SHADES of GREEN ↬ m. wheeler

XVI. HEAVENLY

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
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❝HEAVENLY❞

　
　

DARKNESS swallowed Hawkins, especially this little stretch of neighborhood. In the wee morning hours, all of the houses were closed and dark. Only a couple of windows spilled a dim light, and several street lamps flickered until they went out. Max supposed she should be afraid.

　She wasn't.

　Max's red hair fluttered in the rising wind, soon wrapping around her pale face, whipping into her eyes, obscuring her view. The wind was unseasonably freezing; it was an August night, and it shouldn't have been this cold. Max wished she had thought to bring a jacket.

　Oh, well, she thought. Lucas' house isn't too far away. Hunching her shoulders against the wind, she continued forth, picking up her pace now.

　There was a deeper cold in her bones that Max did not know to acknowledge. A burning touch of ice all over her skin; the inside of her chest was trembling, as if she had eaten a load of ice cream and had a lower version of brain-freeze. The feeling most people would relate to being watched.

　The corner of the street was cloaked in darkness. Max made for it, and it did not occur to her that she should fear it. Not until she glanced back, out of what she called habit but really must have been compulsion, and her entire body seemed to freeze with terror.

　Only a few feet away was a slender figure, naked skin smooth and flat, the color of pale ash. It was tipped with what looked like a head, but there were no eyes, only a thin line that could have been a mouth. A monster.

　Max was no stranger to monsters, of course—but she had never seen anything quite so ugly, so horrifyingly similar to what she might have seen in her nightmares before she moved to Hawkins. She had only froze for a moment, mostly to get a good look at the thing, to try and comprehend it—but then it pounced on her, killing the rising scream in her throat.

　

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MIKE GROANED. "I'M so ready for this week to be over with."

　Jade squeezed his hand, channeling her warmth as carefully as possible. Thanks to her, Mike had been warmed considerably. No longer did he feel the urge to dip himself in hellfire to rid himself of this ridiculous cold.

　"We've got today and tomorrow," Jade said. "Then we're out for Christmas break. You'll survive."

　"Will I?"

　Jade chuckled, bumped his shoulder with hers—and froze. Mike only managed another half-step forward, and then stopped, turning to flash Jade a curious look. But her attention was elsewhere; by the part of her mouth, she was clearly shocked.

　Before Mike could ask, he felt her hand rip from his, stripping away the heat. He clenched his bare fist in her wake, and started to follow her. In moments, she dropped at a bush a few feet away. At first, Mike was confused—and then he saw where her hands went, and he realized that a body was curled up on the ground, painfully still. Pale skin blended with the snow on the ground.