Black Forest Burning by Lorelei Gray

Author:Lorelei Gray
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Children & Teens
Publisher: Foxfoot Books
Published: 2023-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

25

The sun was nearly gone, and the world grew dim around them. Travis had told Hannah and Cameron everything they had experienced in the forest, despite Sadie’s attempts to quiet him. She hadn’t wanted Hannah to have those images in her head. She watched her friend closely as Travis talked. Hannah’s already pale face grew paler with every story he told.

Sadie’s stomach ached, and the hunger she’d been trying to ignore was scratching at her insides. She looked around at the rundown group around her. Travis was still shirtless, his bare skin red and filthy with dirt and dried pond water; Rain was trying to force a hairbrush through her tangled mess of hair, wincing each time it caught on a snarl; and Aiden … Aiden was dirty, like all of them, but still somehow managed to look good. Sadie could smell her own rank body odor seeping through her dirty shirt. She glanced up at the castle looming just a few yards away from them and wondered what they were going to do. No one wanted to go back inside, but it didn’t make a lot of sense to Sadie for them to suffer out here when everything they need was right there. Clean water, fresh clothes, warm beds, toilets, food. Sadie’s stomach gurgled angrily at the thought. They would have to go inside eventually.

Sadie glanced over at the edge of the castle, hoping she’d see Jenny. She knew Jenny was probably dead, but she still held on to a sliver of hope that she’d see her come around that corner.

“So what’s the plan for tonight?” Sadie asked the group. They looked back at her with blank faces. “Do we go back inside, back to our rooms? Or sleep out here?”

“We’ve been sleeping out here,” Hannah answered. “It’s been fine.”

Sadie remembered sleeping on the ground the last two nights, and the idea of another night sleeping on hard earth didn’t appeal to her.

“Is the castle even really that dangerous?” Travis asked. “I mean, we know how it works now. Our room’s objects were those little statues—we can just chuck them out of the room and be totally safe. Right?”

Travis had a good point, for once. They knew the dangers all too well now, and she was pretty confident she could avoid any fairy-tale monsters. After everything she had experienced in the woods, the castle didn’t even seem that bad.

“I don’t think we should split up,” Aiden said cautiously. “We just found each other again. And there’s safety in numbers, right?”

“I’m staying with Hannah out here,” Cameron spoke up. “It really hasn’t been that bad.”

“Then I’m staying out here too,” Aiden said, leaning back on his arms in a demonstration of nonchalance Sadie didn’t quite believe.

“I’m used to sleeping outside now,” Rain added. “So I’m fine staying out here.”

Sadie thought about the bed in her room. It hadn’t been the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was definitely better than the ground. She looked at Travis, the only other holdout.

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