Winter's Dream (The Hemlock Bay Series)

by Jaeger, Amber

  I stood for a moment, processing. “You?” I finally accused. “It was you in the bushes? You scared my grandma? You got us into this mess?” I shrieked.

  He motioned for me to lower my voice and I exploded. “No! Why would you do that? I did what you asked, I took you seriously and I broke up with Jordan!” Rage radiated from within me in hot, ugly waves.

  He grabbed my hand and held it between his two enormous ones. He was trying to soothe me and was completely failing. “Bixby, I had to be sure you stayed away. I thought if you blamed Jordan for this you would. I didn’t know you would find your own way back to our world.”

  “I don’t really think getting smashed in the head and knocked out by some asshole really counts as ‘finding my own way’,” I snarled, snatching my hand from his.

  He took a tiny breath. “I’m sorry.”

  “Apology not accepted,” I hissed. “Now get out.”

  His bizarre eyes met mine again and the sadness in them thawed my anger a little. “I think you little ones get enough hurt heaped on already. I wouldn’t try to add to that. I went about things the wrong way, and I am sorry.”

  I had no idea what to say to his bizarre little speech so said nothing. When I blinked he was gone.

  Chapter Four

  Class was thankfully still in session when I slipped out of the storeroom door. I snuck silently down the dark quiet halls, praying no one would see me. I breathed a little prayer of thanks when I finally slipped into the girls shower room. It was empty and I made my way to the mirrors. My jaw dropped when I saw my reflection. Not only were there new coppery waves sprouting from my head but the dark bags under my eyes were gone and my skin was flawless. My shining eyes were rimmed by thick lashes again and my eyebrows were perfect.

  And there was something more, something that wasn’t quite seen. My reflection made me uneasy, as if I wasn’t quite human, wasn’t quite safe.

  The slam of the door broke me from my fearful thoughts. I raced to hide in the dormitory but was stopped by a shout.

  “Bixby!” Minnie called. Panic filled my heart and I froze, too scared to turn around. “Bixby, oh my gosh, I was looking for you everywhere. I thought for sure …” she trailed off in puzzled silence. “Well, I don’t know what I thought had happened, but I was worried.”

  Her small, warm hand touched my back and I turned around with my face down.

  “Bixby,” she breathed. “What did you do to your hair?”

  I opened my mouth but no words came.

  “Did you dye it?” Minnie wondered aloud. My panic receded a tiny bit. “Or cut it?” She pulled her fingers through a copper curl that wasn’t there an hour before. “Well, whatever. I’m glad you’re okay.”

  I risked a glance up at her and she pulled back. I watched her eyes dart over my features and her little pink tongue lick the corner of mouth like she always did when nervous. But she just looked, and then met my eyes and smiled. “Anyway, you better hope they didn’t miss you in class, you know how they are about—”

  “Student seven sixteen!” blared out of the antique bullhorn on the wall.

  We both jumped and Minnie grabbed my hand.

  “You’re not skipping, are you?” I asked.

  “No, I’m in the bathroom,” she said with a little grin. “Are you going to be okay?”

  “Sure, it’s not like they can beat me, right?” But my heart was slamming painfully against my ribs and doubt flooded in. They had to know something or they wouldn’t be calling me. Was I the last one seen with Clint? Did they already know he was gone? Hope bloomed in my chest before I could squash it. Or maybe it wasn’t bad; maybe my dad had finally come to get me.

  On shaky legs I ran to meet the guard at the cafeteria door once again. He jumped a little when he saw me and looked me up and down with an ugly scowl before roughly motioning for me to follow him. I expected to go to one of the little offices I usually met Sophie in but to my surprise he deposited me outside the headmaster’s office. My knees were slamming together as I imagined every possibility of being called to this curious meeting. I raised my hand several times to knock but chickened out. As I steadied myself to knock one more time, the door snapped open and I jumped back.

