Whispering Pines

by Heidi Lang

  Leaves and branches smacked Caden in the face, but he barely noticed. He just kept his legs moving as quickly as possible. Up ahead he could still make out Rae moving gracefully through the woods. He couldn’t see Vivienne anymore.

  He was falling behind.

  He thought of Brandi and her eyeless, slack-jawed face, and put on a burst of speed. He did not want to end up like that. Seconds later and he was at one of the short stone walls. He leaped on top of it, his foot sliding a little on the slick surface, and then he was over on the other side and stumbling on. Another minute and he could see the street up ahead.

  He burst out from under the trees, gasping as he joined Rae and Vivienne.

  “Is it behind you?” Vivienne asked, her Mint Attack held out protectively.

  “I…,” Caden panted, trying to catch his breath. “Don’t…” He leaned forward, his hands on his knees, and took in a gulp of air. “Think so,” he finished.

  “No?” Rae moved closer, peering into the woods.

  “I think it stopped at the stone wall,” Caden said, straightening. He put a hand to his aching side.

  “Why?” Rae asked.

  “I’m not sure.” Those stone walls had originally been built by a coven of witches to provide protection against the supernatural. Maybe that protection was still effective? But Caden wasn’t ready to share all that. “I think we should keep moving. The sun’s about to…” He looked past the sky at the house in front of him, sitting at the end of a cul-de-sac, and felt like someone had just punched him in the gut.

  It was a very nice house, painted a cheerful blue with rosebushes in front and a carefully painted fence around the yard. But that didn’t matter.

  “Are you okay?” Rae asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “I’m sure he sees ghosts all the time,” Vivienne said. “It’s, like, his job.”

  “I’m fine,” Caden said, not taking his eyes off that house. He remembered the moment he’d first seen it, nine months ago. This will be a safe, easy job. He shook off the memory of his mother’s words, but he could feel their weight hanging on him, and all the memories that followed. He had to get out of here. “Let’s go.”

  “Wait!” Vivienne grabbed his arm. “There’s someone in the woods.”

  Caden stiffened. “Where?” he asked.

  “Right behind that house.”

  A silhouette moved slowly through the edge of the trees. Rae and Vivienne huddled closer to Caden, the three of them frozen as the shape walked toward them. It resolved slowly into a man, his face shadowed beneath a wide brimmed hat, a camera swinging on a strap around his neck.

  He frowned at them. “What are you kids doing out here? It’s a code yellow. Curfew sets in any minute.”

  “We were just leaving,” Caden said.

  “Caden? Caden Price?” The man took a few steps closer, and Caden recognized the features of Doctor Anderson. “I thought I told you and your family to stay away from here,” the doctor said.

  Caden didn’t mean to open himself up, but he got hit with a wave of the doctor’s anger, washing over him like water spilling over a pot to sizzle on the stove. His mind filled with images of red, but underneath, there was something else.

  Fear.

  Doctor Anderson was afraid of something.

  “Because I will report this, and—” He stopped, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise, then lowering dramatically. “And Rae Carter,” he said slowly, staring hard at her.

  Caden felt Rae’s anxiety rising like tiny pinpricks against his skin.

  “What are you doing, running around in the woods after dark, and in such company? Hasn’t your family been through enough, without you taking unnecessary risks?”

  Rae set her jaw. “It’s really none of your business. We’re going now.” She grabbed Caden and Vivienne and practically pulled them down the street with her.

  “What was that about?” Vivienne asked her as they jogged away.

  “I’m not sure,” Rae said. Caden didn’t need any special abilities to tell that she was lying. Just as he could tell she didn’t want to talk about it.

  “How did he know who you were?” Vivienne persisted.

  “He, um, knows my mom.” Rae glanced at Caden. “But what was his deal with you, Caden?” she asked quickly.

  Caden wanted to know more about the doctor’s deal with Rae, but he let her change the subject. “Let’s just say he doesn’t like me,” he said.

  “Okay, that’s pretty obvious,” Rae said. “Why doesn’t he like you?”

