Was that all there was to it? I chewed my bottom lip and sighed. “Who was he?”
“Please, can we not talk about him? I really don’t want our date to end with us arguing over some asshole who doesn’t even matter.” He turned to gaze at me, his eyes swirled with darkness.
An unsettling feeling gnawed at my belly. I’d never seen him like this and I never wanted to again. What’d happened to the Colton from our first date? Who’d seemed clumsy and fun and easily embarrassed?
“Fine, let’s just get back to my house.” I gave him a shaky smile and spent the rest of the car ride dissecting every last detail of our date, both good and bad.
CHAPTER TEN
All day, Kadie analyzed my first kiss. I don’t know how many times she made me tell her about the date. I left out the parts about him tasting like chocolate; I mean I had some dignity. And for a few minutes I’d forgotten it was winter.
When I told her about his angry outburst, she seemed kind of concerned. And if I was being honest, so was I. She said if something like that happened again, to call her and she’d come get me.
With a sigh, I attempted to erase last night from my mind, because tonight I’d be able to spend time with Nevin. There were so many questions I planned on asking him and I wouldn’t take no as an answer. Pushing into the house, I stopped mid-stride when I heard Mom’s loud voice.
“Don’t do this, Rich… Me? I’m the one here, taking care of everything. You’re never around.” Mom sounded choked up.
Whoa. What was going on? I clutched tight to my backpack.
“And how would you have me deal with her… Oh, don’t criticize me for how she’s being raised. Not when you can’t be a father. When was the last time you were even home? I can’t do this by myself.”
I needed them to please stop fighting. My stomach grew queasy, the knots twisting tighter. They were arguing about me. I had no idea what had happened. Dad had sounded so happy last time we talked.
“Maybe you could find another job so you’re home more. I have to go, I can’t deal with this right now.” She slammed down the phone. Muffled sobs sounded from the living room. My heart broke. She didn’t deserve that.
What in the hell had gotten into him? Dad never yelled at Mom. Matter of fact, he used to call me and Mom all the time from the road. But I noticed in the last couple of weeks he’d barely gotten a hold of us. It was like he was a completely different person.
Slipping into the room, I tossed my bag on the floor. “You okay?” I pretended I hadn’t heard anything.
Mom gave me a forced smile. “Yeah.” She sniffled, then wiped the tears away with her hands. “How was school?”
Why didn’t she talk to me? I was old enough to understand. “Fine. So, I’m going to head over to feed the animals real quick. And I’m gonna hang out with a friend after that.”
She perked up. “With Colton?”
“No, someone else.” I smiled. “Don’t worry, he’s a complete gentleman.”
“Shouldn’t I meet him first?” Mom called after me.
“Everything’s fine. It’s not a date, I promise. We’re just friends. I’ve gotta go or I’ll be late.”
“Wait. Maybe I can drive over with you.” She smiled.
Guilt nagged me. She was probably just lonely. It wouldn’t kill me to have her sit in the house and wait for me to finish my chores. But then she’d want to meet Nevin and I’d never get out of there on time. With a sigh, I stared at the clock. I could just have Nevin meet me after I got Mom back to the house. “Okay, c’mon.”
She grabbed her coat from the back of the chair and followed me outside on her crutches.
“Wait here while I pull the Jeep around,” I said, thankful our neighbor had plowed a path to our garage.
When I got to Grandma’s, I helped Mom get situated at the breakfast nook in the kitchen.
“I shouldn’t be too long.” I tugged my hat over my ears.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to sit out on the deck or even at the gazebo?”
“I-it’s okay.”
She patted my arm. “Can you hand me Gram’s phone? Since you’re going out tonight, I’m going to give Nancy a quick call and see if she wants to go see a movie or something. No sense staying home alone.”
I moved across the kitchen, picked up the cordless phone from the receiver, and handed it to her.
“Thanks honey—and be careful out there.”
“I will.”
When I finally stepped onto the deck, I noticed Nevin was nowhere to be seen. Which was probably a good thing. At least then he could avoid my mom, who would want to play twenty questions with him.
