"Finally," I muttered as an old, faded red Jeep Wrangler rolled to a stop at the curb in front of my house. The engine roared and shrieked as the driver downshifted, the deafening sound shattering the otherwise sleepy silence of the neighborhood. I winced and glanced up and down the street, half-expecting to see sleepy, angry neighbors bursting out of their homes.
Nothing happened so I pushed myself up from where I sat on the porch steps, feet and brain still dragging from sleep as I made my way down the path to the sidewalk. My hiking pack was slung over one shoulder, a thermos of coffee tucked into the crook of my other arm. It was so early the horizon hadn't even begun changing color yet—the sky was still pitch black, with the brilliance of billions of stars winking down at me.
"Morning!" My best friend, Nadia Belmont, chirped from the driver's seat of the Jeep, more lovingly known as "the Beast." The vehicle was a lemon once, said to be beyond repair. But then Nadia fell in love with it, and her father rescued it from the junkyard. She'd spent the better part of a summer and sophomore year before it was running again. The Beast still had its issues, but nothing that couldn't be fixed. According to Nadia, anyway.
"Too early," I muttered as I climbed into the passenger seat, slamming the door so the latch would shut. After shoving my pack onto the floor at my feet, I pushed my glasses up my nose and took a sip of coffee. The hot liquid trickled down my throat as I leaned my head back, sighing heavily. "Too early, too cheery," I grumbled.
Nadia cackled. "Don't worry," she said as she pulled onto the street. "Soon enough, you'll be on my level."
I groaned and threw an arm over my eyes. "Kill me now."
She laughed once then fell silent as I sipped more coffee, giving my brain more time to wake up fully. At the moment, I hated her guts and wished a curse upon her and her future children, and her children's children for dragging my ass out of bed so early. Sleep was hard enough; waking up was just impossible sometimes.
But, just like every time she pulled me out of bed for an early-morning hike this summer, I knew I'd thank her for it later. These days, all I wanted to do was sleep and drink myself into oblivion, but she made sure I didn't. No matter how tempting it was to let myself succumb to the grief, she wouldn't let me. Nadia stuck by me all summer, always there to pull me back from the edge.
"Did you let your dad know?" I murmured after a while. She and I had practically spent half of summer up in the mountains, but while her dad knew we were up there often, he still needed to know when we did go. It wasn't unheard of for her to forget to tell her dad—or me to tell my aunt—and last month we were both banned from hiking for a week after forgetting to tell them about a weekend backpacking trip.
"Yep. Tell your aunt?" Nadia returned, glancing at me for a brief second before returning her attention to the road. We had left the outskirts of Wolf Valley, the highway before us twisting and weaving between the trees in smooth curves. The Beast roared along the road, leading us farther away from town.
"Yep," I mimicked, sipping more coffee. Honestly, the beverage was a gift from the universe itself. It provided life and energy, and for me, it helped calm my mind and cure my hangover. I could still taste the barest traces of last night's whiskey on my tongue, but the coffee was starting to replace it.
Even though I was staring ahead, I could still see Nadia glance at me every few seconds from the corner of my eye. After about ten minutes of this, the frustration built up and I sighed loudly, letting her know I'd caught on, but she didn't stop. Instead, she dared to ask the forbidden question; "Are you okay?"
I sighed again, bringing one knee up to my chest as I stared at the darkness out the window. Shadows of trees and their illuminated trunks flashed as we passed by, fading back into darkness again once they were in the rearview mirror.
"I'm fine," I muttered, though I was anything but. It's been almost three months since the accident, and I thought I'd at least be better by now. Instead, the pain was just as fresh as the day it happened, and the nightmares refused to go away, not unless I drank half a bottle of whiskey to shut them down.
"Rye," Nadia sighed. "It's okay to not be okay. What happened was traumatic, and—"
"N," I interrupted. She glimpsed at me for a brief second, letting me know I had her attention while she focused on the road. "I don't want to talk about it, you know that. I agreed to let you drag my ass around these woods, not to talk about feelings."
