They leaped past the forest line. Anxiousness jumped up my throat. “Wait!” My legs picked up speed, tearing into the woods right behind them.
They were gone. “What?” My brain struggled with the logic of them abruptly vanishing. My head darted around, trying to see any movement. “Hello?”
A giggle from up ahead pushed me on, traveling toward the voice. Out of the side of my eye, I saw a little body dart in front of me.
“Wait. I’m not going to hurt you. I want to help.”
A high-pitched giggle came from another direction changed my course.
“Boys, where are your parents?”
Cackled laughs spun me around again, their voices jumping too quickly in opposite locations to be humanly possible. Were there more than two out here? Some bizarre Lord of the Flies situation?
My heart thumped from exertion, but fear climbed up the back of my legs, knowing something was off. Way off.
Two giggling figures darted through the trees, and I took off after them. Their bodies again slammed into each other as they leaped over a fallen tree, dropping to the ground on the other side. Like a vacuum, their laughs cut off, everything going uncannily silent.
I jumped onto the log, peering down, ready to see the boys lying there.
Empty. No sign of the boys. Chills burst over my arms. It was impossible.
“What is going on?” I whimpered, my hand running through my hair.
Dinah, you are going crazy. There was no other explanation. I remembered Alice telling me her hallucinations were as real as I was. At the time, I couldn’t understand it—now I could.
Panic spun me, my feet turning to get off the log. Slipping, my body fell back. A squeak gurgled up my throat, my arms flapping as gravity yanked me backward.
Preparing for my ass to hit the rocky ground, I squeezed my lids shut. But it never came.
I continued to fall.
My eyes and mouth burst open as darkness enveloped me.
Descending down.
Flipping and tumbling, I spotted a dim light, unveiling the bottom, my body speeding toward it like it was a bullseye. Screaming, I scrambled for anything to stop me as it did before. Wind gushed upward, ballooning my elf skirt out like an umbrella, jerking me back up before gently lowering me to the ground.
My feet touched earth, and I bent over, feeling as if I wanted to puke. Taking in several deep breaths, acknowledging I was okay, my gaze started to wander.
What the hell? My brows crunched down as I peered around. I stood on the foundation of a house, but no walls or roof were left. They were crumbled as though a tornado had ripped apart the home. A single table stood whole in the middle, the lone survivor of whatever force had come through here.
My feet moved, chunks of what was left of the walls crumbling under me like dry cookies, wafting the smell of ginger into my nose.
“Holy tinsel.” Man, I was sounding more and more similar to my sister. My mouth gaped, and I picked up a portion, holding it up to my nose. “It’s gingerbread.”
What looked like dried foam stuck to some of the pieces.
Frosting?
This was insane. I was standing in the middle of what used to be a huge gingerbread house before it had been demolished.
Distant giggles jerked up my head, and I raced down the house path, jogging past gigantic gumdrops, to the edge of a forest. I stopped, trying to listen for them.
“Oh no, the tart is back,” a raspy voice boomed from above me. My head followed the trunk of a huge Douglas fir. Sap-colored eyes glared down at me, and a knot in the tree opened. “Because Christmas has returned to Winterland, it’s okay to chop us down, use our carcasses as decorations again?”
I stumbled back, a noise rising up my throat. Trees were talking to me again. I had to be dreaming. Fallen asleep at Santa’s Workshop. Trees did not talk.
Cracks of branches snapping echoed in the air and a balsam fir bent over, its limbs tugging at my skirt. “It’s dressed the same. Looks the same, but you aren’t the same, are you?”
“Another one?” A noble fir behind the Douglas huffed, folding its limbs, his yellow eyes rolling up. “How can you tell? They all look alike to me.”
Wake up, Dinah! Wake up!
“Whooo arrrree yooou?” The balsam tugged harder at my costume.
“Stop it.” I shoved at the branches yanking on me.
“You sure it’s not the same? Sounds identical to the other. Whiny and demanding. As if she owns the land.” Branches snatched at my hair like it was inspecting me.
