Winter's Bite

Chapter 13 Cait

Rain pelted from a leaden sky on Sunday like all the angels in heaven were weeping. I knew how they felt. I mooched in my room, unable to concentrate on study or even listen to favourite songs.It was the longest day ever.

When Aunt Louise called me for dinner I shouted down I wasn't hungry. Uncle Joe shouted from the bottom of the stairs.

'You'll come down and eat dinner like everybody else.'

My cousins stared as I sat at the table. I pushed food around a plate. My cousins ate silently. They all knew I'd incured Uncle Joe's wrath. You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife.

I escaped as soon as possible and played sad songs on the stereo in my room. I thought about Owen and cried. Aunt Louise entered my room a while later.

'Your uncle wants what's best,' she said. 'He's not a bad man, Cait.'

I studied my lap.

'Everything will be alright. You'll see.'

When I still didn't reply Aunt Louise sighed and left.

Convinced nothing would ever be right again, I cried myself asleep about ten o'clock.

I dreamt about Owen. We were up on Garntoran Hill and weren't broke up. Owen said he loved me. We kissed, the most magical kiss ever. I woke with my pillow wet.

Some time later, a nightmare about being chased through woods woke me gasping. Moonlight streamed through the window. I got up and closed the curtains.

When I next woke morning light shone through the curtains. My eyes were red and swollen and my head hurt.

Aunt Louise insisted I ate cornflakes, although I wasn't hungry. I pushed them around the bowl listlessly. At least Uncle Joe had left for work so I didn't see him. Aunt Louise smiled and talked cheerfully but I wished she'd leave me alone. My head ached. I wanted to climb back in bed and pull up the covers but instead got books for school. Even thinking of my friends didn't comfort me. I hadn't answered Rosie's texts yesterday since I'd returned from Owen's. She'd be pissed. I hadn't energy enough to care.

At school everyone talked about the murder on Saturday night.

'Did you hear, Cait? You left early,' Shauna said.

'Yeah, I heard about it,' I replied.

Everyone had heard about the fair-haired boy and red-haired girl who'd disappeared from the scene.

'They say the blonde-haired boy did it, but I don't think they've caught him yet,' Shauna continued, excited.

'Where did you and Owen go?' Rosie asked.

Did I hear suspicion?

'We went for a walk and then went home.'

My mind cried out to tell my friends Owen and I weren't responsible for the murder but I'd promised I wouldn't say we were there.

'Another girl disappeared a week ago. Everyone thinks she was murdered now,' Shauna said.

'Her family said at the time she hadn't run away,' Cherie added. 'She lived beside the woods near you, Cait. Aren't you scared tp live there? Everyone fears there'll be more murders.'

I remembered being chased by something in the woods. Was it connected?

'Can we talk about something else? My Mum's already afraid to let me out of her sight,' Rosie complained. 'How did you get on Sunday, Cait? Tell us about Owen's house and his family? You didn't text back.'