“Thank you?” I glare at her, but her three heads won’t hold still.
“You’re welcome. Bringing this little angel with you tonight wasn’t the wisest choice you ever made. What in the world were you thinking?” Amelia brushes a curl from Andrew’s forehead with her long blue nail.
He smiles up at her.
This is too much. “Wise choices don’t seem to be the MO here tonight.” I spit the words at her. “How could you do this to me? I will never forgive you!”
With a look of mock concern, she says, “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.” Then she turns to Andrew. “Let’s get your sister on her feet so you can get on home, okay, little darlin’?”
Andrew nods. “K.”
"By the way, you didn't pass the test." She leans in, her cinnamon breath warm against my ear. “And here’s the best part: you’ll never tell your parents what happened here tonight. Because you put your baby brother in danger bringing him here. And that little detail…” she pauses, widening her eyes, “…is just delicious!” Her laugh screeches like a rusty water faucet, and I cringe. How could I ever have thought Amelia Davis was someone I wanted to hang out with?
She grasps my arm, hauling me to my feet. The sudden movement makes my stomach churn, and like a crazed merry-go-round, the room spins again.
Andrew wanders around looking at all the old stuff. The black cloths and glowing skull are no longer here; a colorful quilt covers the bed, and it looks like it did the day we first saw it.
Something brushes against the window, and Amelia and I jump, but Andrew just laughs and claps his hands. “I see you!” he calls, moving toward it.
“Andrew, no!”
Wind howls and cold air blasts through the cabin as the front door flies open, carrying the scent of burnt wood and something else. In the darkness, a shadow—no, a mountain man—fills the doorway. He breathes heavily, drawing in great gulps of air. Snow-dusted animal pelts hang from his shoulders as strands of reddish hair blow across matted whiskers. Only his bright blue eyes hint that he is more human than beast.
My eyes struggle to focus, to make sense of what I’m seeing. Andrew’s giggle cuts through the ringing in my ears. He claps his hands. “Yay! Chewbacca!”
The man glances toward me.
For a heartbeat, we stare at each other. My body freezes, and I will my muscles to move, but they don’t cooperate. One thought hits me like ice: The Shadow Man is real. And he’s here. I can’t breathe.
“Andrew? That’s not—” My voice cracks, more squeak than words, and I stumble toward him, legs like rubber stilts. But I’m too late. The Shadow Man scoops Andrew into his arms—and vanishes into the night.
Frigid air stabs through the cabin as I lunge for the door. This can’t be happening! Snow whips across the porch in a wall of white. I stare into the darkness. The man—and Andrew—are gone. No footprints. No tracks. Just blowing snow.
“Andrew!” I scream. But only the wind answers. My knees hit the ground. No, no, no!
Behind me, Amelia gasps, “What on Earth?”
I wheel around so fast that I see flashing lights. “This isn’t funny, Amelia! I don’t know what your connection is to this place, and I don’t know who that guy is, but you need to get my brother back. NOW!”
Her gloved hand presses against her forehead. “This isn’t…I don’t know who that was. I swear, I had nothing to do with this!” Her voice trembles, the smugness gone.
Wind shrieks through the open door behind me.
“What are you going to do?” she asks.
“We are going to find him, that’s what.” Rage tumbles out of me, and my voice shakes. “This is all your fault. You are coming with me, and we are getting my brother back!”
Amelia doesn’t move. Her eyes flick from the open door to the blizzard swirling in front of us. “If we go out there,” she whispers, “we could die.”
“If we stay,” I snap, “my brother—”
Her jaw tightens, and for a moment, she looks like she might bolt.
“Go ahead. Leave.” I shout, “But I’ll tell everyone that you are the reason all of this happened. I have the note. It has your signature. You are the reason I’m here.” I march back into the cabin and grab my bag. “Are you coming or what?”
She just stands there, wasting time we don’t have. “I didn’t know you would bring a baby.”
“Move!”
She flinches—and finally follows me into the storm.
We stumble into a blinding white barrier that covers the woods. Wind lashes at us, slamming us sideways. Branches crack somewhere far off. Andrew’s cry floats on the wind, and my head snaps up. “That way!”
Pushing forward, I shout his name until my throat burns. To my surprise, Amelia follows. Between the blowing snow and the darkness, visibility is practically zero. I glance back toward the cabin and can’t believe my eyes. Our footprints are already covered, swept away. There’s no sign that anyone has walked through here. We’ll never find the man who took Andrew.
