“Principal Scratch is onto something with this positive-thinking stuff. He told me to visualize her being better and it happened!”
“Yeah, and he gave me back my dog,” a voice interjected.
Zee looked up to see Nellie strolling down the driveway, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, not her usual designer clothes. Zee, still on the porch, balked at the sight of her. There was a brief moment of tension.
“What are you doing here?” Zee asked.
Nellie looked around a touch annoyed, shrugged, and said, “I’m obviously here to help figure this out.”
“No way.”
“Look, Zee,” Elijah said, “she’s a part of this. She was there in the cemetery. She was picked by those dogs just like you and I were. You can’t keep pretending it doesn’t mean something.”
“I’m not pretending. I just don’t see why we need to bring her along for this.”
“Because, Ghost Girl,” Nellie said, “Elijah told me what’s going on and I actually believe you.”
“You . . . what?”
“You heard me. I believe you. I believed you in the library too.”
“Then why did you have the whole school calling me Ghost Girl?” Zee said, crossing her arms. She tried not to think about how great it felt to kick Nellie in the nose.
“Because . . . you don’t make it easy for people to like you. You’re stubborn and obnoxious. You talk more than you ever listen. You think you’re right all the time.”
“If you think for one second I care if you like me or not, Nellie Bloom . . .”
“And yet,” Nellie continued loudly, “they do. They still like you. They hang on your every word. They listen to your stories. They think you’re funny. You do basically nothing and you get everything for it.”
A honking laugh spilled out of Zee. “Are you kidding? You have everything. You’re popular and rich and your dad is famous and your parents dote on you, and—”
“My parents DO NOT dote on me, okay? You couldn’t be more wrong. See, this is you thinking you know everything. You don’t know anything about me.”
“Well, you don’t know anything about me either,” Zee spat.
“Enough,” Elijah said. “Fine, neither of you know a thing about each other. Here’s a lovely opportunity to fix that. Can we go now?” Elijah stomped down the driveway, leaving the two girls, each fuming, behind on the porch. “Last time I checked we had a ghost to save,” he called back to them.
After a beat, Nellie said, “Look, I . . . I want to help. I deserve to know what’s going on. I’m a part of this now. Plus I know things. . . .”
“What kind of things?” Zee asked, but she didn’t take her eyes off Elijah’s back as he walked away.
“I meant what I said. That gift you have, I believe you.”
Zee looked at the girl to try to figure out if she was telling the truth.
“It’s not the first time I’ve gone looking to help a ghost.”
Zee shot her a look. “What do you mean?”
“I have an aunt. She’s like you. She knows things; she can see things. My family shamed her for it, but after what happened . . . I believed her. Also”—Nellie paused, her eyes darting around before she managed to say—“she knew your mother.”
Zee froze and then whispered, “What?”
“They were friends. So it makes sense that they both had the gift. It’s part of the reason my family doesn’t like you. They think your mother encouraged her ‘nonsense.’ They’re really weird like that.”
“Are you two coming or what?” Elijah yelled from the end of the driveway.
Zee and Nellie looked at each other. “We don’t have to be friends,” Nellie said.
Zee was about to say that they were never going to be friends, but stopped herself because the truth was she could use another friend. Everything they were doing, what was happening to Abby, scared her to her core. The more people she had on her side the better. She looked at Nellie, and something in the girl’s face softened, as if she knew what Zee was thinking.
“I’m here to help,” Nellie said, a challenge in her voice. “You need it.”
Zee nodded. “Let’s just solve this.”
She said it with a determination she didn’t feel and headed down the driveway to Elijah, Nellie at her side.
The trio passed through the center of town toward the North Woods. This, Zee reasoned, was the most likely place to find Deanna’s missing bracelet. Whenever she appeared, she was covered in moss and mud, and when she spoke to Zee, she talked about being in the water and being cold. There was a bog about a mile into the woods, and Zee figured there was a chance that was where the bracelet was lost. So that was where Zee was headed.
