by Alina Banks
Why I thought that, I didn’t know. It was just one of those revelations I seemed to be having recently. Nibbling on my lip, I looked down at Sasha. She’d appeared at the end of school, right when the three of us had started making our way toward the forest, and I knew she was there to watch out for me. I wasn’t sure what a little black cat would be able to do to help us, but I was grateful she was there. She was the one giving me the strength to push on at a time when all I wanted to do was run away.
“Are we sure this is a good idea?” Sabrina sounded as uncertain as I felt. “If there is something out there…” She shivered and shifted her weight from foot to foot.
“They’ve been going after people who are alone, probably because that’s easier for them. Going after all three of us shouldn’t be something they’re willing to risk.” James reached out to take her hand. “We’re going to be okay.”
“You can’t be sure of that.” Sabrina sighed. “What happens if we become the next targets?” She shook her head and shifted nervously. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“It probably isn’t, but we aren’t going to find anything if we don’t start actively looking.” I laid a comforting hand on Sabrina’s shoulder. “It’s something I want to do for everyone else, because anything we can take to the police will help them catch this guy. Maybe Wayde wasn’t taken like Lucas was because he fought back. If this is someone who likes to take their time on kills, then they’re going to be hunting for someone new soon, and we might be able to save someone if we find a clue. It’s only the three of us and Sasha, but I can’t shake the feeling that we are going to find our answers in there.”
Sabrina studied me. “I don’t think we’re any more likely to find anything that the police, but if the two of you are determined to go, then I’m going to go with you. You aren’t doing this without me.”
Nodding, I took a deep breath and steeled my nerves. Together, the three of us stepped into the trees, and the moment we did, I could feel the darkness, which seemed to be coming from everywhere. I didn’t react. Sasha stepped closer to me, her body pressing gently against my ankle. I knew she was trying to reassure me.
Now, I faced the problem of pinpointing where the darkness originated from. It pressed in on me from all sides and I suppressed a disgusted shiver. At least, now I knew was that the forest was the right place to look.
For the first time, I was certain it was a whatever, rather than whoever, although that wasn’t a mutually exclusive thought. I thought back to the long nights I spent researching what could have been out in the forest trying to kill people, I remembered the article I read about shapeshifters, which could explain the superhuman strength and the fact Lucas appeared to have been eaten by an animal.
Our progress was slow, but steady. Each step we took brought us a little deeper into the forest. There were no signs of anything useful, but we never expected it to be easy.
I looked at Sabrina and James. “I’m not saying we should split up, but I’m just not sure we’re going to be able to find much if we’re all walking together. If we can put a little distance between us, just enough to make it possible for us to see different parts of the forest, then we’re going to have a better chance of finding something useful. Right now, we need something that proves that there’s someone out here killing people.”
“Sasha!” Before I realized what I was doing, I started to chase after Sasha as she darted between two towering trees. It was easily the stupidest choice I could have made, but seconds later, I heard Sabrina and James behind me, trying their best to be as quiet as possible “Come back, Sasha. It’s not safe for you to go running around out here alone.”
She wasn’t listening. I wasn’t going to leave her in the forest alone, so I had to follow her, to wherever it was she was going. It took far less time than I expected for Sabrina and James to catch up to me, but it didn’t seem like Sasha was running too fast for us. She wanted us to follow her, that much was obvious. There were no points during the chase where I thought I’d lost her. She was always in sight, always seemed to know exactly where I was, and she ran just fast enough to keep ahead of us, but not fast enough to get away.
“What is she doing?” James shook his head in confusion. “She’s a cat. She should have been able to leave us far behind by now.”
“Animals always seem to know more than humans do.” Sabrina laughed. “Maybe it’ll be Sasha who solves the mystery of who killed Lucas and Wayde.”
“From the looks of things, she’s at least doing what she can to help us.” I tried to move a little faster, in the hope that I might catch up to her, but she sped up a little too, to make sure I couldn’t. Then, suddenly, she stopped. She sat down next to a bush, glancing back at us. “Okay, well, it seems like we’ve reached wherever it was she wanted us to be.”
Upon reaching the small clearing, I noticed the small wood cabin. Slowly, uncertainly, I moved towards it, hoping against hope that there was no one inside. Then, I heard the unmistakable shuffle of footsteps inside the cabin. Someone, or something, was definitely in there. I crouched behind the bush and quickly motioned for Sabrina and James to do the same. Sasha’s tail swished as she rubbed her body against my legs.
Fortunately for us, we only had to wait a few seconds before someone came out of the cabin. Out of everyone who could have come out of that doorway, it was the one person I had really hoped it wouldn’t be. Seeing Alex…my heart felt like it dropped to the pit of my stomach. I really hadn’t wanted it to be him, and there was no logical reason for me to think it was him, purely because he’d stepped out of a cabin hidden in the woods. Unfortunately, my logic wasn’t winning out at this point. Instead, it was my emotions taking over, and I wanted to stand, to go over and ask him why he was there.
James’ hand wrapped firmly around my arm. “Don’t even think about it. Not here. We should wait until we’re somewhere neutral. If this is his place, then he has the advantage. We can talk to him at school.”
