Marked (The Pack) (2 page)

“Holy crap. Did you see that?”

“Kind of hard to miss.” Aaron twisted in his seat trying to see where the dog had gone.

“What do you think it was doing?” I leaned between the two front seats.

“I don’t know, but that was one huge dog, or wolf, or whatever it was.” Aaron cranked the car.

I glanced at my mother who stared straight ahead, still not speaking.

“You alright, Mom?”

She didn’t move. “I’m fine. Let’s go. It’s getting late.”

With another crunch of gravel, we were on the road again and slowly my heart stopped slamming against my chest. I put the animal out of my mind as we made our final turn toward Aunt Louise’s house.

The driveway wound along with tree branches stretching toward each other from opposite sides of the road, practically forming a tunnel. Then the tunnel ended and there it was, looming in the middle of a freshly mown yard- my very own Louisiana state prison. It was a starchy white wooden house with black shutters and a porch that went across the front and all the way around one side. The car stopped, but I didn’t move.

The front door of the house swung open, and Aunt Louise stepped through and onto the porch. Honestly, I’d been hoping she’d become meaner looking, ugly, so it would be easier to not like her. Louise Miller trotted down the steps and hugged my mom, who’d gotten out of the car. Then she jerked open my door and literally dragged me from the seat.

“Alexis, you’ve really grown.”

My lips felt stiff when I tried to smile, and I didn’t bother to mention that it had been nearly two years since she’d seen me and did she expect me to be the same? Her arms slipped around me in a quick hug. I didn’t hug her back even though I knew it wasn’t her fault I was here.

As she pulled away our eyes met and my stomach clenched. Louise moved on to meet Aaron while I leaned against the hot metal of the car. It was that look again, only this time from my aunt. A look that said, “I’m watching you and waiting for something weird to happen.” She obviously knew about the nightmares, the sleepwalking, and my questionable choice of friends.

After Louise had met and hugged Aaron, something that made me think she might be a little too affectionate since she’d only just met him, she came back around and grabbed my bags.

“Come on, Alexis, I’ll show you to your room.” She motioned with her head for me to follow. Gathering the rest of my stuff, I trailed along inside and up a flight of stairs. Aunt Louise dropped the two bags she’d carried onto the floor of a room decorated with so much pink it made my stomach turn.

“The room was like this when I got here. We can paint it if you want. I’d have done it already, but I didn’t know what you’d like.”

“It’s alright.” I’d only be here for the summer, why bother painting. I shrugged and dropped an armload of tote bags on the bed. This wasn’t Aunt Louise’s house any way. She was renting it from a friend because she didn’t really live in Labeaux. My aunt moved around a lot. She was a teacher, but she never seemed to be in one place too long. Louise stared at me and I noticed her irises had gold flecks like mine.

“We’re going to get through this summer just fine, Alexis. I know it’s a big change, for both of us. We’ll adjust.” Louise glanced around and pushed one of my bags closer to the bed with her foot. “Well, okay, let me go down and get dinner warming for you guys. I made gumbo.” She smiled, then hurried away.

I nodded, but she was already gone. As I had suspected Louise didn’t want me here anymore than I wanted to be here. She’d been on her own for years and now I show up. The sound of my mom’s voice floated in from the bedroom next door, time for one final plea. Tomorrow morning mom and Aaron would get up early to make the short drive to New Orleans where they’d catch a flight that would eventually land them in England, the first stop of their vacation.

I stood in the door of the bedroom where the two of them were digging through their bags. Aaron saw me, glanced at mom, then back at me.

“Do I need to leave?” he asked.

I had to give him points for knowing when he wasn’t wanted. I pushed the door open wider while mom frowned. Aaron left the room, closing the door behind him.

“It’s not very nice of you to send him away like that. He’d like to try and be a father to you.”

The muscles in my face stiffened. “I’ve made it nearly sixteen years without one, why do I need one now?”

She didn’t answer and I figured I might have hurt her feelings. Not something I’d normally do, but these were desperate times.

“Does Aunt Louise even want me to be here?”

“Of course she does, why?”

“Come on, Mom. You’re putting me off on your sister who doesn’t have any kids. She’s used to doing what she wants, when she wants, and now she’s stuck with me all summer. Do you really think that’s fair?”

One side of her mouth turned upward. “That’s a nice try. I have to admit I never expected you to use the
you should have mercy on your poor sister approach.
But don’t worry. Louise offered for you to stay here.”

That wasn’t exactly the response I was hoping for and my chest began to get tight. She walked over and hugged me. My eyes watered and I had to bite my bottom lip to stop it. I refused to stand here and cry. But inside a knot of fear was expanding to monstrous proportions.

“Mom, you can’t leave me here, I’m … what if something happens… What if I …” I didn’t know where the desperate plea came from. I hadn’t planned it and I choked on whatever else was trying to come out of my mouth. I wasn’t even sure what I was afraid of.

“You’ll be fine, I promise,” she whispered against my ear. “Aunt Louise will help you. She’ll take good care of you.”

She leaned back, and I saw on her face the same thing I’d seen in the mirror of the car. Definitely the same thing I’d seen countless other times this past year.

“The summer here will be good for you. You need it, even if you don’t see it yet. You will.”

She started to walk away, but I caught her arm.

“Do you think I’m on drugs or something, is that it? Is that why you’re leaving me here with her? If it is I’ll go and get tested right now. I’m not doing drugs. I promise. You think that’s why I’m having these dreams and sleepwalking, don’t you?”

She shook her head. “No Alexis, that’s not what I think.”

My hand dropped to my side. “But I don’t know anybody here, not one person.”