Taking a deep breath, I left the safety of the porch and headed to the shed, where I grabbed everything I needed to get my chores done. With two rowan twigs in hand, I hesitated near the gate. Wind pushed through the trees, howling like rabid animals on the loose.
I told myself to just put the damn things in the fence and leave.
But I stood motionless, staring into the sinister fortress of timbers. Inky silhouettes slunk through the overgrowth like they marched toward me.
Hiss.
The twigs trembled in my hands and I forced myself forward. Trying not to look in the woods, I wove the sticks into the gate then staggered backward, landing on my ass in a snowdrift.
“Brilliant.” Damn, I was jumpy. I climbed back to my feet and wiped off my pants, then trudged to the feeders.
When I got back to the deck, there was still no sign of Nevin, but I found a note inside the door. Disappointment flooded me when I saw it was from him. He simply wrote something had come up and he couldn’t make it. But if he’d been here, why hadn’t he told me himself?
Maybe he’d reconsidered my confession about my mental state and changed his mind?
No. He’d said he liked me. Yet, deep down I knew he hid stuff from me and I didn’t like secrets. In fact, the more mysterious Nevin was the more I felt inclined to unravel the puzzle.
As I stood on the deck, goose bumps broke out over my skin. Then I heard the scream. My stomach clenched, my eyes darted over the landscape. No. I had to ignore it. I was just hearing things like I always did.
“Salome!” Mom’s frantic cry came from the woods. “Help me. I’ve fallen.”
“Mom?” I called. What the hell was she doing out there? I’d told her to stay inside.
“Hurry,” she shrieked, sounding more desperate. “I’m bleeding.”
“I’m coming, just hold on.” Holy shit. If something happened to her… My fingers touched the cell phone in my pocket, making sure it was still there if I needed it. Terror set in as I rushed into the trees. My footsteps crunched in the snow, feet sinking in as I ran. The air was brisk, the surroundings dead silent. There were no birds singing, or crickets chirping, no frogs serenading the pond. Everything was drab—branches bare of leaves, fruit vines withered and brown beneath the heavy ice. The only things that seemed to survive were the thornbushes gripping at my coat and jeans like the teeth of a shark.
“Mom, where are you?” I glanced around, not seeing any footprints. My body tensed. I had to keep it together. She needed me.
“I’m farther back.” A sob bounced off the pines and oaks.
How did she get in so far? I stayed close enough to the fence inside Gram’s property to keep my bearings. A rotted log blocked my path and I hopped over it, nearly falling into the snow. I grabbed hold of the nearest cluster of foliage and screeched when thorns bit my skin. With a tug, I got my glove free and took it off to examine my hand. Tiny beads of blood bubbled to the surface then fell to the ground. The crimson color spread across the snow like red ink on white paper. I sucked my fingertips; the metallic copper taste made me nauseous.
Once again I searched for Mom’s footprints. But there weren’t any. Uneasiness gripped hold when I realized my tracks were covered as well.
“Salome, hurry. My leg, it hurts so bad.”
“I—I don’t know where you are
.” My chest tightened. What if I couldn’t find her? What if she froze to death because I wasn’t fast enough?
My eyes welled, blurring my vision as I pressed further in. I couldn’t freak out now.
Silence settled over the woodland. The deeper in I went, the brisker the air became. Wisps of fog trailed like ghostly soldiers trudging off to battle.
I cupped my hands together and screamed, “Mom?”
This time there wasn’t an answer. I swallowed hard and tried again.
“Mom? Answer me.” My voice cracked. Then, I saw it. A corroded cement archway, surrounded by wrought iron spires, barred the entrance to an ancient looking cemetery.
My cell phone blared and I jumped. “Holy frick.” I tore off my glove and grabbed it from my pocket.
Grandma’s number.
“H-hello?”
“Where in the world are you?” Mom said from the other end.
“Mom, you’re okay. H-how did you get back to the house?”