I shook my head. “I need to know now.”
“Understandable, but not logical.” He tightened his grip. “If you make that choice, you could be putting all of us in danger, and I know that’s not what you want, so we are going to wait.” His eyes met mine, and there was something in them…there was no doubt in my mind that he would do whatever he had to do in order to protect Sabrina, even if it meant he had to hurt me. For the first time since I’d met him, I realized that there was much more to him than what I originally thought. “The best thing we can do is stay here until he leaves. We’ll work out how to talk to him about this, and then we’ll go from there. Okay?”
Sighing, I nodded. “Okay.”
“Honestly, Ana, I don’t want it to be Alex either. There’s no good reason to think this is anything more than someone coming out to an old hunting cabin. Personally, I wouldn’t want to be out here alone, but maybe Alex thinks he has no reason to be afraid out here because he’s an experienced hunter.”
“I don’t see a gun right now, but you could be right.” I looked at Sasha. “Why would she have brought us here if he didn’t have anything to do with it, though?”
Chapter Nine
The three of us sat together in the library. I thought again about Alice. There was no sign of her. I had a feeling I was only going to see her if I went alone. She was there to help me, not to help us. As I looked at Sabrina and James, they stared back at me.
“We have two choices.” Sabrina shrugged and ran her tongue over her bottom lip. “We keep following Alex to see if we can find out anything more, or we tell someone else what we know and let them deal with it. Logically, the safest thing for us to do is to let someone else deal with this mess. If it was him, then we already know what he’s capable of.”
“Yeah, we do, but…” I struggled to find the right words. “We saw Alex coming out of a cabin in the woods. That doesn’t mean anything. Not by itself.”
“No, it doesn’t, and yet I can’t help thinking we at least need to let
someone know what he was up to. Going out into the woods alone isn’t something anyone should be doing right now, because of what’s been happening. The fact that he was alone out there might be a clue. That is enough of a reason for us to tell someone, even if we are wrong. We aren’t saying he was definitely involved. We’re just saying it’s possible, and that someone might want to be looking into exactly what it was he was doing.” Sabrina glanced at James. “You haven’t said anything. What do you think?”
“At the moment, I’m on the fence.” James crossed his arms over his chest. “Ana is right when she says we don’t know anything for sure, but if we don’t say something and the killer turns out to be Alex, then we would have made a huge mistake.” He shook his head. “But if we say something and someone gets the wrong idea, then we would also be making a mistake. It would be absolutely unfair to Alex if we tell someone and desperation makes that person want to believe it’s him.”
“Which is why we have to tell the right person.”
“How do we know who the right person is? We’re assuming, based on seeing Alex in the woods, that he might be involved. In reality, we really don’t know what he was doing out there. Like I said, he could have been hunting. He could have been doing anything. I just…everything is so complicated right now.”
I smiled at Sabrina, trying to show her that I wasn’t arguing with her for any reason other than the fact I didn’t want to be making a mistake. Not when that mistake could lead to Alex getting hurt because we suspected him. It’s possible that telling someone would only put a giant target on his back. We truly didn’t know enough about what was happening to make an informed decision. “I understand why you think we should tell someone, but I can’t help but worry that it’s the wrong choice.”
“I know. I’ve been thinking about this over and over. Alex…he’s never seemed like the type who’d be willing to hurt someone, but the thing is, no one really knows anything about him. He’s always kept to himself. He’s never really tried to make friends with anyone. Maybe there’s a reason for that. Maybe he’s kept to himself because he knows there is something different about him, and he didn’t want to get close to anyone, for fear of hurting someone he actually liked.”
“There’s no proof of that.” James looked at Sabrina. “You can’t assume someone’s dangerous simply because they’re different.” He shrugged. “I think we should talk to someone, probably Principal Woods, but we need to be careful about what we say to him. There’s no reason for us to say we think he has anything to do with what happened. We can just say we were worried about him being out there, and maybe it would be a good idea to talk to him.”
“Problem is, we were out there when we shouldn’t have been.” I shrugged. “We say something like that, and we’re most likely going to get the same lecture unless we have a good reason for being there. Going into the forest was something we knew we shouldn’t have done in the first place, so we need to have some explanation that doesn’t make us look suspicious.”
As I stood in Principal Woods’ office, I felt the same thing as before. There was definitely something about him that made me incredibly uncomfortable, but it wasn’t something I could describe. I tried to push it aside in order to talk to him. As I fought against my discomfort, Sabrina stepped in and started telling the story we came up with in the library.
Was telling him the right decision? I couldn’t stop the doubts that started to creep into my mind.
As he looked at each of us in turn, there was this unreadable look in his eyes. I had no reason to think there was anything wrong with him. No reason to suspect him of anything. Yet the way he looked at me almost made me feel as if he wanted to do something to me, and it was all I could do not to shudder. Had I shown how I was feeling, it was likely he would come after me, because he knew I suspected him of something.
