I scanned the water looking for his red eyes peering back at me, but I came up empty. I didn’t dare approach the water. That was exactly what he wanted me to do. I could feel it in my bones, in the eerie stillness of the water.
He’d left her here for me to find. I forced deep breaths in and out, clenching my fists to keep my hands from shaking.
A crunch behind me, sent my heart pounding loud enough my ears hurt, and I jumped up, whirling around. I expected the monster, but only found raccoons running up a tree. I let out the breath I’d held slowly.
Help wasn’t coming.
I had to make a plan to get out of this alive.
Otherwise I was already caught.
Chapter 16:
Finally,I’vehadsuccess.
The first two boys died within twenty four hours of the transformation. After one died during the stress of the change and the other turned into a transfigured blob, I was sure this trial was a complete failure.
Defects.
But the third boy had the strength to withstand the ritual.
He screamed and begged me to stop. There were moments I almost gave in, the boy barely looks thirteen, but I held my composure until the ritual was done.
And reaped my reward.
He stopped screaming when his bones finished twisting into his new grotesque shape, and instead he snarled and snapped at me like a gator would.
Stay strong, my family. Help is coming.
This wasn’t any science I knew. An altar with the heart of an alligator, brain of a crocodile, spine of a snake, with a chant said to be the ruin of the lost colony, Roanoke, and a moldavite wand.
I’d hoped the process was similar to ancient traditions that seemed obscene, but had scientific backing. These were the scribbles of a mad woman.
And she’d gathered this ‘technique’ unheard of by her sisters from distant branches of the family.
It was official. My umbilical cord was a crazy straw.
The rushed squish of feet, running though wet mud, made me press the book to my chest. Not wanting anyone to see what I’d found.
Shannon came into view, halting in her tracks to stare at me like she thought she’d never see me again. Her shoulders straightened as if a weight was lifted off of her, and let out a breath that sounded like she’d been holding it since that thing dragged me into the water.
Her pack dropped unceremoniously on the ground, and she flopped beside me in my hammock without waiting for an invitation. After she took three measured breaths, she finally whispered. “You stupid bitch.”
I chuckled, but it sounded heavy even to my ears.
“Are you okay?” she asked in a soft tone that wasn’t normal for her, and I immediately hated it. Who knew that deep down inside I appreciated Shannon’s sharp, unforgiving tongue?
“Don’t talk to me like that.” My breathing shuddered. “Please.”
“I ruined my new boots trying to swim after you.” She kicked her boots off and peeled the socks away as if to prove her point. “Expect an invoice.”
“Best of luck to you.” I fought the urge to smile. I needed her normalcy more than I cared to admit.
“Oh I will be getting my seventy-nine ninety-nine plus tax. I can promise you that.” She humphed, but relaxed next to me.
“You went cheap on your boots?” I snorted at her.
“Bitch,” she gasped, genuinely appalled. Her fingers drummed on the book in my hands. Once she touched it, her attention zoned in on the leather cover. “What is that?”
