alone with a guy I scarcely knew—a strange guy that I scarcely knew—and I was going straight to the place where I was killed every night in my nightmares, by yellowed-eyed monsters that may or may not be real. I’d really gotten myself into mess here, hadn’t I? I can’t believe how stupid and irrational I was. I mean, a cute boy finally smiles at me and I forget all logic.
But there was nothing I could do about it now except strap my seatbelt on, watch the town slip farther and farther away, and keep my fingers crossed that everything would turn out alright.
I tapped my fingers anxiously on my knee. In the confined space of the car, the electricity hummed powerfully. Between that, the heater blaring, and my jittery nerves, I was starting to sweat. “So where exactly are we going?” I asked.
“Where going to two places, actually,” Alex told me, down shifting the car. “But the first stop is just so I can pick something up.”
I wiped my sweaty palm on my jeans. “So what’s the second stop?”
He flashed me a devious smile. “That one’s a secret.”
A secret. Secrets were rarely good. And since it was Alex…let’s just say I wasn’t feeling too optimistic here, especially since he was being nice. Well nice for him, anyway. It made me even edgier than I’d already been, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he had some kind of hidden agenda for bringing me out here.
A lumped formed in my throat as I mentally cursed myself for coming with him.
He lifted an eyebrow at me. “Is something wrong? You look scared.”
“What?” I shook my head.“No. I’m not scared.”
“Really? Because you sure look like you are.”
I fiddled with the zipper on my messenger bag, deliberating what to say. The truth. Sure, why not. It couldn’t make the situation any worse, could it? “Well, I guess maybe I’m a little scared.”
He slowed down the car and made a right turn off of the main highway and onto a snow packed back road that laced over the foot hills. These kinds of roads were the kind that the snow plows only plowed a few miles up, which meant we probably wouldn’t be able to make it that far up it. Or at least the car wouldn’t be able to. On foot, well, that was a different story.
I gulped at that frightening thought.
“So why are you scared?” Alex asked.
I shrugged, trying not to get freaked out by the sight of the trees trimming the sides of the road. Or by thinking about what might be hiding in them. “Because…well, I really don’t know anything about you other than you hate me.”
“I don’t hate you,” he told me, and oddly enough, he sounded like he was telling the truth. “I’m just moody. It’s nothing personal.”
Moody. Understatement of the year. I tore my gaze away from the trees and looked at him. He was staring ahead, eyes focus on the road. As much as I hated to admit it, the guy was gorgeous. Bright green eyes, dark hair, perfect lips. He wasn’t too thin, nor too big and bulky. He was a happy medium—lean and nice.
Very nice.
A crooked smile crept up on his face as he turned his head toward me. “You’re staring.”
I whipped my head back toward the window, feeling like a total idiot. “No, I wasn’t.”
He laughed but said nothing.
A few minutes later, he was parking the car in front of an old log cabin. A crooked gray stone chimney topped the roof, and a partly collapsed deck wrapped around the bottom. The windows were boarded up, and the entire yard was buried in at least five feet of snow except for a recently shoveled walkway.
He pulled the emergency brake and left the engine running. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.” He got out of the car, sinking ankle deep in snow as he trampled up to the front door of the cabin and entered without knocking.
My nerves were bouncing as I sat in the car alone. There were trees all over the place. What if they were out there, watching me, waiting for the perfect moment to jump out and kill me? We were so
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