  “Bixby,” Sophie greeted me with a tight-lipped grin. Was this her trying to be friendly? And why was she here?

  “Hi,” I squeaked out, my mouth suddenly dry. Behind her sat the headmaster at her desk and two older women in the expensive seats in front of it. Everyone was peering at me like I was some sort of unusual specimen.

  The silence lengthened as the two new women inspected me, one curiously and one with a sour expression. The headmaster finally broke the silence. “Well, take a seat,” she said, exasperated. Sophie shot her a look, as if to say, “See? She’s terrible.”

  I cautiously sat down in the only free seat, next to the women I didn’t know.

  “I expect you know why you’re here,” Sophie said, snatching some papers up from the desk.

  I began to sweat. How could they already know about Clint? Did they think I had something to do with it? I was going to kill Jordan even if I had to knock myself out first to do it.

  “I’m not sure,” I hedged.

  The kinder looking woman with the dark hair wound around her head gave a little laugh. “Well, it’s not like she’d recognize us, she hasn’t seen her since she was a little girl.”

  I stared, taking in their faces. The other woman had lighter hair streaked with grey wound around her head in the same fashion as the other. They were thin and probably taller than me. They each had on a simple, single color dress.

  I had no idea who they were.

  I gave them a hesitant smile but it was met with blank stares. My relief over not being dragged in to explain Clint’s disappearance faltered. “Sorry, I don’t know you.”

  Sophie sighed. “These are your great-aunts; they’ve come to collect you.”

  I looked from Sophie to the women. “Uh, I don’t have any aunts.”

  “Great-aunts.” She glanced down at the papers in her hand. “From your mother’s side.”

  I shook my head. “My grandma only had brothers.”

  “From your grandfather’s side then,” the more severe looking woman snapped. As if it didn’t make a difference. I started to shake my head but Sophie swooped down on me.

  “Take a look for yourself,” Sophie said, shoving the papers in my hand.

  I looked at the first one, and then shuffled to the second, third and fourth. Cold sweat began beading on my forehead. “These are blank,” I said slowly.

  They all stared at me and I stared back, wondering what was going on but pretty sure I already knew.

  Sophie let out an agitated huff and rolled her eyes. “Seriously Bixby, is there any moment in time where you aren’t trying to make trouble?” she snapped. The headmaster just sat back and listened, nodding.

  I turned to the two women in the plain dresses. “I’m sorry, I don’t know you, we’re not related, I think someone may be trick—”

  “Can we have a moment with her?” the dark-haired woman asked. The two women looked so similar I was having a hard time telling one from the other.

  I was surprised when Sophie and the headmaster just got up and left, shutting the door behind them. “I’m Hazel,” the lighter haired one said, “and this is my sister, Viola. We aren’t exactly your great-aunts but we are family and we’ve come to take custody of you.”

  “That’s not even possible, you’re being tricked. Those papers were blank. Blank!”

  They looked at me closely. “No, they weren’t.”

  “Oh lord,” I muttered under my breath, “how many humans can one jinn brainwash?”

  Their eyes snapped open wider at that. “What did she say?” one hissed to the other. />
  “Well, look at her? How did we miss that? She’s been touched by one.”

  They got up from their chairs and I rose from mine and started backing away. “Look at her hair,” one of them said.

  “And her face,” the other agreed.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I mumbled, my back slamming into a book case.

  They finally seemed to take notice of me, really see me as a person. “What have you gotten yourself into, dearie?” the light haired one asked.

  My response was interrupted by the opening of the door. Sophie looked at us curiously. “All set here?”

  The sisters nodded while I shook my head. I was ignored.

  “Well then, just this last matter and it looks like you’re free to go,” Sophie said with a fake little smile. She handed another sheaf of papers to the sisters.

  “Other matter?” Hazel asked.

  “Yes, about the other girl.”

  Hazel looked over the papers and her face lit up. “Oh, right.”