“The creek will take us right there,” Zee said, standing at the lip of the forest. It was a wood she knew well, another place that she and Elijah had explored throughout their childhood. It began at the end of town, right past a playground. They hopped the chain-link fence separating the woods from the park.
“Wouldn’t it be better to tell someone where we’re going?” Nellie asked as they stood staring into the woods. “In case we get lost.”
“We won’t get lost,” Elijah said. “Zee and I know what we’re doing.”
“Yeah, so if you don’t want to come, that’s fine too,” Zee said, but then got quiet as Elijah shot her a look. “Just kidding,” she added meekly. She didn’t know why she said it to begin with. Sometimes Zee just opened her mouth and things she didn’t always mean just fell out.
Zee led the way over the boulders that lined the entrance to the woods and down the steep path. As they moved farther in, so did the darkness. The thick canopy of tree branches overhead blocked out whatever bit of sunlight managed to sneak out of the cloudy sky. They followed the worn path that led to the creek, passing what was left of a small stone house. It was just the foundation and part of a chimney, but when they were younger, Elijah and Zee used to love it. Zee would make up different stories about who had lived there. Later they found strange footprints around there, marks in the mud that looked like the prints of a giant bird. From that Zee made up her first original scary story about the BirdMan, a man with bird feet that came in the night and snatched up children. He carried them off in a sack he’d tied to a stick and sold them to a witch down by the river. This was your fate if you slept with your window open. Before she told him the story, she slipped out into the woods herself and made more footprints with a stick. She had scared Elijah so much he never wanted to come back to that little ruined stone house. It was the first time she realized how powerful words can be—how quickly the right ones can open minds, and how quickly the wrong ones can ruin a place.
The creek led them deeper into the woods, and they were quiet as they walked. The only sound was the occasional snapping of a tree branch or the crunch of leaves beneath their feet.
After several minutes, Nellie broke the silence. “Is it me or is it getting darker?”
“It’s not you,” Elijah said.
Nellie was right. The darkness seeped through the tree branches and slid along the ground. It nipped at their heels. Zee glanced at her watch. It was too early for it to be this dark. It was as if they’d passed through some kind of portal. Instead of the breezy, crisp October light they left behind when they entered the woods, this light felt smaller and the wind blew with more bite. This felt more like November weather, when the fall tips and tumbles down into winter.
“Maybe we should go back,” Nellie said, slowing her steps. She started glancing around, peeking between the trees and over her shoulder. Zee wasn’t going to tease her about being afraid because she felt it too. It was as if the woods were knitting themselves up behind them, trapping them in darkness.
But they trudged on, the trio now getting closer to each other. An especially loud tree branch snapped under Elijah’s foot, and he gasped. The sound and the startle defused the tension a bit, and Zee and Nellie each slipped out a little laugh. They were being silly. It was just the woods
. Zee had played here a thousand times. By the time she was in fourth grade, she could tell the difference between dangerous snakes that she had to give a wide berth to and garter snakes that were harmless. Part of the reason that she was never as scared as other kids was because of her father. He taught her to be calm, to think logically, to not let her imagination get the best of her. And so far it had worked.
Until now.
Now she couldn’t shake the fact that they were looking for a ghost’s bracelet. Deanna’s ghost didn’t scare her anymore, but the idea of what they might find in these woods did. But what choice did she have? She couldn’t keep waking up at night seeing this poor woman, lost and scared, and do nothing about it. And who else could help? She felt tied to Deanna. This was the first ghost she could help. She had to get it right. She felt very strongly that it’s what her mother would have wanted her to do.
The wind whipped up an especially strong breeze, and Zee zipped up her hoodie.
“What was that?” Nellie said, glancing to her left. “Did you see that?”
“What?” Elijah and Zee said in unison.
“There are . . .” The girl squinted in the dim light and then, turning pale, whispered, “eyes. Something is watching us!”
