CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
‘What is it?’
Michaela shook her head and realized how the rain-soaked shadows were crowding around under the trees. She chanced a quick look back but the cabin was long out of sight. There were just the rain and the trees and the lake. And over there, the pale form of a child.
‘Is it real?’ Trisha whispered. ‘Is it a real kid?’
Michaela slid a hand up to wipe water from her face. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘It looks a bit weird, don’t you think. Is it moving?’
She peered through the trees at the smudge of cloth. ‘Where is it?’ she asked. Trisha was shivering. ‘What do you mean, where is it?’
But Michaela was creeping forward. ‘I’ve lost track of where we are,’ she said. ‘Oh God, look, it’s moving.’ Trisha’s voice was horrified. ‘No way that’s a real kid. That’s a ghost or something, for sure. Shit, I’m seeing a fucking ghost.’
‘Where are we?’ Michaela asked again, talking mainly to herself this time. She grabbed Trisha’s hand and wound in and out of the trees, keeping her eyes on the pale form in the distance.
She cast a glance at Trisha, shivering and miserable. She was wearing dark clothes, though. Good. A quick check of Michaela’s outfit, the usual dark jersey. Except for their white faces, they would blend in.
The forest ended in a neat, manicured line. The lawn of the old hunting lodge lay spread out in a limey green in front of them. Michaela crouched down in the shadows and pulled Trisha down with her.
‘Don’t want to be seen,’ she whispered.
‘Seen by who? Seen by what, for fuck’s sakes?’
But Michaela just shrugged and looked across the expanse of lawn to the child standing in the rain. ‘You must have excellent eyesight to notice that from back there,’ she said. ‘I wish we had some binoculars.’
Trisha leaned close, looking over Michaela’s shoulders. ‘Is it moving?’ she asked. ‘Who is it?’
‘I want to get closer,’ Michaela decided.
Trisha tugged on her sleeve. ‘Can’t without going across the lawn. Even if we went down by the lake they would see us from the house. There’s no bank here. And I don’t want another visit from Officer Friendly.’
Michaela had to agree. But she also had to get closer. She looked over her shoulder at Trisha. Trisha was shivering worse, her lips turning blue from the cold.
‘You have to go back to the cabin,’ she said. ‘You’re going to die of exposure.’ Trisha shook her head, but her teeth chattered. ‘We gotta stick together,’ she said.
A movement distracted them. A figure appeared on the lodge’s veranda.
‘Selena,’ Trisha whispered through gritted teeth.
They watched as Selena picked something up off the table and headed back to the door. Something caught her eye and she stood stock still, hand outstretched on the door latch.
Michaela narrowed her eyes, wishing again for those binoculars. Had Selena seen the child too? The child standing over the other side of the lawn, silent under a tree?
Selena let go of the door and clamped her hand over her mouth. But they heard her cry anyway. Trisha grabbed Michaela by the arm. Selena screamed again and they saw her grope around for support. Then she fainted and they watched her collapse to the floor of the veranda as if in slow motion.
Michaela and Trisha leaped to their feet.
‘Go to Selena,’ Michaela ordered.
‘What’re you going to do?’
Michaela was threading her way through the last of the trees. ‘I’m going to see what that thing is.’
But they stopped short just on the edge of the lawn.
‘Get back!’ hissed Trisha.
Michaela threw herself back into the relative shelter of the trees and onto the ground. Trisha was already on her stomach, face white and hair hanging like rats tails in the rain.
They inched backwards into the shadows, eyes fixed on the lodge. The door had opened just as Michaela was preparing to sprint across the lawn to the figure of the child, and as Trisha was heading over to the fainted Selena. The door opened and Selena’s son stepped out.
They watched him as he gazed down at his mother. In seemingly no hurry he bent down and scooped up her slight frame and took her inside.
Michaela turned to Trisha. ‘Okay. Let’s get out of here,’ she said. ‘And fast.’ Trisha nodded and they scuttled back the way they came, boots sodden and clothes wet and muddy.
‘What do you think’s going on?’ Trisha asked when they were almost back at the cabin.
Michaela shrugged. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘But it’s giving me a bad feeling.’ Trisha was nodding. ‘You and me both,’ she said.
They were on the path leading up to the cabin. Michaela stopped and turned Trisha to her, gripping her shoulders. ‘You have to go get changed,’ she said. ‘I’m going around the other side of the lake, see if I can find anything out about that kid. Or whatever it was.’
Trisha was shaking her head already. ‘No way, Michaela. You’re not going out there without me.’
Michaela gave her a little shake, then kissed her. ‘We don’t have time, and you’re freezing. I’m okay, and I won’t be gone long. I need to have a look, okay. Something weird is going on and I want to find out what it is. I’ll be all right, I promise.’
Trisha looked unconvinced.
‘Go back to the cabin,’ Michaela said. ‘Get warm and dry. I’ll be back in an hour, okay?’ She gave Trisha a little push, a quick grin, then took off around the other side of the lake at a run.