PROLOGUE
PROLOGUE
The trunk of the tall sugar maple tree stretched high above Gavin Barnes. Below him, the ground fell away, forty feet down, a dangerous drop. But that was all part of the challenge, the excitement. You literally could die doing this dare, and that was why they did it.
It was better not to look down. Looking down made his stomach twist. Up was where they were going. As high as possible. He needed to beat his friend Mike, climbing determinedly below him, but ready to pass him if Gavin paused, or froze.
"You're going slowly," Mike teased breathlessly. "Getting scared?"
"Me? Never!"
Gavin grabbed the branch above him, hoping to get a lead on his friend. But as he pushed himself up, his foot slipped and he felt a moment of sheer terror, a moment as he imagined losing his grip on the tree's rough bark, and falling down, tumbling through the air, crashing into the forest below.
He tightened his grip, but his hands were trembling. He could feel the rough bark biting into his palms.
He clung to the branch, taking a moment to stabilize himself before wedging his foot more securely.
“You okay? Did you slip?” Mike asked, amusement and anxiety combined in his tone.
"I'm great," Gavin said, though his voice shook. "Just getting up some speed to leave you behind."
"Thought you were losing your nerve for a minute there,” Mike teased.
Gavin pulled himself up, panting. He had to get past the near miss, and not think about what could have happened.
"Catch up, Mike!" he called out.
Then he grabbed the next branch, began to pull himself up.
Now that he was moving again, back in his rhythm, Gavin felt a rush of excitement as he climbed. The wind rushed past his ears as he pulled himself up the tree. It was good to be climbing, away from the boring old town below.
Of all the trees in this thickly forested part of northern Minnesota, this was one of the tallest, and the reason why they'd chosen it for their competition today.
It was spring, but the sun-dappled forest felt cold, and the wind tugged at Gavin's short, dark hair as he ascended. It always felt breezier in the upper branches, and yet again, he was reminded of that slip. If the wind got up, it could pull you right out of the tree. He thought for a moment how it would feel to fall, not just a slip of the foot, but yards and yards, tumbling down.
Don't think about it, he warned himself. Freezing up now would be a bad idea. A really bad decision. He didn't want to end up like a cat, stranded high in the branches, too scared to get down again. But now that they were getting higher, the tree was starting to sway, as if its upper branches and leafy canopy couldn't hold the weight of two teenage boys on a dare.
Perhaps it couldn't, he thought, with another flash of fear. Or perhaps it just felt that way. For a second, he imagined he could hear the cracking of a branch.
"You know you're going more slowly than me," Mike called. He grabbed Gavin's ankle and Gavin yelled in fright.
"Don't do that, man! Are you crazy?"
"Don't let me catch up," Mike warned. "You're slowing down!"
"Am not," Gavin called back.
"Chicken."
It was Mike who had dared them both to climb it. But it was Gavin who was struggling now.
He'd been doing fine until that slip. Now that he was back up, climbing with his heart racing, that scare was making him more aware of the distance between him and the ground.
He began climbing again, concentrating on the bark beneath his palms, the rough surface that was making him slip, making his hands sweat even more. And now a gust of wind, swirling through the treetops, caught at the branch under Gavin's hand and it began to shake.
And then, he saw something that distracted him. Something exciting, that motivated him to get past his fear and push on, push ahead.
"Hey!" he called excitedly.
"What?" Mike asked.
"I can see the machinery now! I can actually watch where they're clearing the trees."
A couple hundred yards away, the incessant drone of the machines at work provided a noisy background to the usually quiet forest. An area of the woods was being cleared for development. It was a massive project. Soon, their small town wouldn't be so small anymore. It might even be less boring, or so Gavin hoped.
"I want to see! But we better not let them see us. I'm sure we'll get into trouble," Mike warned. "We're not supposed to be near the construction site at all."
"I'm sure they're too busy to worry about us," Gavin said, but he kept his head down all the same, made sure he didn't poke it out beyond the thick, leafy branches. But if he got up another yard, he'd have a great view. He might even be able to watch as an actual tree got felled and went crashing to the floor. That would be something! He could film it. He had his phone in his pocket.
And then, under his foot, the worst happened.
The branch he had all his weight on, snapped. It was a sharp c***k that made him jump like he was shot, made him shriek out in fright
He could feel the branch slipping beneath him, feel it giving way, and he knew that if he stayed, he'd fall and there would be no stopping from crashing down from the mighty height he'd climbed to.
He reached out, grabbing for the next limb, but that was slick with damp leaves and he couldn't get a grip on it. He felt himself slipping. I'm going to fall, he thought, and the real terror of it hit him.
"Please, Mike!" he called. "Get me!"
He could hear Mike gasping for air as he struggled to climb up towards him.
"Hurry!" Gavin urged. He reached out and grasped a thin branch, at a precarious angle, feeling a bolt of fear that this one would break, too.
“Hang in there!” Mike shouted. His friend grabbed his ankle again, this time pushing up, giving him the purchase he needed, but not enough.
He felt the branch he was hanging from move, quiver. He was going to fall. Gavin cried out as he felt himself start to slip again. He clamped his hands onto the branch like a man on a sinking ship.
Reaching up, almost blind with panic, he grabbed at something else. Another pale, slim branch, hoping that this one would offer more stability.
But it didn't feel like a branch. It was soft, cold, and flexible. And it, too, moved when he grabbed it.
It lurched downward, and he saw that what he'd thought was a branch was an arm.
"There's an arm here!" he cried out, hearing his own voice high with fear.
"What? You're kidding me, right?" But Mike's voice sounded scared too, now, picking up on the panic he could hear in his friend's.
It was an arm. He hadn't been hallucinating. A cold, pale arm, with a hand at the end. A hand with stiff, cold fingers that jerked down toward him.
Gavin began to scream in terror, trying to get down, moving his hands, adjusting his grip, grabbing out at anything he could except for that awful, impossible thing. He kicked Mike in the head by accident, clumsy with terror, and heard his friend shout in pain.
"We need to get down, man, we need to get down, this is crazy, there's a dead person here! A dead person! Mike, get down! Get out!"
But it was too late.
Dislodged, the body slid further. It slipped and lurched into his view.
And, now shrieking in panic, clinging to the leafy branches without even feeling his hands, Gavin came face to face with the corpse. The stuff of nightmares, a dead woman in the tree. He’d touched her, he had pulled her arm, and now she was slipping jerkily down from the canopy hiding place.
A sheet-white face slid down into his view. Tangled blonde hair spilled over his skin. And wide, sightless blue eyes stared into his own.