“Oh man,” Elijah said. “What if it’s those hounds?”
“We can’t outrun them here,” Nellie said. “Not in the dark. If those are the dogs, then we’re . . .”
“So dead,” Elijah answered.
“Where did you see them?” Zee whispered.
“Right there.” Nellie pointed, her finger shaking. “Right between those two bigger trees.”
Zee squinted and ducked her head to the left and then the right. Then she saw it! There were eyes, big ones, clearly shining even in the creeping darkness. She thought of Deanna’s ghost. Could it be?
She took a step forward, and Elijah swore and grabbed her arm.
“Don’t go closer! We should leave.”
But Zee couldn’t help herself. It was like she was pulled toward those eyes by some giant magnet. They didn’t move, didn’t blink, as her heart thudded in her ears. Elijah and Nellie followed her, protesting that this was a terrible idea and they should go home immediately. As Zee got closer, she saw that the eyes were not, in fact, on the faces of the hounds or Deanna or any other creature. They were painted on the tree trunk, over two prominent knots.
“What the . . . ?” Zee said, reaching out to touch them. The paint was wet and came off on her fingers slippery and warm and looking far too much like blood.
“Why would someone paint eyes on the trees?” Nellie asked, wrinkling her nose. “That’s just such a weird thing to do.”
“That’s paint, right?” Elijah said. “We’re sure that’s paint?”
Zee glanced around, wondering if there was someone—or something—else in the woods.
“Look!” Nellie said, pointing. “There’s another!”
“And another!” Elijah added.
They spun around looking at the trees that surrounded them. All of them had eyes over the knots, all different shapes and sizes that scaled the tree trunks, climbing high into the sky. Zee spun around, dizzy, looking up at all the eyes that stared down at her.
“What is this?” Nellie said, looking around the grove. “Who would do this?”
“It’s probably just a prank,” Zee said, trying to keep her voice steady. “Teenagers or something. . . .” She trailed off, knowing that this was not the work of teenagers. There was something dark in these woods, something, perhaps, evil.
A shiver crawled up her spine, but before she could change her mind, she said, “We should keep going.”
13
THEY PRESSED ON THROUGH THE WOODS, HUDDLED TOGETHER, BATTLING back the darkness. Nellie reached into her back pocket and pulled out her phone.
“Guys, let’s use the flashlight on our phones,” Nellie said, swiping the screen. Elijah and Zee just stared at her. “What? It’ll be better with all three of us.”
“We, uh . . .” Elijah trailed off, so Zee finished for him.
“We don’t have phones.”
“Like at all?” Nellie asked.
“Nope.”
Elijah had a phone for about six months before he cracked the screen and his father took it away. Zee, on the other hand, never had a phone. Her sister did, and they still had a house line. She was going to ask for one for Christmas, but then her father lost his job and that was the end of that.
“Okay, well, we can use mine,” Nellie said, holding the light up. This made walking easier, but there was something about having this circle of light that threw the rest of the woods into an even deeper darkness. Now it felt like not only could they not see beyond the circle of light, but that it was some kind of beacon, summoning whatever was out there to them. Whatever had just painted those eyes on the trees could be watching them from the shadows.
“Are we still going the right way?” Nellie said, looking around nervously. “I really wish we had told someone we were in here. I don’t even have a signal.”
“It’s not much farther,” Zee said, though to be honest she wasn’t even sure if that was true anymore. When they headed off the path to look at the eye trees, Zee had found it again, but the farther they walked the more she feared they found a path but not the path. She couldn’t hear the creek anymore. Was she even heading in the right direction? Was the bog even this way?
The only sound was the crunching of leaves under their feet, the occasional crack of a twig, the huff of their breath, and, if one listened hard enough, the pounding of their hearts.
When the light started to flicker, Nellie tapped the screen again. Then it blinked out completely. She tried to reboot her phone, but it was dead.
“I don’t understand,” Nellie said. “I just charged it this morning.”