“Back to the house? I never left it.”
“Wait, you’re not in the woods?”
“No. What’s going on?”
“But you called to me from the woods. You said you were hurt, you said—”
“Oh God. Salome, you get back here, now. You understand me?”
Fear coiled inside. If Mom hadn’t called for me, then who the hell had? I needed to get out of here. Now. But as my gaze shifted to the cemetery, I felt drawn to it. Like I couldn’t stop my boots from moving in that direction.
I took a step closer to it. Fuck. What was I doing?
“I’ll be there soon. I need to check something first.”
This was stupid. I didn’t have to go any closer to the flipping cemetery. I needed to get the hell home. I swallowed hard and took another step toward it.
“For the love of all that’s holy, you don’t need to check anything. Salome, you’re having one of your episodes. You shouldn’t be alone.” Mom sounded freaked out.
“Did you know there’s a graveyard back here?”
“Yes, it’s a family one,” she whispered. “And it’s really far from the house. So worry about it later, okay?”
“All right. Be there soon.” I hung up the phone. Why hadn’t Grandma ever mentioned a cemetery on the property? I wondered if this had something to do with what they’d talked about on the phone the other day. A loud crash sounded beside me and, against my better judgment, I raced toward the entrance.
Right, great idea—spooky woods, fog, graveyard. Might as well just put a dumb ass stamp on my forehead. How many scary movies had I seen over the years where I yelled at the stupid actresses for going into places they shouldn’t? And here I was, playing the stupid actress.
A gust of wind sent snow whipping through the woods, the cemetery gate groaned like a savage beast as it swung back and forth on rusty hinges.
My lungs froze. I took a deep breath, pushing into the gravesite. Erosion made some of the writing on the headstones hard to read, but I could tell they went back to at least the 1700s.
Starting in the back, I began to read the names. Sarah Jane Smythe, Born September 14, 1775, Died December 21, 1793. Martha Arianna Brown, Born January 17, 1799, Died January 21, 1817. Anna Mae Brown-Fredericks, Born October 4, 1829, Died December 27, 1847. And on they went. I read each headstone, until I came to the most recent one. Maude Felice Hanover, Born December 11, 1940, Died January 29, 1958.
My stomach rolled. Maude was Grandma’s sister. I’d seen pictures of her in Grandma’s house. I backed away from the headstones. God, this was unreal. Every grave belonged to a female. They had all passed away at the age of eighteen. Eighteen. What I’d seen scratched on the bus window. The number I’d heard carried on the wind.
And they were related to me.
That wasn’t the worst of it. Every last one of them had died in the winter. Snow. Ice. Darkness. The scenery spun in circles and I gripped tight to a cold cement slab. The stone seemed to vibrate under my hand. I screamed and toppled to the ground. Scared shitless, I scooted back, running into another grave marker.
“She’s out here by herself.”
“We have to get Master. She shouldn’t have come this far.”
A sinister cackle echoed through the woodland, the air humming with the malice.
“Foolish beings, do you think any of you can save her from this fate? I will get to her. She’ll soon be eighteen, too. Look how easily she was led out here.”
I had to get out of here. The light that streamed through treetops above grew dimmer. Night would soon set in. I’d come here to find my mom and instead found death.
Winter always meant death. How could I be so stupid to think anything good could come of winter?
“He’s coming,” a tinkling voice whispered on the breeze.
Oh. My. God. Who was coming? Who?
I peered up to see Nevin burst through the trees like a chivalrous knight. His pale eyes were wild with terror. When his gaze finally landed on me, he rushed into the graveyard, lifting me to my feet.
“Are you okay?” His hands stroked my face while he examined me.
“I—um, yeah,” I stammered.
He let out a sigh of relief. “What kind of madness made you come out here by yourself?” He gave me a shake.
My body quaked with fear. “I—I thought I heard my mom calling for me.”
“Damn it.” Anger flared in his eyes. “Don’t come out here by yourself. It’s not safe.” His tone softened. He wrapped his arms around me, hand smoothing my hair.
