Dead End: Midnight Hollow by Penn Cassidy (free novel 24 TXT) 📗

I had to look back up again to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. They were still up there, the twin moons. They hovered in the starry sky, like mirror images of each other, except the one on the right was a little bit darker than the other one. Both were tinted slightly orange, just like the fog that flowed over the road. I was shaking now too. I didn’t know what to do. Clearly, we weren’t in Sunset Hollow anymore…but how could that be? I recognized the stretch of road we were on. I’d know this place anywhere, but I knew for damn sure there had always been exactly one moon in that sky.

I was officially losing my mind. At least I wasn’t alone.

“Maddie,” I said calmly, surprising myself. “Let’s head to the aunties’ house. I don’t know why, but I have a feeling those two will know what’s going on. Maybe they slipped something in our tea again?”

They’d been known to experiment with their herbal teas, claiming they were trying out some new medicinal herb, but it never ended well for the test subject—usually me or Maddie. Somehow, though, I just knew that if anyone had a chance of helping us, it would be those two crazy women. If they were even there… Oh god, what if they weren’t there?!

Maddie nodded numbly, giving me a pathetic smile, but I watched her take a deep breath and square her shoulders before looping her arm through mine. We took off down the road.

I glanced over my shoulder and noticed the guys were now arguing quietly. I shook my head. Nothing ever changed. It reminded me of the good ole days, when no one seemed to be able to make a decision until I stepped up and made it for them. Freddy usually sided with Norman, and Jason sided with Michael based on principal alone. A wave of nostalgia so strong it almost made me stumble came over me, but I shrugged it off. Now wasn’t the time for a walk down memory lane, pun fully intended.

“Are you coming or what?” I eyed each of them individually. “Unless you feel like hitchhiking.” I shrugged, turning back around, and continued down the road. Maddie snorted a quiet laugh.

Stomping feet pounded the pavement behind us. Now she outright giggled behind her other hand and bumped her shoulder with mine. Thank god the same old Maddie was still in there. It was going to be just fine. I had my best friend by my side, grumpy assholes watching our backs, and I knew what direction we were heading in. That was…unless they planned to use me as bait in the event things did go south. I really wouldn’t be surprised if that happened.

It felt like we’d been walking for miles before we finally approached the orchard up ahead in the distance, but the itching feeling of being watched kept coming and going. I’d felt it for the last twenty minutes, and I thought Maddie did too, because her head was on a constant swivel.

Five more minutes, and we were at the edge of Farmer Orson’s orchard, but something didn’t look right. For an orchard, it was awfully thick and dark. If I didn’t know any better, I’d almost call it a forest. This wasn’t right. Something was off about this place that was both familiar and alien at the same time.

I knew that on the other side of the orchard was a cornfield and the cemetery before reaching the town line, so we’d be home free, I hoped. The road took a detour, cutting the orchard/forest in half, so we had no choice but to head straight into it. It shouldn’t have taken us more than ten minutes to walk through, but still, nobody moved. We’d come to a dead stop on the edge of the treeline, darkness looming ahead.

There wasn’t one single sliver of movement from any of us as we peered into the darkness. The eerie sea of spindly trees was thick enough that it blocked out most of the moonlight. Orange fog still surged between them, folding over a landscape of upturned roots on either side of the two lane road. I couldn’t even hear the usual crickets or howling of the wind. It was as if everything had stopped moving at once. Even my own heartbeat seemed to slow. Fuck, I really didn’t want to go in there.

“Maybe we should take a different route?” My voice came out a little too high pitched before I cleared my throat and refused to meet anyone’s gaze. They were all looking at me.

“Don’t tell me goth chick is afraid of the woods,” Norman sneered. His sideways smile goaded me. He was such a fucking ass sometimes.

“Be my guest.” I gestured ahead with a dramatic sweep of my hand and watched his eyes flicker with a small hint of doubt before he shrugged it off and bumped into my shoulder. “Your funeral,” I added cheekily, just to grate his nerves.

Freddy rushed past me to walk along with his twin, quietly whispering in his ear. His jaw was clenched, and he rolled his eyes at whatever Norman said back to him. Jason and Michael stayed behind Maddie and me, giving us enough space that they weren’t breathing down our necks.

“How you holding up?” I asked Maddie, staring idly down at my black stockings and finding it silly how just this morning, I was throwing clothes around left and right across my room because I knew the guys would be at the carnival. Dress to impress, even for my enemies. It all seemed so trivial now.

“Honestly, not great. I don’t get how you’re so calm right now. I’m one more bat, shadow, or scarecrow away from running around in circles screaming,” she said with a straight face, telling the truth.

I squeezed her arm tighter, noting the hopelessness creeping into her stare. She was