Chapter Five
Mom told me to go upstairs and finish my homework, but I couldn’t concentrate. All I felt like doing was staring down at the textbook until the shapes and numbers turned into squiggly lines and dots, marching across the page with absurd speed. Finally, I slammed my textbook shut and crawled into bed.
It wasn’t late – maybe six or seven – but I felt exhausted, like I’d run three marathons back to back with little break in between. When I closed my eyes, I didn’t expect to fall asleep. But after a few moments, my brain started feeling sleepy and hazy, and I yawned, curling against my pillow and pulling the blanket over my head.
“Elizabeth, help!”
“Monica?” I stood up, brushing my hands off on my thighs. “Where are you?”
“I don’t know!” Monica’s voice was high-pitched and scared. “Help me, please!”
I was standing in the middle of a clearing in the woods. For a moment, I was almost sure it was the clearing with the felled trees behind Monica’s house. But then I realized it was in no way the same wood. This wood was ancient. The trees were as big as giants, and the branches were strung with moss, fairy lights, and small wooden sculptures dangling from twine. Despite the tiny, twinkling lights, I couldn’t see more than five feet in front of my own face.
“Monica!” I screamed. “Where are you?”
“Help me!”
Monica’s voice was earnest and scared. She sounded like a little girl, and a cold shiver of fear wormed down my spine as I glanced around the clearing. I couldn’t see any sign of human life, aside from the wooden sculptures. Nervously, I wrapped my arms around my torso and began walking out of the clearing and into the thick of the woods.
I didn’t stop yelling Monica’s name as I walked. When she didn’t reply, I broke out into a run. My feet were bare, but the ground underneath me was as soft as a thick carpet. I stumbled over a log and almost fell, but miraculously, I felt my body lift through the air, and I landed on my feet.
“Monica!” I screamed. “Where are you?”
There was no answer. As I ran, the woods grew darker and darker. The lights twinkled and fizzled out, and I realized that the trees were getting thicker and closer together. I shuddered and forced myself to run faster than ever. A small cabin came into my sight, and I ran closer, circling around and looking for an entrance. It was made of logs, with mud daubed between them to create a seal. There were no windows, and it seemed to sway in the breeze as if it were a moment away from collapsing.
In frustration, I circled the cabin over and over. I pressed my hands to the walls and screamed Monica’s name, desperate to know that she was safe. Finally, my thumb found a protruding lip. I pulled, and a small door swung open.
The inside of the cabin was dark. I got on my hands and knees and crawled inside, glancing around and coughing in the musty air. It seemed abandoned, like it had been there for hundreds of years. But as I crawled all the way inside, the door slammed shut behind me. Panic and fear welled up in my chest, and I screamed. I already felt suffocated; the stuffy air of the cabin was musty and old.
“Help me!” I shrieked. “Somebody, help! I’m stuck!”
There was no reply. A strange, high-pitched whirring sound began to play all around me, and I shivered. Tears of fright pricked my eyes, and I couldn’t stop myself from beginning to sob as the tears rolled down my face and dripped from my cheeks. As I screamed for help, a sudden gust of hot air blew over me. I screamed as I saw red and orange flames begin to dance in a corner of the room. They lit up the entire inside of the cabin, and I gasped when I realized there was a huge stone hearth. Brass runes were set into the stones, and they flashed in the firelight.
“Hello?” My legs were nervous pillars of jelly as I walked toward the fireplace, sniffling and wiping my eyes. “Monica? Is that you?”
The flames flickered and grew higher. I gasped as I tilted my head up to the ceiling and realized the cabin had suddenly tripled in size. I was standing in the middle of a giant hall, with rushes on the dirt floor. The flames licked at my body, singing my hair and eyebrows until I smelled the acrid scent of burnt death. I screamed again and tried to scramble back, but I tripped over my feet and landed on my butt. My hands scraped the dirt floor under the ferny rushes, and I groaned, a low guttural sound.
The flames licked and leapt higher toward the sky. I was certain that at any moment, the small cabin would be engulfed in flames. I closed my eyes, rocking back and forth and praying for a quick death.
“Elizabeth!”
My eyes bolted open. Impossibly, I saw Monica’s slight figure standing in the middle of the fire. Her brown eyes were ablaze, and her blonde hair was tangled and matted. There were odd markings on her face, and her pale arms were bare.
“Help me, Elizabeth,” Monica cried. She closed her eyes, and I could see her face was etched with pain and sorrow.
“I don’t know how!” I wailed. “Help me!”
“I’m trapped, Elizabeth,” Monica said sadly. “I can’t escape. I’m stuck here!”
“I promise I’ll get you out,” I said. The rush of the flames grew louder. The fire began to spread from the fireplace, licking and creeping up the walls until logs and dried mud were raining from the ceiling. I cried out as a log painfully hit me on the head and bounced to the floor. Sobbing loudly, I curled up on the floor and wrapped my arms around my knees. I knew I was going to die; I just hoped that it came quickly and didn’t hurt.
“Elizabeth, help me,” Monica’s voice said. She sounded tiny and far away. “Help me, Elizabeth!”
“I can’t,” I sobbed into my arms. “I don’t know how!”
“Elizabeth!”