“Does it matter?” The noble grumbled. “They’re all out to murder us in some way. How would you like it if we chopped you down to keep warm? Used your guts as building material? Dressed you up and exhibited your dead body like a trophy?”
“Shall we see, friends? She’s already dressed up as a tart. Prop her up in the corner as decoration?” Noble’s branches wrapped around my ankle, an evil grin cracking over the trunk. “Then chop her into bits and burn her later?”
“Yes!” Douglas cheered. “It’s only fair!”
“Oh Christmas tart, oh Christmas tart,” Balsam started to sing, swaying to his melody. “You stand in splendid beauty.”
“Oh, that’s a perfect one, friend,” Noble replied before all three started to sing.
“Your branches pink in summer’s glow.” Limbs plucked my arms and legs painfully.
“Stop it!”
“And ever white in winter snow.”
“I. Said. Stop!” I shoved and snapped at the branches, their voices rising, limbs tugging and yanking on me from everywhere, cutting into my flesh and tearing out my hair. “Owww! Stop it! Let me go!”
I twisted with all my might, and the loud snap of branches breaking nearly drowned out their yowls as I tore from their hold and scurried away.
“Come back, Christmas tart!” The trees’ crackled yells faded as I sprinted away. I didn’t even care where the path led, needing to get away from there.
When I could no longer hear them, my feet slowed to a stop on a seemingly never-ending path lined with holly bushes on both sides. Air wheezed in and out of my lungs, and I bent over trying to get my breath, my hands on my legs. I stared at my green elf shoes, my feet covered in snow, though no wetness or cold seeped through the velvet fabric. Reaching down, I scooped up the white flakes, the texture exactly what snow should be, but again, I didn’t feel cold, though my mind kept telling me I should.
Peculiar. The weather actually felt temperate.
“Jangle!” A voice yelled out, my head bolting up. “Wait up, bro.”
The chubbier of the boys trotted down a path ahead of me. What the tinsel? The path was completely different than it was just a moment ago. Before, it went straight. Now a tree stood in the middle, the path dividing, a sign posted on the tree.
Forgetting the oddity for a moment, I tore after the boy, my feet slowing when I got closer to the sign. Squiggly arrows pointed in every direction next to “This way to Tulgey Woods,” “That way to Beach.”
“That makes no sense,” I growled under my breath. I hated when things weren’t rational. I wanted logic. Facts. Order.
Moving past the sign, I chose the lane the boy went down. It twisted and turned in circles, everything changing and shifting every time I looked.
“Dammit!” I yelled, scrubbing my hands over my face and eyes in frustration. “This place is not rational.” All I wanted was to go home and crawl into bed with Scott, thankful for my boring, predictable life.
The sounds of waves crashing, birds chirping, and jolly music tore my hands from my face, my lids blinking.
What the figgy pudding?
I turned the corner. The snowy winter was no longer in front of me, but instead, a tropical paradise. Glistening blue ocean waves rolled onto a golden, sandy beach, the bright blue sky sprinkled with puffy white clouds, a light salty breeze blowing through my hair. Figures were out in the water on green and red surfboards, paddleboards, or canoes.
The boys I followed here were running to the waves with surfboards, their tiny hands in “hang loose” signs as they dove into the water.
Beach huts, bars, lounge chairs, red umbrellas, and green palm trees decorated in Christmas lights dotted the busy beach. Three-tiered sandmen with Santa hats and green sunglasses moved around with trays filled with bright red and green cocktails, while the song “Mele Kalikimaka” floated in the air.
I gaped, stepping farther onto the beach, noticing all the different shapes and sizes of people. Some were human-looking and some were small with pointed ears, but the other figures dropped my stomach in alarm.
Women and men appeared to be half deer, penguins, white rabbits, and polar bears, but they looked more like computer-generated characters than real animals. All moving, talking, eating, drinking, and playing on the beach like humans.
I knew my mind was not this creative, but there was no other explanation than I had eaten something for dinner that made me hallucinate.
