Chapter 6Kyle stared down into the dark water, its shiny black surface clogged with bits of ice that had broken off from the shore. The water didn’t really shimmer, because the snow clouds blocked out the moon and the stars, so its darkness was more like a moving, absorbent thing, a snake twisting through the wilderness. He listened to the sound of it as it rushed, babbling, overtop rocks, churning as the creek turned. Kyle stood at the top of the covered bridge just off campus that had probably been there for centuries. Its base was fieldstone and the top, covered portion was weathered wood, gray and cracked, looking as worn in the dark as he felt. He had come to the bridge almost without thinking where he was going, but when he arrived there, he knew his feet had had a purpose in bring