As they were cast into darkness, Zee waited for her eyes to adjust. “I don’t think it’s your phone.”
Elijah looked at her. “You think it’s this place.” When Zee nodded, he said, “We should get out of here right now and come up with a new plan.”
Zee also wanted to leave, but she couldn’t help but think about Deanna. How would she ever get free? Was she just going to spend her afterlife in this confused space, appearing in Zee’s house, searching for a way to be at peace?
“I just want to go a little bit farther,” Zee said. “I feel like we might be close.”
Elijah and Nellie exchanged a look. After a beat, they nodded.
Now that Zee’s eyes had adjusted without the light, she noticed that a steady fog seemed to have rolled through the woods. It curled between the trees as the oncoming damp settled into her bones. Her hands were freezing. She reached out for the hand of Elijah, who in turn took Nellie’s, and they made their way slowly forward. It felt like a shield, the three of them together, swallowing back their fear and moving forward into the darkening woods. There were more of those eyes on the trees here, and Zee tried her best not to look at them. They looked too real in the foggy darkness that now spread to the treetops. As they moved, it felt like the eyes moved with them. Watching.
Waiting.
The ground started to feel soft. Zee’s feet sank into the mud, and she hoped they were close to the bog because that meant this was almost over. She was comforted by the feeling of Elijah’s hand in hers as the fog started to get so thick she couldn’t see an inch in front of her face.
“Guys?” Zee said, leading the trio through the woods. “Just stick together, okay? The last thing we need is anyone getting lost in this fog.”
Neither Elijah nor Nellie answered her. Zee squeezed Elijah’s hand in hers. His fingers were icy, and Zee realized they probably all should have brought gloves, though who would have thought? They certainly didn’t need them before they entered the woods. It had gotten so cold that she could see her breath.
“Did you guys hear me?” she asked as they trudged forward into even spongier ground.
When they still didn
’t answer, Zee turned and looked back.
No one was there.
She spun around and found that there was nothing—nothing but trees and fog and darkness. Elijah and Nellie were gone.
But Zee could still feel a hand gripping hers.
She jumped, startled, rubbing at her palm and wondering whose hand she was just holding.
“Elijah!” she yelled. There was no answer. The woods were silent. There wasn’t even the scattering sound of squirrels or deer or the flutter of an owl or a bat.
It was as if nothing lived in these woods.
A panic seized her. Where was Elijah? Where was Nellie?
“Elijah!” she yelled again. Or at least she thought she did—but with horror she realized that she couldn’t hear her own voice. She tried again. And again the fog swallowed up her cries. Zee looked down at her hands, still unable to shake the feeling of that icy grip. She squeezed them together, not only to feel them but to try to stop the shaking.
A voice, low and long, rumbled across the fog.
“Zeeeeeeeeeeee.”
The goose bumps raced up her arms. The voice circled her, at first on her left and then in front and then on her right and then behind her. It sounded like Elijah, but she couldn’t be sure. Where was he? Where was Nellie?
“Zeeeeeeeeeeee.”
For a second, it sounded like one of the hounds, and now truly afraid, Zee covered her ears to keep it out.
The urge to run was completely overwhelming. Her legs itched with the need to get as far away from this place as possible. She spun around in the fog again, her eyes desperately searching for any sign of Elijah or Nellie as her mind prayed that she didn’t see anything else. The long, jagged branches of the trees stretched out of the fog like finger bones, threatening to catch her. The fog took everything, any light, any sound. The only thing it revealed were those tree eyes. They loomed and looked and mocked, peering at her from the tree trunks, still wet, still watching.
Still waiting.
Her heart thundered inside her chest, threatening to come loose. Her breathing hitched and then turned ragged and raspy. The panic clawed its way up her throat. Whatever was in these woods—and she was sure there was something terrible here—was hounding her. The fog twisted like a living thing, the cold dampness filling her lungs with every breath. Like a hand reaching inside her and squeezing her belly.
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