The Gathering Dark by Erica Waters

Author:Erica Waters [Waters, Erica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Page Street Publishing
Published: 2022-08-08T00:00:00+00:00

Petrified

by Olivia Chadha

THE FOREST WAS AWAKE. THE PINE TREES BENT DOWN CLOSER TO the edge of the parking lot as we walked to Will’s car after the Friday night football game. It wasn’t like last time. It didn’t show itself after a storm in the old cottonwood that fell and smashed the gas station to bits. This time was different. This time the forest was hungry.

“Hey, wait up!” I said to Will and Jocelyn. In the rush, I slipped on the gravel and landed hard on one knee, sharp rocks slashing through my tights and into my skin. The navy night sky cast strange shadows from the forest that beckoned to me. The Aspen charm around my neck warmed between my forefinger and thumb. The same charm all Children of the Aspen wore.

“I’ve got ya, Dhara,” Jocelyn said, giving me a lift. “That’s what you get for wearing jean shorts and tights to a football game.”

“Leave her alone. She looks cute,” Will, Jocelyn’s twin, said.

“It’s true,” I said. “I do. Or I did.”

“Was it another dizzy spell?” Jocelyn asked. Something shifted in the forest. My skin was on fire. I nodded. Their faces flushed and then Will and Joce each touched their charms.

My parents were going to kill me. They never approved of short shorts with or without tights underneath. Their immigrant beliefs carried along with them when my grandparents immigrated to Colorado from India and joined the community. The blood trickled from the puncture wounds on my knee. Jean shorts weren’t a good idea tonight. But the final autumnal burst of sun earlier in the day had convinced me to wear them. It was the equinox; the full sun gave light to the land and life just a bit longer today. Must have made me a little too confident.

The last massive group of rowdy kids jumped into the back of a pickup truck and sped away dangerously fast around the dark unlit mountain roads leading away from Ridgecrest High.

“Ravine?” I asked.

“Yeah, they can have the ravine.” Will nodded.

“You know how I love watching drunk people shoot cans off fence posts,” I said as we came to the beat-up old Subaru we called Chuck. Will had rebuilt Chuck from scraps at his family’s auto shop in town.

“I’d like to keep my head attached to my neck, you know?” Jocelyn said, rubbing her hand to her throat, her blond hair falling around her shoulders in thick curls.

There was laughter and whistling and we all turned. Jackson was flanked by a couple of his lackeys. My skin crawled. Joce and Will stood between me and the approaching crew. They were already wasted.

Jackson ran into Will carelessly, like he expected everyone to get out of his way.

“Hey, watch it, dude,” Will said, and pushed back.

One of the boys said my name as they passed. “Dhara. Dhara the Missing Girl. Are you still lost? Freak.” They spit the last part.

“Come on guys,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”

I was used to the names that outsiders gave me and our group.

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