Page 24 of You Belong Here

BEFORE: THE FIRST HOWLING

Freshman year, the sound of the howling was different from inside the dorm.

We were closer to the woods, higher up the slope.

You could feel it in the shudder of the windows, see it in the shadows of the arcing trees, hear it in the nervous laughter of the other students. Everyone on edge, waiting for dark.

Just after nightfall, one of the seniors came running down our hall, banging on each door, like a warning.

Adalyn stared at me from the other side of the room, blue eyes wide. For the first time, I thought she was nervous.

But I wasn’t afraid. I knew these woods so well.

I had a plan: While most of the underclassmen would frantically head toward the president’s house in the most direct line, we would circle around the long way, far off the typical paths.

I grabbed her hand as we rushed into the woods, so I wouldn’t lose her. I used a small penlight sparingly, turning it on briefly to make sure we were on the right course.

But it was different in the dark, from the other side. I’d never been the one being chased.

We weren’t far in when I heard someone in the woods. I paused, dragging Adalyn to a stop. In the moonlight, I could just make out a person in shadow, steadily moving through the trees. They flicked a flashlight in our direction, barely missing us.

I held my finger to my lips until they passed.

I’d thought most of the seniors would be on the direct path. They’d catch the most people that way. The ones out this way, I thought, must’ve been here to prove a point.

“Which way?” Adalyn whispered after the footsteps had faded away. I shone the penlight around in a circle. But suddenly I couldn’t orient myself. I had to do it by the feel of the terrain.

“Up,” I said, taking her hand again. And then I started to run, trying to make up for the longer route.

“Did you see that?” she asked, stopping abruptly.

And I had. A flash of light in the trees, to the side. But whoever was out there didn’t come any closer. If it was a senior, I thought, they would’ve caught us by now.

No, this was someone else.

“Run,” I said, pushing her forward. I could smell the smoke from the chimney fire. “We’re almost there.”

Her grip loosened, fingers slipping from mine just as an arm came around my waist, pulling me back, tight.

A hand over my mouth. A breath close to my ear.

“Boo.”

I knew him by the feel of his hand. By his slender frame. By the laughter that followed, so I could imagine the charm of his smile.

Of course Cliff Simmons had come out for the howling. He’d followed me. Found me. Caught me.

It was the first time I’d seen him since he’d cut off contact that summer.

I felt a surge of anger. Threw an elbow into his gut so that he grunted, dropped his hand, cursed to himself. To me.

I shone the light on him, so all I could see was his overexposed grimace. Then I scanned the woods around him, looking for Adalyn.

“I think your friend ditched you,” he said with a grin.

I didn’t answer. I turned off the light and spun. I didn’t hear him follow.

Adalyn was already there when I emerged in the clearing of the old president’s house—home base. She stood in the middle of the stone ruins, warming her hands near the fire, shadows dancing across her face. She’d made it by herself after all.

I joined her at the fire, the wind pushing at the flames, sending the smoke into the trees. A signal, a homing device, drawing people closer.

“I thought you got caught,” she said with a slight smile.

“No,” I said. But even then I didn’t want to tell her. Didn’t want to say: There are other people out there. Another tradition. A different game.

“Don’t worry,” she said, “I won’t tell.” As if she were the holder of my secrets, decider of my fate.

But she was new here. She only knew half the rules.

“He didn’t count,” I told her, rubbing my palms together. “That was just someone I used to know.”