Unfamiliar (Unfamiliar Series #1)

Chapter 22

"Wake up," a voice whispers from nearby.

I jolt awake a second before a set of headlights take up my vision and my pulse fizzles at the memory of the dream that was almost a reality earlier today. I sit up, my head feeling fuzzy and strange as I blink a few times to clear the haziness from my eyes.

Astrid, Tessa, and I had been waiting for the lights out announcement and I must have fallen asleep between then because the room is now lit by a glowing orb that Tessa has summoned, the white light nestled in her palm as it casts shadows across everything in the room.

I can feel strange patterns imprinted on my face from lying on my quilt and I rub at them as I let out a slow, even breath to calm myself.

"Ready to go?" Tessa asks in a soft voice.

I nod and as a trio, we silently leave our room as Astrid carefully shuts the door behind us. The hallway is dark and silent, though I can still see the faint outline of Luke waiting for us at the end of the hall. He falls into line behind me, like a shadow as we quietly file down the stairs and cross the deserted lobby.

Nothing moves and there is no sound as we trek across the grass lawn toward the fence line that is obscured among the trees. Astrid motions for us to slow down as she leads us there before she points to Luke as we come to a stop.

"You first," she hisses.

"Me? What-?" he lets out a soft yelp as he is suddenly catapulted through the air like he's been tossed by a massive, invisible hand before he lands on the other side with a thump.

Tessa is next, her landing more graceful since she knows what to expect before Astrid launches me over the fence as well. She follows me soon afterwards, dropping into a roll before she bounces to her feet and grins as she dusts at her tattered, Pink Floyd t-shirt.

"See? That wasn't so bad, now come on, we need to go," she assures us.

With that said, she turns and sprints into the woods and I leap into a run after her. I feel clumsy and loud in the darkness as leaves crunch under my shoes and I swat branches out of my face. I can hear Tessa and Luke smashing through the underbrush behind me, their footsteps just as noisy as we stumble after Astrid in the dark.

There's the barest hint of headlights shimmering through the trees ahead of us, lighting up the leaves as I note that a few of them have begun to turn red, the first sign of fall. Astrid makes it to the road first, her sneakered feet tapping softly on the pavement like a doe's hooves as she hurries over to the car.

She opens the door and ushers for us to get in before she squeezes herself into the backseat with us and shuts the door. The driver, a college-aged guy with dark hair glances back a few times before he grins as he pulls the car onto the road. Maybe he thinks that we're a couple of high schoolers out messing around in the woods hoping to scare up some ghosts.

If only he knew the truth that we are really planning on bringing someone back from the dead, but no, not here, not a long dead witch from the Salem witch trials, instead, an innocent boy who was murdered and now rests locked up in a police station morgue.

I shudder at the idea of what's to come.

It doesn't take long for the police station to come into view as the Uber pulls over a dozen yards away down the street from it and we get out onto the dark and abandoned sidewalk that has cracks spidering across the concrete. We pause for a moment as the Uber drives off and Astrid motions for us to stop before she makes a hand motion and a coolness sweeps across my skin.