“How did you know where to find me?”
He didn’t answer right away. “I had to gather wood and happened to hear you scream.”
Liar. Why didn’t he ever give me a straight answer? Had he heard the voices, too?
“I’m glad you’re here,” I said.
“Yeah, well, as I hear it, this isn’t the first time you’ve gone wandering in the woods lately.”
“Um—I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about?”
“A couple days ago, you tried following me.”
Heat scorched my skin beneath his scrutiny. “I—I just wanted to know where you live.”
He chuckled. “Is that what it was about?”
I shifted away from him. “You’re so secretive. You never answer any of my questions. About the voices. About the gates. I thought if I found you at home—”
“I didn’t think where I lived mattered. Besides, the place is kind of run down.” He ran a hand through his raven colored hair.
Suddenly, I felt like a jerk. I never thought he’d be embarrassed by his house. But it made sense why he never asked me over.
“Sorry.” My fingers clasped his, and I noticed how cold his skin was to my touch.
“Just trust me, Salome. I care about you. You’ve become such a good friend.” He gave me a sad smile. “We’ll do something fun together soon, but there are a few things I have to take care of first. Until then, promise me you’ll stay away from here. And out of the blasted woods.”
Tossing my head back, I stared up at him. “I promise. But first, can you answer one thing for me?” My teeth grazed my bottom lip. I was about to admit my craziness to someone outside my tight circle. Nervous flutters ate at my gut like leeches sucking blood.
“And what’s that?”
My eyes focused on the ground. “What’s going on with the voices in the woods? They knew you were coming to help me. How do you know them?” What I really wanted to know, though, was if they belonged to the beings that’d pulled me to safety as a child. The people, if you could call them that, who’d warned me to stay away from here.
I fidgeted with the zipper on my coat as I waited for him to answer. The silence seemed to swallow us up.
“I didn’t hear any voices tonight,” he said. “You probably just got scared and imagined it. I think it’s time to walk you to Doris’s. It’s getting dark.”
Great, he did think I was nuts. Why couldn’t I have just left things alone
? Because I didn’t want to be crazy. I wanted to know someone else could hear and see what I did.
When I didn’t move, Nevin touched my sleeve. “Listen, there are things I can’t speak of. But there is a certain danger that lurks nearby. One I’d advise you to stay away from.”
That didn’t exactly clear things up. If anything, it raised more questions. “What’s beyond the gate?”
Nevin’s brow furrowed and he tugged me away from the cemetery. His darkened gaze let me know that the subject was dropped.
Our hike back was fast. And soon I found myself standing in the tree line.
“Is someone in the house?” He glanced down at me.
“Yeah, my mom came with me today.”
“I’ll say good-bye here.” He touched my cheek, then disappeared back into the woods.
When he was gone, I hurried to the deck, where Mom met me at the door.
“Thank God, you’re okay.” She hugged me tight.
“I’m fine.” I gave her a forced smile.
I needed to know what led me into the woods. Not to mention she and Grandma had some major explaining to do.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Maybe I should cancel my plans with Nancy tonight and stay with you until your friend comes,” Mom said when we got back to our house.
I rolled my eyes. “No. You need a break from this place. Go on, I’ll be fine. Besides, Kadie wanted me to hang out with her tonight.”
“Wait, what happened to the guy you told me about?”
I tossed my coat on the back of the dining room chair. “Something came up.”
Her fingers rubbed the rungs of her crutches as she stared out the window. “Are you sure Kadie will be with you?”
Okay, so I didn’t know for sure whether or not she still wanted me hanging with Simeon, Gareth, and her. But I dang sure wasn’t going to tell Mom that. We’d spent the car ride back home arguing over my going off into the woods after voices no one else heard. If I had any more episodes, I knew I’d be shipped off to see Dr. Bosworth.
“Yes. Geesh, what’s gotten into you?”
She gave me a tight smile. “I just worry about you, honey.”
The Winter People Page 9