Chapter 5
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Mara stood in the middle of a dense forest and she knew instantly that she'd never been there before. It was hot, the summer maybe. The trees were tall and crooked, like trees in fantasy stories that should be filled with fairies and songbirds. But Mara didn't hear any songbirds. In fact, Mara didn't hear much of anything at all, except. . . there was a low kind of murmur hiding just below the normal audible range. She concentrated hard, then she gasped. It was whispering. Hushed but harsh whispering. "Go back, go back, go back, go back." It chanted. Mara spun around, looking behind her. She craned to see if someone was hiding behind the trees. No one. "Go back, go back, go back, go back." Visions of Chailyn lying on the floor covered in blood poured into Mara's mind. "NO!" She screamed out loud without meaning to. The forest gave one last whisper, and then went silent. Everything was still for just a moment , as though the whole scene had been freeze-framed except for Mara, and then the whispering came back, full blast. Suddenly the trees started moving past Mara. The ground whizzed by beneath her feet. She was being pulled by something, down some unknown path toward some unknown destination. Mara covered her face with her hands, but no sooner had she done so then she was jerked to a stop. Like a child afraid to look at a horror movie, but even more afraid not to know what was happening, she slowly pulled her fingers apart and peeked through the cracks.
She screamed. A little boy with sandy blond hair and brown eyes stood in front of Mara, smiling. It was the same crooked, mocking smile that had looked at her from behind her baby sister's face.
"Give up," he told her. His smile spread to a grin as he watched her gaze slide to the scene behind him. Chailyn was running, in her white ballet dress, to catch up with another dark-haired boy of the same age, some thirty yards ahead. He was calling her, and she was following blindly. A huge vicious looking creature lay in wait next to the boy. The picture of Chailyn's body on the floor swam into Mara's head again, this time focused on the bite marks. Mara gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth,
"NO!" She screamed again. The boy standing before her grinned again,
"Oh yes. That's Raymond. Give up. There's nothing you can do now." He turned and ran, much more quickly than seemed possible, to the side of the other boy. Mara took a step to follow, but suddenly her head was pounding again. Even as she lifted her hand to steady herself, she fell. A searing pain split in her head, and white light blinded her again.
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