Page 3 of Eldritch

Pauline took a curve a little too fast, and Sybil winced. She pressed her palms to her jean-clad thighs as tension rose inside her. Her mind went there. The vehicle leaving the road. Driving headfirst into one of the immovable massive tree trunks. Airbags exploding as the front end caved–

Sybil shook her head, reacting to her anxiety. “Stop it.”

Letisha looked back at her. “What?”

Sybil smiled. “I said I can’t wait until we get to the house and eat something. We should’ve stopped in Estes Park. My stomach is eating its way to my backbone.”

Letisha turned around and stared at Sybil. She lifted her eyebrows, her dark brown eyes doubtful. “Right. You’re the one who wanted to keep going.”

Letisha shook her head, and the dark hair piled in an elaborate style on her head barely moved. Letisha braided and twined her hair in a way that Sybil could never imitate, even though Sybil’s black hair was almost as dark and about as thick.

“Okay.” Sybil sighed and rummaged in the bag next to her feet. She pulled out a bag of trail mix. “Guilty. Anyone for trail mix?”

“No!” All their voices chimed in at once.

“You eat the trail mix. You’re wasting away.” Letisha narrowed her eyes as she looked back at Sybil. “Have you lost weight?”

Sybil dug into the zip-lock bag of trail mix and started snacking. “A pound or two. Running this business.”

Maria Pelligrini, sitting to Sybil’s right, looked out her window, her nose nearly pressed against the glass. “Wait. Isn’t this Stephen King country around here?”

“We drove past the Stanley Hotel while you were sleeping,” Pauline said as she took another curve with more enthusiasm than necessary. “That’s Stephen King country.”

“Stephen King country is in Maine,” Sybil said. “He just visited Colorado.”

“Okay, Miss Pedantic,” Letisha said, throwing a smile back at Sybil.

Maria’s green eyes flashed, and she pushed her cloud of fluffy chocolate brown hair out of her face. “I’d love to tour the Stanley.”

“It looks nothing like the hotel in the movie. That was a place in Oregon. The exterior scenes anyway. Rest of it was a set. I think in England.” Sybil knew way more about the movie than some people did.

Maria turned her gaze on Sybil and frowned. “I get that. I still want to see it while we’re in town.”

Sybil experienced the burn way down in her gut. The understanding she’d pushed too hard. It felt like shame. Big shame. Her face heated.

Chill. People don’t want to hear all the useless trivia running around in your head.

“It’ll have to wait,” Pauline said. She tucked a strand of her pixie-cut dyed whitish blonde hair behind one ear. Lavender highlights glinted throughout, making her resemble a cute cartoon sprite or other delicate creature.

Yeah. Right. Sybil knew way too much about Pauline to fall for the illusion of the woman’s innocence.

“I can’t believe we’re even talking about this,” Pauline said, her tone clipped and icy. “We aren’t three years old. We learned a long time ago to go to the bathroom when we have a chance and eat when we should.”

Wow.

Sybil felt the sting again. Was she the only one who found Pauline’s statement a little over-the-top? She glanced at Maria and saw the twenty-something woman’s mouth tighten. Maria hadn’t cared for Pauline’s tone either.

Granted, Maria was younger than the rest of them, but that still didn’t give Pauline the right to treat Maria with disrespect. Sybil took a deep breath and ignored any little interpersonal dramas for the moment. She couldn’t fight everyone’s battles for them, even though bullying of any kind pissed her off.

Sybil’s voice echoed in her head, a memory from the past. Sybil, look what you did now. You are always messing things up. Couldn’t you have just kept your mouth shut?

Sybil frowned and tried to shove back a fresh wave of humiliation. It didn’t work, and the mortification grew, as if Pauline had dissed her. Sybil’s shame mixed with anger. A memory of her mother's harsh words pissed her off, as it had the power to make her rehash old baggage.

The car went quiet, and Sybil lost her appetite. She tossed the trail mix container back in the bag. She looked, instead, to the view of the never-ending forest. Nature would soothe her.

Sybil took in the way the massive tree trunks along both sides of the road rose as high and as far as the human eye could detect. As the vegetation thickened, the sun seemed almost reluctant…afraid to encroach. The trees had the thickest trunks she’d seen in a forest. Old growth. Untouched in a way most forests wouldn’t be. No clear cut. No new log cabins vying for intrusive space and determined to pretend they’d been here for a hundred years. The fact the forest service hadn’t thinned the trees, the fact it hadn’t burned long ago, surprised her. She closed her eyes, taking in what she could feel. Trying to understand the draw she had to this place, and that sense of unease that lingered on the periphery.

This place feels familiar. Why?

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