Whispers of Winter

21

Jo

Canmore's pack house was a three-story shitshow tucked into the forest surrounding a small lake. It wasn't nearly as isolated as Heath's – the closest neighbor was maybe two or three miles away, and the warmer weather had people flocking to the lake, cars pulled off to the side of the road to hike down to it – and it resembled a frat house more than a proper home. Moss was growing on the roof, the paint was chipping heavily from one side of the house, and there were five cars parked around it. I eyed it warily as the car pulled up to it, picking at the material of the seatbelts wrapped tightly around my body. My face still ached and I could feel dry, flaky blood on my upper lip and chin from when my nose had been bleeding.

I'd woken up two hours earlier to find myself strapped to the seat behind the driver with both my seatbelt and the seatbelt from the middle seat. The middle seatbelt dug into my side painfully, but when I'd wrestled and tugged at it, the man sitting next to me – I learned his name was Oscar – had smacked the back of his hand against my nose. The resulting flare of blinding pain and new wash of blood dripping from my nose made me fall still.

I kept glaring at Carter. I knew she could feel it. She ignored me, her gaze fixed ahead of her, and when we pulled up the house, she spoke for the first time since I'd woken up.

"Go into the garage. We can't risk any people seeing her."

Rick pulled into the driveway and hit a garage door opener attached to the visor above his head, tapping his finger impatiently against the wheel as it slowly rose up. Carter sighed as he pulled into it, wedging the car next to a large truck, and immediately threw open her door.

"Bring her inside."

Carter strode into the house without looking back. Rick tugged himself out of his seat and opened my door, working with Oscar to untangle me from the mess of seatbelts wrapped around me. I set my jaw, forcing myself to stay still. When they tugged all the seatbelts off, freeing me, Rick grabbed my arm, tugging me out of the car.

Oscar climbed out of the car on the other side, walking around the front, toward the door Carter disappeared through, to the house. He pushed a button beside the door and the garage door began to loudly close, then turned to watch us, waiting.

My heart beat hard against my chest. I didn't have a plan, really. I should've been thinking about a plan once I woke up. Not walking into their house and sealing my doom was the priority, really. Not dying would be a great bonus, but at this point I wouldn't be appalled if that wasn't an option. There really was nowhere for me to go, but out sounded like the best route.

Before my reason could convince me out of it, I tugged against Rick. When he yanked me forward, I hurled myself at him, shoving him against the truck. He cursed, stunned, and I yanked my arm out of his loosened grip and stumbled as I turned, rushing toward the closing garage door. I heard Rick and Oscar scrambling behind me, shouting something at the house, but I barely registered any of it. All my focus was on the gap of bright light in front of me, slowly closing in on the floor.

When I reached it, I dropped to the ground and slid under it. The pavement tore at my shirt and skin and a sharp rock imbedded itself in my hip, but I scrambled up from the ground and caught my footing, sprinting away from the driveway. My nose pulsed painfully with each step, but adrenaline dulled the pain so it didn't blind me.

The garage door was opening again behind me, and there was more shouting, but I sprinted for the dirt-and-gravel street we'd drove in on. I just had to make it to one of the cars on the road. I could either luck out and there would be somebody who just arrived or was just leaving, or I could at least try to break into one, or even sprint to the lake and find people there. I thought about cutting off the road and sprinting into the woods towards where I thought the lake was, but thinking I knew where it was wasn't good enough, and there was no chance I was winning a race against any of them in their woods.