CHAPTER ONE
“Don’t die.”
Well, there go my plans for the night,I think as the wind picks up and the heater blares. Flecks of white dot the night in a flurry of chaos before slamming into the windshield. They swirl across the hood of my Toyota and crunch beneath the tires. There’s a sort of demand behind the onslaught that has my fingers tightening around the wheel like I can somehow outlast the barrage.
At the back of my mind, I am very aware that there was a road somewhere at some point. I remember being on it before the storm caught up with me. Now, I’m freestyling my way down a highway that even my GPS can’t triangulate.
“Rina?”
Mom’s voice cracks, cutting through the speakers to spill into the cabin with me. The connection has rapidly distorted over the last mile and a half, creating a static that is only getting worse the further away I get from home.
“I won’t die,” I promise, body tipping forward just enough for me to squint through the glass.
“Do you ... Wednesday ... don’t ... white ... make...”
I can’t do it.
I can’t focus on the road and decipher Mom’s connection.
“Mom, I can’t hear you. I’ll call you when I get to Aunt Laura’s, okay?”
There’s a rapid clicking of distorted sound I take as Mom’s response. I disconnect and I relax my shoulders.
I still have no idea where I am or what’s ahead, but there is less chatter between my ears as I focus on just getting through this mess.
The drive could have waited.
I could have waited until the storm passed. Could have told Jenna to go fuck herself when she voluntold me to go. Hell, I could have listened to my GPS when it hounded me to take the next exit, and turn back instead of ignoring the sound advice. But those are all things I can’t change now. I just need to keep my calm and pray I eventually hit some form of civilization.
It does dawn on me that I haven’t come across a single cabin. Not one gas station hidden from the world amongst the ocean of forest surrounding me. I haven’t even passed another car in ... hours. I can’t remember the last soul I passed. It’s been miles of endless darkness pressing in on me from all sides, broken only by the howl of demons slamming against the windows.
I exhale and mentally kick myself for not waiting.
It’s not like Aunt Laura is getting any deader. The woman passed two months ago and not a single person wanted to be the one to tackle the house she was found in ... one week too late. It doesn’t help that no one liked the woman. Not even her own kids. Somehow, it was my name that got selected to drive out and assess the damage.
Bad, I’m guessing.
Even alive, the woman had been a nightmare hoarder, and that was before she had to get peeled off the bed and given a closed casket funeral. I don’t even want to imagine the stench. But someone has to do it.
I just wish it wasn’t the dead of winter, mere days from Christmas. Determining the worth of a crumbling estate wouldn’t be this depressing if I didn’t have to drive back almost immediately. Still, even if I reach the house in the next few hours, spent a few days doing a speedy assessment and drive straight back, I’d be arriving home Christmas morning.
“It’s fine,” I tell myself. “But no short cuts going back.”
It had seemed like a good idea when I saw the thin, pale vein twisting away from Route 17 and plunging deep into theAppalachian Mountains. What could possibly go wrong? At best, I’d avoid other drivers and make a quicker arrival.
Wrong.
I knew I fucked up three hours into my life choices. Now, it’s too late to turn back and I still have no idea if I’m getting any closer.
Reluctantly, I slant a nervous glance at the dashboard and the tiny, yellowEurging me to pull over for gas.
“Great,” I grumble under my breath. “Just what I...”
The blur comes out of nowhere.
It scurries past the dim strobes of light guiding my way and vanishes into the dark. The unexpected scuttle elicits a cry, and a sharp jerk of my arms.
The ice catches beneath my tires and I swerve.
