Part 8 (1/2)

To die.

I hit the ground with a thud, face smacking against a pile of sticks, pain blasting into my eye, my head. I rolled to the side, slapping at the nature guerrilla attack, as if getting the leaves and branches off would keep the creature off, too.

Suddenly my arm was jerked to one side and I was yanked to my feet. I opened my mouth to scream, ready to face claws and teeth and G.o.d only knew what else on the appendages of that thing, that laughing, talking thing.

But the scream died in my throat, crawled down to my stomach like a crab too terrified to leave its sh.e.l.l.

It wasn't the monster. It was worse.

”Where are you going, Cooper?” my mother asked me. She had come out here in her sweats, her hair all a mess, her makeup still on her face, smudged and looking like racc.o.o.n eyes. An eerie little smile curved up her face. ”You shouldn't be out in the woods alone at night. It's dangerous.”

She said the last word slowly, breaking apart the syllables like dropping eggs into a bowl. Dane-ger-us.

With a special emphasis on the us.

Her smile widened, showing all her teeth, and her eyes glittered in the dark. Her grip on my arm tightened like a blood-pressure cuff, and I knew there was no going home.

There was only going back to the well.

I opened my mouth, and this time, I didn't scream- I howled in fear.

She dragged me through the woods, her hand on my wrist like a vise grip. I'd never seen her move like this, marching forward as if she didn't see the trees, didn't realize it was dark out, and didn't even know I was there, stumbling behind her.

This wasn't like when I was little and I'd been caught painting the back of the house red. Then, she'd been p.i.s.sed off.

Now she was someone else. Someone who didn't seem to recognize me. Or- Give a c.r.a.p about me.

Her strength was over the top, superhuman, not like Mom at all. This was the woman who had to have someone open the pickle jar, for G.o.d's sake, and now she was hauling me around as though I weighed about as much as a pillow.

I tried to dig in my heels to stop her, tried to peel her fingers off my wrist, but she kept on, a one-way train to the final destination.

The well.

And that a that thing.

”Mom!”

No response. She just kept making headway into the woods.

”Mom! Stop! Ow! You're hurting me!”

She let out a grunt and started moving faster, her grip too tight like overdone handcuffs. She ran hard, the effort making her grunt like a bull. Her breath rushed fast and hot in the air between us. In. Out. In. Out.

”Mom! Mom!”

But she didn't hear me. She wasn't there. Whoever this was, I didn't know. From somewhere in the woods, I heard the thing in the well begin to laugh. A deep, dark belly laugh, as if this were the funniest d.a.m.ned thing it had ever seen. Me struggling against my mother, fighting off my own impending doom.

Now my fear turned to terror, running a constant drum of telling me to get away from her. What was I going to do, though? Beat up my own mother? Grab a stick and shove it into her, like a knife? Club her with a rock?

I still couldn't bring myself to do something like that, something that would hurt her.

What ifa What if she was still in there? And I killed her?

I couldn't do it. No matter how much I wanted to get away, I just couldn't go that far.

”Mom a” I cried, wis.h.i.+ng she would stop, knowing she wouldn't. I twisted hard to the right, managing as I did to get one of my arms free, enough to grab a pa.s.sing tree trunk. I wrapped myself around that sucker and held on for dear life, even as the bark sc.r.a.ped down my skin, surely taking off a full layer.

My mother let out a shriek of surprise. She wheeled around, her eyes s.h.i.+ning like angry black diamonds, and stared at me, really, really p.i.s.sed now, as if I were a pesky hornet with its stinger in her thumb. ”Let go,” she said, her voice a growl.

No.

She yanked at my left arm, but I held tightly with the right, hugging that tree as if it were the last oak on earth. ”Let go of the d.a.m.ned tree, Cooper.”

I shook my head. ”This isn't you, Mom. Snap out of it. Please.”

She advanced on me, her eyes so dark, they'd become one with the night. Her mouth was open, her teeth bared. When her grip slackened slightly, I jerked my other arm out of her grasp.

She let out a screech of fury, sounding like a wounded bear. She lunged for me and I knew I had to take a chance. I skidded back, my feet slipping on the leaves, and for one horrifying second, I thought I was going to fall down, but then somehow I found some kind of traction and started pedaling backwards, my arms waving like a windmill.

My mother kept coming at me, but I had the advantage of youth and fear. I spun to the right and ducked beneath a low-hanging branch, dodging the trees-had they grown closer together or was that my imagination?-trying to get away, put some distance between us, get out of these woods, get somewhere, anywhere but here.

But then, just when I thought I was in the clear, I saw the familiar curl of green weaving a fast path ahead of me, building a network faster than I could run. As if being around my mother had given it more strength, more speed, it spread its green reach farther than in the cla.s.sroom or my bedroom, into a web that now looked like giant wings, wide and welcoming.

Come on in, Cooper. I'll catch you.

I dodged to the left.

The mossy green web was there, too, its blast of evil color knitting into a wild blanket that stretched between the trees. Waiting for me to run into it, some human-size spider web.

Come here, Cooper.

”Cooper!” My mother's voice behind me, but not really hers-someone else's, something else, something deeper, darker, hoa.r.s.er. ”Get over here! Now!”

I ducked to the right and moved faster, even though it hurt to run. Behind me, the forest floor thundered with my mother's footfalls, the air echoing with her roars of fury. The green knitted fast but not as fast, as if the well hadn't expected me to move in that direction. I pushed hard, knowing my mother wasn't far behind me-maybe six feet? Eight?

Finally, ahead there was a break in the woods, a light- The one on the deck.

The house.

I ran even faster than I thought I could, becoming like one of those speed demon guys who leave everyone in their dust in the Boston Marathon, pus.h.i.+ng my fists ahead of me, breaking through the brambles now, and just as I hit the last edge of the forest, the web leaped at me with one final curl, like a long green hand reaching for me. I screamed and dove forward.

I rolled, smacking at my skin, sure that the web had gotten me, that my mother had me, the thing had me.

Nothing. Nothing had me. I caught my breath, then cupped a hand around my ear and listened. The wind carried through the trees, whistling lightly. But there was no laughter. No screaming. No roars of anger.

No sounds of anything moving. Where had she gone?

And worse a when would she be back? Because she would be. I had no doubt about that. The thing wanted me, and she was working for him. But why, I didn't know.

I just got to my feet, ran for the house, and raced up to my room, locking the door behind me.