Read Online The Amulet by Alison Pensy - Free Book Online Page B

dogs both sat up and looked expectantly
at the picnic basket that was now positioned between them.
    “Don’t worry, you two. There’s something in
here for you, as well,” she said with a smile, the first one she
had managed all day.
    She pulled out a couple of ham sandwiches and
passed one each to Faen and the collie. They wolfed theirs down in
seconds and looked again at Faedra, and then at the basket.
    “That’s your lot, you greedy buggars,” she
laughed and pulled out an egg sandwich for herself. She loved egg
sandwiches; they were her favorites. Her mum used to make them for
her when she was a child, so it was only fitting that she would
bring one to eat when she visited her.
    The little bird sat perched on the headstone
the entire time; Faedra threw it a few crumbs. It hopped down onto
the ground and finished up the crumbs that had been offered it.
    A few moments passed and their picnic was
finished. Faedra felt like a huge weight had lifted off her
shoulders. She leaned back up against the cool granite of her
mother’s headstone and closed her eyes again. She didn’t want to
leave just yet; although, she was incredibly tired.
    She wasn’t sure how long she’d been asleep
when she was woken suddenly by a low carnal growl. She recognized
it instantly as being the same as that time in the woods a few days
ago. Her eyes snapped open and fear whipped through her. She felt
disoriented for a second because it was almost dark. That odd light
just after the sun goes down and the night sets in.
    Faen and the collie were both standing to her
left; their hackles were raised and they were postured ready to
fight. Faedra noticed the oddest thing at that moment. The collie
was looking at Faen and growling in different tones. Faen returned
the collie’s gaze and growled back in different tones, also. Were
they talking to each other? It certainly looked like it. Faedra
watched in amazement as the two dogs seemingly had a conversation
right before her eyes; then they turned their attention on her and
she almost jumped.
    The collie barked at her; it was an insistent
bark, like she was instructing her to do something. But what?
Faedra didn’t talk dog. The unusual scene unfolding before her
almost made her forget what was causing it in the first place,
until the collie looked back in the same direction as Faen and
continued her deep menacing growl. The two of them looked
ferocious, sending shivers down Faedra’s back. Although Faedra was
loathed to, she couldn’t stop herself looking into the trees, and
the familiar icy cold feeling washed over her again.
    “Oh, no, not again,” she whispered to herself
as she bent down and scooped up her blanket and picnic basket,
ready to make a quick exit. “What are those things?”
    She was watching, trance-like, at what looked
like the same pairs of eyes she had seen in the woods the other
day. Only this time there were three pairs of them. The collie
barked a response to her question, then looked at Faen and snapped
a bark at him, too. He turned and all but pushed Faedra in the
direction of the car park. She snapped out of her trance and picked
up the pace, running as fast as she could while dodging between the
headstones. The older ones were dotted randomly all over their exit
path. Symmetry was not something that had been adopted in the olden
days, but she wished for it now. She bashed her hip into the corner
of one as she miscalculated its position when running past it.
    “Ouch. This is getting beyond a joke,” she
cursed to herself, not daring to look back in case those things
were chasing her. She could hear the collie’s growl getting fainter
as they drew closer and closer to her car. They reached it, but
Faedra couldn’t find her keys. She had tossed them in the picnic
basket when they’d arrived and now was frantically feeling around
in it, trying to grab them.
    Faen barked several times in quick
succession.
    “I’m trying, Faen, I know they’re in