Open Roads Read Online Free PDF Page A

woods were dead around her, the leaves beneath her sneakers making the only sound she could hear. She arrived at her sister’s body. Susan lay there with her eyes and mouth wide open, and Mary Beth could see now that she definitely wasn’t breathing.
    “Susan?” Mary Beth kneeled and shook her sister. Susan’s head rocked, but her facial expression didn’t change.
    Tears rolled down Mary Beth’s face, and she shook her sister again. “Susan, this isn’t funny! Wake up!”
    Mary Beth put her hand on Susan’s face, and realized that her sister’s skin felt cold. Susan could fake a creepy face, but she couldn’t make her own skin feel chilled.
    Standing up, Mary Beth stepped back, not letting her eyes leave her sister. The tears flowed more intensely now, and the emotion came to a boil when Mary Beth finally screamed.
    She turned and sprinted home.
    ***
    The Dawson house was a quaint, all-brick home, sitting on five acres of land. It had been built on top of a hill, the front yard sloping upward toward the entrance, and the back a steep downslide into the vast woods that covered the land behind the house. Charles and Maria Dawson had bought the 1951 ranch-style house just a year after they had been wed, and they’d hoped it would not only be their first home, but their last.
    Mary Beth’s voice had been wearing thin, with her screaming all the way home as she raced in between the trees. When her house came into view, she ran faster, gaining momentum to dart up the hill. She used a combination run and crawl to mount the yard, still using her hollow voice to call out to her mother.
    She climbed up onto the large wooden deck and blew through the door, not caring that it had swung all the way around on its hinges to slam against the shared wall. She scanned the living room, looking for any sign of her mother.
    “Mom! Mom, where are you?”
    She ran through the living room and headed down the hallway toward her parents’ bedroom. She heard the sound of water running through the pipes come to a stop, and when she reached the bedroom, her mother came walking out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel.
    “What is it, honey?” her mother asked, concern in her voice.
    “It’s Susan, something’s wrong with her.”
    Her mother’s eyes widened. “Where is she?”
    “She’s out in the woods! Hurry! You have to help her!”
    Her mother moved faster than Mary Beth had ever seen, not caring that the towel dropped, revealing her nude back side to her youngest daughter. Within moments, she had on a shirt and jeans, and had laced up a pair of tennis shoes.
    Without hesitation, she took Mary Beth by the hand and raced for the back door.
    ***
    When they arrived at the place where she’d last seen Susan lying face-down, Mary Beth was stunned to find that her sister had vanished.
    “She was right here,” Mary Beth said.
    “Are you sure?” her mother asked. “It’s pretty wide open out here. There’s a lot of places she could be.”
    Mary Beth nodded and pointed to the stump sitting in the open with no trees around it. “There’s Home Base. We always walk straight out this way when we head back home.”
    Mary Beth took a few steps forward, then noticed something on the ground. She bent over and picked up the pink, polka dot headband that her sister had been wearing.
    “Maybe she went back home,” Mary Beth said.
    “But you said that you guys always go back the same way that we came,” her mother said. “We would’ve passed her.” She sighed and put her hand to her forehead, clearly stressed, and said, “Let’s split up and scan the area.”
    Mary Beth nodded and walked toward Home Base as her mother veered off somewhere behind her, looking for any sign of her sister.
    “Susan?” Mary Beth called out repeatedly. “Where are you?”
    No response.
    A cold, dark feeling crept up inside Mary Beth. Something just wasn’t right.
    “Susan?”
    Leaves rustled nearby and Mary Beth halted where she stood. She looked