Shadow Lake Vampire Society - Wendi Wilson Page 0,70
up to her lips to let me know she understood.
Hand-in-hand, we crept ahead as quietly as we could.
The trees were tight together, and branches and brambles reached out to snag our clothes and trip our feet. My heart was pounding so loudly as we approached, I worried the vampires might be able to hear it over the sound of our near-silent footsteps. But it had been far too long since Micah had gone into the cabin. And the door hadn’t slammed.
Something was wrong.
The cabin came into view in pieces. The glowing windows occupied most of my attention as we inched closer. The curtains were drawn, and shadows moved behind them. Three shadows. Was Levi up? My mother? Was there someone else in there?
I had to get closer.
I signaled to True that we should move in. She bit her lip and shook her head. Micah had made it clear if we were heard, the plan would end before it started. But then, wasn’t the plan already spoiled if Micah was taking so long? I waved at True, trying to let her know it was okay if she wanted to go back. She shook her head and began creeping forward, pointing to the one window that wasn’t obscured by a window covering— a narrow pane in the cabin’s back door.
Barely breathing, we slunk toward the steps of the little back porch. I went first on my hands and knees to avoid the sound of shoes on the wood. Finally on the tiny landing, I raised my body slowly and eased my head up until I could see inside.
What I saw sent my whole world spinning.
My heart began to pound as my vision blurred and tunneled. My hearing went next, becoming a muffled buzzing as dizziness assailed me.
No. No, it can’t be.
My legs turned to water, and I felt the world tilt, but there was nothing I could do to stop my fall.
Arms wrapped around me, stopping me from slamming my head on the porch boards. I blinked into True’s concerned face as she cradled my head in her lap.
What happened? she mouthed.
I shook my head as tears rolled down my cheeks and dampened my hair. How could I tell her? No words existed to paint my horror in colors she would understand.
Because this was not a cabin.
It was the cabin.
Somehow, through the warping of time and space, the porch we were kneeling on belonged to the same cabin where my father had been murdered over a year ago. I knew it the moment I saw the inside, yet I hadn’t recognized it in the dark until now.
How could I forget? I’d played that night out in my head a few thousand times. The wooden floors, the awful yellow couch, the cuckoo clock that never chimed on the wall by the door—I had seen it in my nightmares over and over again.
How? How was this possible?
Dad had told me the cabin was in a town nearly a hundred miles away from home. But then, how much had I really paid attention? He’d driven the whole way while I’d stared at my phone between naps.
But how was the cabin here, so close to the camp? Unless…
He’d come investigating the vampires. He’d said it was for relaxation and wilderness therapy, but then he’d left me here on my own for hours. He’d told me he was going to the store for s’mores supplies and milk, a run that took him five times longer than it should have. When he’d returned, he was flustered and muttered something about getting lost.
And he’d brought back zero supplies.
Oh God.
This was where I’d been imprisoned for two days. I could see the floor with the trap door where he’d hidden me just before…
I felt my consciousness slip away again, trying to drag me into blissful oblivion.
True patted my face, hers hovering over me. “Piper,” she whispered, her eyes darting up in fear to make sure none of the vampires heard her. “Wake up.”
I bolted up, fighting the darkness, refusing to go quietly into unconsciousness. True needed me. Mom needed me.
Because there was something I hadn’t been able to fully process until this moment.
Micah was dead.
I’d seen her body splayed out on the floor right where my father had been murdered, her black blood slipping through the cracks between the wooden slats just as his had. There was no question if she was dead, or just injured, because her head lay four feet from her body.