They exchanged quick glances. “Well, we were going too ah...”
“Don’t worry about it,” she interrupted with a soft smile.
“Maybewe’ll stop by laterin the day,” Vicky offered with a tiny smile.
“That’s okay,”Isabelle assured them.
“Isabelle!”
She nearly jumped out of her skin as Willow’s head appeared in the doorway of the stormcellar. She didn’t even have to ask, the look on Willow’s face said it all. “Ah hell,what did you do now?”she mumbled as she leapt up the stairwell.
Willow turned and started to run before Isabelleeven reached the top. She followed her around the back of the house and toward the woods. Willow darted gracefully down a trail, easily dodging the tree branches that slapped at Isabelle. Cursing and muttering angrily, she wasn’t paying any attention to where they were going. Willow pulled up abruptly in a small clearing, if she hadn’t reached out and grabbed Isabelle, she would have plummeted right over the edge of the pit in the middle of the clearing.
Skidding to a halt, her eyes widened as they landed upon the gaping hole that was about ten feet in diameter. It looked grotesquely out of place in the middle of the small clearing. “What the...”
“Isabelle!”
Surprise ripped through her as the small voice came from the hole. She stepped carefully to the edge of thepitand looked down. Her heart leapt into her throat, and her blood ran cold as she spotted Julian about four feet down, clinging to a treeroot, his feet dangling in the air. Beneath him were at least a hundred old, deadly lookingwooden stakes. It took her only a moment to realize that he had fallen into a bear trap that had been long forgotten.
“Oh crap!”
Isabelle dropped to her knees and scooted to the edge of the whole. Julian stared at her with wide, pleading blue eyes;his black hairwasmatted to his forehead with sweat and dirt. “Isabelle help me,” he begged.
“Hold on Julian, don’t you dare let go of that root.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,”he replied miserably.
“No need to be sarcastic,” she muttered as she dropped to her belly and scuttled closer to the edge. She leaned into the hole, reaching for him, but he was even further down than she had thought. “Damn,” she muttered, wiggling further over the edge. “Willow, grab my ankles!” she yelled.
When her ankles were grasped tightly she wiggled a little further out so that she was half in, and half out of the hole. “Julian grab my hands!” she gasped, barely able to breathe from the pressure on her stomach. He hesitated for a moment and then reached up and seized hold of one of her arms. She grasped his tiny forearm tightly, her hands digging into his flesh. “Now the other one,” she encouraged breathlessly.
He bit into his bottom lip, fear evident in his wide eyes, and pale face. He released his hold on the root and seized hold of her other arm. Isabelle let out a sigh of relief as she grasped him tightly, her hands enclosing his small forearms. “Isabelle!” Willow gasped. “You’re too heavy!”
Dismay ripped through her as she struggled to breathe. “Don’t you dare let go!” she yelled.
“If you let go I will haunt you for the rest of my afterlife!” Julian shouted.
Isabelle cocked aneyebrow as she stared down at her brother. He stared back at her, pale and trembling. “That’s a threat,” she mumbled. “She already has to deal with you foreternity;she might take her chances on you not being able to bother her in the afterlife.”
His eyes widened even more, and she hadn’t thought that it was possible, but hebecameeven paler. “That’s not funny!”
“Willow, pull us up!” Isabelle commanded.
“I’m trying!”Willow gasped.
Isabelle closed her eyes and groundher teeth as she tried to wiggle backward. Her arms were beginning to ache painfully, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe. Willow tugged at her ankles, pulling them back inch by excruciatingly slow, inch. The three of them cried out as Willow lost her footing and slid to the ground. Isabelle slid back over the edge, this time to her hips, before she was jerked to a halt. She bit down on her lip,stiflinga cry as excruciating pain tore through her tortured arms. Julian looked about ready to burst into tears as he was jerked to a halt. Her arms screamed in agony as her shoulders were nearly ripped from their sockets by the force of his weight.
“I’m sorry,” Willow panted. “I can’t do this.”
Isabelle closed her eyes and groaned. What the hell was she going to do? Where the hell were Vicky and Abby? “Isabelle,” Julian panted.
“It’s okay, just hold on. Willow, you have to do this!”
“I can’t,” she cried, her voice choked with tears.
“Then go get help!” she snapped, her patience at an end. She was scared senseless, holding her brother over certain death, and damn close to her own death. She didn’t have time to deal with Willow’stears.
“But...”