  “In case you haven’t noticed, lots of people don’t like me,” Caden panted, already out of breath again.

  “Truth,” Vivienne said. “But only because you ignore everyone. Oh, and you possibly murdered your brother and hid him in the walls of your house.”

  Caden didn’t bother to respond to that. Even if he wanted to, he needed all his breath for the run back home.

  By the time he led Rae and Vivienne back to his street, it was almost full dark, and he was sweaty and exhausted. Not that Rae or Vivienne seemed at all tired. They both looked like they were just getting warmed up.

  “My mom,” Vivienne said when they got back, “is going to kill me.” She grabbed her bike. “Let’s hope she got stuck late at a meeting so I can sneak in before she sees I missed curfew.”

  A car door slammed in the street, and all three of them jumped and looked up.

  “Is that what you’re hoping?” A woman wearing a dark red dress and elegantly twisted hair stepped out from the car, her pale face gleaming and furious.

  “M-Mom?” Vivienne’s bike crashed to the ground. “What are you doing here?”

  “Looking for you,” her mom said, her anger so thick now that even through his shielding, Caden could feel it sticking to him like peanut butter thrown at a wall. “You know better than to be out at this time of night. Do you see that?” She jabbed her finger up at the sky where the moon hung fat and swollen and almost full.

  “I’m sorry,” Vivienne said quickly. “I lost track of time.” She crouched and grabbed her bike, hoisting it up in one hand.

  “So irresponsible.” Her mom shook her head. “Especially now, with the recent string of disappearances.”

  “Disappearances?” Rae asked. “As in, more than one?”

  “Someone else went missing?” Vivienne asked.

  “Your friend,” her mom said. “Jeremy.”

  “Jeremy Bentley?” Vivienne gasped. She exchanged a look with Rae. “Does Alyssa know?”

  Her mom nodded. “I got the call from Joan.”

  Caden hung back in the shadows, not sure what to say. He’d never really liked Jeremy, but still, the thought of him being attacked, his eyes removed… Or maybe he was fine. Maybe this was unrelated. But Caden didn’t believe that.

  Vivienne’s mom turned and walked down the driveway, her heels clicking sharply against the pavement as she made her way back to her sleek gray car.

  “Sorry,” Vivienne whispered to Rae. “See you tomorrow. If I live that long.”

  “Good luck,” Rae whispered back.

  “Vivienne!” her mom snapped.

  “Coming!” Vivienne hurried forward, pushing her bike. She popped off the back tire with quick, practiced movements and crammed it and the rest of the bike into the trunk, then got in the car. A second later it whizzed soundlessly down the street.

  And then it was just Caden and Rae standing in front of her door. He felt like he should say something, anything.

  “Poor Jeremy,” Rae said.

  “Poor Jeremy,” Caden agreed. Maybe that was all you really could say.

  Rae put her hand on the doorknob, then stopped. “I know we shouldn’t be exploring the woods by ourselves anymore. Especially not at night. But I don’t like not knowing what’s out there.”

  Caden waited. He could feel her watching him, the weight of it pressing down like a gathering storm. This was some sort of test, only he had no idea what answers she was looki
ng for. Just that she was measuring him somehow, deciding if he should pass or fail.

  “I’m going to do some research,” she said at last. “Want to help me figure out what’s going on?”

  Research. Caden pictured his mother’s Book of Shadows, the book that might have all the answers. “Actually, I might know where to look first,” he said slowly. “Want to come over tomorrow after school?”

  19. RAE

  Rae lay awake in bed, thinking. Before she’d moved to Whispering Pines, she’d only had one person disappear from her life. Here, it felt like people were disappearing all over the place. First Brandi, and now Jeremy.

  Her thoughts kept drifting back to that serial eye snatcher article and the one survivor: Jasmine Green. Jasmine, who was a fifth grader at Dana S. Middle School. The only witness.

  Too bad the girl’s not talking.

  Rae knew how it felt to see something unbelievable, and she understood why Jasmine might not want to talk about it. But maybe she’d be willing to share her story with Rae, even if she didn’t want to tell some doctor.

