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in for at least the night if not longer.
    I hoped fervently that they
would find the girl, even if it meant going
out in this storm. The house was chilly, damp with the rain
in the air. It seemed as if something was lingering nearby. I couldn’t relax no matter what I did. Settling down
on the worn sofa, I pulled a soft, old blanket over me and drifted off to
sleep. The rain sliding down the window panes and tapping on the roof were like
a soothing lullaby.
    The rain drummed down on the
bones of the girl, washing them clean. A few
fragments of clothing clung to the skeleton as if to shelter it from the storm.
A bracelet twinkled coldly on her wrist, glittering in
response to each lightning strike. I was the skeleton, I realized with horror.
Locked in stillness on the ground, I waited. And waited.
    The young man started when
he saw me. His dark hair slick in the rain, he paused and surveyedthe scene critically. Glancing back to make sure that
he hadn’t been seen, he bent over me, carefully
unhooking the bracelet. Sliding it from my wrist, he stood. “Nice bracelet,” he
murmured softly. “Shame to leave it here.”  
Pocketing it, he backed away, fading into the woods, leaving me to rot. Alone.
    I woke with a start. My
heart pounded loudly in my chest. “It’s only a nightmare,” I repeated over and
over to myself, scratching at my skin. I needed reassurance that I had not
become the skeleton, that it wasn’t me lying in the forest, my bare bones exposed
to the wind and the sun. I swallowed hard. This had never happened to me
before.
    “It’s only a nightmare,” I
muttered again, wrapping the blanket tightly around myself. I cowered in the
corner of the sofa. I recognized the boy from my dream of course. He was a
loner around town. Everyone thought he was a little strange, though no one
could point out why. He was definitely the perfect suspect….

Chapter 4
    “And
Treachery well done”
     
     Later that afternoon,
Dunn and Simms came by the house to pick me up. I climbed into the back of the
patrol car, disliking the feeling of being trapped. Dunn grinned at me through
the grate. “Don’t worry, we’ll let you back out.”
    I returned his smile. I
couldn’t help but like Dunn. He was good natured and kind, all the while
working in a field where most people become bitter and angry. Like Simms.
Dunn’s easygoing nature didn’t seem to fit with his job. I could see him
working at a used car dealership, winning the customers over with his smile and
charm. It would be easier than the job he held now.
    “We have a couple of roads
we want to check out, see if you can get a feel for where she is or might be,”
Simms said. The low squad car rocked suddenly to the side as a gust of wind hit
it.
    I grimaced. “What is the
weather supposed to be like?”
    “Can’t you tell?” Dunn
teased. I was surprised as he had never teased me about my abilities before. I
blushed and glanced out of the window. The wind whipped the signs overhead and
bent the trees almost double. Branches lashed at each other like fingers
tangling together, angry and snarled… vicious hands.
    “I’m sorry,” Dunn said
softly, drawing my attention back to him. “I wasn’t making fun of you.”
    “Yes, you were,” I said.
“But I don’t mind. And no, I can’t read weather.”
    “Well,” Simms said from his
spot in the driver’s seat, casually leaning one hand against the window now
that we were past the trees, “it’s supposed to get worse, but we’ll hear if it
does.” He tapped at the receiver on the dashboard. “I just hope no one ventures
out in this storm. I hate working wrecks.”
    “Which roads are we going
to?”
    “ Ummm … Beatty Road, off of Millersville,
Beardsley Lane, and Beautiful Crescent Road, near the new subdivision.”  
He ticked off each on his notebook.
    I knew all of those roads.
Beatty Road was remote, near an old quarry. Beardsley Lane was in an older
section of town, with patches of trees close