by Morgan Rice
The only problem was the lack of shade. She wished there were trees to walk under, but instead she was exposed to the painfully hot California sunshine.
As Kate wondered how she would kill the time once she found Elijah’s house, she quickly realized she didn’t need to kill any time at all. The address was almost impossible to find. She walked back and forth along Mountain Drive looking for his house. There were only a couple of driveways, and she followed them, but none listed his last name on the mailbox: Ackerman.
An old lady sat on the porch of one and glared back at Kate.
“What you doing on my drive?” she demanded.
“I’m looking for the Ackermans,” Kate replied.
“Never heard of them,” the woman scoffed. “Now get off my property before I call the cops.”
Kate hurried away.
Assuming she’d copied the address down wrong, she tried some of the other roads in the area that were more residential. But none contained the house she was looking for.
She was starting to overheat and went back to Mountain Drive where at the very least she had trees to shelter under. Once again she walked the length of the road, thinking she must have missed something. But there were only grass and trees and rocks.
It was on her third walk along the road that she noticed a single track pathway. She paused, certain it hadn’t been there before. If she’d seen it on either of her other two trips along the road she definitely would have checked it out. But she was certain she hadn’t seen it.
Curious, she took a step forward and looked right. Suddenly, the path was completely concealed by trees. None of it was visible. You’d never even know there was an opening between the trees.
She took two steps back next. Once again the path appeared.
Feeling unnerved, Kate shivered. She concluded that it was only when standing on that exact spot that the path could be seen. It seemed very fitting for a guy she’d seen disappear before her eyes twice, and Kate knew that this was the way.
Here goes nothing, she thought.
She followed the path. At first it was just a normal asphalt track, wide enough for one truck at a time. But the farther along it she went, the more it narrowed. The trees started crowding in on her, casting dark shadows, looming and reaching with their branches. Kate had gone from being swelteringly hot to freezing cold as the sunlight was blocked out entirely by the canopy above her. Her sweat from the walk here had become cool in the shade and she started to shiver.
It felt as though she were walking right into the heart of the forest. How could someone live somewhere so inaccessible? Elijah would need to fight his way through the undergrowth just to get to school every day. Who would want that?
It occurred to Kate then that the point was to keep people out. Meddlesome snoops like her.
Just then she heard the sound of a river. Something about the noise compelled her to stop.
In that very moment, just like when she had found the hidden pathway, she saw the silhouette of a looming mansion. It seemed to appear out of nowhere. Its sudden appearance in her field of vision startled her.
She turned her head, slowly, nervously, and took in the full sight of it.
The mansion was set up a little way so that it almost looked as though it were carved out of the very mountain. It had winding steps leading up to it, crisscrossing through a wild garden. Kate could just make out the tops of statues poking out from the waist-high grass and shrubbery. The mansion itself was completely boarded up. Ivy grew across the windows, so thick it was as though it were strangling the place. It looped in and out of shattered windows.
Kate looked at the vast, dilapidated building. This couldn’t be it. This house was abandoned, falling apart, uncared for. It had been left forgotten for so long it had begun to succumb to the power of nature. It was being reclaimed by the earth.
Just then, she saw a clump of overgrown shrubbery beside the steps, growing in a strange, almost rectangular way. She waded through the grass to see it and shoved the shrubbery out of her way, making insects scuttle away. There was a large piece of stone, clearly from the mountain. Someone had carved into it: Ackerman House.
So this was definitely the place. But it was abandoned. No one could live in such a place. As if to iterate her point, some bats suddenly flew out of the attic, screeching, making her stagger back.
Once they’d disappeared into the forest, Kate straightened up and glanced about her with confusion. The mystery had only deepened.
Elijah, she wondered, who are you?
CHAPTER EIGHT
Kate stood there, staring at the dilapidated mansion, not knowing what to do next, and she felt completely defeated. Just then, she felt her phone buzz in her pocket and she took it out with sweaty palms. It was a text from Nicole.
Dude, did u cut class today? That accident has turned u into a rebel!
Kate stared at the words. Why didn’t she feel the same pull toward her friends that she used to? Why was Elijah the only thing on her mind at the moment?
She decided there and then that the only thing that would be able to calm her mind and ground her was her friends. They’d always been there for her, through thick and thin. They’d be able to help her now, comfort her.
She texted back.
I know. I think I’m freaking out. Can we hang?
Nicole’s message appeared barely a second later.
Of course! Come over.
Kate took one last look at Elijah’s house, then turned back along the winding, tree-lined path, retracing her route.
*
Sitting in Nicole’s bedroom did go a little way in comforting Kate. As soon as Nicole had got the confirmation from Kate, she’d immediately invited Amy and Dinah too. It did feel good to be with them again, munching on a bowl of nachos with jalapenos and melted cheese—made by Nicole’s dad, of course—like old times.
All three of the girls were beyond relieved to have their friend with them again. They’d been worried about her after her little outburst this morning.
“No one’s mad at you,” Amy insisted when Kate apologized for the millionth time. “We all understand you’ve been through something awful. We just want to help.”
Kate nodded. “I think what will help me the most at the moment is just not thinking about it.”
