Page 73 of Together We Rot

My heart is replaced by a new sort of flutter, like the gentle slide of wings. A hummingbird taking off.

My vision is steady, even as my being is consumed by a thousand tiny little moths.

It hits me as the woods beckon and the saplings call my name. This is how it is meant to be. How it was always meant to be. With a twitch of my feet, the ground rumbles and breaks. My fingers curl and the breeze shifts, changing to match my whim. One long, rattling sigh is enough to shake the snow off from the treetops.

After all these years, I know who I am.

I am Elwood, born to the soil and frost, destined to give my heart to these trees. I am home.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

WIL

Elwood’s voice echoes in my mind, his final words chanted over like a prayer. Come find me in the trees. I’ll wait for you.

The words are the last he leaves me with as he splinters apart at the seams. It happens so fast, I barely have time to register it. One second he’s there, smiling a heart-wrenching smile, and the next he’s gone. His silhouette lingers in the air, a frozen blue imprint of him etched against the world. The wind carries him away, and I break, shattering into the snow.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was supposed to rescue him from the beast, return him in my arms. We’d have a normal life. Hell, maybe I’d return to school in time for a senior prom with him. Things would go back to the way they were. Back before the blizzard. Before Mom. Things would be good again.

But now everything has changed.

I sob into the ice, my tears freezing down my cheeks as they pour out. I’ll scour the whole forest to search for him again. What will I find, though? My fingertips burn, but I hardly even feel it. An indescribable rush of grief sweeps over me, claiming me as it did a year ago. It starts in my throat, fingers squeezing over me, blocking off my breath. I heave and fight for air that won’t come—every second plays out for minutes. The fingers release, and I suck in a painful, tight breath. It tears out into a strangled sort of cry, ripping from my lungs to my tongue.

I force myself to move. I walk through the thick of the forest, barely feeling the cold as it scrapes against my bare skin. There’s a false sense of peace: The snow shines blue in the moonlight; the wind has died down to nothing. If Elwood’s father is still here, he’s been swallowed whole by the blizzard.

And the rest of the group hasn’t left.

Dad’s sprawled out on the ground, whimpering to himself at the agony. His eyes flutter like someone who can’t tell whether to sleep or stay awake. Blood is dried onto his scalp; it starts at his hairline and ends beneath his chin. He’s always been a fighter. I just never noticed.

“Where is he? What happened?” Lucas scrambles to make sense of what he witnessed. He looks to me to fill him in, but I can’t. I’m still reeling. His body is battered, a particularly nasty scrape down his cheek. His hair is matted and thick with blood.

Next to Lucas, Kevin and Ronnie look worse for wear as well. Kevin is sporting a black eye and Ronnie’s lip is split open, both of them with gnarly deep purple bruises along their bodies. Cherry’s parked the car and clambered out to tend to Prudence in the corner. The baby is red and screaming and alive, bundled tight in a heavy swath of blankets.

It comes pouring out in a sob. “He’s gone.”

I turn to look toward Pine Point in the distance. I want to tear us right off the map.

Not a minute later, the forest ripples. Alive with a sudden current, an unmistakable energy. Vines slither out across the ground. Branches shoot out like hands. The whole forest seems to become sentient. It grabs what’s left of the church several yards away, digging its fingers into the foundations and dragging it back toward the open and waiting mouth of the woods. We watch as it all disappears. It is devoured in its entirety. From the shadows, we hear the crunch of brick broken down and the shattering of glass.

Everything is returned back to the soil. Every nightmare is dissolved, broken down piece by piece. I can’t see him, but somehow, some way, I know Elwood is responsible.

A couple seconds of unleashed power and Elwood turned a room to dust. One minute passes and he does the same to the church and his own home beyond that. The woods devour what never should have existed in the first place.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

WIL

I’ve always hated hospitals.

Sterile white walls, the rusty roll of gurneys down linoleum tile. The bored, vacant stare of the receptionist. I shift in my seat, rocking my heels back and forth against the floor. The lobby is primarily empty. There’s an old man in the corner groaning about a slipped disc and a mom on the other end, smoothing back her toddler’s hair. The kid sniffles, his nose a snotty red.

And then there’s me, sitting as far away as I can, nursing an obscenely large energy drink. I’m exhausted, but too wired to even think about sleep. It’s a horrible combination. My eyes still sting from tears I haven’t yet cried. I’ve shifted from agonizing grief to an all-over numbness. I’m not sure which is worse.

There’s no way any of this should have happened.

A middle-aged nurse comes paddling in through the door. Her hair is in a worn, frayed ponytail. She looks as tired as I feel. “Wilhelmina Greene? Come with me.”

I follow her down a labyrinth of hallways, but I’m sure she could pace through them in her sleep. With her glossy stare and half-lidded eyes, I have to wonder if she already is. She leads me down the hall to a room and ushers me inside.

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