showed nothing but wonder. “light or something. It’s powerful. I don’t know what else it can do, but I know it makes the dead vulnerable to you.”
Oh, great. So I could literally repel people with my freak-show skin. Just what I always wanted. All I had to do was slice off my epidermis and, presto bingo! Fan-frickin’-tastic.
Hurriedly, Derek bent over and pressed a quick kiss to my forehead. “He’s coming. He can’t know I can find you in your dreams,” he whispered. And then he was gone, disappearing into a cleft in the rocks.
I looked back across the water and I saw a young girl appear at the shoreline. There was something familiar about the curly copper hair that shone in the sun. Then I looked at her clothes. She wore a beige A-line dress with a green sash decorated with patches. It was the girl selling cookies at Leah’s house.
Just then, she looked up at me, smiling and waving as if I were her favorite aunt. A chill spread over my skin as I watched her. She picked up rocks from the water’s edge and threw them toward the middle of the river. I thought at first she was trying to skip stones and I snickered internally. She’d never manage that in moving water.
Then I saw the white belly of a fish break the surface. It bobbed lifelessly in the current. I looked back at the little girl. She was giggling gleefully, clapping her hands. I watched as she picked up another rock, a bigger one this time, and hefted it over her head. She scanned the water briefly then lobbed the rock. Seconds later, another white belly floated to the surface. Again, she giggled and clapped, thrilled with either her aim or the result, I didn’t know which. Either one was bothersome.
I looked back to the fish and discovered that it wasn’t a fish’s white belly at all. It was a person’s. A woman’s to be precise. I could see where the water lapped at her naked breasts. I looked at her face, but I couldn’t make out any detail. Where it was covered with water, the glare of the sun obscured her features. I could, however, make out a tangle of dark hair floating out around her head. And there was something familiar…
A warm breeze ruffled my hair just then. That’s when I caught the scent, the stench of death and decay. The stench of Fahl.
Just then, the girl looked up at me, meeting my eyes from across the river, and she smiled again. I felt a hand at my bare thigh, gently stroking the inside, rubbing the pulse that beat there. I looked down, but no one was there. I looked back at the girl and she smiled wider.
With a start, I awoke on the couch, the nauseating smell of Fahl still in my nostrils. I was relieved to see the familiar ceiling of my living room hanging over my head. I sat up and looked down at my legs. The covers were pushed up to my waist and my bare legs were sprawled out in front of me.
The smallest disturbance of the air alerted me to her presence. It was almost like a sigh drifting across my skin. I turned my head and there, sitting crossed-legged on the floor next to where my head had been, was Leah.
My leg tingled again, right where I’d dreamed that someone was touching me. “Leah, what are you doing?” I pushed the covers back down to my toes. “You scared me half to death.”
“I could hear your heart beating all the way in the bedroom, like drums pounding inside my head,” she said absently, her eyes fixated on my throat. She seemed dazed, dreamy almost, like she wasn’t quite awake. “It got faster and louder and then I could smell…” She paused, her brow wrinkling delicately. “Fear.”
I couldn’t imagine that babysitting a shark would’ve felt any different. Perilous. “I, uh, I had a bad dream. Sorry I woke you,” I said, swinging my legs around to put my feet on the floor. I felt too vulnerable lounging on the couch. I had to be able to move. Quickly.
“It’s ok. I need to be getting home anyway. It’s Christmas. Mom and Dad will be opening presents soon.” Her lips curved into the faintest of smiles. She was like a talking doll or something, robotic and distant, her voice very childlike.