“You’ll meet people and you’ll get to know Louise better.” Then she was gone, out the door and into the hall shouting for Aaron.

I’d always lived in Chicago, never even been too far away from my home. This year was the first year I’d ever made any friends. Now I’d been transported to another world where I was a stranger with strange problems. Leaving the bedroom, I returned to my new sickly pink room and stepped to the window. I stared at the lengthening shadows falling across the grass and the wall of trees at the edge of the yard. I shivered, the last trace of hope seeping away, the knot of fear still nearly choking me. Like it or not, I wasn’t going anywhere else. I stood there completely alone while the night closed in.

Chapter Two

The sound of the door creaking caused me to bolt to an upright position in the bed. I was positively jumpy lately, and being here, in the middle of nowhere, didn’t help.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.” My mom came in with Aaron beside her. The glowing lights on the alarm clock read five-thirty.

“It’s okay,” I mumbled.

I realized mom and Aaron were about to leave to catch a plane in New Orleans. My throat tightened again even though I didn’t want it to.

She sat on the edge of the bed and Aaron eased down behind her.

“Give it a chance here, Alexis.”

I stared past them to the garishly pink wall and gave half a nod. Didn’t she realize she was abandoning me when I never really knew what the next morning would bring, when I needed a familiar face, some kind of real support?

I slowly moved my gaze to Aaron and paused at the look in his dark eyes. He actually appeared sad to be leaving me in this swampy place. He reached out to catch my hand resting on the bedcovers.

“Your mom says it’ll be good for you to be here. But if anything happens, if you need us, call and we’ll come get you.”

Mom shot him a pretty ugly look that indicated she had no intention of swooping in to rescue me if things went south - down south.

“Thanks,” I said giving his hand a squeeze.

I guess I was supposed to go back to sleep. I did close my eyes but didn’t sleep. Too many thoughts raced through my mind, most of them centered on getting away from here and back home where I felt safe. At a little after seven, I quit pretending I might sleep and wandered downstairs to the kitchen where Aunt Louise sat drinking coffee and reading the paper.

“You’re up earlier than I expected.”

I shrugged, sliding into a chair at the table and pulling over a piece of the newspaper. I scanned the front page but didn’t see anything interesting.

“Do you want breakfast?”

I shrugged again. Who cared about breakfast? Louise was watching me. I could feel it without looking, so I stared at the paper rather than meet those eyes that seemed to drill a hole right through me.

She stood. “Well, I’m cooking breakfast. You can have some if you want. My friend and his son are coming over.”

I sat at the table while she pulled bacon from the refrigerator and a round container of something that said grits, whatever that was.

“Could you hand me the butter from the fridge, please?”

I got the butter and stood beside Louise while she scooped a spoonful into the small pot of boiling white stuff. I waited for another minute, mindlessly wiping at non-existent spots on the granite countertop. I prepared for one final escape attempt.

“You don’t have to be stuck with me, you know. You could send me to Chicago. I have friends I could stay with. My mom would never have to know. You can say I’m not here when she calls and I could call her from a cell phone.” I waited expectantly.

“How do you plan to get there?”

I frowned. “I could fly. The airport’s not far from here, right?”

“No, it’s not too far. Do you have money for that?”

I thought of the fifty dollars tucked away in my purse. “I don’t have it, but there’s probably enough in what my mom gave you to fly me up there and back before they get home.”

Louise shook salt into the pan of boiling grits. “Your mom didn’t give me any money.”

That stopped me cold. “What? That can’t be right. I have maybe fifty dollars for the
whole
summer.”

There was no way I could survive the summer on what I had, even in a town with no Wal-Mart. I sure wouldn’t be buying a plane ticket.

“I’ll give you more money if you need it. I told your mom I’d take care of things and I will.”

“So buy me the plane ticket.”

Louise glanced at me and frowned. “I didn’t get stuck with you, you know. I suggested to your mom that she and Aaron take the honeymoon, and I told her to send you here.”

Aunt Louise opened the microwave and flipped around the pan she was using to nuke the bacon. She returned to the stove and stirred for a minute in the grit stuff. I was too stunned to move.

“You’ve never known your grandparents because they died when your mom and I were young. At least you can get to know me. I needed to step up and be an aunt and a sister.”

I’d been holding one foot up, balancing my favorite worn flip-flop on my toes. It hit the tile floor with a little splat.

“Why would you do that? Didn’t you know I’d rather stay with my friends, at home in the city, instead of here in the swamp?”

“I heard your mother mention that those so called friends were getting into trouble. It seemed to me a change of scenery would be good.”

The flip flop was upside down and it took all my concentration to turn it over and get it onto my foot without reaching down and doing it with my hand. At last I was able to flip flap to the table. I threw myself into the chair so hard it groaned in protest. Aunt Louise kept cooking like this was no big deal, like she hadn’t exiled her niece to a miserable summer.

“I can’t believe I’m stuck here all summer because you felt guilty.”

The spoon Louise had been holding clattered onto the stovetop, and her hair swung as she spun around. Even from where I sat at the table I could see the gold specks sparkling in her eyes. “You’re not here because I felt guilty. You’re here because…”

She stopped. I waited. But Louise simply stared at me in silence. Finally, I had to shift my gaze to the floor and squirm in the chair. When Louise spoke again, I glanced up, but she’d already turned back to the stove.

“You’re here because this is where you need to be. Now get four plates. They’re in the second cabinet to the right.”

While pulling the plates from the cabinet, I considered crashing at least two of them onto the floor to see how many pieces they’d break into. It would have been a childish gesture so I resisted the impulse. I needed to be here like I needed a lobotomy.