The hair on my arms shoots up straight. “Shit,” I grit out behind my teeth.
Digging it out of my pack, I swipe the screen.
“Where are you?” Lucas demands.
I try to calm my breathing. “I had to run back to my place. My work clothes were there.” I climb back on my seat. “I’m crossing the bridge back to the Falls now.”
“In the car?”
“On my bike.”
“Quinn.” He sounds scared. “I don’t want you out by yourself. A storm is coming.”
More thunder rolls overhead, but I know it’s not the rain he’s worried about.
“Just get to the bakery,” he tells me.
Fumbling in my backpack for some spare change, I throw several coins over the side. I haven’t been adhering to the tradition, and Winslet MacCreary may not be dead, but she could still be watching.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
He must hear my hard breathing, and I shiver at the dark road ahead that I can’t see.
“I don’t know.” I pedal fast, cool air sweeping over my legs. “There’s fog everywhere. I can’t see.”
I hear shuffling, keys jingling, doors slamming…
Holding the handlebar with one hand and the phone with the other, I keep my eyes peeled. “Lucas?”
Is he still there?
“I’m coming,” he says. “If there’s danger, hide.”
“Lucas…”
“Get to the bakery!” he shouts. “Stay on the line with me untilyou get there.”
I toss my phone into the basket, leaving the call connected, and pedal hard. No light appears on the road—no light at all—except for the sporadic overhead streetlamps. The thick fog cools my skin, droplets of water wetting my face.
In moments, my thighs burn, and my fingers ache from holding the handles so tightly.
I don’t risk a glance behind me.
I can’t go any faster, and if there is something or someone there, the fear will make me fall.
The road curves and drops, my bike coasting down the incline under its own momentum. The wind takes my hair, and my stomach swoops at the speed.
But I coast all the way into Shelburne Falls, pumping the pedals again once the street levels out. I don’t hear anyone. I don’t feel the heat of any headlights, or any change in the breeze, but just in case… I take turns I wouldn’t normally take, trying to lose whoever might be following me.
Swinging onto High Street, I round the corner into the alley and see Lucas barreling in behind me in one of my parents’ cars. No idea where the Boss is.
Dismounting, I grab my backpack and phone and let the bike fall to the ground. Lucas charges toward me, and I hurriedly unlock the back door, still seeing no one.
Once inside, I lock us in and actually back away from the door as if there was a ghost in the fog.
But there was no one. There probably wasn’t anyone near the bridge, on the bridge, or following me here. Just the dark emptiness messing with my imagination.
Lucas, though… He sounded afraid.