  I moved to look over her shoulder and once again saw blank papers in her hand. Freaking Jordan and his lies!

  My fuming was interrupted by the pleasant “aunt”. “Do you have anything to pack, dear?” Hazel asked. I shook my head, wondering who she really was and what was going to happen to me if I had to leave with her.

  “Bixby?”

  I snapped my head up at Minnie’s voice.

  I looked from her to the sisters. “What are you doing here?”

  “Who are you? Is everything okay?” She looked from me to the sisters. Everyone was glancing around, uncertain of what was going on. Except me. I knew what was going on. Jordan had interfered again, after promising he wouldn’t, and I had a new mess to clean up in addition to the last one.

  I chose my words carefully. “Well, I guess I have some family coming to claim me,” I said uncertainly.

  “Me too,” she said slowly.

  She and I looked from each other to the sisters to Sophie. Finally I asked, “You’re taking both of us?”

  Hazel looked at the blanks sheets in her hand again. “Why, we sure are!”

  Minnie squealed in delight then burst into tears. “I didn’t even know I had family, much less that you were part of it,” she cried, grabbing onto me.

  But those papers are blank, I wanted to say. I wisely kept my mouth shut and in my heart cursed Jordan again. I couldn’t guess what he had gotten me mixed up in and now Minnie stood to get hurt.

  “You two pack your things up while we finish signing papers,” Sophie snapped. Minnie grabbed my hand and ran back to the entrance into the “school” as if she were afraid they would change their minds in the time it took us to grab our toothbrushes.

  “I can’t believe this,” she squealed, hugging my hand to her chest.

  “Minnie,” I tried to warn.

  “Where do you think we’re going?” she asked, throwing her soap and toothpaste into a plastic shopping bag.

  “I have no idea, but I need to tell you something,” I said, trying to catch her attention as she whirled around the dormitory.

  “The aunts kind of look old fashioned, don’t you think? Well, I mean, obviously they’re old, but I like their dresses and long braids pinned up like that … I hope they don’t live in an apartment—not that I would mind, anywhere is better than here.”

  “Minnie,” I said, trying to form the words to explain what a huge mistake, what a huge trick this all was, but when she spun back around to me with her eyes shining and giant grin digging all the way back to her ears my explanations dried up.

  “I just never thought I would get out of here. I know what I did to my dad was wrong but they don’t know what he did to me. My choice was to stay there or get locked up. I had to pick locked up, even though I never thought I would get out. And now we have family, I have you, and we’re going home.” Tears were spilling down her cheeks. My heart broke a little for her. I was going back to Hemlock Bay and she was going somewhere safe, wherever that was.

  “Let’s just be careful,” I said lamely. “We don’t really know them so we’ll watch each other’s back, okay?” I was going to kill Jordan. All his promises of playing by my rules had been just as false as everything else he had ever said.

  She must have seen my grim expression. “Oh, Bixby,” she said, grabbing my hand and dragging me back down the hall towards the office. “It’s going to be great, you’ll see.”

  Our send off was less than great.

  “I hope I don’t see you here again,” Sophie said as way of good-bye, “but I won’t hold my breath.”

  And with that I walked out the front doors of what had been my prison for a month. The yard looked just as ugly on the outside as it had from the inside but the air was fresher, lighter, and I gulped in deep breaths. The light was harsh and speared through the branches of the bare trees. A thin layer of crunchy snow and frost covered everything in washed out tones, even the fallen leaves littering the edges of the parking lot. It was a false, forced winterscape and reminded me how quickly Jordan could turn.

  Still, I couldn’t help but smile—I was free, sort of.

  “Over here,” Hazel said, leading us to an old station wagon. With my fingers on the chilled metal handle, I hesitated, looking around my frosty surroundings. Was I supposed to go with these women? Were they taking me back to Hemlock Bay or was Jordan going to jump out and supposedly save the day?

