Where the hell had that come from?
My frigid fingers were barely able to tear the thing open, but I managed to extract the small card inside. Unfortunately, it was still dark out, and as much as I squinted, I couldn’t make out the writing.
Letting out a string of curses that would have sent my mom sprinting for a bar of soap to shove in my mouth, I crawled out of my hiding space and into the woods. It was slightly lighter out here. The sun was starting to come up. How the hell long had I slept? Unbelievable. I couldn’t seem to pass out in my ow
n bed no matter how hard I tried, but in the middle of the freezing cold woods? No problem. Just call me Reed Van Winkle.
I walked, squinting and feeling my way through the trees and the underbrush, until I came to a slight clearing where the dim light of morning filtered through the trees. I held the card out in front of me, angling it until I could read it.
WALK EAST SEVEN MILES. YOU WILL COME TO AN OBSERVATORY.
THERE YOU WILL FIND YOUR FRIEND.
My heart slammed into my ribcage. Finally. Finally I knew where to find Noelle. But then, just as suddenly, a realization hit me in the gut. Someone had left this note for me. Someone had crept up beside me while I was sleeping. Someone out here was following me. And they had gotten disturbingly close right when I was at my most vulnerable. Was it Officer Gruff? Zit Lady? Cheese Breath? All three of them? Were they all out there right now, watching me, ready to pounce?
Terrified, I turned around and started walking. All I wanted to do was get away from my stalkers as quickly as possible. Show these people they hadn’t gotten to me, that I wasn’t freaked. Even though I so was. Then, suddenly, I paused. There was, of course, just one small problem.
Which way was east?
I looked up at the wan sunlight. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, right? But with all the trees surrounding me, I couldn’t tell for sure which direction the light was coming from. If I had my phone, I could probably download some compass app, but I didn’t have my phone. My phone was dead.
My phone was dead and my hands were frozen and my nose was running and my cheek was bleeding and I couldn’t feel the middle toe on either foot, which just could not be a good sign. My creaky fingers curled into fists, crumpling the card and the envelope inside my reddened palms. I’d had just about enough of this crazy-ass game of scavenger hunt.
“Hey!” I shouted, startling a few birds out of the trees overhead. A couple of squirrels skittered out from behind a tree and ran up the trunk, their little claws scraping irritatingly as they went. “Hey, you! I know you’re out there! Somebody left these instructions for me!”
I turned in a slow circle, staring into the dusky, gray forest of trees around me. Feeling as if I could rush and tackle the first person who dared step out into view. “Well, guess what, people!? I would just love to keep you entertained with my wild–goose chase abilities, but there’s the tiny issue of not having a clue which way east is!” I took a breath, gulping in the cold, dry air. “So if you want to throw me a clue here, give me some kind of sign? That would be really frickin’ great, because my feet are about to freeze off and in about five minutes I’m going to be no good to you at all!”
I stopped yelling and looked around. Listened for the sound of footsteps, laughter, breathing. But I heard nothing.
“No? You’re not gonna help me out here!?” I demanded of the forest. “Because then we’re just going to have to wait until the sun rises some more and I can tell which direction it’s coming from. Are you prepared to wait that long?”
I closed my eyes and listened. Said a little prayer. Nothing. No response. The frustration mounting inside of me was too much to bear. I leaned forward and let out a guttural scream totally worthy of some big-screen, multimillion-dollar cavewoman production. Like I was summoning my army of mastodons to come trample the enemy.
I wished.
“Fine!” I shouted when I was done. “Fine. I guess we just sit here, then.”
I turned around, sat down on the first rock I saw, and obstinately waited for the sun to guide my way.
Hours had passed. Days. Weeks. And I was still walking toward the sun. Shoving aside branches, tripping over stones and fallen limbs, sweating down my back and under my arms, while my cheeks and fingertips and toes froze to numbness. How far had I come? How far was seven miles? I knew I could run a mile on a wide-open track in about seven minutes. How long did it take to walk just one through underbrush and overbrush and mud and muck and ice?
My only ray of hope, the only small change in my fortunes that gave me a smidgen of optimism, was the fact that for the past half hour or so I’d been going uphill. It was murder on my thighs and glutes, and there was a lot more slipping and sliding involved than when I’d been on flat terrain, but at least it was something. Because if there was, in fact, an observatory out here somewhere, it would have to be at the top of a hill. A hill meant I was getting somewhere, that I was getting closer to Noelle.
The hill suddenly grew steeper. So steep that I found myself grabbing on to tree trunks to speed my way, hoisting myself upward with the help of a few sturdy branches. It was nice to use my arm muscles for a little while, give the legs a bit of a break, but soon I started to pant from the exertion. Then, just as suddenly as the incline had begun, it leveled out. I squinted through the trees up ahead. Was that a building in the distance? My heart skipped an excited beat. I’d found it. I’d found her.
That was when I heard the tree branch snap behind me. I whirled around, my eyes scanning the forest. I took a deep breath, waited a moment, and scanned, just to show my stalker I wasn’t afraid. Nothing. I turned and started moving again, faster this time. Better safe than sorry.
There. That crunch. That had definitely come from behind me. I upped my pace, glancing over my shoulder again. It had to be pushing noon by now, but the sun didn’t seem much stronger. The forest was still all shadowy and the shifting branches played tricks on my mind. For a second, I thought I saw someone lurking behind one of the fatter trees, but on second glance, it was only a huge knot in the trunk, protruding out from the side.
I turned around again, and started to run. At first all I could hear were my own footsteps pounding the ground beneath me, the sound of my own ragged breath. But then, I heard the unmistakable sounds of another runner. Someone else was behind me in the woods—someone who was gaining on me. An owl was frightened from its roost and took off with a series of angry hoots, its massive wings making a racket up above. My heart vaulted into my mouth, but I kept running toward the edge of the woods, just praying I’d get there before whoever was behind me caught up.
I hurtled myself out of the tree line and into the clearing surrounding the observatory, expecting to be tackled or grabbed or smothered at any moment. But when I turned around again, there was no one there. Nothing but trees and snow.
My mind was messing with me. I’d imagined the whole thing.
Maybe.
Taking as deep of a breath as I could, I faced the white dome of the observatory. All around it, the sky was brightening, the morning blue chasing away the grays and pinks and purples of dawn. For a moment, I nearly sagged with relief over having found it, over having escaped the phantom stalker in the woods. But then I remembered: My mission wasn’t complete. Noelle was somewhere inside. The last time I’d seen her, she’d been terrified. She’d had a huge gash in her cheek. What if they’d done worse to her since then? What if she was inside this place, beaten and bruised and bleeding and crying?