Whispered Darkness by Jessica Sorensen Page 0,23

why it happened. I can remember that I was dreaming about the lake, and then I woke up by the lake. It’s creepy as hell.”

It’s also dangerous—her walking around in the middle of the night by the forest and the lake, especially while she’s completely out of it. It makes me sick just thinking about it. And that it could happen again.

“You want me to stay in my car and keep an eye on your place?” I ask as we reach the front yard.

She shakes her head. “I’m not gonna let you stay up all night just to keep an eye on me.”

I stuff my hands into the back pockets of my jeans. “It’s not a big deal. I’m usually up at night anyway.”

She glances at me curiously. “Really?”

I nod. “I’m kind of a night owl. Always sort of have been.”

“I actually remember that about you,” she says thoughtfully. “Whenever our family would have campouts, you’d always be the last one up. I remember I once tried to stay up with you, but totally failed.”

A small smile touches my lips as I think about a time before Foster had woven his lies so thickly across everyone. “I remember. You passed out in the chair by the fire, and I had to wake you up. I think I startled you or something, because you freaked out.”

“I thought you were a bear,” she admits. “Or a ghost.”

“Those are two very different things.”

“Yeah, I guess.” She crinkles her nose as we slow to a stop in front of her bedroom window. “Although, both are really scary, apparently.”

I think about what she told me, how she sees Beth and other girls who have died in this town. “How often do you see them?”

“More than I want to … At least once a day. I actually briefly saw Beth right before we left your house. She just popped up and warned me to stay away from the shadows, like I didn’t already know that.” She scuffs her toes against the grass.

Well, that’s creepy as hell. “Did she …? Has she told you how she died or where her body even is?”

“No. But I have some ideas.”

I wonder if she’s referring to Foster. The thought crossed my mind when she first told me about Beth, since Foster was talking to her the night of the crash. But I’m not sure if I can think that horribly of my brother yet. I’m not sure I can believe he’s a killer.

“She’s very vague,” she tells me. “Beth, I mean. It kind of gets annoying. I asked her once why she couldn’t tell me more, and she acted like something was stopping her from doing so … Maybe the shadows …” Her gaze travels to the forest bordering her backyard. “I don’t know …” Her lips sink into a frown as she wraps her arms around herself. “It’s creepy to think that I probably wandered through there tonight.”

Sucking in a deep breath, I lightly brush my knuckles across her arm, partly to draw her attention back to me and partly because I want to comfort her.

When she glances back at me, I carry her gaze. “Let me stay in my car, keep an eye on your house, and make sure you stay safe.”

She briefly considers what I said, but then she shakes her head, causing disappointment to trickle through me.

She still doesn’t trust me.

At least, I think that’s the reason, but then she reaches out and hitches her pinkie with mine, something we used to do when we were kids and were still friends.

“I don’t want to make you sit in your car, so how about you just come into my room and hang out while I crash for a few hours?” she says, looking up at me through her eyelashes.

My heart is thrashing so loudly inside my chest that I can barely hear anything else. Did she just ask me to stay in her room with her?

“What about your mom?”

“What about her?”

“What if she finds me in there? She’ll freak out.”

“I’ll lock the door. I do that a lot anyway, so it won’t be suspicious or anything,” she tells me. When I don’t answer right away, the corners of her lips tug downward. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I just thought it’d be better than sitting alone in your car.”

“No, I want to go to your room,” I say. Because I do. More than I want to admit. “What about my car? If your