It was a yellow parka. I figured it was my mother’s. The cold chill of destiny washed over me as I grabbed the coat and ran out the door.
My heart and my mind raced all the way to the forks, where I pulled off the road and parked on the shoulder. I leapt out and headed for the woods.
As I quickly picked my way across the uneven terrain, I went back over my dream, trying to remember as much detail as possible, hoping it was just a dream and nothing more. Something in my gut, however, told me that it was much, much more than that.
I rounded a tree and nearly tripped over my own feet when I saw my mother pinned up against a tree just ahead of me. My heart stopped for an instant before restarting at a breakneck pace. I haven’t had her long enough. I haven’t had enough time! I thought frantically. And then Leah tore into her throat.
I raced forward, ready to tear my friend limb from limb, but I ran right through them. They evaporated like mist. It was only a vision. I turned back and the image solidified again, but it was like I’d hit the rewind button.
My mother was saying something, shaking her head and taking slow, careful steps backward, until she ran into a tree. At first, I couldn’t see who she was talking to. Then Leah entered the picture. Only she didn’t look entirely like Leah.
Framed by her trademark springy, dark curls, Leah’s face was a mottled gray color. Her eyes were wide and feral. They looked like burnt, obsidian holes in her head with a smoky ring of soot around each one. Her lips were curled back viciously, baring dozens of sharp, elongated teeth that chattered in anticipation. Thin black veins crept out from around her mouth, across her cheeks and down her chin, like inky spider web.
She tilted her head to one side, as if she were trying to understand what my mother was saying. And then, in a movement so fast I couldn’t track it with my eyes, she was pinning my mother to the tree. This time, I could see the filmy presence of Grey by her side. She stood to Leah’s left, her head bent toward Leah’s ear. I could see her mouth moving as if she were speaking and then, like she’d said something to enrage Leah, Leah bent her head and tore violently into my mother’s throat.
I had to look away. Even though it wasn’t real (hopefully it hadn’t even happened yet), I couldn’t bear to watch Leah feed from her.
Then the sound of voices—raised voices—reached my ears. I turned back toward the clearing and took off at a dead run. When I came upon them, they were in the woods right at the edge of the clearing. Leah was shouting, though I couldn’t make out the words, and my mother’s soothing voice was all but drowned out by it. She was backing up and I could see the tree that she would eventually be pinned to.
Pushing my legs as fast as they would go, I bent at the waist and aimed my shoulder right for Leah’s middle. When I hit her, I heard the air whoosh out as it was forced from her lungs in a grunt.
Once Leah was on the ground, I turned back toward my mother. I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the clearing. I was going to take her to the one place I knew Leah couldn’t follow us.
“Close your eyes,” I commanded. Without question, she did as I asked. Satisfied, I grabbed her hand, pulling her arm in tight under mine, closed my eyes and pictured the black house, hoping my concentration would hold long enough to get us there before Leah reached us.
When I started to get that dizzy feeling again, I opened my eyes. We were in the charred yard of the black house, the one place I didn’t think I’d ever be pleased to see. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that we’d escaped Leah.
When I turned to face her, I saw movement behind her. My heart lurched as I saw the dead, clumsily making their way across the crispy lawn toward us. And they looked ravenous.
Regrettably, I hadn’t had time to think my plan all the way through. I didn’t know how to get us back.
There was nothing I could do about that now, though, so I scanned our surroundings, looking