“You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato,” I muttered under my breath. Alice and I would challenge each other with Christmas movie quotes until one of us bowed to the other. Both of us could recite a full monologue at the drop of a hat. “There’s more of gravy than of grave about you.”
“You doubt your senses?” A man’s voice, low and sexy, resounded behind me, causing my spine to jolt, my lungs hitching as I spun around.
The beautiful blond man from my dream stood in front of me, looking very real and even more beautiful. A cheeky smile curved the side of his face, and his seafoam green eyes burned into me. He wore only red and green swim trunks, his tan, broad, toned chest on display. He was at least six foot one, and his trim waist, cut arms, and toned thighs were the stuff of magazine covers.
“Oh god,” I mumbled.
“Blaze, actually, but you can call me anything you’d like.” He winked, causing a flutter in my stomach. “Good to have you back again, Dinah. I’ve missed you.”
The blot of mustard was seriously hot!
Chapter 8
“Missed me?” His words finally sank in, bringing me back from my stupor. I had been hearing that a lot lately. “What do you mean?”
“You have forgotten.” He dipped his head. “Growing up in Earth’s realm seems to rob people of their greatest attribute…an imagination. Seems quite dreary there.”
“Earth’s realm? What do you mean by that?”
“Cranberry colada?” A sandman slid up to me, shoving a tray of red frozen drinks at me, his seashell mouth pulling up in a wide grin.
I stared at the sand snowman in wonder, every detail crisp and vivid. Dreams usually had a hazy feel to them. But I could see every grain of sand that made up his three tiers. He had a carrot nose, tree branch arms, huge green sunglasses, a red-and-green flower lei around his neck, and a red Santa hat on his head.
“They’re delicious. Quin is behind the bar today.” The sandman held it closer to my face. “The best bartender in Winterland.”
“Though it’s not winter here,” Blaze grumbled to himself. “The whole world doesn’t revolve around a snowy Christmas. Why would anyone want snow when they can surf, sand, and wear shorts while drinking frozen drinks in the warm sun?”
Even though half of Earth was in summer during December, our world had promoted the northern hemisphere’s ideas of the holiday. A day playing in the snow, snuggling by a crackling fire in a blanket, consuming warm, decadent foods and drinks, with a glowing Christmas tree next to you. It was how I grew up, and I loved it, but I knew many people who went to Hawaii to get away from the icy temperatures in Connecticut.
“Quin is a magician. You should try it.” Blaze nodded at the tray.
I peered between the surfer stud and the talking sandman.
“Why the hell not,” I snorted, grabbing the curvy glass and plucking the red-and-green paper umbrella from it. “Can’t get weirder than this.”
Sucking down the beverage, the taste of juicy cranberries hit my mouth like an orgasm. “Oh my god,” I moaned, taking another long pull. It tasted sweet, with a dash of tart, the cranberries like whipped clouds dancing on my tongue. It was the creamiest of desserts, but still light, refreshing, and utterly scrumptious, making your mouth beg for more.
“I have never tasted anything so good.” Licking my lips, I sucked down the rest, the straw protesting the empty bottom. “Is there more?”
Blaze’s smile grew bigger, making it feel as if the sun got brighter. Was my head already spinning? I normally didn’t drink much alcohol, but I did enough not to get drunk off one drink.
“Of course.” His palm touched my lower back, the butterflies darted around my stomach in panic, as he moved us across the sand to a wooden bar. “Be careful, wahine, Quin’s coladas have been known to let the mind go free.”
My mind seemed to already have left the premises.
“Quin, two more cranberry coladas.” Blaze leaned on the tiki bar, his body bending to me.
A penguin the size of a toddler jumped onto a box, making her even with us. She wore a red-and-white striped bikini top, hula skirt, and a red flower on her head.
“Sure thing, handsome,” she chirped, her voice girly and light.
“Oh holy night.” I sucked in, stepping back, my mouth dropping open.
“Now you sound more like the girl I used to know.” Blaze laughed, though I couldn’t drag my attention from the cartoonish penguin behind the bar. She looked far more like the cutesy image of a penguin you see on wrapping paper than a real one.
