AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Nothing,” said Ollie. But her heart was racing. “Just imagining things.”
* * *
—
It took Coco a long while to fall back asleep. She didn’t like Hemlock Lodge. The old wood and plaster groaned and creaked. The wind whined under the eaves outside. Coco lay in her top bunk and peered into every shadow, half expecting one of them to move. What had made Ollie nervous? Just the dark? Bad dreams? Or something else?
But Coco must have fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing she remembered was hearing Ollie’s gasp as she jerked awake below her. Pale morning light trickled between the curtains. Coco was happy to see the daylight. She dangled her head over the bunk and peered down at her friend. Ollie was as white as a piece of paper. Her curly brown hair stuck out every which way. “Ollie,” said Coco. “You okay?”
Her friend was covered in sweat. “Nightmares,” she said. She sat up and scrubbed a hand over her face. “A couple of really bad nightmares.”
“I had one too,” said Coco. “Yesterday in the car. You wanna talk about it?”
“Maybe,” said Ollie. She rolled out of bed decisively, like she was eager to be out of it. “But I need hot chocolate first.”
Hot chocolate sounded good to Coco too. “And a really, really big cinnamon roll.” She started to untangle herself from her covers. “What did you dream?”
“I can’t remember exactly.” Ollie still looked shaken.
“Not scarecrows?”
“No,” said Ollie. “Something about—about beds. And mirrors.” She walked to the window and pulled back the curtain. Coco eyed the world outside, still in the safety of her top bunk. It looked cold. And white. And snowy. The snow was coming down as fast as it had the night before. The wind hummed in the lines of the ski lift, like the whole mountain was a giant violin.
“No skiing unless the wind drops,” Ollie said glumly, letting the curtain fall. “They won’t be able to use the lifts while it’s so windy. Let’s go wake up Brian.” For some reason, she seemed eager to be out of their room.
Brian wa
s asleep, and not happy to be woken up. But the girls finally talked him out of his room and dragged him, wearing a gray hoodie, pajama pants, and a grumpy expression, down the hall and to the stairs. “There had better be hot chocolate in this place,” he said as he followed them.
With only two windows at either end, the hall wasn’t much brighter than it had been the night before. Ollie was still pale and tense too. Coco wondered what she’d been dreaming about.
In the lobby, the three of them found Sue Wilson behind the front desk, wearing a reindeer sweater and a huge smile. She hopped to her feet when she saw them. “Ah!” she said. “Early risers! And you five still the only guests here.” Coco didn’t think she was totally happy about that, despite the smile. “Breakfast?” she asked.
“Yes, please,” said Brian immediately. “Is there hot chocolate?”
“You bet! Sam’s cooking. He’s a mean cook. We hired a chef, but he couldn’t make it. None of our staff could make it. We’re really snowed in!”
Coco didn’t think Mrs. Wilson was too happy about that either.
Ollie didn’t seem to be listening. Which was strange for her, because she loved both hot chocolate and breakfast in general. She was frowning at a cluster of stuffed coyotes in a corner of the lobby. “Ollie, you coming?” called Brian, already heading for the dining room.
“Yeah,” said Ollie. But she was still frowning.
“What’s wrong?” Coco asked her.
“Nothing,” said Ollie. “It’s just I was sure I counted four coyotes last night. But it was dark.”
“No, I thought there were four too,” said Coco. She looked back at them. There were five. “Well, we probably just didn’t see the fifth one, right?” she said.
“I guess,” said Ollie. She shrugged and followed Brian into the dining room. Coco gave the coyotes a final glance. They were all showing big white teeth. Five doggy grins, like they were making fun of her. Had they looked like that last night?
Well, of course they had. How else would they have looked? Hurrying, Coco went after Ollie.
The dining room turned out to be right next to the lobby, and the two rooms were connected by a pair of archways. The fireplace that heated the lobby also heated the dining room. A fire was already roaring. The walls were clean white, freshly painted. A mirror hung on the wall opposite the fireplace, making the room seem even bigger than it was.
Coco’s mom was sitting alone at a table beside the fireplace, sipping coffee and scrolling through the news on her phone. She’d plugged it into a nearby outlet. Coco was glad to see that. The outlets upstairs hadn’t been working.
Coco’s mom really didn’t get cheerful until she’d had a second cup of coffee, but she looked up when they walked in and smiled at them all anyway. “You guys are up early,” she said. “Did the wind wake you?”