She released a defeated breath, and silence filled the Beast for the next little while. She'd tried to get me to talk all summer, and while I knew I needed to, I couldn't. I'd done the bare minimum by talking to a grief counselor, but it would take years to get over my parents' deaths, let alone talk about it. Besides, it was kind of hard to talk about what you couldn't remember. My memories only came back in nightmares—a black, cloudy night sky; my body laid out on the asphalt; fire burning and crackling from the car, following the line of gasoline as it trailed away from the car...
Other things came back to me, though not often. I remembered the image of my mother's lifeless body strewn across a tree bough, while my father cursed and screamed from where he was trapped in the car. Memories of people calling out occasionally flashed through my mind, but I couldn't be totally sure if it was first responders or not. The way they were yelling... there was a sense of urgency to it, one I couldn't quite place my finger on.
Thankfully, Nadia got it. Her own mother died when she was five, so she understood what I was going through more than anyone. She still tried to make me open up, but she didn't push me like her dad or my aunt, or my grandparents before they flew back to Norway last week. Instead, she helped distract me and take my mind off things by either going to parties with me or, more often than not, dragging me out on hikes and camping trips.
"So, Nancy Dryvers ran away again," Nadia said abruptly in an attempt to change the topic.
"When doesn't that girl run?" I scoffed, staring out the window again. It was no secret that Nancy Dryvers had a difficult life at home—a drunk, abusive father, a mother who pretended she didn't exist, and siblings who made her life a living hell. Nancy Dryvers ran away from home seventeen times since she was nine years old, and it would probably be seventeen more before she finally found the freedom she craved.
Nadia shrugged. "Sometimes, when your life is in danger, the only thing to do is run," she murmured. "Even if people say they can help. She's been fighting and running her whole life. I just hope she finds peace soon."
"Yeah," I murmured, nodding slowly as my brain struggled to process what she had said. I heard her, but I didn't hear her. All I could think about was running, my feet pounding against the earth while fire spread through my lungs and torso. It would be better than this dark, empty nothingness. At least the pain would remind me that I'm still alive.
~ ~ ~
In... Out... Fiery pain lashed at the muscles in my legs, all while my legs and heart threatened to burst from my chest at any second. My head pounded, both from the hangover and dehydration, and it felt like I'd fall over any second now. Despite all of that, I felt alive as Nadia and I clung to the side of the mountain, inching our way across the path.
"You good?" She called over her shoulder, carefully placing one foot in front of the other as we made our way up the trail. We were out on West Mountain, one of the more dangerous mountains surrounding Wolf Valley. Trails crisscrossed all over the mountain, sometimes taking us through a magical fairy realm, and other times leading us to the brink of death. We had exited a copse of trees, and now we were at a segment of the trail that had warning signs posted. EXTREMELY DANGEROUS: PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
"Yeah," I responded as I followed her along the rocky face of the mountain. "Yeah, I'm good..." As long as I don't fall to my death, I thought to myself bitterly. How tragic would that be for the headlines? The daughter of recent crash victims falls to her death on a hike with her best friend. I wouldn't be surprised if Kate, my aunt, tried to blame Nadia for the whole thing.
The sun hadn't risen yet by the time we reached the trailhead, but an hour into the hike we were able to see purple on the horizon. Now, the clouds at the edge of the sky were painted with vivid splashes of purple, orange, red, and pink.
Nadia suddenly stopped, causing me to almost run into her back. I grunted as my foot slipped, fingers scrabbling at the rocky wall to my right as my left foot was suspended in mid-air. I managed to pull myself back up, trembling from adrenaline as I glared daggers at her back. "What the hell?" I demanded.
My annoyance faded away as she tossed a smile over her shoulder at me. "I'm going to paint this," she said, then proceeded to pull her phone out of her pocket to snap a picture.
I chuckled softly. That was something to love about Nadia. When life got shitty and all you could see was darkness, she had the ability to guide you back to the light, back to a life of love and color.
