Read Online Nigh - Book 1 by Marie Bilodeau - Free Book Online Page A

to pull Alva
away from the strange shadows. Screams rose from within the bus,
echoing in the still air around them.
    “Not without Pete!” Alva screamed, pulling out of
his grasp and running to a window that was still out of the
shadows, her sister looking at her through it, the only one not
screaming in the bus.
    The only one who still had hope.
     
    ***
     
    Al cut at the vines and pulled at them with her bare
hands. Thorns began to grow on them and she ignored the cuts,
cursing her own blood for making them slick. Molly joined her in
pulling, her best friend’s mouth drawn in quiet determination.
    Pete was banging the window now, trying to force it
open from inside.
    “Move aside,” Hector said, pulling sand from his
pocket and throwing it on the vines. The vines browned and
shriveled a bit, but it still took all three of them to pull them
loose.
    “ Pete, open the window,” Al screamed
over the terrified screams from within the bus. Blood splattered
one of the back windows and Al forced herself to focus on
Pete. Keep
looking at me, she willed her sister.
    “Just open the window!” She screamed, wishing the
despair didn’t ring in her voice so deeply.
    Pete was banging on it, but it wouldn’t go down,
wouldn’t budge or open.
    “Stand back!” Al screamed, and she slammed Big
Bertha again the window. It cracked on the first hit, and shattered
on the second.
    “Come on,” Molly was pulling Pete out of the window
before Al had regained her footing from the second hit.
    “What about the others?” Pete screamed.
    The day turned dark and winds slammed into them. Al
looked up. The sun was still out, but it was dark. The shadows that
would usually be cast on a sunny day suddenly turned to light.
Hector grabbed them and pulled them out of the bus’s shadow of
light, moments before it lit everything on fire.
    The scream rose to a fervent pitch for one second in
the bus before stopping, the scent of burnt flesh tossed about in
the wind. The water surged behind them and columns of it danced up,
taking equine and human shapes.
    “Run, run, run!” Molly screamed, grabbing Pete and
Alva’s arms. Hector led the way. Mists came off the water and
slammed into them, knocking them to their knees.
    Percival wasn’t far, now. Just a few more metres.
They could get in and drive away. Gruff was screaming at them to
hurry. He was in the passenger’s seat, the car on and ready to
move, the driver door open and the seat leaned forward, beckoning
its passengers.
    The mists danced back and forth and they pulled
themselves up.
    “Look out!” Hector screamed at Al, his face
contorted with grief as she looked down. She’d stepped into a
perfect circle of mushrooms. She felt something zap up her leg, but
before she could scream or even fear what was happening to her,
Molly tackled her from behind. She was either moving her, or she
hadn’t seen what had been happening, too frantic to escape.
    Al fell down. Hector and Pete helped her up. Al
turned to grab Molly and keep running, but her hand was stiff as
she took it.
    Al met her best friend’s eyes. Where there was
usually laughter and kindness was only fear. The hand she held was
a branch now. Al pulled her hand out as thorns pierced her
skin.
    “Alva?” Molly managed to say in a broken voice, the
tears streaking down skin turning to bark as her face vanished
completely, swallowed by bark, leaf and thorn.
    Al stared. She was gone in an instant, in mist and
the strange dark day, swallowed by a still forming bush, branches
writhing up and reaching for them, like hands pleading for
help.
    “Molly?” She repeated, reaching forward. Hector
pulled her back. Alva looked at him in anger, but stopped herself
from snapping when she saw the tears lining Pete’s face. She placed
an arm around Pete’s shoulders as yellow blooms erupted on the rose
bush that had once been Al’s best friend.
    Not yellow like the sun. Yellow like Molly’s hair
had been. The only rosebush that would ever