Nicole’s eyes flashed. “I know a great way to distract you.” All three girls looked at her. She grinned. “Finn’s party.”
Kate groaned. She wasn’t sure how she felt about being around other people now, particularly people from her high school who might have seen the whole incident with the birds.
“I don’t know,” she said with uncertainty.
“Come on!” Nicole cried. “Even Amy’s coming and you know she’s out and out forbidden from going to parties.”
Amy grinned sheepishly. “My parents think we’re studying for a math exam. My miniskirt is in my bag.”
Kate smiled despite herself. Partying with Amy was a rare occurrence, and not the sort of thing she should miss.
Dinah was the most excited of all of them. “Finn is so damn fine,” she said as she applied another layer of shimmering lip gloss. “Do you think any other senior boys will be there?”
At the word “senior” Kate’s attention was piqued. If this was a senior party, maybe, just maybe, Elijah would be there. She knew there was a one percent chance of it happening—especially since he’d been beaten up by a bunch of seniors yesterday—but one percent was better than the zero percent she’d been working with.
“You know what,” Kate said, “maybe a party would be a good idea.”
“Oh my God!” Dinah cried suddenly. “We can give Kate her birthday makeover!”
Everyone agreed this was a great idea and Kate reluctantly allowed them to cover her face in sticky stuff, brush her hair, and dress her up like she was some kind of shop mannequin.
“Go and look in the mirror,” Dinah insisted as she stood back and admired her handiwork.
Kate faltered. The mirror. What if the only thing it showed her was that strange gray cloudy shape again?
She stood and paced over to Nicole’s desk mirror. It was one of those mirrors with a large middle panel and two smaller ones at the side. Sure enough, she was faced with nothing more than a splotch of gray.
“It looks great,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion.
“Let’s take a selfie,” Nicole suggested.
Kate felt close to tears as the girls posed together. What if she couldn’t be photographed either? What if the photo ended up being her three beautiful smiling friends and one big, shapeless gray smudge?
The four girls posed, Amy throwing her trademark peace sign, and Nicole took the photo. The flash seemed as bright as lightning and Kate turned, shielding her eyes.
“Oh my God!” Nicole exclaimed.
Kate tensed. It was true. She was just a blob of gray.
“This is the best freaking photo ever!” Nicole finished.
She showed the others. Far from being a gray blob, Kate got to see herself fully and properly for the first time since the accident. She was dressed exactly like she had been in her dream with Elijah. Dark red lips, a long black dress, kohl-rimmed eyes. She looked great. But seeing herself in exactly the same attire as she’d been wearing in the dream shook her up.
The other thing she noticed about her appearance was the complete lack of any kind of damage from the accident. The only thing different was a silvery scar on her neck. She touched her fingers to the place and felt the smooth ridges beneath her fingers.
“Okay, let’s go,” Nicole said. “My dad will drive so we can all drink.”
Nicole’s dad liked to know she was enjoying herself, even when she was doing so recklessly. After her mom died, he was all about her living her life to the fullest. It was a pretty regular occurrence for him to pick the girls up after a night out. Nicole referred to him as “Dad Cab.”
*
Finn’s house was on Luneta Plaza, right down by Leadbetter Beach. The party was in full swing when Nicole’s dad dropped them off.
“Who wants drinks?” Nicole said.
Kate declined, saying the doctors had advised her not to because of the concussion. Amy didn’t want one either; she only had the guts to go against one of her parents’ rules at a time. In the end it was only Nicole and Dinah who were brave enough to venture into the kitchen on the hunt for beer.
Kate was on edge. Being around all those people was making her senses heighten again. The music was way too loud, the place far too stuffy. Every conversation seemed like a needle in her brain.
“You okay?” Amy said, leading her to the couch.
They sat down.
“Fine,” Kate replied. “I’ve just been feeling weird since the accident. Like a bit dissociated, you know?”
Amy nodded and squeezed her friend’s arm. “We can go whenever you want.”
“Thanks,” Kate said.
But where exactly would she go? Home to her awful family? Or wandering the streets of California like a stray cat looking for Elijah? Neither seemed like a better option than the one she was currently at.
“Hey look,” Amy said. “Tony’s here.”
Once, Kate would have leapt at the opportunity to see Tony. But now he seemed insignificant. He spotted her and Amy and came over.
“Hey, guys,” he said. “Wow, Kate, you’re looking amazing. You’ve done that thing to your eyes again.”
Amy nudged Kate in the ribs. Kate just smiled.
“It’s called mascara,” she said bluntly.
Tony looked a little awkward. “So, ugh, hey, mind if I sit?”
Before Kate had a chance to say anything, Amy budged up, leaving a space between them. Tony squeezed into it. Kate became acutely aware of his thigh pressed against hers.
“So I’ve been hearing some crazy rumors flying around about you, Kate Roswell,” he said.
Behind his shoulder, Kate could see Amy’s eyebrows wiggling, as if to say, he’s so into you!
“Yeah?” Kate said, a little uninterested. “Which ones?”
