“Alex,” I hiss and chase after him, keeping my head low to the ground because the branches of the trees clip my head. “What are we running from?”
He looks at me from over his shoulder and the moonlight reflects in his eyes. His pupils look hollow as if every last speck of emotion has been emptied. He smiles and it’s like looking at a ghost. Something’s wrong.
I shuffle backwards with my hands poised out to the side. The ground is slippery and snow keeps falling from the branches of the trees and down the collar of my coat. Alex doesn’t utter a word to me, he only observes me. The recollection of a memory runs over me like a truck and my knees almost give out. I’ve dreamt about this place before. I was in the trees, it was dark, and the moon was bright. I brace a hand against a tree and squint through the dark. Through the darkness, a dim flicker of light surfaces. I want to run, but my legs are bound to the ground by my fear.
“Why did you bring me here?” I demand. “And who are you really?”
He folds his arms across his chest and stares at me, unresponsive. His stare is weighted and overpowering. My body longs to be near him, but the rage inside my head keeps me put.
“Answer me!” I shout and the sound echoes for miles and snow shivers from the bare branches of the trees. My body shakes from the wrath inside me. “Do you know what’s going to happen? Is that why you brought me out here? Because you want it to happen?!”
Again he’s silent, like a mummy with their lips stitched shut. The shadows of the branches cast across his face and the wind howls around us. I pry my hand away from the tree and force my feet to move. I know what is going to happen and I need to get out of here, with or without him. In a slow, lethargic movement, I rotate around and drag my feet through the deep snow. The sky is a sheet of black and my bearings are mixed up from the cold that possesses my limbs. I’m lost. I glance over my shoulder and Alex is gone. He has bailed on me; left me out here in the dark. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a frightening one.
“Shit,” I curse as I circle around a tree, hunching over as I try to track my footsteps back to the cabin. The light glimmers in the distance, beckoning me to come closer and I keep winding around the trees, trying to get back to the cabin, but all that seems to happen is I grow nearer to the light. It is getting colder and the moonlight is fading behind the clouds.
I halt at the sight of lofty shadows emerging from the trees. They’re just a hallucination, like in the parking lot. It has to be. However, as the figures surfaces move closer, the fear that races through my body and rams into my gut and chest is very real.
“Gemma, what are you doing out here?” Alex winds around the last of the trees and steps out into the open. The remaining stream of moonlight casts across his face and his eyes look normal again, not empty. There are scratches on his face, his jacket is torn, and his hair is disheveled. “Why the hell didn’t you run to the car?”
My gaze drifts to the knife in his hand. There’s blood on his knuckles and on the blade. “You took me out here.”
He stops a distance away and his eyebrows dip together. “What are you talking about?” He’s close enough now that I can see a thin river of blood streaming down his wrist.
“You’re bleeding?” I dare a step closer to him.
His shoulder moves forward and he examines the blood pouring out of his arm. “It’s just a scratch.”
I shake my head. “No, it’s bad.”
“I’ll live, but we have to get you out of here.” He offers me his uninjured hand, but I don’t take it. “Would you just come with me?”
“I don’t know.” I look over my shoulder, noting that the light in the distance has vanished. “I can’t… I don’t…” Confusion is overwhelming me. I want to run to where the light disappeared. I want to run away from Alex. I want to run away with Alex. I have no idea what to do. I’m pretty sure I am the most confused human being that has ever lived.
“Gemma!” Alex’s angry voice cuts through the night like a knife to flesh.
Goosebumps dot my skin and my heart thrashes against my chest. I can feel my ribs about to crack, unable to endure such a heavy emotion. I back away, the snow crunching below my shoes. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Follow me.” The voice is softer and more soothing than Alex’s, yet when I turn around it is Alex standing behind me. Only he isn’t injured and he doesn’t have a knife. His skin looks paler, like the snow and his eyes like coals. My eyes glide back and forth. There is an Alex on each side of me, both waiting for me to take their hand.
The inevitable has finally come. I’ve snapped, fallen off the cliff called reality and submerged into the darkness where imaginary things walk, talk and are real to me, but no one else. It seems like everything is moving in slow motion and I’m linked to each aspect that surrounds me; the expanding of the icicles as the temperature descends, the sounds of branches snapping, the inhale and exhale of Alex’s breath.