  “Bixby?” one of the aunts asked. “You okay?”

  I nodded and opened the door to settle into a dusty seat. The window was open just a crack and I left it, letting the frigid wind push back my newly grown curls. My breathing was becoming faster and shallower and I struggled to calm myself. Despite all his promises of love and better behavior, I couldn’t trust Jordan. Yet here I was driving off with two strange women who had obviously been manipulated by him.

  No one said anything as we pulled onto the main road but I could see the blissful grin on Minnie’s face from the corner of my eye. I sat up a little higher in my seat as I saw the entrance for the main highway leading back to Hemlock Bay and calculated in my mind how long it would take until I was back home.

  We flew past the entrance ramp. My head snapped around and I watched it fade behind us. “Uh, I think you passed our turn,” I said.

  “No, we didn’t,” said the aunt who was driving with white knuckled hands clamped on the steering wheel.

  “Um, yeah, Hemlock Bay is about two hours that way, back there.”

  The other one shook her head. “Oh no honey, you aren’t going back to your house, you’re coming to ours. Viola and I are going to be watching over you.”

  Panic began to slide around in my belly. “No, that’s not possible. I need to find my brother, I need to check on my grandma—”

  “Your grandma is in a nursing home and your brother is old enough to take care of himself,” the mean one, Viola, snapped.

  My breakfast jabbed hard at my throat and with my watery eyes squeezed tight I managed to force it back down. My thoughts sluiced around as badly as the contents of my stomach. “Okay, we need to get a few things straight,” I said, trying to keep anxiety from my voice. I glanced over at Minnie who seemed totally oblivious to the conversation. “You are being tricked. You are just a means to an end. I tried to tell him not to interfere, but I really have no say in what he does—”

  The nicer one, Hazel, turned around in her seat and locked her steely grey eyes on mine. I could see fine smile lines around her mouth but she definitely wasn’t smiling then. “What are you talking about?”

  The wind from my cracked window was freezing the moisture from my eyes into my lashes. “Those papers were blank. Someone was trying to help me get out of there. And I appreciate it, really. But I don’t belong with you, I
need to go home.”

  Now it was Viola’s turn to glare at me over her shoulder. “First off, don’t ever believe anything one of them tells you. Second, we are not just a means to an end, we are cousins of your great-aunts and you do belong with us. If we had any idea your mother was gone and your grandma was too ill to train you we would have come for you much sooner.”

  “Train me?”

  “Oh my word,” Viola muttered. “All this time that town has had no protection, no one watching over it.”

  “What town?” I asked, the hairs on my arms starting to stand up.

  “I don’t know what you call it,” she snapped. “You dream about a town, right? Go back to it all the time?”

  I nodded, my goose bumps going down my legs. “Nightmare Town,” I whispered.

  “Well, you were supposed to be guarding it. And I have no idea what mess we will have on our hands since you haven’t been. My word, Hazel, she probably doesn’t even know who she is!”

  My throat was dry but I managed to push out the words. “I’m a Gatekeeper.”

  “See, Viola,” Hazel said pleasantly. “Her mother or grandmother must have told her something.”

  I shook my head. “No, David did.”

  She turned back around; her eyebrows drawn in tight over her eyes. “And who is that?”

  “A jinn.”

  The car swerved and then jerked back into our lane, snapping all our heads from side to side.

  “Well, damn it,” Viola said. “This is going to be an ever bigger mess than we planned for.”

  You have no idea, I thought.

  Chapter Five

  The remainder of the drive was filled with silence. My panic turned to cold calculation to numbness as we continued on. Every mile took me further from my home. At least we seemed to be sticking close to the big lake. I tried to remind myself my chances of finding Linc and freeing Grandma had risen considerably but the distance wasn’t the only thing making silent tears slip down my cold cheeks. I really thought my dad was going to come through and get me out of that hellhole. I had thought I would be going home, to my house, and be able to patch my family back together right away.