“Gemma!” Alex’s angry voice cuts through the night like a knife to flesh.
Goosebumps dot my skin and my heart thrashes against my chest. I can feel my ribs about to crack, unable to endure such a heavy emotion. I back away, the snow crunching below my shoes. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Follow me.” The voice is softer and more soothing than Alex’s, yet when I turn around it is Alex standing behind me. Only he isn’t injured and he doesn’t have a knife. His skin looks paler, like the snow and his eyes like coals. My eyes glide back and forth. There is an Alex on each side of me, both waiting for me to take their hand.
The inevitable has finally come. I’ve snapped, fallen off the cliff called reality and submerged into the darkness where imaginary things walk, talk and are real to me, but no one else. It seems like everything is moving in slow motion and I’m linked to each aspect that surrounds me; the expanding of the icicles as the temperature descends, the sounds of branches snapping, the inhale and exhale of Alex’s breath.
“Gemma.” The injured Alex takes a cautious step forward. “Don’t listen to it. It’s not real.”
I whip my head back and forth between them. “Listen to it? It’s you. I don’t…” I tug my hands through my hair and yank out the roots as I try to sort through what’s happening. “Oh my God, I’m crazy.”
“You’re not crazy.” His feet move gradually and carry him closer to me, while the other just stands there. “That thing is… well, it’s a mirage, kind of like a trick of the eye. It doesn’t really exist. I promise.” With each step, he leaves a trail of blood in the snow, which makes him seem realer than the other. He bleeds, has veins and a pumping heart. I know because I can suddenly hear it.
“Don’t listen to it.” The mirage-in-question purrs. “You need to come with me.” His voice sounds controlled and his face flickers, fading in and out. Shock waves through me and I stumble backward away from him. He isn’t real. He’s a ghost, unruffled and transparent. “Don’t run. If you do, you’ll die.”
My head snaps in the other direction and I do the exact opposite. I run like hell toward the injured Alex. Before I know it my hand is in his and we are running away from the mirage.
“What’s going on!” A branch snags my cheek and splits open my skin. I cup it as warm blood pools out of my skin.
He shakes his head, the blood from his arm dripping onto me, the liquid warm against my skin. “I’ll explain later…” His words are sucked away by the sound of the wind.
As the heaviness of the cold presses down on my body, I realize I know what’s going to happen because I’ve dreamt about it only days ago.
The ground begins to quake as tall figures march through the trees. Their eyes glow across the snow and icicles begin to crisp the trees that surround us. Fog snakes through the trunks, coiling and spiraling, heading in our direction. Alex speeds up, moving at a pace I’m not capable of keeping.
“Alex,” I choke against the cold as my feet slip out from under me. His hand glides up my arm and he helps me get my balance before I fall. “I can’t…”
He practically lifts me up and carries me, my feet leaving the ground. Moments later, we break out from the trees and into the yard of the cabin. My feet touch the ground again and I’m moving on my own. The car isn’t too far off and Aislin stands beside the driver’s side, bundled up in a coat and hat, her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed.
“What the hell were you thinking?” She moves away from the car and stomps toward us, tightening the scarf around her neck. “Bringing her up here.”
Alex sprints toward her with me in tow as the people on the porch of the cabin watch us. “Now’s not the time for lectures.” Alex doesn’t slow down, nearly running over her, and she has to jump out of his way.
“What the hell is going on?” She rushes after us with worry written all over her face.
Alex slams to a halt when we reach his car. “Gemma’s seeing mirages.”
Aislin’s head whips in my direction. “You did what?”
Before I can respond, Alex interrupts, “And they’ve found her.” He pats his pockets and then takes out his keys.
The color drains from Aislin’s face and beneath the cast of the porch light, her skin looks green. “The Death Walkers? How?”
My insides weave into knots like they are made of thorns that want to tear at my insides. “Death Walkers?”
Alex swings his car door open, dives in over the console and reaches toward the glove compartment. “Yeah, big, tall creatures that look like the walking dead.” He takes something out, slams the console shut, and jumps out of the car.
My heart stills as his words echo in my head. I glance at the trees, the people on the porch, and then back at Alex. “And have glowing eyes?”
Alex and Aislin freeze and they look at me as if I’m nuts. Maybe I am. Perhaps this is another dream and I’m going to wake up at any moment. “How do you… never mind. You can explain later.” He turns to Aislin. “You gotta transport us out of here.”
“Transport?” I ask at the same time Aislin says, “Why?”
Alex’s fingers close around my upper arm and his eyes stay on Aislin. “Because there’s no way in hell we’re going to out run them.”
