I had heard what Sam said, about the memory that I’d just conjured up of having donuts and chocolate milk with my dad at a small donut shop when I was a little girl, but I was having trouble processing it. “It was here?” I asked him. He nodded. “And… you were here, too?”
“I was,” he said. “It’s kind of a strange
Just being in the truck with Sam made me smile, even though he was busy driving, and I was probably driving him crazy with all of my questions. We had the radio on, and even though he refused to sing along, even to the songs I knew he had to know the words to, and I peppered him with a million different questions about what it was like growing up in Whispering Hollow. I stayed away from the personal parts, about his family, about his dad and Horace in particular, and he let me know that it hadn’t been easy for him being a kid out there in such an isolated part of the world. They hadn’t had much, and he still didn’t have much, even though it was clear he worked hard f
As the other car came careening toward us, I didn’t think there was anything any of us could do to keep the two vehicles from colliding. It seemed like the path of Sam’s truck and the other car were destined to meet, no matter what. The panicked look on the other driver’s face locked in my field of vision as I saw his cell phone go flying in the air.He h
The jewelry shop was about what I was expecting. We walked inside to see lots of counters with lots of pieces of jewelry on display including rings, earrings, necklaces, and pendants. There was a couple browsing, the woman already covered in large diamonds, her husband hanging back and letting her wander from case to case. They were well dressed and probably in their late thirties or early forties. I felt very out of place.
Sam pulled up to Grandma’s house a little before sunset. It had been a long day. We’d stopped at a nice restaurant in a town about halfway home and had a fancy-ish dinner. Italian always seems fancy to me. Now, I was tired and ready to get inside and share the good news with Grandma and the rest of the family. Of course, I also had to face the forest. But I didn’t think it was a good idea to go out there in the dark, so that would have to wait until tomorrow.
“Well?” Mom asked the second I walked in the door.“Well… what?” I asked her, staring from her face to Max’s, to Grandma’s, to Grayson’s.
Sam wasn’t at Grandma’s house very long, unfortunately. He basically brought the check to the door, handed it to me, my mom thanked him, and then he left, leaving me watching him disappear around the corner of the house. He’d come through the back yard on foot but come to the front door. Why, I’m not sure. But that’s what he’d done--and then he was gone.
I woke up around 3:00 in the morning to the sound of multiple wolves howling back and forth and knew there was something wrong. I had fallen asleep in my clothes again, which made it easier to get up, put on my shoes, and head outside. The thought of texting Sam or Ben came to mind, but chances were, they were already in their shifted forms, and I doubted they accepted text messages when they were wolves.
We took off through the forest in a hurry. I let Raven lead the way to Sam and Ben while Joshua stayed behind me, which made me feel safer, in case something tried to sneak up on me. I trusted the forest to let me know if there was anything to worry about, too, but it was also good to know a creature with sharp fangs was behind me, just in case one of those dark wolves happened to come back for more.