The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street by Lindsay Currie

Author:Lindsay Currie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

24

I HAVE TO GET OUT of here. It’s the only thought in my head right now. I let out a primal scream as I shake off the cold flesh still gripping my palm. If the crying and the footprints and the fingers in my hand were Inez, we’re in trouble. Not just trouble . . . danger. Whirling back toward the glass box, I notice that Nina has moved closer to the path we followed here and is frozen in place. Her shoes are sinking into the muddy ground and one hand is plastered across her mouth.

“Nina?” I call.

Nothing.

She’s angled toward Inez Clarke’s glass box, and as my eyes finally find it in the whiteout, I gasp.

Even with the curtain of rain clouding my vision, I can see that the box is one hundred percent, completely empty. I stare at the white space where the sculpture was, terrified. The kind eyes and full cheeks are gone. The wavy hair and tiny half-smile . . . gone. The entire sculpture of Inez Clarke is just. Gone.

The warning from the woman at the front office comes back to me. The statue vanishes during lightning storms.

A burst of crackles fills my ears and I shudder. She’s scared of the lightning. Inez is scared of the lightning and is hiding in this cemetery. My entire body shakes with the thought. I know it doesn’t make sense and that my brain is telling me I’m losing it, but right now . . . none of that matters.

“Run!” I screech into the nothing of rain and leaves and howling wind.

Andrew grabs my elbow and tugs me to his side. His hand wraps around mine, his fingers gripping mine urgently. We’re sprinting now, racing as fast as we can down the waterlogged path. My mind is spinning. This can’t be happening. Inez Clarke’s statue did not just vanish in front of our eyes.

“It was empty! Empty!” I yell at him. I can’t tell if he hears me over the roar of the storm surrounding us. The wind picks up even more and wet leaves slap my face. Rain hits my body so hard it feels like it’s holding me back, trying to keep me in the cemetery.

“This isn’t right!” Andrew shouts over the thunder. Lightning flashes nearby and a sharp crack sends a tree limb toppling to the ground.

The crackling seems to weave in and out of the gravestones, following me. “We’ve got to get back west—toward the entrance!”

West. West. West. I know east now, but in this rain I can’t remember where that is, either. It’s too dark and we’ve run in too many circles. Fumbling in my pocket, I try to find my compass but come up empty.

I turn back to see if Nina knows where we are or how far the gate is, but she’s not behind us. I tug back on Andrew, fear winding into a tight coil in my belly. “Where is Nina?”

Panic spreads on his face. “What? She was just here!”

She was just here.

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