The Hidden (10 page)

I gripped the drawing and looked up at him. “Kiss me,” I
said suddenly. Desperately. “Please. Please, somehow … just find a way to kiss me.”

Sorrow filled his eyes. And heartbreak echoed in his voice. “I’m sorry, love. I can’t.”

Sighing, I leaned back against the bench. Defeat made me weary. Every bone in my body was tired. This was so hard. … “I know,” I said softly.

We sat in silence for a while, in that close space with death surrounding us, until he said, “Tell me your best memory of her.”

But I couldn’t choose just one. So I talked until I couldn’t remember any more.

The next day was better. And worse. Caspian took me to a movie to try to cheer me up. Of course there wasn’t any popcorn sharing or make-out sessions during the boring parts, but for two hours I got to pretend to be
almost
normal.

It was all just a dream, though. A fantasy. Gone as soon as the credits rolled and the lights came on.

“I bet they don’t even realize how lucky they are,” I said under my breath, glancing back as we walked out of the theater and passed a particularly obnoxious girl who was swallowing her boyfriend’s tongue. “They have no
idea
how much they take for granted.”

We walked past another couple who looked like they were
two seconds away from public nudity. “Get a room,” I growled.

The girl looked up at me and glared, which just made me madder. “Jealous?” she sneered.

Ignoring her, I kept walking. But I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.

“It’s not fair,” I said angrily to Caspian, not even realizing that my tone was growing louder. “They have everything. Right in front of them. But do they appreciate it?
No
. They just keep acting like they have the right to do whatever they want, while
some
of us don’t even have the chance to—”

Someone bumped into me.

“Sorry,” a voice said. A voice that I recognized.

I turned around. “Cyn?”

“Hey, Abbey.”

She had a funny look on her face. Like she’d just witnessed something horrible and didn’t know what to do about it. “Are you …,” she started. And then that funny look came back.

“Am I what?”

Caspian moved next to me.

“Were you talking to someone?” She looked around, clearly trying to find the person that I’d come with, and for just a moment her eyes rested where Caspian was standing, before returning to mine.

“No. I wasn’t talking to anyone. Maybe it was someone else?” I lied.

“Are you here alone?”

“Yeah.” Lie number two. “You?”

“Same.”

An awkward silence fell between us, and I didn’t want to think too much about what level of crazy she might be grouping me into. I started to shift my position, to change my stance so that it was clear I was leaving.

She moved too. “My movie’s gonna start. See you later.”

I nodded, and we parted ways. When we were clear of the theater, Caspian asked, “Was that the girl from school who took Kristen’s locker?”

“Yup. Just another person who probably thinks I’m crazy now. Wonderful.”

He gave me a supportive smile. “She doesn’t think that. And you’re not crazy.”

I smiled back at him, but I couldn’t agree. Because deep down I still wasn’t entirely sure.

It was later that night when I realized that the picture of Kristen that Caspian had drawn for me wasn’t lying down on my desk like I’d left it, but instead was standing up on my dresser.

“Did you do that?” I asked, pointing to the drawing.

“Do what?”

“Put the picture there. I left it lying down, by my computer. Not on the dresser.”

He glanced at it. “I didn’t touch it. Did you move it so you could see it better?”

“No.” I shook my head vehemently. “I left it lying down. By my monitor. Wait …” I remembered something different. “Maybe I left it on top of the printer.”

I looked back and forth between the two. Did I move it? Or had someone else?
Someone like Vincent …

“I could have sworn I left it lying down,” I said. “I just can’t remember if it was on the printer or by the monitor. But I know it was lying down. Not standing up. And
definitely
not standing up on my dresser.”

I stared at it.

Am I going crazy? Did I leave the picture where it is now? Maybe Mom moved it …

Caspian interrupted me midthought. “Do you still want to read chapter five?”

“Yeah. Go ahead.” I shook my head. “It’s fine. It doesn’t matter.”

He looked doubtful but grabbed
Jane Eyre
. I settled into
bed and pulled the covers up. Lying down, or standing up, who cared where the picture was?

But I couldn’t stop the sense of foreboding that was creeping over me.

In the dream, tree limbs held me down, and I thrashed from side to side to get free. Another one reached for my hair and whipped it out of my face, tangling it in wild snarls. I opened my mouth to scream. Felt my vocal chords stretch. And then break.

I tried harder. Arms straining, chest heaving, I screamed and screamed with everything inside of me. But there was nothing left.

Suddenly the world tilted. Or rather, I was tilting. Being lifted straight up.

My arms were still held down at my sides, yet I was floating in midair. My feet barely touched the ground. I was a strange minuet, with tree limbs as my strings.

“Watch,” the forest whispered, all around me. “Learn.”

The scene before me cleared, a path appeared. There was a figure dressed in black, flashing in and out of the trees as he ran. His hair changed from white-blond to black, and then back again.

Even without seeing his face, I knew who it was.
Vincent.

As if my thoughts had called his name, he turned and grinned at me. His face was a horrible mask of features carved from stone.
White and dried-out as bits of bleached rock. Only his eyes were alive—dark, burning coals of twin fire sunk deep into their sockets.

He kept running. Didn’t break his stride, and I struggled to see who or what he was chasing. A gap in the trees revealed another figure, and shock came when I saw the black ball gown and dark, curly hair.

It was me.

He was chasing me.

My throat opened again, trying to force some sound out beyond the constricted airways, but the result was the same as before. Nothing.

Horror filled my veins, and I watched the other me slip back among the branches. Racing. Desperately racing for her life.

One last flash of color caught my eye before everything went dark.

A flame of red. Impossibly deep red hair.