After snapping a few pictures of the sunrise, we continued to pick our way down the trail carefully, eyes trained on the stretch of level ground just ahead. As soon as my feet hit stable earth again, I shook my arms in an attempt to dispel some of the anxiety that began to settle in my stomach.
The farther along the trail we went, the worse I felt. Nausea made my gut churn uncomfortably, and I couldn't shake off the feeling that we were being watched. As we traversed deeper into the woods and higher up the mountain, the more it felt like we were trespassing into enemy territory.
Nadia's groan of frustration distracted me from the eeriness of the woods, and I closed the distance between us so we were side-by-side on the trail. "What is it?"
She glared up at the sky and I followed her gaze. Despite the bright colors of the sunrise, storm clouds could be seen rolling in from the east.
"You want to turn back?" I asked. She murmured something, and I tried to process what she had said, but my brain couldn't produce a clear answer. "What?"
"It's not supposed to rain today," she murmured, confusion mixed in with disdain.
I scoffed. "Welcome to Wolf Valley." Our Washington town may be on the smaller side, though we were anything but invisible. Tourists packed the hotels and campsites during the summers, and in the winter the ski lodge ran twenty-four-seven. With near-constant rainy weather, great mountain sights, and the occasional forest monster, you were guaranteed a summer of adventure.
"We turning back?" I asked, pushing my glasses higher up my nose.
"Not yet," she said, then pointed at the top of the mountain towering over us. "I want to get as far as we can first." She turned to meet my gaze, the lines of her face set in determination. "Dad hiked to the peak the day before his senior year. I've got to beat his record."
I laughed and shook my head. "You guys are way too competitive," I chuckled.
Nadia's eyes narrowed and she lifted a finger, poking me in the chest with each syllable: "This. Is. War. Not competition."
I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. We'll go as long as we can, but we're turning back if those clouds get worse or too close."
She grinned. "Deal."
We pressed on, the trail twisting, rising, and falling between the trees and rocky slopes. As we climbed higher, the forest became less dense, growing smaller and farther away as we gained altitude. Fields of long grass and wildflowers stretched between the patches of trees, the blades dancing as a breeze swept through.
The feeling that we were being watched persisted after us, a haunting shadow at our backs as the trail took us to a beautiful meadow filled with different wildflowers. The sun peeked over the tops of the trees in front of us, blinding our vision as we continued forward. I raised an arm to block the rays from my eyes, focusing my attention on my feet so I didn't trip.
If I had been facing forward, I would have already seen the body.
One moment, I was deciphering a pattern in the changing colors of the flowers, and the next I was tripping over a leg.
"Ow, dammit!" I yelled as my body pitched forward. I tried landing in a push-up position, but my hand slipped on a rock and buckled underneath me, which was crushed under the full weight of my body.
"What the hell...?" Nadia murmured, her voice catching strangely. I peered back at her over my shoulder, eyes widening when I saw her hand clamped over her mouth. I followed her gaze. Seconds later, I wished I hadn't.
A surprised shout escaped me as I scrambled back from Nancy Dryvers' body as far as possible. Her dull, dead eyes seemed to follow me as I stopped at Nadia's legs. She was lying on her stomach, her head twisted oddly as it rested on top of a rock. Her limbs were twisted in awkward angles around her body, almost like a figure eight, but the bottom of the eight stuck out at odd angles from the rest of her body.
Something about the shape seemed familiar, but before I could try to place it, Nadia was tugging on my arm to help me to my feet. "We, uh... We need to go and... Go and tell my dad... Right... Right now..." The entire time she spoke she was unable to tear her gaze away until I grabbed her arm and pulled her after me.
With the sun now either behind or to the side of us, we were able to see clearly to jog back down the trail. I kept my hand pressed against my chest as we ran, teeth gritted as pain flashed through my wrist. Definitely sprained.
