Ravens (4 page)

“Come down and play!” young Liam yelled
up to her, his green eyes brilliant and shimmering.

Kendra found herself on the fifth step
just where she once stood when Liam and Julie disappeared. She hadn’t seen the
actual event, but for the first time, she faced them. Disoriented, she placed
her hand on the railing and took another step in slow motion. She remained
focused on the ghostly children.

Liam chased Julie, grabbed her, and
picked her up as if he planned to lob her like a doll. His feet sunk into the
floorboards. He panicked.

“Liam!” Kendra cried, taking another
slow, heavy step toward them, her intention of running dulled by the confines
of the dream.

Liam, frightened, dropped Julie. She
fell on the floor face first.

“Julie!” Kendra tugged on her legs,
demanding they move faster.

She failed to get to them in time. In
fact, she failed to get past the third step. The ground shook. A blaze of
bright, white light with swirls of pink burst from the opening vortex with such
intensity it momentarily blinded her. The light glowed for the duration of the
event.

For the first time, Kendra saw what
happened that day. Julie’s face distorted in the light that shone beneath her.
Her features turned fuzzy as the portal sucked her in face first, warping them
into horrified expressions.

Liam cried out, pushed against the floor
with futile effort. The suctioning force from the portal glued him down,
rendering him defenseless. The points where his body touched the floor
petrified. He stuck to the floorboards and couldn’t free himself. Then he
blurred as the portal sucked in his body and his screams, just like Julie. Absolute
silence ensued.

By the time Kendra reached them, they
had vanished. The ground stood still, and normal lighting returned with an
uncanny calm.

“No, no! Julie! Liam!” she cried. Tears
blurred her vision.

Kendra fell to her knees and pounded the
floor with the intention of clawing her way to lost answers. She pushed aside
the loose hay and hit the solid wood with growing frustration. The agitation
built up, and she let out a bloodcurdling cry. 

“That’s how it happened, ya know?” Liam
spoke behind her.

Kendra paused, stood, and turned to face
the young man. Her chest heaved and tears rolled down her cheeks. She
straightened herself from the hunched posture and stood upright before the
visitor who casually sat on the third step. 

Liam sat with feet shoulder-width apart.
He rested his elbows on top of his thighs while chewing on a piece of straw
that had not existed in the barn for a decade. He tilted his chin down as he
glanced up at her through the dark rim of his eyes. An unnatural light
illuminated the barn and made him as clear as day.

Kendra shivered in the sudden chill.
Goose pimples puckered her flesh.

“It didn’t really hurt, just felt
weird,” he continued in a solemn, distant tone.

She concentrated on controlling her
racing heartbeat.

He stood like a transcending shadow and
marched toward her.

“Why do I keep dreaming about you?”

“You’ve got it all wrong, darling.”

Chapter Four

Kendra had a better view of Liam when he
emerged from the shadows. His full lips curved upward, as they always seemed to
be, giving him a playful, roguish look. Stubble covered his strong, square jaw.
He wore a snug, white T-shirt. He stood upright with perfect posture and a
commanding pose, yet he acted with little defense, as if he posed little
threat.

“It’s not real,” she hissed, refusing to
fall over the brink of sanity.

“It’s an illusion, my illusion,” he
said.

“What are you talking about?”

“Just what I said, sweetheart. This
isn’t
a dream, none of this has ever been a dream, nor is it real. This is
an illusion I’m creating so I can communicate with you.”

“I don’t understand.” She shook her
head, and hugged herself.
Fight the insanity
, she told herself.

“Just don’t run this year, okay? The
anniversary is today. Don’t run. Stay right here where it happened. It’s time
to know. It’s time for you to come. You belong here with us.”

“You’re not real, and this isn’t an
illusion, or whatever telepathy thing you’re trying to claim. This is just
another stupid nightmare. You have to get out of my head.”

He grabbed her wrists. Kendra panted.
His warm touch felt so
real
.

Liam pulled her close and cupped her
face with his left hand. He towered above her. Warning bells rang in her head,
but she couldn’t move.

Kendra peered into his otherworldly
eyes. They matched him as a young man: deep, penetrating, and dangerous. She
wanted to step back, but something about his soothing touch prevented her. It
numbed her actions.

He moved his hand down her cheek. His
thumb grazed her lips. He pressed his lips together and paused as if to savor a
long-awaited moment.

Kendra’s heart raced, beating against
her chest beneath his blazing eyes and resonating touch. She silently admitted
she wanted him to kiss her. 

Liam pulled away and commented, “Nice
tats.”

“What?” Kendra blinked and found herself
facing the wall like a lunatic. She moaned as daybreak entered the blinds.
Shifting in bed, she sprawled out across the sheets, drenched in sweat.

Kendra stepped into the bathroom, and slipped
out of the damp clothes. They fell to a heap at her feet. She turned on the
faucet. The steam wafted over the shower curtain and curled toward the mirror,
fogging the small room. She stepped into the shower and took her time, because
nothing could rush the next twenty-four hours.

Kendra lowered her head in the streaming
water just before turning the shower off. She kept her tattoos clean, and
looked at them to make sure they didn’t swell with irritation. She opened the
curtain and grabbed a towel, nearly jumping when she caught sight of the
intruder.

Liam, who stood in the bathroom leaning
against the counter with crossed arms, startled her. He stared at the tiles as
if in thought before Kendra’s movement caught his attention. With appreciation
he looked over her body before his eyes locked on hers. He grinned devilishly.

Kendra wrapped the towel around her and
glanced down for a quick second to make sure she didn’t slip on the slick
tiles. When she regained her composure and decency, she searched the bathroom
for him, but he disappeared.