“Gemma.” The injured Alex takes a cautious step forward. “Don’t listen to it. It’s not real.”
I whip my head back and forth between them. “Listen to it? It’s you. I don’t…” I tug my hands through my hair and yank out the roots as I try to sort through what’s happening. “Oh my God, I’m crazy.”
“You’re not crazy.” His feet move gradually and carry him closer to me, while the other just stands there. “That thing is… well, it’s a mirage, kind of like a trick of the eye. It doesn’t really exist. I promise.” With each step, he leaves a trail of blood in the snow, which makes him seem realer than the other. He bleeds, has veins and a pumping heart. I know because I can suddenly hear it.
“Don’t listen to it.” The mirage-in-question purrs. “You need to come with me.” His voice sounds controlled and his face flickers, fading in and out. Shock waves through me and I stumble backward away from him. He isn’t real. He’s a ghost, unruffled and transparent. “Don’t run. If you do, you’ll die.”
My head snaps in the other direction and I do the exact opposite. I run like hell toward the injured Alex. Before I know it my hand is in his and we are running away from the mirage.
“What’s going on!” A branch snags my cheek and splits open my skin. I cup it as warm blood pools out of my skin.
He shakes his head, the blood from his arm dripping onto me, the liquid warm against my skin. “I’ll explain later…” His words are sucked away by the sound of the wind.
As the heaviness of the cold presses down on my body, I realize I know what’s going to happen because I’ve dreamt about it only days ago.
The ground begins to quake as tall figures march through the trees. Their eyes glow across the snow and icicles begin to crisp the trees that surround us. Fog snakes through the trunks, coiling and spiraling, heading in our direction. Alex speeds up, moving at a pace I’m not capable of keeping.
“Alex,” I choke against the cold as my feet slip out from under me. His hand glides up my arm and he helps me get my balance before I fall. “I can’t…”
He practically lifts me up and carries me, my feet leaving the ground. Moments later, we break out from the trees and into the yard of the cabin. My feet touch the ground again and I’m moving on my own. The car isn’t too far off and Aislin stands beside the driver’s side, bundled up in a coat and hat, her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed.
“What the hell were you thinking?” She moves away from the car and stomps toward us, tightening the scarf around her neck. “Bringing her up here.”
Alex sprints toward her with me in tow as the people on the porch of the cabin watch us. “Now’s not the time for lectures.” Alex doesn’t slow down, nearly running over her, and she has to jump out of his way.
“What the hell is going on?” She rushes after us with worry written all over her face.
Alex slams to a halt when we reach his car. “Gemma’s seeing mirages.”
Aislin’s head whips in my direction. “You did what?”
Before I can respond, Alex interrupts, “And they’ve found her.” He pats his pockets and then takes out his keys.
The color drains from Aislin’s face and beneath the cast of the porch light, her skin looks green. “The Death Walkers? How?”
My insides weave into knots like they are made of thorns that want to tear at my insides. “Death Walkers?”
Alex swings his car door open, dives in over the console and reaches toward the glove compartment. “Yeah, big, tall creatures that look like the walking dead.” He takes something out, slams the console shut, and jumps out of the car.
My heart stills as his words echo in my head. I glance at the trees, the people on the porch, and then back at Alex. “And have glowing eyes?”
Alex and Aislin freeze and they look at me as if I’m nuts. Maybe I am. Perhaps this is another dream and I’m going to wake up at any moment. “How do you… never mind. You can explain later.” He turns to Aislin. “You gotta transport us out of here.”
“Transport?” I ask at the same time Aislin says, “Why?”
Alex’s fingers close around my upper arm and his eyes stay on Aislin. “Because there’s no way in hell we’re going to out run them.”
I lurch my shoulder forward, trying to wiggle my arm free from his grip, but his fingertips dig deeper into the fabric of my coat. “What the hell is going on? Someone better start explaining or I swear to God—”
“Or, you’ll what?” Alex waits with a condescending look on his face.
Furious, I lift my knee and move my foot toward his shin. He dodges out of my way and then drags me around to the passenger side. Aislin chases after us as she retrieves a purple object from her pocket. “I only have the amethyst with me. I’m not sure it’s powerful enough to take all three of us anywhere.”