Page 73

73

Riley

“OW, YOU’RE HURTING ME!” Riley yanked her arm from Buck’s grip and shuffled back several steps.

He stared at her, dumbfounded.

Evelyn just seemed confused. “Who the hell is Emily Pridham?”

She stomped over and looked at the name on Riley’s arm. “When did that one show up?”

“I … I don’t know.”

“You don’t know,” she repeated, a mocking tone to her voice.

Riley tugged her sleeve back down and scratched her arm, her nails digging in. She wanted that writing gone. She didn’t want any part of this. She considered running away from all of them, running down the mountain back to town, when her phone vibrated with an incoming text. It was from her mother but made no sense.

Mason snatched the phone away, held it above Riley’s head, and read the message aloud: “So bitter is it, death is little more; But of the good to treat, which there I found, Speak will I of the other things I saw there.” He frowned at Riley. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Buck stepped closer. “Read that again.”

Mason did, this time with a terrible British accent. “Sounds like Shakespeare from school, or some crap.”

Riley smacked him in the chest. “Give me my phone!”

“Christ, baby. Here you go.” He dropped the iPhone back into her hand.

Riley typed back, Where are you? Still at the sheriff’s station?

Her reply was as weird as the other message: Do not be afraid; our fate cannot be taken from us; it is a gift.

Riley quickly keyed in a question mark and hit Send, but the message failed to deliver. Worse, both messages from her mom vanished, same with her question. In a blink they were gone, leaving only the messages that failed to send back at their house, like the recent ones never happened.

“Hey guys, something’s burning,” Evelyn said, pointing at the sky above town.

Still shaken up, Buck’s gaze was locked on Riley. Several beats slipped by before he seemed willing to turn away. He studied the black smoke, then waved the shotgun toward his run-down cabin. “Get inside, the whole lot of you.”

Riley, Evelyn, and Mason all looked at each other, but none of them moved. Only Robby followed when Buck stomped off toward the cabin, as if following a strange man holding a gun into his lair was the most natural thing in the world.

“Robby!” Evelyn whispered loudly between clenched teeth. “Get back here!”

Robby ignored her and vanished through the door.

“That little shit.” She went after him.

Mason started shuffling around in the bushes, looking for his bat. By the time he found it, Riley had gone into the house, too.