“Abbey. Abbey, wake up.”

Caspian called my name, and I opened my eyes, still seeing the color red in front of me. I thrashed my arms. They were trapped at my sides, tangled in the sheets.

“Easy,” he said. “Easy. Are you okay? You were screaming in your sleep.”

I freed myself and sat up. Trying desperately to remember where I was, my eyes locked with his, and then it all clicked into place.
A dream. Just a dream.

“I’m fine,” I said. “It was nothing.”

“It didn’t look like nothing. What happened?”

“I was being held down in a forest by some trees. And I think they were talking to me?” I shook my head. “I can’t remember. But I saw something red …” I glanced over at the picture of Kristen. My heart started to pound again, and my hands grew shaky.

I knew without a doubt that Vincent had been here. He had moved it just to mess with my head.

“What can I do?” Caspian said.

I didn’t know what he could do. I couldn’t explain what was happening to me.

“Do you want some water?” he asked. “A blanket?”

“Just give me a minute.” I tried to breathe deeply. Tried to make everything go back to normal. “Actually, I think I will take that water,” I said.

Caspian moved to get up.

“Wait.”

He stopped.

“I’ll get it.”

“Are you sure? I don’t mind.”

“I know. But I want to stretch my legs.”

He nodded, and I got up slowly, limbs quivering like a fragile dandelion stem blowing in the wind. The bathroom felt like it was miles away, and my hand was still shaking as I turned on the light. Gripping the edges of the sink, I stared into the mirror, searching the eyes that looked back at me. There weren’t any answers there, though. Only a cool blue reflection.

I turned on the water and cupped my hands together, bringing the cold, crisp taste to my lips. My cheeks were deathly pale, but the water I splashed turned them bright pink. When my legs felt more stable, and my hands were calm, I ventured out of the bathroom. Caspian was waiting by the door for me.

“Maybe you should switch rooms,” he suggested.

“Why?”

“Because of what happened here. You never really dealt with it, Abbey. You just moved on.”

I sat down on the bed. “Isn’t that what people are supposed to do?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “All I know is that you came back to the place where you were attacked, and now you’re having nightmares. It sounds like a problem with a simple solution to me.”

“I know I’m sounding like a broken record here, but I’m fine.
Really
. Me having weird dreams is nothing new. It’s no big deal.”

He looked at me sternly. “I’m worried about you, Astrid. I only want what’s best.”

“I know you do. But if I give up my bedroom, then it’s like he’s won. I don’t want to give him that power over me.”

Caspian nodded. “I get it.”

I glanced around the room, feeling antsy and restless. It was early, only 5:19 a.m., but I didn’t want to go back to sleep. Spying my oversize sweatpants lying next to the bed, I got up and pulled them on right over the pajama bottoms I was wearing. My sneakers were there too, and I reached for them next.

“What are you doing?” Caspian asked.

“Going for a walk. Wanna come?”

“Of course. Call me crazy, but staying here as my girlfriend roams around outside in the dark while some crazed supernatural being stalks her isn’t my idea of a good time. Where are we going?”

I walked over to the window and cracked it open. “To the cemetery. I want to see Nikolas.”

The moon was almost full as we slipped through the side opening of the wrought iron cemetery gates, and it illuminated the grassy roads that covered the vast grounds in front of us. Once we got away from the main path, we headed for the woods that would lead us to Nikolas and Katy’s house.

It was a bit creepy walking through the dark forest where the foliage started to grow denser, the tree branches thicker. Springy ferns and wild moss pressed in on us from every angle, and I tried not to think about the dream I’d just had about Vincent.

“I wonder what would have happened if I’d never heard of ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,’” I mused out loud to Caspian, trying to distract myself as we walked toward their house. “The town I grew up in, the school I went to, the places I visited? It’s like all along, this was meant to be. My whole life was building up to this.”

“To what?”

“You. Me. Nikolas. Katy. I mean, who could have guessed that the legend would be real and I’d meet the characters from Washington Irving’s story?” I shook my head. “It’s funny. Good funny. Not bad funny.”

A small wooden bridge came into view, but I came to a stop before crossing it.

“What’s wrong?” Caspian asked.

“Do you think it’s too early? What if they’re sleeping?”

“
Do
they sleep?”

“I … don’t know.”

But I started walking again. I had the strongest urge to see Nikolas, to ask him if he knew what was going on with Vincent or the Revenants, and to try to make some sense out of things.

We crossed the bridge, and when the familiar stone walls and thatched roof of their storybook cottage came into view, I wanted to break into a run. It was like coming home after a long trip.

Wisteria grew in a massive vine of trailing purple flowers and green leaves over the stone chimney on the left of the wooden front door, and it looked like Katy had been busy filling the front yard with new plants.

“I don’t think you’re going to have to worry about whether or not Nikolas is sleeping,” Caspian said, and I turned back to face him.

“Why? How do you know?”

He pointed over my shoulder. “Because there he is.”

I turned around. Nikolas was coming from the back of the house. He lifted his hand in a wave, and I returned the gesture, closing the gap between us.

“Nikolas! It’s so good to see you!” I gave him a hug, thrilled that he was still here and still safe. I didn’t know what was going on with Vincent, but just knowing that Nikolas was okay made me feel so much better.

His weathered face broke into a smile as he beamed down at me. “How are you feeling? Any ill effects from the incident with Vincent?”

“Oh, no, everything’s fine. I had to wear a sling on my arm for a while, but now I’m as good as new.”

“I am glad to hear it,” Nikolas said. Then he nodded at Caspian. “I am also glad to see that things have improved for you since our last visit.”