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The trip was a lot quicker than I iht and we had to be there by this time tomorrow The GPS told us ere twenty-three hours away from Mount Kuuce, which I assumed was our destination Eli said we needed more time, so we didn’t stop for dinner It wasn’t an issue; I’d eaten toofro un the horizon The tall hillside was coarse with boulders and the fog began to roll in, htly more eerie Soon the busyan old service road leading us deeper and deeper into the forest

Eli flicked on the high beams; it allowed us to see ht stray onto the road The trees had changed style They hite and weathered instead of brown and hard

"They’re Paperbark trees," Eli said,me wonder if he could actually read h they were made with papier mache Bits and pieces stuck out in every direction, like torn tissue paper It was strange and eerie yet painfully beautiful Out froed animal

"Eli, look out!" I shouted

I squeezed my eyes shut as the car lurched and I was thrown forward violently The seatbelt bit intothe wind out ofto a stop Our breaths were ragged and uneven as adrenaline and fear doasped, trying to even out ed it It hopped into that bush I should reement

"Wait in the car," Eli ordered I watched as he disappeared into the bush

A shadowup with it I hadn’t hit s

You can handle yourself against a vaic … kind of

I decided to do the one thing I yell at silly girls in horror h the branches and sticks of the trees and cast scary, emotionless shadows onto the road My eyes swept over the surrounding bushes, searching for Eli

Nothing

The fog blanketed the world in a rey as I took a few steps forward I saw hi

"No" My voice was barely above a whisper

No, it couldn’t be … I saith h o back to the car That was pointless Instead, I took off in the direction Eli went, hoping I would run into hi leaves behind ed strands ofas hair was torn frorasped at my chest Shit! I left asped as I rebounded off a hard body and fell backwards, hitting my head on the forest floor For a moment my vision spun When my eyes came back into focus, I panicked at the face the loo?"

It was Eli, his voice alert and panicked A part ofin fear and disbelief

"I … I … I --" I panted, trying to speak "I saw Hunter"

Eli grasped ently to my feet

"Did you hit your head in the car?" he asked, exa my forehead

"No … Eli, I saw hi slightly I felt h me He didn’t believe me, of course he didn’t He saw Hunter die as well

"It’s nors when you’ve witnessed such a traumatic event"

"No I saw him He wasn’t some kind of apparition or hallucination, he was real"

Even in the low light of the forest I could see the concerned expression do Eli’s features I knohat I saw, the creepy pale skin and the soulless dark eyes

"He’s a vao back to the car We still have a long drive to get to Mount Kuuce You can sleep it off"

We stepped out of the bush and onto the road I keptof being watched returned to

"Ruby?"

My attention turned back to Eli I hadn’t realized I’d stopped walking

When ere in the car, an uncomfortable silence fell Eli didn’t believe me As far as he was concerned, I’d hit my head when he slammed on the brakes, or the trau with my mind, but it couldn’t be He was so vivid and real I saw the way the linted off his deathly pale skin His deni blue His ih beams, I didn’t see any color in his eyes, just blackness -- a skin-crawling, hair-raising tunnel of darkness

Neither of us slept that night, we just kept on driving in silence Every time I closed my eyes I saw his face It wasn’t the sweet, kind face I remembered It was horrible and dark It was exactly the saer, like I didn’t know hiry atto help, and noas a va he wanted to kill

A shiin the invisible rays that kissed htful place, adorning the soft blue sky

"Do you want to talk about last night?"

Oh, so he hasn’t lost his voice

"There’s no point You don’t believe me"

"Ruby" Eli exhaled in frustration "It’s not a simple as that I saw hi brought back as a vampire"

"He is, Eli I can’t prove it to you but I saw hiht We’ll clear this mess up then"

I exhaled out of ht hour car trip had co mountain we had to ascend poppedknees as we rolled to a stop outside a huge wrought iron gate The twilight sky was beautiful There were no clouds and no stars It was peaceful, but it still wasn’t enough to calate screeched as it pulled itself open Sloe drove forward through the wild, untaravel road shrouded by thick trees, the scenery changed The dark, ardens The road becalanced sideways at Eli in disbelief

"Is this the place you came to when he summoned you?"