Quin’s fins swept up liquor bottles, twirling and flipping them before pouring large amounts of liquor into the blender, along with fresh cranberries and other things I didn’t recognize before combining it all. She wiggled to the holiday music playing, placing two cocktail glasses on the counter. She filled them with the frozen liquid, plopping more cranberries on top and shoving them at us.
“There you go, doll. Enjoy.” She winked, her curled lashes fluttering before she started making more cocktails.
“Cheers.” Blaze held up his glass to me.
“Cheers.” I tapped mine against his, shaking my head. This was all so bizarre. Soon I’d wake up and forget this upside-down world and return to normal life, but right now I was just going to go with my twisted dream.
The second drink tasted even better than the first, if possible, and I guzzled it as if I couldn’t get it down fast enough.
“You probably should slow down.” He placed his down, his eyes rolling over me with humor.
“Think I can handle it.” I laughed, my head feeling light and bubbly. Actually, I felt like that everywhere, like I could float away, taking all my stress and worries away. “It’s not like you can get drunk in your dreams.”
“Can’t you?” He leaned in closer, and his fingers touched my arm, trailing down my skin, creating goosebumps in his wake.
“Nooo.” My lips struggled to move properly.
“Still think this is a dream?”
“Theeres no ofer expunzion,” I slurred, my head and body spinning. What the hell? I wasn’t drunk. I couldn’t be so fast, right? “I men eplantion.” My words stumbled again, crashing into the sand, a giggle coming up my throat.
I never giggled. Was I really drunk?
“Looks like it.” He smirked.
Did I say that out loud?
“You did.” He chuckled, his head bobbing, making me feel even more loopy. “You sound more and more like yourself.” His grin widened, his body bending over mine. He reached up, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “I have really missed you, Dinah. When you left, everything changed.”
I stared boldly at him, feeling a flicker of familiarity stirring in my gut, his eyes pulling at sensations in my stomach.
“You are so beautiful.” Blaze’s fingers glided up my neck, stopping at my jaw. “You always were, but now you are breathtaking, wahine.” He leaned closer, and my heart spe
d up, shoving more logic out of my head. His mouth a hair away from mine, his gaze lowered to my lips, forcing me to suck in. Nothing in me wanted to stop him. I felt like I had been waiting for this my whole life. I wanted to feel, to never think again, to close my eyes and dissolve into desire.
Just as his lips brushed mine, a little girl’s happy squeal snapped my attention back to the beach. I turned away from him as three kids no older than six or seven ran over the sand, chasing and laughing. Though everything else around me blurred, the kids were crystal clear. I locked on the single girl in the group. I gasped, not believing what I was seeing.
Peppermint frosting!
It was me.
Her hair was down to her waist, her face happy and carefree as she laughed and splashed in the water. Next to her was a happy blond boy with sun-kissed chubby cheeks and bright seafoam eyes. They were fighting against the other boy, who took my complete attention. His hair was black as night, and he had ice-blue eyes. He was thin and taller than the other two. He didn’t smile or laugh, but his eyes glittered with joy as he splashed the girl. He seemed out of place, as though he didn’t belong in the bright sunshine.
Transfixed, I moved closer, damp sand threading through my toes as I stood at the edge of the water. I watched the three kids play, feeling like I was scraping at a thread of a memory. It was so far away that I could only sense an inkling of it.
There was no mistaking it was me. She was wearing the bathing suit I had wanted so badly for Christmas, with Santa hats, reindeer, and gingerbread men on it. I had been so precise in what I asked for my grandmother had ended up sewing it for me because they couldn’t find it in the stores. It was one of a kind. Mom and Dad thought it was so odd, but I remember desperately wanting it. As an adult, I thought back on it as a silly kid obsessed with Christmas. Sadly, it wasn’t long after this I stopped believing. But now my mind seemed clear—I had wanted it for here. To play with my two friends on the beach.
The problem was my family never went to the beach for Christmas, and we had never been to Hawaii or any tropical island.
Beauty In Her Madness (Winterland Tale Book 3) Page 6