I jolted awake with a gasp. My heart was racing, and my skin was covered in a layer of damp perspiration. I glanced around quickly, looking for the giant fire and Monica and the old cabin.
It took me a minute to realize that I was in my bed, bundled up and covered with my favorite duvet. My mom was leaning over me, frowning.
“Honey, you were screaming in your sleep,” Mom said. She touched my forehead with the back of her hand. “And you’re burning up!”
The cabin, the fire – hell, even Monica – had seemed so real. I couldn’t believe that I was back at home, in my own bed, safe.
“I had a nightmare,” I said shakily. When I wiped my eyes, I realized my cheeks were damp. I’d been crying in my sleep.
Mom sat on the bed. “I’m worried about you,” she said. “Why don’t you come downstairs and have dinner with Aidan and me?”
I swallowed. “I’m not hungry.” Inside my chest, my heart was still pounding like a frantic drum. “I can’t eat right now, Mom. Really.”
“Just come downstairs,” Mom said. This time, her tone wasn’t as gentle. “I don’t want you up here alone, worrying about Monica. That’s not going to fix anything.”
I nodded. “I’ll be down in a minute,” I said. “Just give me a couple of seconds to change.”
Mom looked reluctant, but she nodded, backing out of my room and pulling the door almost closed. With a sigh, I got up from my bed and pulled on a sweater. I didn’t even bother glancing in the mirror before I went downstairs.
Mom and Aidan were sitting at the table, bowls of pasta in front of them. Their conversation halted to a complete stop as I sat down, and I gave Mom a suspicious look.
“What were you talking about?”
“Nothing.” Mom gave me a fake smile. “Can I get you some pasta, honey?”
I shook my head. “I’m fine,” I said. “Thanks.”
Mom got up anyway. She handed me a glass of water and a piece of garlic bread. “Your favorite,” she added. “Come on, Elizabeth. You have to eat.”
“Monica’s probably fine,” Aidan said. He made a revolting sniffling sound, then took a huge bite of pasta.
I wrinkled my nose. “Can I be excused?”
“Elizabeth, please,” Mom said. “We’re stronger as a family. Don’t forget that.”
So, I stayed for the rest of dinner. It was excruciating. My mind kept flashing back to that horrible nightmare I’d just had. Thinking about it was enough to make me shiver. The last thing I wanted to think about was Monica, trapped and alone. I knew I was probably just being dramatic, but I wondered if the reality was even worse. What if she’d been kidnapped? I shuddered, remembering a documentary I’d had to watch in school about girls who got sold into the sex trade. My teacher had said that sort of thing didn’t really happen around here, but I couldn’t be sure.
Not knowing was the worst.
After dinner, I bolted upstairs and grabbed my phone. Looking through the texts with Monica was painful, but I kept scrolling until I got to the message I wanted.
I was nervous as I dialed the number on my phone and held it up to my ear.
Someone answered immediately.
“Hello?”
I cleared my throat. “Hi, um, this is Elizabeth Hartsell, Monica’s friend.”
“Oh, my god, Elizabeth, where the fuck is Monica?” David sounded distressed and urgent. ‘What if he’s trying to sound like that on purpose?’ I wondered. ‘What if he’s trying to cover something up?’
“I was hoping you’d know.” I swallowed. Ever since she’d gone missing, I’d had a perpetual lump in my throat.
“No. I have no fucking idea.” David groaned. “She was supposed to call me Saturday night, but I never heard from her.”
My stomach plummeted to the floor. “I saw her for the last time on Saturday morning,” I whispered. “She hasn’t been in school.”
“What’s going on?”
“Nobody knows. I went to her house, and her parents were, like, freaky about it. They were so chill. It was like nothing bothered them.”
“Where do they think she is?”
“With you.” I shook my head. “She’s not, is she?”
“Jesus Christ, no,” David snapped. “I wouldn’t be fucking terrified if she were here.”
“I need to find her,” I said. “I’m so scared something really bad happened, David. I don’t know what to do.”
“You got school tomorrow?”
“Yeah. It’s Wednesday.” I rolled my eyes – this was exactly what I didn’t like about David. He was always so obtuse, to a point where it came across as deliberate ignorance on his part.
“Skip it,” David said. “I’ll drive down and pick you up. We can look for her together.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” I sighed. “My mom called the cops, and they came over and interviewed me, but they didn’t say anything about a missing person’s case.”
“Elizabeth, chill. We’re looking for my girlfriend, not tearing up some crime scene. You know the area better than I do. We should go together.”
A bad feeling settled in the pit of my stomach.
“Okay,” I said. “Fine. Pick me up by the school at nine-twenty. That’s ten minutes after class starts. I’ll tell my mom I’m sick or something and that I need to stay home. My parents both work during the day.”
“I haven’t heard shit from her,” David said, more to himself than to me. “She always called, like, all the time.”
I sighed. “I just hope she’s okay. A lot of weird stuff around town was freaking her out, but I totally dismissed it. I didn’t understand that she was really scared.”
David didn’t say anything. I wondered if Monica had told him the same stuff.
“I have to go,” David said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He hung up before I could reply. As I stared down at the phone in my hand, I murmured a silent prayer for my friend.