Tony laughed as though she’d been making a self-deprecating joke. “Well,” he began, not picking up on her lack of interest, “there’s the one about you taking on a gang of senior boys armed with just your backpack. Then the one about you getting run over by an RV and walking away unscathed. Then there’s the one about you getting attacked by a load of birds in the parking lot.”
His voice was booming in her ears. Kate tensed.
“Well,” she began, feeling reluctant to even be speaking, “I can confirm that those rumors are one hundred percent accurate.”
Tony laughed again. He clearly thought she was joking. Behind his shoulder Amy looked beyond excited by the way the interaction was going. She must’ve thought Kate was playing it deliberately cool. No one seemed to realize she just couldn’t be bothered with it all anymore. She just wanted to see Elijah.
“Hey,” Tony said. “Shall I get you a drink?”
“Sure,” Kate said, relieved to get a bit of space from him.
As soon he was gone, Amy grabbed her arm. “Girl, you are the coolest cucumber in the fridge! Way to make him do all the chasing.”
Kate raised an eyebrow and sighed. That hadn’t been her intention at all.
A moment later Tony reappeared at the door to the living room, two beers in his hand. But before he got a chance to come over, Madison appeared, blocking his path.
“Oh great,” Kate grumbled. “My sister’s here.”
Amy looked up to where Madison and her friends were fawning over Tony. He gestured with his beer cups toward the couch, as though indicating that he was on his way over there. Madison looked over her shoulder and caught sight of Kate. Her eyes narrowed. She turned her head back to Tony, her glossy dark hair bouncing over her shoulder, and began guiding him backwards into the kitchen, with one perfectly manicured hand against his chest.
“No way,” Amy said, watching the whole thing with a horrified expression. “Are you going to let her get away with that?”
Kate shrugged.
Once Madison had disappeared from sight with Tony, one of her friends, Clara, bounded back out and went straight over to the couch.
“Keep your claws off him, okay?” she hissed, her pointer finger right in Kate’s face. “Madison and Tony are getting close so you need to butt out.”
Kate stared impassively at the pointer finger an inch from her face. Amy jumped up. She wasn’t going to let this slide. Even in her heels, Amy was still a good foot shorter than Clara.
“Hey, why don’t you back off,” she snapped.
Clara turned on her, shooting her a death glare. “This doesn’t concern you, short ass.” She shoved Amy, making her topple back onto the couch.
A sudden red mist descended over Kate’s vision. She leaped up off the couch. Before her brain even had time to think about what she was doing, she grabbed Clara by the shoulders and shoved her backwards.
She went flying, much farther than Kate had expected, and landed straight on the wooden coffee table, smashing it to pieces. The noise was deafening.
Kate stood there, her mouth open in shock. Amy was wide-eyed.
The noise roused everyone. Tony and Madison rushed back out from the kitchen, as did Dinah and Nicole. Everyone looked shocked, their gazes going from where Clara was lying dazed, groaning, then up to Kate.
Some of the wood had scraped Clara’s skin and Kate noticed a little bit of blood. She found herself eyeing it, and her stomach groaned.
“Someone call an ambulance!” Madison cried, rushing over to her friend. She flashed angry eyes at Kate. “What the hell are you doing?”
Kate backed away, alarmed. She ran for the door.
“Wait!” Dinah, Nicole, and Amy all cried.
But Kate wasn’t stopping. She hauled the door open and pelted down the street, not knowing where she was going, knowing only that she needed to get away from everyone, from e
verything. She just needed to go.
Kate ran and ran, and didn’t stop until she found herself on Leadbetter Beach. The sand swallowed up her feet, slowing her down. She drew to a halt and bent forward, panting. She was exhausted, famished, and her head was spinning. Her breath came in ragged bursts.
The sound of the tide breaking sounded to her like the crashing of ocean waves in the middle of a storm. Kate wanted to block it out. She grabbed her ears and fell to her knees.
Suddenly a new sound assaulted her senses. It was a deep, rumbling, roaring sound coming from far away. Kate stood and turned to look back. She could see the headlights of a motorbike as it tore along Shoreline Drive.
Some strange primal feeling deep inside of her told her to run to it.
Her legs pounded, propelling her across the sand and in the direction of the road. She reached it at the same point as the motorbike whizzed past. But the rider must have seen her because it drew to a halt a little way up the road and sat there, its engine thrumming as it spewed a cloud of fumes into the air.
Kate walked up to the bike. The rider turned to her. It was Elijah.
“Want a ride?”
CHAPTER NINE
Sitting on the back of Elijah’s bike with her arms wrapped around him felt like the most natural thing in the world. Kate pressed her head against his back, feeling the soft leather of his jacket against her cheek, and felt the bike thrum beneath her. The engine sounded like white noise to her, comforting rather than painful like the other sounds had been. For the first time since the accident, she felt at peace.
She recognized the roads Elijah was riding along and realized they were heading toward Rocky Nook Park. They reached Mountain Drive and the single track path materialized out of nowhere. Elijah raced along it. The trees seemed to close in on them as they tore past, and Elijah weaved past them expertly.
Well, I suppose that explains how he gets to school, Kate thought.
