Page 47 of Waysider
Laura’s lips pursed. After a moment, she raised her gaze upward, as if she were saying a prayer or already regretting what she was about to do.
“Fuck,” she sighed.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The moment she realized what was happening, Cass felt a burst of shrieking, star-bright panic.
She immediately started to reach for the doorknob again, but then… she couldn’t. She couldn’t even raise her hand. Not because she’d frozen in terror, as she usually did, but because there was something else in control. Something inside of her, just like that day in the library.
Horror burned through Cass’s veins and she tried to scream. Before she could, Cass felt a dizzying, tilting sensation, as if she were back on the Zero Gravity ride at the carnival. She felt her back press into a wall, and then she was sliding down.
As she hit the floor, Cass tried to cling to the memory of Cal beside her that day, hoping the thought of her brother would help her fight against the revenant. She remembered the warmth of Cal’s hand when she’d grabbed for him, unwilling to admit that she was afraid. He’d looked over at her, his blue eyes shining in the neon lights that flashed around them. Even at twelve, when they were both scrawny and small, her twin had felt like everything safe and solid.
“I’m here,” he mouthed, squeezing her sweaty fingers. Cass opened her mouth to answer, but the sound of crying filled her head.
“Help me,” a voice whispered.
It was so full of quiet, desperate fear that Cass forgot to picture Cal’s face, and she lost hold of the memory. It rushed away in a blur of colors, all those laughs and screams fading into a thick, dark silence. Cass found herself back in the closet, and she was cold. So cold that she could see her breath. She shivered, but she couldn’t even wrap her arms around herself. Cass felt her body give a hard jerk as the revenant burrowed deeper into her mind.
The images were fragmented, chaotic. Cass saw flashes of campus. The sloped ceiling of the chapel. Rows of shadowed pews. She could hear herself panting and sobbing as she ran up the aisle, her broken toe shrieking in pain. She knew he was still behind her. Her only hope was that he didn’t know about the secret door, the hiding place behind the podium she’d discovered last year. As she ran, she clung to the shaky, desperate prayer in her head. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done…
The memory skipped parts again, as if the scene was a scratched record. Suddenly Cass was sitting in the dark again, hiding inside the wall and trying not to rock. On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Her prayers cut short when Cass heard the chapel door open, and a fresh burst of terror spread through her. Footsteps filled the quiet. She clapped her hands over her mouth to muffle a sob. And lead us not into temptation…
“Stop,” Cass cried.
For an instant, she felt a searing burst of triumph and relief, thinking she’d regained control of her voice. But Cass quickly realized it hadn’t been her that commanded her mouth to form the word—it was the dead girl. Cass knew she was still in the revenant’s memory when her heels jerked against the floor, seemingly of their own volition. In the next breath, every thought she had was wiped out by a rush of panic. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t breathe! Cass clawed at her throat.
A jolt of horror went through her when she felt another pair of hands there.
Huge, strong hands that kept tightening around Cass’s fragile neck. She felt her eyes bulge. Cass made a raspy sound and scrabbled at her attacker’s fingers. Pain was beginning to form in her lungs and her chest as her body shrieked for air. He was so strong, god, he was strong. Her weak blows glanced off him like they were nothing. But Cass kept gurgling, scratching, kicking. That relentless grip only tightened, and the edges of her vision dimmed.
Cass knew she was dying. Even though she’d only felt it once, it was something you never forgot. Time felt like it was slowing down and speeding up at the same time. The cold and the pain was fading. One by one, Cass’s hands fell. The first hit the floor while the other landed on her stomach and rested there.
A broken whisper drifted through her mind. The last thought she would ever have.
Deliver us from evil.
There was a terrible cracking sound, and a white-hot explosion of pain.
And then, nothing. Absolutely nothing. Cass floated through the dark. Weightless, thoughtless. There was no pain, no fear. Only silence.
“Cass? Are you okay?”
The voice echoed through the darkness, and it was like a shroud had been yanked off Cass. She sat there, blinking at the figure looming over her. Light spilled around broad shoulders and gleamed on familiar golden hair. Recognition made her thoughts clear—it was Teddy Crane.
Cass finally noticed his outstretched hand and took it automatically. Teddy’s warm palm was instant relief against her freezing skin. He pulled Cass to her feet and into the light, watching her with obvious concern.
“Th-thanks,” Cass said, knowing that she needed to say something. “I, uh, must’ve had too much to drink.”
She hadn’t had a sip of alcohol tonight, but it still felt true. Her head was pounding. Cass struggled to regain her bearings, her eyes flicking around them. She was on the back porch at House Shadowripper, and the party was still going in full force inside. People were standing on the other end of the porch, the ends of their cigarettes glowing in the dim. Although they seemed to be talking about David Bowie, their eyes kept sliding toward her. Cass had no idea what they’d seen or how long she’d been cowering there. No, she thought grimly. How long she’d been kept there. The reality of what just happened finally hit her.
A ghost had shown Cass her death.
Teddy must’ve seen something worrying in her expression, because he said abruptly, “Hey, do you want to get out of here? I can walk you home, or there’s a diner nearby that’s open late. Decent burgers.”
“Sure. Burgers sound… great, actually,” Cass admitted, surprised to find that it was true. She was still riding waves of shock and adrenaline, and the thought of food probably should’ve repulsed her. But she hadn’t really touched her food at lunchtime, and Cass had forgotten to eat before the party. She also couldn’t shake off the memory of that cold, unending emptiness Teddy had pulled her from, and Cass was desperate to feel alive. She resisted the urge to touch her throat.
