Page 24 of Echo
Now, Madison. Don’t let a dead voice spook you. You were just thinking about her, before you went on this not so fun adventure.
Yet, every muscle in my legs tensed to take off, but the discipline that my daddy drilled into me, was repeating in my mind.
If you run, you’re food.
Where would I even run, too? Into the house where I’d have to face off a hallucinationandMark. Where I would prove everything he ever said about me being insane.
“Run, Pretty Rabbit.” This time the voice was a dark growl whispering against my ear. Hot breath blew against my skin and sent shivers rolling over my body.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you, bitch?” What was that old saying? Talking to yourself doesn’t mean you're crazy. It’s when things start talking back that was the issue.
The voice hummed or growled as if to agree with me.
“No.” I wasn’t sure if my answer was more for the voice or to remind myself not to give into the adrenaline bursting through my veins.
The voice chuckled as if I were the most endearing thing on the planet. “You will.”
Pressure I hadn’t realized covered the area released as I turned on my heel to find nothing. Tears pricked my eyes as I realized the house was behind a thin line of trees. The loud white color was easily recognizable in the endless green. Maybe that was why Pearl painted everything that shade.
In my lost wandering, I’d made my way back to the house. Call me Lewis and the dog Clark.
I walked over and sat on the porch, letting my eyes rove over every inch of the trees in front of me. Ranger stopped barking, but he held a defensive stance. His entire body trembled with fear even as he held his post.
My hands were right there with him.
Deep breath, Madison. Shake it off.
Once I was calm, I rubbed my eyes. My phone rang in my pocket, and I answered without looking. Only one person had this new number.
“Hey Daddy.” The words sounded breathless and strange in my ears.
“You okay? You sound shaken.”His deep voice soothed the last of the jagged panic.
“I think I had a bad trip in the middle of the woods,” I admitted to him.
He laughed at that.“What’d you take?”
“I didn’t take anything. I think there were some psychedelic spores or something.”
“Your mom used to talk about trippy things she saw out there. You may be onto something.”
That made me pause. Mom too? He hardly ever talked about her. I didn’t realize that she experienced weird shit too. “Hey.”
“What, Pumpkin?”The seriousness in his voice said that I’d been more intense than I’d meant to be.“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Do you think we’re all crazy? Grandma Ruby, me… Mom.” Pearl.
He went silent for a moment that dragged on.“So you’ve started catching onto that, huh?”
“I’ve been wondering for a while. I guess I finally needed to ask.”
“You aren’t crazy. None of you.”He took a deep breath.“Your mother couldn’t do drugs either. She was a sensitive soul who saw the world for what it was and drugs turned that up to a ten. You’re so much like her. Come down and re-center yourself before deciding to book yourself a padded room.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’d be sober before I was even in the same zipcode as a padded room.” I took a breath. “Pearl might have had a mental break, if she didn’t realize something in the forest was poison. She’s out there, even for us.”
That could explain a lot.
Dad laughed.
