Page 58 of Sinister Legacy
My teeth chatter as I jiggle my knee to keep warm. “We’ve had this discussion before, Cassie.” I nudge her shoulder with mine again. “It’s easy with Liam.”
I expect her to laugh like she always does, but she stays silent, and her lips curl back into a sneer before she trains her gaze forward.
It gets my back up.Fuck her!I should ask her what’s wrong and why she’s so off with me, but I just don’t have the damn energy to care. She can sit on her soap box somewhere fucking else.
I rise to my feet and push past her legs. Of course, she doesn’t offer to move out of the way. I don’t know what the hell her problem is. I’ve had a shit week, and the last thing I need is for her to sit and tell me how I should live my life. She can make her own mistakes and leave me to make a fucking mess of my own life.
My phone vibrates in my hand as I mumble apologies, bumping into people’s knees on my way to the side stairs.
Unknown number: Let’s play a little game.
I pause as my heart jumps to my throat. The person in front of me grumbles, shouting at me to move. I shuffle sideways out of the aisle.
Another incoming message has me pressing a hand over my mouth. It’s a picture of Madison, seated at the movies, with her hand in a bag of popcorn and her ankles crossed on the seat in front of her. Trust her to go to the movies by herself after she was attacked in the bathroom.
I quickly bring up her latest text message, but another text pops up on my screen before I can type out a response.
Unknown number: Warn her, or anyone else, and she dies.
My hands shake violently as my breaths puff out in front of me.
Me: What do you want from me?
Unknown number: Leave the stadium and take the trail that leads through the woods toward the gas station.
I consider my options before walking down the steps with trembling legs. The cold doesn’t register anymore. Nothing does, except for my hammering heartbeat.
One step. Two. Peering to my left, I stare blindly at the hundreds of faces on the bleachers. No one notices the tears on my cheeks or the fear that is slowly strangling me. I gulp down breaths as I reach the ground. The noise from the football game on the field fades out until it’s nothing more than a hum.
Exiting the stadium, I look left to right. The parking lot is empty. An empty soda can rolls across the ground, and the sound is so loud to my ears that I jump.
Unknown number: Now walk.
I swallow down a whimper, clutching the phone in my hand. The walk across the parking lot seems impossibly long.
Keira: Don’t hurt Madison.
Unknown number: Play the game, and I won’t.
The icy wind licks at my cheeks and creeps beneath my clothes. I shiver, but not from the cold. Eyes follow me as I slowly walk through the parking lot.
Unknown number: The movie finishes at 9:30 tonight. Plenty of time to pay her another little visit. Walk faster unless you want your friend to die.
The whimper that I swallowed down earlier bubbles back up and slips from my lips. Another sob follows, and I press my hand over my mouth as I quicken my pace.
The tree line is just up ahead. Blackwoods’ trail is popular with middle-aged dog walkers and families with young kids, but not on a night like tonight when the game is on.
Football is a huge thing here in Blackwoods, and it’s sacrilege not to attend the games, which is also why Madison is alone at the movies. She’s the only one who doesn’t care about sports.
Sticks break beneath my shoes as I enter the trail, the parking lot at my back. It’s so dark in here that the moonlight struggles to break through the canopy of leaves overhead.
With trembling hands that are cold and wet from wiping my cheeks, I unlock my phone and scan the path up ahead with the flashlight. Tall spindly trees with branches that resemble crooked, fanged demons seem to reach for me. Each step I take is accompanied by the violent thuds of my heart in my head.
He’s playing with me. I know he is.
Feeding on my fear while hiding in the shadows.
“Show yourself,” I shout, my voice cracking. “You’re a fucking coward!”
