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“For the most part?”
“I explained it wasn’t safe to go outside without an adult, but I never told you why. No matter how many times you asked. I mean, how do you explain that to a ten-year-old?”
“You can’t,” Cassie said. “Even if I understood it, I doubt it would’ve felt real. Kids think they’re invincible. They don’t realize what the world is really like.”
“A few nights before Sarah went missing, I got a call from Sarah’s mother. She was furious. She said you had convinced Sarah and your sister to go out into the woods in the middle of the night. She caught all three of you sneaking back in around midnight. I was so mad, I swear I could’ve spit nails. She let you girls stay the night, but she sent you home first thing in the morning.”
Cassie could feel the fuzzy edges of a memory coalescing in her mind. She could picture Mrs. Lennox yelling. Laura crying. Sarah trying to tell her mom it wasn’t Cassie’s fault. And Cassie was so terrified, she thought she’d wet her pants. But not because she’d gotten in trouble. Because of what had been in the woods behind Sarah’s house.
“When you got home, your father and I sat you down and had a nice, long talk. I asked why you left the house, and you said you thought you saw someone outside the window. Obviously, that didn’t go over well. We debated calling the police, but back then, I figured the person was long gone.” Her voice caught, and she had to clear it before she could talk again. “Over the years, I’ve wondered if Sarah would’ve gone missing if I had mentioned something that day. When the police interviewed us later, I brought it up. They interviewed you, but all you said was you saw a woman. You couldn’t describe her. Laura didn’t remember seeing anyone. The police dropped it after that.”
Cassie was only half listening to her mother. The mention of a woman out in the woods had caused the fuzzy memory to solidify. Bits and pieces were still wispy at the edges, but she remembered that night with a clarity she hadn’t had in over twenty years.
Cassie had slept on Sarah’s floor that night, wrapped up in a sleeping bag. Normally Cassie didn’t like when her little sister crashed their sleepovers, but Sarah had let Laura cuddle up next to her in bed in exchange for Laura taking pictures of them with the camera she’d just gotten for her birthday. It was made for kids, but it used real film their parents would then have to develop. Cassie had been jealous until Laura pretended to be a photographer, using Cassie and Sarah as her models.
She couldn’t remember why
she’d woken up in the middle of the night, only that one minute she was asleep, and the next minute she saw a face staring in through the window. It was the face of a little boy—of Sebastian Thomas. Cassie’s heart broke all over again knowing Sebastian had been there for most of her life, waiting for her to reclaim her abilities and remember him.
Sebastian wasn’t afraid, and neither was Cassie. She could tell, perhaps psychically, that he needed help. She crawled out of her sleeping bag and shook Sarah awake. Sarah had always believed Cassie when she talked about her imaginary friends or the way she’d have dreams that would inevitably come true.
The two girls slipped on their shoes and snuck out of the house. Sebastian was waiting for them in the backyard. When they got close enough to reach him, he’d flicker out of existence and reappear a few feet away, beckoning her to follow. Cassie obliged, and Sarah never questioned her.
Sebastian’s glow lit their way for a couple hundred yards. It was cold—they hadn’t thought to take their jackets—and the pressing darkness made Cassie’s hair stand up on the back of her neck. That’s when they heard the rustling.
A branch snapped. It sounded like a gunshot in the darkness. Sebastian blinked out of view, and somehow, Cassie knew this was what he wanted her to see. His job was over, and he wasn’t coming back.
Sarah gripped her arm until Cassie’s eyes watered from the pain. She could feel someone close by. Someone with loud steps and ragged breathing. She even remembered the way her heartbeat had lodged in her throat. It made her want to puke.
“Cassie?”
Laura’s voice was so tiny, the woods nearly swallowed it whole. Sarah jumped and Cassie said the only swear word she knew.
“Shit!”
The relief that it was just Laura battled with the anger that her little sister had followed them out into the woods. They were big girls, they could do things like that, but Laura was too tiny, too fragile, too afraid of everything. And she’d scared off Sebastian.
But when the rustling came again, it was from a different direction than Laura’s voice. And it was closer now. Tiny sticks popped, leaves crunched, and pebbles rolled through the underbrush. Cassie’s imagination went wild—was it a person or a monster? Would it leave them be if they stayed very still, or would it eat them anyway?
“Cassie?”
Laura’s voice was a little louder this time, and Cassie wanted to slap a hand over her sister’s mouth. The night was so dark, she could hardly see her hand in front of her face. There was no moon, and the overcast sky had obscured what little light the stars would’ve given off.
Cassie wasn’t sure what to do. If she stayed still, Laura might say her name again. Then the monster might find her sister. If Cassie tried walking to Laura, then the monster might come after her instead. If Cassie said something, she’d risk the monster finding both her and Sarah.
Before she could decide, Cassie heard Laura shuffling through the leaves toward them. Every crunch sounded like a boom in the night, and she wondered if Laura hadn’t heard the monster or was more afraid of being alone than what would happen if it caught her.
The rustling stopped as Laura moved closer. Cassie could envision every footstep her sister made. Heel to toe, heel to toe, heel to—
The pattern changed as the tip of Laura’s toe hit a branch or a rock or a vine. She tripped, and when she hit the ground, her camera bounced. It must’ve landed at the perfect angle because there was a loud, mechanical scraping sound as it went off. Then a flash of light lit up the entire woods.
The brightness lasted half a second, but Cassie could’ve sworn she had time to count every leaf on every tree within a ten-foot radius. There was Sarah standing next to her, eyes wide and hair brushed back into a ponytail. There was Laura on the ground, eyes squeezed shut and a cry of pain about to escape her mouth. And there was the monster, hunched over, hair wild, staring directly at Sarah.
But it wasn’t a monster. It was a woman. She looked older than Cassie’s mom, because of the wrinkles or the pain in her eyes. They were a golden-brown, the same color as her hair. It was frizzy like Laura’s when she combed it with the wrong brush. The woman should’ve had silky smooth curls, but she had a bird’s nest on top of her head instead.
Cassie froze as though the woman might not notice her if she didn’t move. She stood rooted to the spot while Laura lay in pain on the ground. Sarah was the only one who dared to breathe, and when she took a step back in fear, the woman’s gaze snapped to Sarah’s face.
And then the light went out.