  Rae turned over on her side, pulling her blankets tighter around herself. Something weird was up with Doctor Anderson. He’d totally been lurking in the woods, and there were leaves on his hat and dirt on his coat as if he’d been sprinting. There was no way someone his age could have moved as fast as the thing that had been following them. She knew that. Nothing human moved like that.

  But maybe Doctor Anderson was more than what he seemed.

  * * *

  The next morning, Rae managed to coerce Ava into giving her a ride to school so she could get there early. “Another student is missing,” she told her. “This place you made us all move to is basically a death trap.” The guilt trip was effective, and as soon as her sister dropped her off, Rae set out in search of the fifth-grade hallway.

  The school kept the fifth graders sequestered on the lower level. Rae walked down the stairs, noticing how the lights seemed dimmer, the walls plain brick, no painted murals. She almost felt like she was wandering down a tunnel.

  She made her way to the lockers just as the first fifth graders began trickling in. They eyed her suspiciously.

  “Are you lost?” one girl demanded, hands on her hips, all fifth-grader sass. It reminded Rae of how she’d been before her dad disappeared and her friends all turned on her. Back when she felt confident in herself.

  “No, I’m just waiting for someone,” Rae said.

  “You’re not supposed to be down here. This is our space,” the girl said, scowling. But then curiosity took over, and she asked, “Who are you waiting for?”

  “Jasmine.”

  “Oh,” the girl said, drawing the sound out. “Good luck with that.”

  Rae frowned. That didn’t sound promising.

  Jasmine showed up a few minutes later, looking smaller than Rae remembered from Doctor Anderson’s office. She walked with her shoulders hunched, her head tucked down low like a turtle’s, her long brown hair hanging around her face. Rae waited until Jasmine had crept over to her garishly bright yellow locker and started spinning the dial. And then she made her move.

  “Jasmine?” Rae said.

  Jasmine squeaked, spinning to face her.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you. My name’s Rae. Rae Carter.”

  Jasmine didn’t say anything.

  “I was hoping I could maybe talk to you?”

  Jasmine shook her head.

  “No? I just had a few questions.”

  Another head shake.

  “My friend is missing,” Rae continued anyhow, “and I think… I’m afraid it’s the serial eye snatcher again.”

  Jasmine backed away, her hands clutching the straps of her backpack.

  “Wait, please,” Rae said quickly. This was not going well at all. “I’m sorry. I understand why you don’t want to talk about it. But I have to know what you saw.”

  Jasmine shook her head a third time. Rae thought she was going to bolt, but instead, she took a small, panicky breath. “I already told the police this summer,” she whispered. “And they didn’t believe me.” She darted a terrified glance around the hall. “No one believed me.”

  Rae’s eyes welled up. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know how that feels. And I promise that I would believe you.”

  Jasmine bit her lip.

  “I want to catch the eye snatcher,” Rae continued. “If you help me, maybe I can—”

  “Stay away,” Jasmine warned, and Rae wasn’t sure if she meant from the eye snatcher or from her. Before Rae could ask, Jasmine turned and melted into the growing crowd of fifth graders, and the moment was gone.

  Rae sighed, disappointed, but not really surprised. Most people chose to run away from the truth. It was what her mom and her sister had done, after all.

  “Rae Carter,” Ms. Lockett barked.

  Rae jumped.

  The vice principal glared at her, familiar clipboard in hand. “You are not where you’re supposed to be.”

  “I was just leaving now,” Rae said, backing away.

  “Just a second.” Ms. Lockett glanced down at her clipboard, her lips pursing, and Rae could tell she was about to get in trouble.

  “I saw someone carrying illicit chalk!” Rae blurted.

  Ms. Lockett froze. “What?”

  “Oh yes. So much chalk.”

  “Where?”

  “Down at the end of the hall,” Rae lied. “I think he was selling it to the other fifth graders. For, um, sidewalk art.”

  “Sidewalk art?” Ms. Lockett looked horrified. She spun on one sensible heel and rushed away.

  Rae let out a long breath, then hurried in the other direction. She wanted to be far away before the vice principal figured out she was lying. Ms. Lockett was surprisingly intimidating. It had to be the clipboard. And the aggressively styled hair.