When we reached the rocky face of the mountain, Nadia stepped onto the ledge first, grabbing onto handholds as she delicately stepped forward. After she had advanced a few steps I followed after her, keeping my bad hand pressed against my side so I didn't accidentally push myself off. I shuffled along the ledge slower than Nadia did, taking my time as I moved forward. The only thing that kept me from plunging to my death below was my left arm on the handholds and my toes digging into the narrow ledge,
When Nadia reached solid ground again she turned to watch me, shifting her weight between each leg nervously. I groaned and stopped as a spasm shocked through my arm, unused to supporting my full weight. Once the spasm passed I continued forward again, struggling to pace myself. I wanted to hurry to the other side as quickly as possible, but with no harness or ropes to catch me if I fell, I was forced to slow down.
I had almost reached Nadia when a low growl sounded in the woods behind me. I turned my head to look over my shoulder, twisting my body like a towel being wrung out. The motion caused my shoulders to lean back ever so slightly, but it was enough. The next thing I knew, I was floating through empty air while Nadia screamed, "Riley!"
My own scream was trapped in my throat, the fall stealing the air from my lungs. For a moment I felt nothing, and just when it seemed like it was going to last forever, I hit the trees.
The air escaped my lungs in bursts as I grunted with each hit, bouncing from branch to branch as I fell through the towering pine trees. When I hit the ground my heels landed first, which caused my legs to stumble and crush under my weight. Agony exploded through my limbs as several loud cracks! echoed through the forest, and I screamed.
I was unable to move my body, but despite the pain, I managed to lift my head several inches, long enough to assess what I could. Both legs were broken, as well as my right arm. The sharp throbbing in my hips told me my pelvis had to be broken, too. Even though every nerve and fiber of my being felt as if it were on fire, I couldn't stop the burst of maniacal laughter.
Figures, I thought to myself. As if a sprained wrist wasn't enough.
I tried to take comfort in the pain. My legs and an arm were broken, and quite possibly my back as well, but at least I could still feel the pain. That told me that at the very least, my spinal cord wasn't damaged, and I wasn't paralyzed.
It'll... be... okay, I tried to tell myself, but couldn't utter the words. Every time I tried to move my mouth, no words came forth. It was as if the phone line between my brain and mouth had been disconnected.
No, no, no, I thought frantically. Can't speak... definitely a traumatic brain injury. I'm so screwed. I didn't remember hitting my head in the fall, but then again, the trees did throw me around a bit, sort of like those apples from The Wizard of Oz.
Bushes rustled somewhere behind me, then a low growl rumbled through the earth and into my body. My eyes squeezed shut as I tried, and failed, to keep from sobbing. Tears streaked down the side of my face, trickling into my hair and behind my ears. I didn't want to die as some wood creature's breakfast, dammit!
When I opened my eyes again, terror froze me in place as a massive wolf's glowing, yellow eyes stared down at me from the left. His mangy black fur was long and shaggy, making him appear larger than he actually was. When a shrill breath wheezed through my throat, he tilted his head and regarded me curiously.
Pressure built at the back of my head, growing stronger and more painful until it seemed like a white-hot iron was being driven through my skull. A deep, whispering voice snaked through my head, the tone both comforting and unsettling. You look just like Rosie... Shh, shh, don't worry... I'll save you.
Black lips pulled up into a snarl, revealing yellowed fangs dripping with saliva. The wolf advanced toward me, and I knew I was going to die. My heart raced wildly, hammering against my ribs like they were an anvil while I sobbed and screamed belligerently, begging in my mind for someone, anyone, to come and save me.
The wolf's jaws clamped down on my shoulder, causing an agonized shriek to rip through my throat. Fire spread along every nerve and cell, lighting me up from the inside. When the flames reached my head, I fell into sweet oblivion.
Only, I wasn't alone. As I fell, the sensation of arms wrapped around me, their warmth and strength holding me tightly as darkness closed in from all around. I clutched at the other person desperately, sobbing uncontrollably as the phantom pain haunted my dream state.
"Do not fret," a woman's voice whispered in my ear. It echoed around us, creating a warm little bubble that was safe from the universe. "Your fate has been woven long ago, and you do not die this day. No, Riley Elizabeth Black... Today, your life begins."