She growled, and stepped out of the
shower. Seeing Liam in her waking hours didn’t translate into craziness, right?
Built up anxiety caused these hallucinations, nothing more. After ten years the
trauma hadn’t worn off. Even she knew this wasn’t normal.

Fully dried and wrapped in the towel,
Kendra pumped lotion onto her palm and glanced up at the mirror. She gasped,
startled yet again. She clutched the towel to her chest. A word appeared in the
condensation on the mirror.

Stay
.

She snarled, swiped across the mirror,
and dressed. This wasn’t right. She had nothing to do with what happened. She
didn’t remember previous anniversaries being this excruciating, this restless.
A nagging, wretched thought in the back of her mind toyed with the idea of a
real-life, sadistic tormentor who plagued her. Perhaps the one responsible for
the disappearances tortured her. What did they want? And what would they gain
by torturing her already tenuous soul?

Kendra called Randal. He must’ve known
she didn’t want to practice, because he prepared for another annual getaway. Perhaps
this night, an all-expense-paid trip to a lovely little hotel room with one
bed, room service with Kendra’s favorite food, and a profound conversation
elevating into flirting and touching, would lead up to a normal relationship
with a normal guy.

He arrived less than thirty minutes
later. Kendra waited for him at the top of the stairs, her hair damp and heavy,
which she hadn’t bothered to dry or comb. The room smelled of soap, shampoo,
and lotion from the recent shower.

She felt his gaze on her and, from the
corner of her eye, saw the stupid grin he sported.

Don’t let him interfere,
the voice
murmured, overtaking her thoughts. She shook her head.

“You okay?” Randal asked.

“Yeah.”

“Headache?”

“Mm, hmm,” she muttered.

“So, not up to training today?”

“Don’t think so.”

“Maybe this will help.” He placed broad
hands on her slender shoulders and rubbed.

“Mm, feels good.”

Kendra laughed to herself. She knew
exactly what Randal thought.

“So, where we going today?” he muttered
into her ear, his fingers still working their magic.

It felt so good that Kendra almost
forgot her troubles. “Hm? Oh, I’m going to stand it out today.”

“Are you sure?” he asked with obvious
concern. He paused in his massage, more intrigued with her words than in a
touch.

Usually, Randal whisked Kendra off to a
different town, and they rested up in a hotel room with two beds in a solemn
getaway. Her parents couldn’t be more upset about these escapes, but they knew
if they called the police to retrieve her, things would get worse. They knew
where she went, how to reach her, called her often during the night, and waited
on pins and needles until she came home. Her parents might have verbally
threatened Randal, but they wouldn’t drive away Kendra’s only friend.
Fortunately for everyone involved, nothing ever happened. Kendra curled into a
ball, passed out, and Randal left her alone.

“Yeah, time to face it.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to get away
with me? I made reservations.” He unexpectedly gave her earlobe a gentle bite.

Shockwaves rattled through her chest and
stomach. How could she
not
be attracted to him?

Liam’s hiss resonated in her head.
Kendra jerked.
That
was how.

“What is it?”

Kendra clutched her head, pulled her
knees to her chest, and bent over them.

“Headache?”

She grumbled.

Randal sighed, and leaned back.

A few moments passed in absolute and
momentary delirium. Kendra lost herself to the pain of the headache.
Disorientation hit when she sat up and glanced over her shoulder at Randal.
Randal watched her with a half-smile.

“It seems every time I try to kiss you
or do something, you get like that. Is it just that you don’t want to? Because
you can tell me. I’m not a little boy. I understand. It wouldn’t affect our
friendship.”

He seemed collected, but she knew he
didn’t really want to hear that. No guy did. How could she tell him the truth,
correct his assumption with something far worse?

“That’s okay.” He straightened himself.
“I’m not going to press for an answer right now.” Randal sure wouldn’t pursue
an answer if it meant Kendra had to tell him to his face she didn’t like him.

“It’s not that.”

“Then what?”

She groaned. “You’ll think I’m crazy.”

“I won’t.” He leaned forward, nudging
her shoulder with his, encouraging her to confide in him.

“I hear his voice.”

“Whose?”

“Liam’s, and yeah, it’s weird. I don’t
hear Julie’s voice, just his, and I’ve been dreaming more and more about him
and what happened.”

“I see.” He exhaled. “Maybe you just
still feel guilty for some reason. You shouldn’t, but I understand you might
need to take things slow. I’m willing to wait.” He smiled.

“That’s sweet of you when you have all
kinds of taut, young things throwing themselves at you in class.”

“I don’t really notice. I just do my
work.”

“Hmm. You know what I need for my new
image? A leather outfit and a motorcycle,” she said without thinking. A mere
flash in her thoughts, she didn’t personally know of anyone who wore leather
and rode a motorcycle.

“A biker chick? I like that. But don’t
change the subject. Are you
sure
you want to be left alone today?”

Kendra paused, deliberating. Should she
go with Randal, or listen to the increasingly aggressive voice in her head like
a girl about to open a can of all kinds of crazies?

Tell him to go away. You have to stay
and see the truth
,
Liam snarled.

Kendra jerked.

I want you to stay and to stay alone,
he said in a
demanding tone as clear as Randal’s voice

“Yes,” she finally answered.

“Positive?” He nudged her shoulder
again, tempting her with lingering touches. “Are you sure I can’t interest you
in a nice, cool hotel room and room service? Maybe even a dip in the pool?”

A pool sounded nice, and an
air-conditioned room at night, what could be better?