass, cross-legged as if whispering to one another. They looked up at us with tired gazes as we approached.
"You guys good?" Poorva asked with a slight tone of judgment.
She probably thought we ran from Courtney's episode like scared children. There was a good chance she didn't see my purple-flame-hand-situation while she was trying to rescue Courtney from her writhing.
"Yeah, we're good," Shane said. "How are you guys? Courtney?" He leaned in to check on her more closely.
She took a deep breath and nodded at him as if she were improving.
"Alright, let's get out of here then," he said.
Dom tapped on my shoulder. "Lose something?" he asked, handing me my cell phone.
I grabbed it by instinct. "Thank you," I gushed. Holding it tight like a lifeline. "I can't believe you found it."
I swiped my flashlight on and felt every muscle in my body relax from the relief of its glowing light.
"Maybe it'll encourage you to use it a little more," he smirked, and his thick brows lifted, framing his wise-ass expression.
I rubbed the front of my phone on my shirt and shrugged. "I've never been much of a social media user."
His brows lifted higher like he didn't believe me.
"Do we have everything?" Blake asked.
"Right," Poorva added. "Rule number two. Keep track of everything."
"That means all the intangibles, as well," Shane said. "We need to record everything that happened so we can give Ms. Kelly a thorough report."
"Um, can we do that when we are safely back at the cars?" Blake asked.
Shane chuckled. "Yup."
We started walking toward the direction of the trail opening.
"What are the rest of the rules?" I inquired, wondering what else we needed to accomplish before leaving the woods.
Poorva came up next to me and turned her eyes on Courtney. "Step three—believe what you see."
"And the next to last one is—follow your gut," Shane added.
I liked that one. I was pretty good at it.
I'd always listened to my gut, and it rarely, if ever, let me down.
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