I lurch my shoulder forward, trying to wiggle my arm free from his grip, but his fingertips dig deeper into the fabric of my coat. “What the hell is going on? Someone better start explaining or I swear to God—”
“Or, you’ll what?” Alex waits with a condescending look on his face.
Furious, I lift my knee and move my foot toward his shin. He dodges out of my way and then drags me around to the passenger side. Aislin chases after us as she retrieves a purple object from her pocket. “I only have the amethyst with me. I’m not sure it’s powerful enough to take all three of us anywhere.”
“Make it work.” Alex’s voice is piercing as he yanks open the door. “We need to...” His eyes widen as they zone in on the trees behind us.
I track his gaze and every last hope for my sanity evaporates. Frost webs along the fence that encloses the cabin and moves in contours and patterns across the ground toward our feet. The frozen air intoxicates my lungs and bites my skin. A screech rattles the air and hundreds of yellow eyes flash through the forest. I can hear Alex and Aislin talking… something about getting out of here and transporting again, but I can’t focus on anything but the glowing eyes. The other Alex is standing out in the middle with them, as if he’s on their side.
“Why are you out there?” I ask as Alex steers me by the shoulders toward the open door. Aislin has climbed into the backseat from the driver’s side and has a crystal and a black candle on the center console. He gently pushes my head down with his hand and shoves me into the front seat. I fall in and bang my head on the roof as he slams the door shut. I sit up as he hurries around the car, climbs into the car and slams the door.
He hammers his fist against the lock on the door. “Lock your door,” he commands and I obey without hesitation.
“A mirage.” Aislin leans over the console and stares out the window at the Alex marching with the cloaked monsters. He looks almost the same, but not quite solid. “And if there’s one, then that means—”
“It means we need to get the hell out of here,” Alex cuts her off as he slips the keys into the ignition. He turns it and pumps the gas pedal. “So get your spell going.”
Aislin kneels up on the back seat with the black candle in front of her and a chunk of amethyst in her hand. She flicks the lighter, lights the wick, and begins to mutter incoherently underneath her breath. What is she doing? Black Magic?
“I have to get out of here,” I sputter as the engine revs up and then dies. “Now.”
The monsters are getting closer. The ground is trembling against their steps; the trees and house shudder. Screams from inside flow to the outside as ice rushes across the ground and swallows the house. The people inside ram their bodies against the ice chunk that had once been their home. They’re trapped.
“We have to help them,” I mutter in horror as their bodies are crushed and blood splatters the ice. It’s like watching a horror movie, only it’s real and it chokes at my throat. My lungs… they don’t want to work anymore. “Oh my God… we have to… we have to do something.”
“Shit.” Alex ignores me and punches his fist against the steering wheel when the car refuses to start. There’s still blood flowing from his arm, but it has slowed to a trickle. “God dammit, Aislin, get us the hell out of here. The cold has frozen the f**king engine.”
The windows frost over and I can’t see the house. Fog swirls through the vents of the heater and fills up the car. The temperature bottoming below freezing. I can’t feel my fingers or my lips. As the monsters near the car, I panic. I know how this will end if I don’t get away. They’ll kill me. I’ve seen it every night for the last few months.
I reach for the handle of the door, but Alex grabs my elbow. “You aren’t going anywhere.”
“Yes, I am. Now, move.” I wrench my arm and scoot closer to the door, but his strength overpowers me and he hauls me back by the arm. “You don’t understand. I have to get away from them… They’ll—I…”
“No, you don’t understand.” Alex lugs me over the console and just about knocks the candle over. I kick my legs and twist my midsection, trying to get away from his grip, but his fingers delve into my hips. He picks me up as if I weigh nothing and sets me on his lap so I’m straddling him. “If you get out of this car you’ll die.”
“If I stay in this car, they’ll kill me!” I clamp my hands down on his shoulders and push back until my back presses against the steering wheel. “I’ve seen it happen a thousand times. And they’re going to kill you.”
Shock masks his face. “You know what those things are?”
I crook to the side and try to duck under his arm, but he lowers it, barricading me in. “This is not the first time I’ve seen them… And would you please let me go. I’m not going to sit around in the Goddamn car and wait for them to come and freeze me.”
“Do you have a Goddamn death wish or something?” he breathes fiercely in my ear as his arms snake around my waist. “Do yourself a favor. Shut the hell up and listen to me.”
I raise my arm to slap him across the face, but he grabs my hand and clasps it in his own. “Please, let me go.” I’m starting to cry and I don’t understand why. Yes, I’m scared and cold, but there’s also something else there I can’t quite decipher; almost like I’m suddenly aware that I’m about to lose any future I have. That it will all end and the possibilities I haven’t yet gotten to experience will forever remain unknown.