No answer.
She ran to the dumpster. Rounding the corner she saw a line of trash strewn across the pavement. Her heart pounding, she opened her mouth to shout again then stopped.
A very large, very lime green St. Patrick’s Day hat quivered in the breeze. Next to the hat was a single shoe: green with pink laces.
Hailey picked up the shoe without thinking and wobbled.
Then she unleashed a scream so loud, she was sure it would reach her uncle in the cellar. Fin and several patrons burst through the door.
Hailey stood wide-eyed and trembling in the middle of the parking lot, holding a green shoe with hot pink laces.
Fin rushed to catch her as her world went black.
Inside the shoe was Holly’s severed foot.
Chapter four
The Search
“If you wish to discover the guilty person, first find out to whom the crime might be useful.” - Alexandre Dumas
“Hailey…” a wavering voice called.
Hailey rolled over and sat up, knuckling her eyes, and when she opened them, it was horror.
There was Holly—standing next to the bed, ashen-faced, shivering, and covered in dirt, blood oozing from a wide-open gash on her forehead.
“Help me, Hailey,” she breathed, tears streaming down her face. Holly reached out, but when she did, her hands fell off as if they’d been lopped off by a pair of invisible blades. They landed in Hailey’s bed, two muffled thumps against her quilt. Blood spurted from Holly’s wrists as she raised them up. Gaping in horror, she flicked her eyes to Hailey and whimpered.
“Hailey, help me!”
“Holly!”
Scrambling out of bed, Hailey lunged for her sister, but Holly was yanked into the shadows before she could reach her.
Purple eyes flashed in the darkness, and Hailey screamed, “NO!”
A heavy hand fell on her shoulder.
She drew a quick breath.
“You’re awake now, Hailey, don’t be afraid,” whispered a gentle voice—his voice—next to her ear, and the room came into focus.
Hailey whipped around, furiously scanning the dark, but the room was empty, still. The silence only amplified her heartbeat as it hammered in her ears.
Uncle Pix burst through the door, and Hailey jumped.
“She’s here, Uncle Pix, she was just here.” Hailey darted to her bed and rummaged through the blankets. “Her hands fell off, they’re—they’re here…somewhere…”
Pix hurried to her side, grabbed her flailing arms, and pulled her into a tight hug.
“Shhh, Hailey, it was a dream. Just a dream, Hailey.”
A dream?Hailey’s shoulder still tingled where the Envoy had touched it.THATwas no dream. She buried her face into her uncle’s shirt and sobbed.
Uncle Pix tucked Hailey back in bed, but that first night without Holly didn’t get any easier. In between her nightmares, Hailey cried—cried and worried and wondered why someone would… would…
She shuddered, pushing the image of Holly’s shoe from her mind and wiping her face on her sister’s pillow. Then she hugged it tight.