“Going out into the woods is dangerous.” He shook his head. “The last thing I want is for something to happen to any of you, and by being out there, you’re making yourselves a target. I will talk to Alex, even if he is out there to hunt. I’m doing everything I can to keep you all safe.”
That was a blatant lie. I didn’t know what it was that made me so certain of it, but I knew, somehow, that he wasn’t telling us the truth. “What, exactly, are you doing?” I realized I sounded like I didn’t trust him. “Sorry, that came out wrong. I just…it never crossed my mind that this was something I might be dealing with when we moved here, and I am worried about what it all means. It would help put me at ease if you could tell me about the precautions you’re taking, so I don’t think about all this as much as I have been.”
Principal Woods nodded and it seemed like he understood my point of view. He offered us a small smile. “Who wouldn’t be worried?” He gave me another speculative look, and I had to stop myself from shuddering again. What I really wanted was to know was why he made my skin crawl, and why he kept giving me those strange looks.
Everything about him made me so uncomfortable, it felt as though he was sizing me up to be his prey. I really had no reason to suspect him, but the longer we stood in his office, the higher my level of discomfort rose. “There is only so much I can do, but I know the police have been working to patrol the edge of the forest more frequently, to stop people from going in and to see if anything comes out. Unfortunately, they only have so many officers, so it seems like they are missing spots. There are things we could do in order to fill those spots, however. Maybe a group of students could volunteer to patrol the areas in pairs. What we have already done is to ensure that you and the other students are informed about this situation. Teaching you how to stop the problem from existing in the first place is the best thing we can do.”
In reality, then, there wasn’t much he was doing, even though he wanted us to believe there was. He only wanted us to hear what he was saying and to think he was doing something to help us, when really, the only thing he was doing was letting everyone else deal with the problem. I still gave him a smile. “Thank you.”
“Ana, this is my job. There’s really nothing to thank me for.” He looked at each one of us again. “Promise me you won’t go out into the forest again, no matter what you think you might have seen.”
We all shared a look, but then James and Sabrina nodded. She reached out for his hand. “We promise we won’t go into the forest again.”
Personally, I didn’t want to make that promise, because I knew how binding promises could be. I found myself crossing my fingers behind my back. “I promise I won’t go into the forest again.”
Like before, Alex was waiting for the same bus I was. There’d been plenty of times in the past when I’d tried to gather the courage to talk to him, but I’d never managed it. The choice he’d made to help me before didn’t mean he wanted to get to know me, even if I wanted to get to know him, and having seen him out in the woods…I raked a hand through my hair.
Not knowing anyone made it extremely hard to know who I could trust. The only people I could honestly say I knew were Sabrina and James. It would be easy enough to ask Alex why he was out in the forest, and it would be just as easy for him to lie. There was no reason for him to be honest. In a lot of ways, it would probably be the best option for him to lie, even if he wasn’t involved in the killings.
Before I could make up my mind, the bus arrived. Like before, Dante was on his own. He looked as devastated as he was when we first found out about Wayde. I looked at him for a moment and idly wondered if I should talk to him. I was being urged on by the people behind me, so I kept walking, telling myself it wasn’t up to me to help Dante. If there was something wrong, he had people to turn to, unless, of course, his decision to hang out with Wayde had led to him losing all of his friends.
I looked out the window and heaved a heavy sigh. There were so many things I felt I should be doing in order to fix some of the damage that was caused, but I was just the new girl. No one was going to trust me, especially not Dante. Or Alex. To them, I was little more than a
stranger, and now, for reasons I couldn’t understand, I was trying to shoulder all these problems on my own.
Suddenly, I was reminded of my family. Of the grandparents I’d never met. They had been important to Clermont, and maybe it was their weight I was feeling on my shoulders. I looked down at my hands. “Who am I?” I whispered to myself. Something about that question felt different in Clermont. “I don’t know, now. Mom never talked about her parents, and now I find myself wondering why their legacy is so important. If I’d grown up here, I would always have known, but Mom couldn’t call Clermont home after she lost them. I understand it. At the same time, I know how different everything would have been if I had always called this place home.”
I sat next to Dad on the living room couch. He glanced in my direction ever so often, as though he knew I was thinking about something. He didn’t ask me what it was, though. He knew me well enough to know that I’d eventually get around to bringing up the issue myself.
“Who were my grandparents?” I shook my head. “Being here…it’s changing everything in ways I never knew it could, because they were more than I think they were, weren’t they?”
“Ana…”
“Mom told you not to talk to me about this yet, and I understand. I do. I just…there are things happening that make me think I’m meant to be a part of something bigger, and I would have been a part of it, had they still been alive. Mom wouldn’t have been running from it.” I pressed my hands against my temples. “I just don’t know exactly what to do next. There are things I think I should be doing, but I just don’t know, because I don’t know the whole truth about who I am. About who she is.” I bit down hard on my lip. “When the time comes, I know she’ll tell me, but I wish I knew what it was she was waiting for. I’m sixteen. I’m old enough to know who I am.” Sasha jumped onto my lap and cuddled against me. “Unless it’s not about age, exactly. Maybe she’s waiting for something else.”
