“I turned around thinking it was that guest from the party who I’d confused with you, but there was no one there. I kept walkingand soon I had that same feeling that I was being watched and followed. Again I turned, and again there was no one.
“I began to walk at a quicker pace, but the feeling of being followed became even worse. I could hear the crunching of leaves and twigs, and a pebble being kicked, but then I turned: there was no one.
“I finally saw the lights of the house. I felt someone,something,a few inches behind me, breathing down my neck with a terrible, hot breath and moving like an animal, not like a man, though it must have been as tall as a man because its breath was next to my face. But there was nothing, Edgar! I could see nothing, yet it was there!”
She began to weep. Edgar hugged her tight and murmured soothing words while the rest of us stared at her in astonishment. David was clutching his hat between his hands and Carolyn twisted her necklace with nervous fingers. I looked at Benjamin and he stared at me, both of us baffled, unable to speak.
“It must have been a prankster,” David suggested. “A local boy trying to cause mischief.”
“Yes, that’s right,” Edgar said, quickly seizing upon that explanation. “Benjamin was telling me that the boys in Temperance Landing are always trying to scare the girls this time of year.”
“They’re awful!” Carolyn said. “Why, one boy who danced with me tonight said there’s a headless ghost that haunts the local cemetery.”
Ginny clutched Edgar fiercely but eventually she began to nod, mutely agreeing with the explanations that were offered to her. We walked to Edgar’s car and by the time we drove back to our dorm we were all laughing.
“Gin-gin, are you going to keep the lights on tonight in case a ghoul crawls inside your room?” Carolyn asked as she opened the car door and slipped out. “Or should we sneak Edgar into your bed to keep you safe and sound from monsters?”
“Carolyn, the things you say!” Ginny replied, but she was smiling.
“Fine. Shall we see if we can sneak David in, then?”
“I wouldn’t dare with that brute of a house mother that you have,” David said. “She’s scarier than any ghoul.”
Our laughter turned even more uproarious, threatening to really get us in trouble with the house mother if we didn’t rush inside, which we did.
Yet now, when I think back to that night, I wonder if the laughter was not hollow. I think we were all terrified children attempting to shield ourselves from true horror, and that we recognized the indications of a great evil, a terrible darkness, stretching out like a gnarled, clawed hand that scratched the back of our necks.
1908: 4
“Your brother obviously cuthimself when he broke that pitcher. That’s why there is blood,” Alba’s mother said as she carefully threaded a needle. “If his horse is not in the stable, he must be with Valentín. There is nothing to worry about.”
“Something is wrong,” Alba insisted. “I want to speak to him. I’ll take a horse and be back—”
“You, alone?”
“Yes, I can ride faster on my own.”
Alba’s mother put down the stitching she was working on and looked at Arturo, then at Alba. She sighed. “I say it’s silly to go there when there’s a great deal of work to be done around the house today.”
“It won’t take long,” Alba assured her.
“Arturo, might you accompany her?”
“Gladly,” her uncle said.
Alba hurried out of the parlor. Arturo laughed, rushing after her. “You are going to gallop to that farm, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” she said. “Can you keep up with me if I do?”
“Are you afraid I’ll fall off my saddle?” he asked.
“Perhaps.”
“I don’t like to ride, but I can. Sometimes I used to ride up themountains with the Desoto boy when I was young, up all those narrow trails. I’ll keep up.”
Belisario saddled their horses and Alba climbed onto her mount. Then off they went toward the Molinas’ lands. When they arrived at the stables, she spotted Valentín, who waved at her with an eager smile.
“This is a nice surprise,” he said. “What brings you here?”
