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The bear shook its head, dazed, and met my eyes for all of three seconds.
Those three seconds of eye contact shot straight to my core and dredged up an icy memory. Star-blue irises met mine, surrounded by white that almost glowed. It reminded me of the day I pulled Fox from the churning, frozen creek. The day I held him in the back of my car, and when his eyes had opened, I could have sworn he wasn’t human.
My aching limbs pushed me up to my feet. “I—” I wanted to thank him. It. Whatever or whoever this creature was that tried to save me.
Before I could ascertain if he even understood me, the bear took off, lumbering away in the direction the other beast had gone.
“Hey! Wait!”
It was clear he didn’t want to hurt me, but wherever he was going, he might lead me to more answers. So, I tore after him.
My ankle protested, every pounding step a screeching alarm of pain that shot up from my heel to my spine.
With outstretched hands, I stumbled through the brown and gray forest, whipping aside branches and thistles. I didn’t know where the blood dappling the snow came from anymore—my slashed arm or my shredded palms.
Keeping my eyes forward, the black blur grew more and more distant ahead of me before it disappeared completely. I came to a halt, heaving deep, cold breaths of air, and put my hands on my knees to calm my racing heart before it burst.
A crash above me drew my gaze up, and right where I thought the bear had been last, a pitch black eagle with a wingspan longer than my car took flight. It careened into branches as if it were struggling to gain altitude after taking off too deep in the tree canopy, but it clawed its way out, beating its wings until at last—
It hit the open sky and sailed away out of view.
When my breathing calmed down, every inch of me trembled, the shock of it all beginning to catch up.
I took one step, and my bare, socked feet squelched in a puddle with only a thin layer of ice atop it.
A curse hissed out of me.
I was never running out of the house without shoes again.
Most importantly, I was never going anywhere without that gun again.
Chapter 20
Strange, dangerous creatures lived in the woods of Bald Eagle State Forest.
As I trudged back to the cabin, my feet squelching with every step, I clutched my bleeding arm to my middle and tried to unravel the knot of new information in my head. Somehow, it was all connected. I knew that much. But how and what and why and—
Argh... Nothing makes any damn sense!
My friends were rightfully panicked when they saw the state of me. I'd been there one minute, then missing the next with the back door wide open and horrifying sounds coming from the forest.
As I recounted the tale in the living room, Ben's hands trembled around the rifle gripped to his chest, unwilling to set it down for even a heartbeat.
Riss and Angie begged me to go to the hospital. To leave this place behind and accept real help. Professional help, but I resisted. Too many unconnected puzzle pieces remained.
"Just get me the first aid kit from the bathroom. I'll be fine," I said wearily, falling into a chair by the fireplace. I propped my feet up on the stone tile perimeter, hoping to bake them lightly and bring a little warmth and feeling back to my toes.
Angie fell to her knees beside me, digging her nails into the armrest as she pleaded. "Rae, please. We can't handle this on our own. If you really saw what I did last night, then you know Ben's rifle isn't going to stop it. We need real manpower."
I couldn’t disagree, feeling just as shaky as she sounded whenever I let the memory of the demon creatures take center stage in my thoughts.
There was another matter though—we had only eleven days left at the cabin. Eleven days to not only figure the entire mystery out, but to ensure we were able to do something about it. To rescue my sister, or at the very least, bring her justice.
I heaved a sigh, my head sagging forward as I massaged my temples. "Fine. We'll call this in. Just the animal attack though. We'll tell them there's something dangerous in the woods, and maybe they'll decide to help us."
More likely, I expected they'd do nothing more than tell the Winters they needed to post more private property signs and keep people out of their woods.
Relief shone on all my friends' pale, wan faces, and after Riss cleaned and bandaged my arm, she and Angie drove back to the highway to get cell service.