I turn on Amelia. “This is all your fault, Amelia Davis! You are nothing but…” My voice shakes. “…nothing but a hateful, stuck-up rat!” I jab her chest. “My little brother’s gone because you were too good to be my friend!”
She stumbles back, covering her face with her fancy leather gloves. “This wasn’t supposed to happen…” Her voice is tiny. Scared. But then she straightens, chin tilting. “And what about you? Ditching your friends just so you could be a Peak? Honestly, did you really think you were good enough for us?”
My mouth goes dry. I want to hate her. But she’s right. We’re no different. I put myself over everyone I care about: Andrew, my parents, Stuart…I deserve this.
I swallow hard and call for my brother. “Andrew? Andrew!” But my voice is no match for the roaring wind. Ice clings to my eyelashes and hair. My lips and face are on fire, but I don’t stop walking. I can’t. I have to find him.
We trudge wordlessly through drifts of foot-high snow. I have no idea where we are—with everything buried in white, it all looks the same. I try to remember the things my dad taught me. Stop. Don’t panic. Think. I stop walking and glance around. Downhill leads to people.
I point toward the mountain. “We need to head that way. The guy who took my brother won’t be heading into town. He’ll want to go the opposite way.” I dig in my pack for my compass, point it toward the mountain, shifting until I feel the wind at my back. The compass reads south-southwest. Dad always says to shoot a bearing and stick with it. But the blowing snow makes finding a mark impossible.
“I’m going to have to use the compass,” I say. “Visibility is too bad to find a mark—maybe later. For now, we need to keep the wind at our backs—hopefully, it won’t shift.” I shove past Amelia, digging my boots into the snow as I climb. Every few minutes, I call out Andrew’s name. After a while, though, I give up. For one thing, he won’t hear me over the wind. For another, that Shadow Man—whoever he is—will not be answering back.
We’re going to have to track him—along with the bears. Dad’s voice echoes in my ears. “Night doesn’t put bears to sleep; full bellies do.” I keep one eye on the mountain peak and the other on the surrounding forest.
Behind me, Amelia huffs like an angry bull. “We’re getting nowhere, Darcie. We haven’t heard a sound for ages.” She stops and slumps against a tree. “This is ridiculous. I’m tired of walking and my new boots are ruined—I need to rest.”
The sound of her voice sends me right over the edge. “Oh, you need to rest?” I dump my backpack on the ground. “Yeah, because there’s no emergency here. Why not take a nap while we’re at it?”
“You think I wanted this?” she yells. “You’re the one who brought him. This was just a harmless little prank. But no, in classic Darcie style, you drag a kid along.” She folds her arms. “This is on you, Darcie Reynolds.”
Blotches of black swarm my vision. “I didn’t know…he followed me. Didn’t see him til I got to the cabin. I thought—” I double over and vomit, heaving until there’s nothing left but dry gasps that scrape my throat. “Maybe stopping for a minute is good.” I mumble, wiping my mouth on my sleeve. I scoot toward the base of a tree and lay my head on my pack.
“Oh, no you don’t, Darcie!” Amelia grabs my shoulders and hauls me upright. “Sit up; don’t you dare fall asleep on me.” Her voice cuts through the wind. “Can’t we just go back and get help? We’re never going to find Andrew on our own. Not to mention that we’re no match for that Sasquatch.”
“Go if you want,” I say. “I’m not abandoning my little brother.”
“But I don’t know which direction to go!” She stomps her foot like a spoiled brat.
I shrug. “Keep the middle peak to your back and head downhill. You’ll eventually make it to town.”
She stares at me long and hard, but you know what? I couldn't care less what she thinks. I am completely over Queen Amelia.
I rustle through my pack for the bottle of chewable Tylenol. “My head is killing me.”
“Is there anything to drink in that backpack?” she whines.
“Some juice, I think.”
She digs through the bag, then shakes her head. “It’s no good—frozen solid.”
“You can wet your mouth with a little snow. Let it melt first, if you can, before you swallow. The sudden cold will sting, but it’s better than nothing.” I chew up the tablets and force myself onto shaking legs. “We need to keep moving; if we stop, we’ll freeze.” I pull the backpack straps over my shoulders. “My fingers and toes are already numb.”
A loud cracking sound echoes overhead, sending my head jerking up. A thick branch, heavy with snow, bends dangerously.
“Look out!” I lunge for Amelia, but the warning comes a second too late.
Snap! The branch gives way and crashes down on top of us.