  As Rae left the fifth-grade hall behind, she doubted she’d see Jasmine again; the girl was probably going to keep as far away from her as she could. So Rae was shocked when Jasmine approached her at the end of school, just outside the main door.

  “Were you waiting for me?” Rae asked.

  “Do you really think you can stop it?” Jasmine asked, her bottom lip quivering. She had something clutched in her hands, and she seemed so tiny, half-hidden beneath her tangled hair, deep shadows under her brown eyes.

  Rae stepped to the side with her so they wouldn’t be trampled by other kids escaping Dana S. Middle School. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I want to try.”

  Jasmine nodded. “The eye snatcher, it’s not human. It had no eyes, only darkness. And teeth. So many teeth. That night…” She darted a glance around.

  “What?” Rae asked gently.

  “The eye snatcher caught me, and then let me go.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. It told me it would find me later. I think… I think it likes to play games.” She held out her hands, revealing a crumpled sheet of paper. “This was in my locker.” She thrust it at Rae and backed away again.

  “Wait,” Rae said. “Jasmine—”

  But Jasmine had already turned and sprinted toward her bus.

  Frowning, Rae unfolded the wrinkled sheet of paper. It had six words scrawled across it in green ink:

  Ready or not, here I come.

  20. CADEN

  Caden felt oddly jittery as Rae followed him inside his house. It was his first time having a girl over. Okay, so she was just there to do research, but still.

  “Hello?” he called. Both his parents’ cars were gone, but just in case.

  No one answered.

  “I think we’re safe,” he told Rae.

  “Safe, huh?” she said. “Why? Would your parents mind me being here?”

  “Not at all. But they’d mind what I’m planning on doing.”

  He felt her curiosity sharpening as she followed his lead, both of them kicking off their shoes and heading into the kitchen. He was suddenly very self-conscious a
bout everything: the cheesy plastic black cat clock with the twitching tail, the overflowing spice rack, the dishes left out in the sink.

  “I like your kitchen,” Rae said.

  “Yeah, right.”

  “I do. It’s very… comforting.” She sniffed. “Must be all the good spices.”

  Caden smiled, then glanced down at the note his mom had left on the kitchen table:

  Caden —

  Gone to Sylvia’s for a reading. Will be back late.

  Love, Mom

  P.S. There’s a green bean casserole in the freezer.

  He ran a hand over the note, his finger pausing on the word “Love.” He swallowed and turned to Rae. “She only makes one dish, you know.”

  “What?”

  “My mom. She’s been in some kind of silent war of attrition with my dad—she wants him to cook more, so whenever she cooks, it’s green bean casserole.”

  “Oh. How often does she cook?”

  “At least five nights a week.”

  “And… how long has this war been going on?”

  “For as long as I can remember.”

  Rae’s eyes widened. “That’s a lot of green bean casserole. How have you not died of scurvy yet?”

  Caden shrugged. “I eat a lot of oranges for breakfast.”

  “Good plan.” Rae grinned. “I admire your mom’s determination and follow-through. Also your dad should take a hint already.” Her grin faded. “Speaking of… are you going to tell me what we’re looking for here?”

  Caden cleared his throat. Rae had seen Brandi’s missing eyes, and she’d only temporarily freaked out about his dream. Would she believe him now, or run from his house screaming? “Do you know what a Book of Shadows is?” he asked.

  “No, but it sounds awesome.”

  He managed a weak smile. “It’s a personalized book of spells. My mom’s family has had one going back generations. It gets passed down to the oldest Price in the next generation whenever they prove they’re ready.”

  “How do they prove they’re ready?”

  “Honestly? I have no idea.”

  “And isn’t Price your dad’s name?”

  This was why Caden didn’t open up to people; every time he explained something about his family, he realized there was more weirdness lurking beneath that he’d have to explain too. “My dad took my mom’s last name,” he said. “It’s tradition in my mom’s family—they always keep the Price. I don’t know why, but it was one of her stipulations when they got married.”