The car came around the corner of the wooded road at speed. The headlights illuminated the greens and browns of the trees and shrubs as they blurred past. The curved mountain road was not one that the locals drove quickly on, with the steep embankments and tight switchbacks the road had claimed many lives over the years. Two more vehicles followed the first up and around the next 180 degree turn. The two SUVs now side by side on the narrow road moved closer to the first car.Artemis Shadow drove further up the steep mountain side hoping to make the safety of the encampment on the backside of the mountain. He shot a quick sideways look at Cressida, his wife, who was craned around looking in the back seat at the rear facing car seat in the back. The baby was crying and Cressida was trying to soothe her while holding the back of the seat. She had taken off her seat belt to be able to reach the back seat and with each sharp turn of the switchbacks she was thrown side to side. “Just unstrap
Amaris woke to the sun shining in her window. She had slept the whole night without waking once. Something she was only able to do when she drank Grandma Beth’s special herbal tea before bed. Amaris rolled onto her back and looked around her little room at all the many years worth of decorations, posters, awards, and memories. She could hardly believe that her senior year was almost over and she would be heading off to college in the fall. Amaris had grown up in the sleepy little town of River Mills. The small town was situated in the shadow of the mountain and had sprung into being near the river at the turn of the century in response to the need for workers at the mills that were powered by that river. Despite the mills being in demand the population never grew very large, as the town was rumored to be plagued by demon wolves. Many of the workers over the years had come and gone and very few stayed and put down roots. Grandma Beth was one of those few. Her family had lived in the mo
The school day dragged on as usual. Amaris and Anna day dreamed back and forth all day about what it would be like to goto a party at the mountain home of one of their rich class mates. Amaris and Anna had all their classes together except for their last two of the day. So Amaris went to earth science and gym by herself. She didn’t mind that much. Mr. Bruce, who taught earth science, loved the moon as much as she did and was always keen to have little discussions with her before class about it. Mr. Bruce was a tall man in his mid 20’s with dark brown hair flecked with a tiny bit of premature grey. He had a heavy five o’clock shadow and twinkling light blue eyes. His overall appearance looked like someone that you would not want to mess with except for the eyes, they were always kindly. He always wore a button down shirt that fit tightly to his muscled body, and an open collar. His size made him intimidating. He definitely had many of the teenage girls in the school signing up for his
Amaris did not look back. She ran as fast as she could down the other side of the rock outcropping and back into the woods. She knew the bridge was not far away now, but neither were the men. She could still here them shouting at one another and crashing through the under brush. Hopefully she had given herself enough time. As she ran down hill now along the path heading to the water, she remembered how Heather had taken a shortcut through the bushes on the side of the path, essentially cutting out the curve in the trail just before the bridge and no one saw her do it that day in gym class. She had shown Amaris on the way back that day. Amaris only hoped that she could remember where it was and be able to find it while she was at a dead run on the path. Having come further down the hill, Amaris saw the familiar tree with the gnarled branch that looked like a “turkey leg” as Heather described it. Tears began to fall fast down her cheeks as she remembered seeing her friend crumple to the
Amaris had no idea where the third man was but she was not going to waste time looking for him. She turned and started running up the path leading up the side of the hill away from the bridge. Amaris knew that there was a place about three quarters of a mile up where the path ran close to the road. She could take the road from there straight to her house. It was only a few miles away. Amaris was still running but now that she was fairly sure that there were no men close by that were chasing her, the adrenaline was running out and the reality of what happened both at the kickball field and the bridge was becoming more real and less like a bad dream. Amaris continued moving along the trail but at a slower still. She had tears running down her face in a constant stream and was having a hard time seeing. Mr.Clark was injured badly, Mrs. Bass was shot, was she dead? Heather, she was injured. Amaris had seen the man step away from her with a bloody knife. Was she dead too? Was all this her f
When Mr. Bruce pulled up in front of the house everything was quiet. That was not unusual at Gran’s. Often when Amaris came home Gran was out helping someone who was ill, or she would be out in the woods or on the mountainside picking herbs or digging roots for some of her medicines that she made. Even from the outside you could see the house was warm and happy, but not fancy, just comfortable and welcoming. Amaris led Mr. Bruce into the house through the side door that leads into the kitchen. The house still smelled of Gran’s chocolate cake, which was still cooling on the center of the wooden kitchen table. However, once Amaris entered, she could see that the kitchen was a shambles. Every cabinet and drawer was open with their contents torn out. The pantry door was open wide and the contents of many of the jars that were stored in there, both food and medicine were smashed on the floor. Amaris’ hands flew to her mouth as her eyes moved across the room. Mr. Bruce reached forward and
Mr. Bruce was startled at the sudden change in her demeanor. He pulled back and looked at Amaris as if she had struck him. “It’s true. You really are her.” Amaris looked at him not understanding his meaning, but also feeling weird. It was as if she had just drank 10 energy drinks and they all kicked in at once. There was a feeling of energy running through her suddenly. It’s like the thought of her Gran being in trouble woke up a power in her that she never knew was there before.Ignoring this as just one more weird thing to happen to her today, her 17th birthday of all days. Amaris looked back into Mr. Bruce’s eyes and repeated her command.“I want answers Mr. Bruce and I need to hear the truth from you about all of this. Who are these people and are the people from the school the same ones who came here and killed Grover? Do you think they have Gran too?”Mr. Bruce stood up, reached down and offered his hand to pull Amaris off the floor. He grabbed a kitchen chair that was laying on
Amaris walked out the back door toward the police car. Mr. Bruce hesitated and then followed behind. The officer got out and then walked toward Mr. Bruce. “Lyle, what’s going on? The dispatcher said that there was a murder.” The officer said, paying no attention to Amaris.“Reid, It’s Grover. Looks like someone broke in and he surprised them and they killed him.” Lyle said. Sheriff Reid Clifton had been the local sheriff for a long time. He is supposed to retire at the end of the summer. His wife passed away a few years ago from cancer and he was going to move out of state to be closer to his daughter and grandchild. This sleepy little town had seen it’s fair share of speeders and drunk drivers, kids pulling pranks, and under age drinking, but in his time as an officer he had only investigated a handful of murders. “Did you touch anything Lyle?” Sheriff Reid asked finally looking over at Amaris. “This is your grandmother’s house, she’s not home? Where is she?” Sheriff Reid looked at