Keeper(3)

I shook my head. Maybe all the studying was starting to have an adverse effect on my brain. “Adverse,” I muttered, turning back toward the street. “Preventing success or development; harmful; unfavorable.”

A tall figure emerged from the shadows of the building. She stood apart from the crowd, her long skirt rustling around her legs like a bell in the breeze.

I stared at her. Her costume wasn’t one I’d seen before. She looked like she stepped off the page of a history book instead of a comic. There was something about her that held my attention; it was as if an invisible tether was linking us together. I couldn’t look away.

As she stepped forward into a pool of light from one of the parking lot streetlights, all the blood drained from my face.

She looked older than me, but only by a few years, with long dark hair and hollow, sunken eyes, but it wasn’t her face that sent my heart into my feet. Her dress and long green overcoat were stained crimson with blood.

She stood there staring at me with sad eyes, blood pouring through her fingers from a wound in her stomach.

I gasped and stumbled backward, dropping my SAT book on my foot in the process.

“Are you okay?” The mother of the small children was staring at me, her eyebrows knitted together.

“That woman over there,” I said, nearly choking on the words. “She’s hurt!” I turned and pointed toward the shadows. “I saw—” I broke off.

There was no one there.

“Sweetheart, are you sure you’re okay?” The mother’s wide eyes searched my face. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

My eyes darted around the parking lot. But there was no blood, no body, no indication I had seen anything at all.

“Sorry,” I managed to squeak. “I thought I saw something.”

I didn’t bother with further explanation. I ducked my head and made a beeline for the sidewalk. My knees wobbled as I half ran to my car. Blood pounded in my ears, and a thick layer of goose bumps covered my skin.

Just think of something else. Anything else.

My brain was muddled but immediately began supplying me with the words I had been cramming into my head for weeks.

“Consternation. Noun. A feeling of anxiety or disbelief over something unexpected. Trepidation. Noun. A feeling of—”

LAINEY!

The scream roared to life in my ears, and I took off running. I jammed my hand into my pocket for my keys and collided with the driver’s side door. I fumbled for the right key, my hands shaking so badly I could barely hold on to them.

I forced the key into the lock. My hand wrapped around the door handle, pulling it open, but then I stopped. The dim light from the streetlamp was casting just enough glow to see hazy reflections in the window. The outline of my head and shoulders was familiar enough, but something was moving behind me.

I squeezed my eyes shut. It’s not real. Just a really good costume. An early Halloween prank, even. You’re exhausted and your brain is playing tricks on you. It’s not real.

I turned around and opened my eyes. The bloody woman was standing right in front of me. Her deep green eyes, the same color as the ornate, pulsating stone that hung from her neck, burned into mine. Something inside me crumpled, like a wall that I’d never known was standing. Every cell in my body pulled me toward the woman. The magnetism between us crackled through my veins.

I opened my mouth, but before I had the chance to scream, her icy hand shot out and gripped my arm above the elbow.

The moment our skin touched, a wave of electric energy shot up my arm and surged through my body. I cried out as a blistering light exploded before my eyes. My limbs quaked and the heat intensified, engulfing me in a fire that threatened to incinerate me from the inside out. I fell to the asphalt, collapsing against the inferno raging beneath my skin. The wave of electricity intensified with each beat of my heart. I cried out again.

Then, as quickly as it had begun, the pain disappeared. The world faded away, and everything went black.





CHAPTER TWO


When the darkness finally lifted, my cheek was pressed against something rough and gritty. The air around me was thick with the tang of newly poured asphalt.

I was lying on the ground beside my parked car. The driver’s side door was slightly ajar, and the repetitive beeping of the door alert blended with the sound of the cicadas buzzing in my ears. My vision was blurry, and I blinked several times until the swirl of color in front of my face morphed into something more recognizable.

Tiny bits of gravel were digging into my skin, so I shifted slightly and a low, involuntary groan rumbled in my throat. It was like I had been hit by a truck—or better yet, as Maggie would say, it was as if I’d found myself on the receiving end of a Hulk Smash. Everything hurt.

I sat up slowly, trying not to exacerbate the pounding in my temple. I glanced around to make sure I was alone and then managed to pick myself up off the ground, crawl inside my car, and push the door lock down before completely losing it. The bloody woman’s face was seared into my eyeballs; she was everywhere I looked.

Tears poured down my cheeks, and my chest ached as I gasped for breath. I gripped the steering wheel, if only to still my shaking hands. I panted for air but couldn’t get enough. Black splotches dotted my vision.

You’re having a panic attack. The voice inside my head was calm and matter-of-fact. The rest of me, however, was in complete freak-out mode.