Eleven Night In PIne Haven

Chapter5

Cora

I knew that sound.

"Hollis," I whispered, and my heart slammed so hard against my ribs that it hurt. "Oh, God. He's coming."

I tried to move, and the car tipped forward. I screamed, grabbing the wheel, my whole body shaking. My bag slid off the seat and banged against the dashboard.

Under the floor, small stones rolled away into the dark and never hit the bottom.

Everything went still.

"Okay," I whispered, and my breath came out long and heavy, like I had been holding it for hours. "Okay. Okay. Don't move, Cora."

I grabbed the door handle and pulled. Nothing. The door was crushed against the guardrail.

"No," I gasped, my whole body trembling. "No, no, not like this. Please, God," I begged, tears pouring down my face. "Please, please, please!"

I turned my head, a little at a time. The window beside me was broken, and snow was blowing in through the hole. It was small. It was my only way out.

I pulled the bag strap over my head. My fingers were so cold I dropped it twice. Then I gripped the window frame and pulled myself up.

The car groaned. It slipped down another inch.

"Help!" I screamed, my voice tearing out of my throat.

"Move, Cora!" I cried, slapping my own legs, my eyes wide and wild. "Move! Move! I have to get out of here!"

Glass cut through my sleeve and into my arm. I kicked and twisted and tore my jeans on the sharp edge. For one long second I hung half out of the window, with the black drop right under my chest and my heart pounding so hard I thought it would break through my ribs. Then my knees hit the snow, and I rolled away.

Behind me, the car slid.

At first it was slow. Metal scraped on metal. Then it was gone. A long, loud crash came up from the dark, and it went on and on until the wind covered it.

"Oh, God," I whimpered, lying on my back, my hands shaking over my mouth. That was supposed to be me.

Then light moved across the trees.

Headlights, just down the road, coming around the bend. I jumped up and ran into the pines, branches slapping my face, and threw myself down behind a fallen log just as the SUV rolled past.

It stopped. A door opened.

I pushed my mouth into my sleeve so he wouldn't hear me breathe. A flashlight beam swept across the road, across the broken guardrail, across the empty air where my car used to be.

"Well, well," Hollis said calmly, his voice flat and cold. "She went over."

A phone crackled in his hand.

"Is she dead?" Richard asked.

"Can't tell, sir," Hollis answered, kicking at the snow. "I'll check the road."

"Check it well," that beast said softly, and the softness was the scariest part. "I want her back, Hollis. Alive, if possible."

If possible.

I shut my eyes. The flashlight crossed the log, so close I saw my own breath glow white in the light, and I begged every saint I had ever heard of.

The light moved on. Boots crunched away toward the bend.

Now. It had to be now.

I crawled backward on my elbows until the road was out of sight. Then I stood up, and the cold hit me like a slap. My teeth chattered so hard I bit my tongue.

Be brave, little bird.

"I'm trying, Nana," I sobbed, my voice breaking in the middle. "I'm trying so hard."

I started to climb.

The hill was steep and the snow came up to my knees. I fell once, and my hands burned in the snow, and I lay there with my cheek on the ice, thinking how easy it would be to just stay. The cold didn't hurt anymore.

That scared me more than anything.

"Get up!" I shouted at myself, gritting my teeth, my fists shaking in the snow. "Get up, Cora! Get up! Don't you dare die here because of him!"

Something warm ran into my eye. I wiped it, and my glove came away red. I pulled myself up on shaking arms.

Then I saw it.

A tiny gold square, high on the hill, shining between the trees. A window.

"Oh, please be real," I whispered, my breath catching in my chest. "Please."

I ran for it. My shoe came off in the snow and I left it. I felt the rosary and Nana's postcard in my bag, like her hand was pushing me from behind.

Always a door open for you.

The trees opened up. A low stone wall came out of the snow. Behind it stood a small, dark church, and next to it, a narrow stone house with smoke coming from the chimney.

I grabbed the gatepost and sobbed. Loud. Ugly.

A red door waited at the end of the path, with a small iron cross above it. Nana had told me about that door a hundred times. I never believed it was real.

Far down the hill, an engine started up again.

"No," I whimpered, spinning around, my heart racing. "Not now."

I hit the door with my fist. It was a weak sound.

I hit it again. "Please!" I cried, my voice cracking. "Please, open the door!"

Nothing.

My knees gave out. I slid down the door, and everything went gold and black.

"Nana," I whispered weakly, my eyes sliding shut. "I came."

Then a bolt scraped.

A warm light fell over me. I tipped my head back, and a man stood in the doorway.

My breath stopped.

He was tall enough to fill the whole door.

His hair was black and messy, like he had just woken up.

His eyes were dark brown, almost black. They looked right at me.

My mouth fell open, like I had just seen something sinful.

His jaw was sharp, with dark stubble on it. I wondered how it would feel under my fingers. Cora! I scolded myself.

His gray sweater was pushed up to his elbows. Black ink ran down both his arms, over the muscles, over the veins, all the way to his big hands.

Those hands.

His shirt was open at the top. I saw his bare skin, and his chest rising and falling.

He was barefoot in the snow. He didn't even seem to feel the cold.

He is too beautiful, I thought, dizzy. That is a sin.

My heart knocked once, slow and hard. My cheeks went hot, even in that freezing wind.

Then I saw it. A small white collar at his neck.

Damn it, I sighed disappointed.

He's a priest.

I looked away, my face burning. But I looked back. I couldn't help it.

Then the color drained from his face.

"Dear God," he gasped, dropping to his knees in the snow. His hands were big and rough, and they were shaking as he held my face like I might break. "You're freezing. You're bleeding. Stay with me," he begged, his voice cracking. "Look at me."

"I am looking," I whispered weakly, my lips trembling.

"I've got you," he said hoarsely, pulling me against his chest. "You're safe. I have you."

I tried to say thank you. But he was staring at my face like he had seen a ghost, and his thumb stopped moving on my cheek.

"Cora?" Mateo whispered, his eyes wide with shock.

I had never told anyone in Pinehaven my name.