Page 66 of Shadows in Bloom

The church.

Trinity’s gaze drifts past me once more, up toward the sanitarium. “She doesn’t belong down here after what she did.”

“Yeah,” I hear myself whisper, as memories surge forth. Images of untamed flames and clawed fingers sinking into dirt and silent, open-mouthed screams flashing behind my eyes.

“Let me go! Let me GO!”

I give a quick shake of my head, drop my gaze, and will the images away. The cries…

My fear…

Something wet glances off my finger, effectively yanking me back to the present. And it’s then and only then, blinking down at my clasped hands, that I realize I’ve been scratching—a nervous tic of mine that I’d thought I’d grown out of.

I frown. Did I break skin?

But when I lift my hand to inspect, my stomach drops like a boulder, blood icing over as chills break out across my skin.

The bell rings suddenly, and I throw my hands behind me, eyes rounding as they spring up to where Trinity was just facing me. But she’s no longer there, having already turned away to join Fran and Harper—friends of hers, and I guess by association, me.

I blow out a breath, though my relief is short lived.

“Come, Winifred,” Trinity calls out over her shoulder as they reach the steps. Summoning me like I’m their ever faithful pathetic dog.

They’re good for you, a voice reminds me as bitterness digs out a hole in my stomach.

Right…

Even in my head, I don’t sound convinced. I just sound exhausted.

I watch as they get swallowed up by the throng of bodies now funneling toward the doors.

My hand tingles—or maybe it’s just in my head.

When I feel confident no one’s paying me any attention, I bring my hand back around, hoping I didn’t see what I thought I did.

No such luck.

Bile surges up my throat, panic stinging my eyes and seizing my lungs.

I can’t decide which is more unsettling. The fact that it’s not blood I felt, but an oily black substance smeared right where that snake brushed against my hand…

Or the fact that my watch…

It’s dead.

The hands frozen at 7:48.

Two minutes after I checked it in the church.

Right about the time I entered the woods.

CHAPTER 2

OPHELIA ST. MAUD

Winnie, Winnie, Winnie…

What sort of trouble did you get yourself into now?

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