Artificial by CW Briar

Author:CW Briar [C.W. Briar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: C.W. Briar
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

***

Water woke Makenna with a kiss to her forehead, then to her foot. Her first thought was her roof had a leak, but she quickly realized there was no roof, only grasping tree branches and a sky paved with black clouds. The drops had the coppery smell of a coming hard rain. They ganged up and chased Makenna to the shelter of the porch, where she lifted her damp pajamas off her shoulders and let air inside. The hissing weather grew louder, and rain curtains made the road and the pond beyond impossible to see.

Makenna faced the door. She had sleepwalked outside. How long ago?

Inside, she found a home reshuffled, with throw pillows thrown, a blanket draped over the back of the couch, and Angeline’s stuffed cheetah … her cheetah dropped heartlessly on the floor. Dishes were moved, a glass was half-filled with water, and the plate on the table had crumbs where one of the chocolate chip cookies had been.

Makenna’s heart added thunder to the rain. She needed her phone the way a vampire needed blood. She clawed up the stairs, threw herself onto her bed, and felt her bedside table. The phone was missing. Makenna checked under the table. She turned on the light and reached into the gap between the bed and wall. Nothing.

She returned to the living room and kitchen, but a ravenous search achieved nothing more than misplacing more of her stuff. Yet again, Zion’s absence was deepening her troubles. If only he were there, he could have called her phone and helped her locate it. How could he have done this to her, left her alone to suffer this nightmare? Had he been there on that horrible night, he might have been the one to interrupt Angeline’s fatal trip outside.

Makenna checked the refrigerator in case she had left the phone in there … sleepwalks were weird that way. That effort did nothing but waste more time. Makenna slammed the door, launching a landslide of groceries inside. She growled and barely held back a scream. “Where is my phone?”

A ring came from upstairs.

Makenna was terrified to move, then cautious, then rushing toward the noise. The ringing paused, then started again. It led her into Angeline’s room, where a rectangle glowed behind the girl’s pillow. The journey across the room was long enough for Makenna to ask a thousand stomach-churning questions, and none prepared her for what she found.

The identity of the caller was Angeline.

“Hello, baby?” Makenna said into the phone. “Baby, are you there?”

“You’re awake.” It was Angeline’s sweet voice. Her muffled, haunting voice. “I worried about you being outside.”

“I think I was sleepwalking.”

“You were, but I made sure you were safe. It’ll be okay, Mama.”

Makenna heard giggles, both through the phone and from downstairs. Angeline hung up, and the time of the disconnected call blinked. The room was pitch black compared to that screen.

A message popped up. Motion Detected. Makenna pressed the first of multiple recordings that appeared. It was from the upstairs security camera, almost an hour ago.

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