Hell Flower

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It was late when we finally arrived at our destination. The bus pulled over slowly, bumping over the uneven earth as we came to an uneasy stop. We exchanged glances, and then without saying anything, we all rose to our feet to head outside. There was no point to putting it off now.

The air was ice when I stepped out of the bus. The entire world had frozen around us, like everything else had ceased to exist in this moment.

As if the forest itself was taking a breath, the wind gusted, sending my hair flying around my face. I pulled the hood up on the royal purple sweatshirt Veronica had let me borrow. Above, wisps of clouds danced across the blue moon. It flickered and winked like a single eye spying down from the heavens. Without any light pollution, the Milky Way was lush and dense around it. It glowed like a soup of twinkling glitter.

I thought back to my nightmare—the way the moon had swollen with the blood of sacrifice, drowning out everything else around it. I shuddered. My wolf and I needed to make sure we escaped, or this exorcism failed. But where was she?

We'd pulled off on the relatively flat side of the road. The shoulder wasn't large, but there was enough space that we could get the bus far enough off the road for another car to pass. However, I doubted another car would be coming by anytime soon. We hadn't seen a single one for the past hour.

On the other side of the road, the ground dropped off into a steep ditch. I shivered, thinking about what it might be like to drive down this old highway in the middle of the night and suddenly see a car coming the opposite direction. The road was so narrow, one false move, and you'd be flying off into the ditch.

I bit my lower lip, trying not to think about that. But, it was better than thinking about the alternative. Better than thinking about what was going to happen to me tonight when we arrived at the clearing. Better than thinking about my nightmare.

"How are you feeling?" Liz asked. She stood next to me, staring up at the sky as the rest of Make Them Scream piled out of the bus.

"I'm ready," I said. "I'm scared, but I'm ready to go through with this." I didn't look her in the eyes as I said it. I didn't want her to sense the lie.

"I'm proud of you." She placed her hand on my shoulder and squeezed lightly. I finally turned to look into her eyes. She held a stoic expression like she always did, but I could also see sadness there. "I always have been. And I love you, even though sometimes I've had trouble showing it. You know that, right?"

I glanced off at the ground. "I know." I ground my teeth. A bitter, vile taste clung to my tongue.

"I guess we should get moving," Reggie said as he and Veronica came up behind us. He flipped on a flashlight, illuminating the tall pines around us and scanning the edge of the forest. The light danced over trunks of trees and thick fir branches, casting haunting shadows slinking through the woods.

"I'm sorry we have to do this." Liz's voice broke me from my trance as she brought a rope to my hands. "But, we can't trust that your wolf won't try to shift and stop the exorcism. We have to take precautions."

It's okay. I heard the voice of my wolf call to me from the back of my mind. Go along with this. This will not hold us.

I nodded. "I understand." I held out my hands to Liz, and she slowly wrapped the rope around them, all the way from my wrists up to my elbows. She finished it with a tight knot. The rope pulled snug against my arms, securing them together. I was grateful Veronica had insisted that I borrow one of her sweatshirts. The cold didn't bother me too much, but I appreciated that the fabric guarded my skin from the rope burn.

"Guys, I found it," Reggie called from the distance, his voice echoing back through the cold air.

A bright light blinded me for a second as he shot the flashlight in our direction. I raised my hands to my eyes to shield them.