Page 4 of The Curse of Indy Moore
I couldn’t even if I tried, but I nodded for her.
She went to the room she shared with her eldest, Charlotte, and I went to the one I shared with my two younger cousins, Maude and Susannah. They had bunk beds that served no purpose since they shared the top bunk most of the time. We had a dresser pressed against the wall beneath our window for their clothes. The bottom bunk became a toy chest full of pinecones, sticks, and rocks tied together by threads to create whatever strange concoction the two could imagine.
I laid the ruined dress on my bed, then used my foot to tug an old beer crate out from under it. Ysabel gave a couple to me that I stored my clothes in. The girls had more stuff, so I gave them the dresser. Most of my clothes were filthy, anyway. After stashing the dress in one, I pushed the crate under the bed, then stood to meet two sets of eyes, the same blue as their mother’s, peering at me from the top bunk.
“You’re meant to be sleeping,” I whispered.
Susannah poked her head out first. The twins had Uncle Fern’s wild red hair, always sticking up at odd ends. Her bottom lip trembled, making her chin full of wrinkles. “We’re sorry about ruining your dress, Indy.”
“Yeah, we were wrestling,” Maude said from under the blanket.
“You needn’t worry about that. Now, go to sleep.” I moved over to tuck them in, but Susannah shook her head.
“I can’t sleep without Dolly.”
Dolly was not as the name implied. It was the amalgamation of a bear and a cat stuffed animal, parts Susannah scrounged from the neighbors and insisted I piece together. She rarely went anywhere without the ugly thing.
“Why isn’t she in bed with you?” I asked.
“Mom got upset earlier ‘cause of the dress,” Maude explained. “She made us get a bath, and we couldn’t go back outside.”
“So, Dolly is still in our fortress,” Susannah finished with a longing look out the window.
With hands on my hips, I declared, “I sense you have a request.”
“A deal.” Susannah held out her hand. “We will make your bed for a whole week if you bring her home.”
“Youwill make her bed,” Maude corrected.
I bit back a laugh. “Make it two weeks, and we have a deal.”
Susannah nodded, and I shook her hand.
Aunt Agnes had already gone to her room, so I made it outside without a fuss. She wouldn’t want me going out to get Dolly.“Demons seek souls in the dark, Indy, so you must not venture into the woods at night,”she would say. Those were tall tales said to children to prevent them from wandering too far after dark. The Misty Woodlands at our backs were nothing more than a wondrous place to play and lay in the shade on the hottest summer days.
After tugging on my cloak and relighting the lantern, I wandered toward the woodlands, where the trees grew thin and high. I stopped once to glance over my shoulder, feeling like I was being watched, and I was—by a cow hanging its head over a fence. Giggling, I continued into the woods, where deer stripped the lowest limbs, leaving their pale white trunks bare. The underbrush crowded beneath the shade. The golden leaves cast the forest in a hue of dawnlight even at night, muted by the mist for which it was named creeping in.
Maude and Susannah’s fort wasn’t too far from the house. If one squinted from the field, they would see the hut made of fallen branches stacked between a grove of trees. Uncle Fern built it for me when I came to live with them after Mom died. Kneeling among the grass, I peered inside to find Dolly snug in the blankets. She had mismatched eyes and ears, so she remained in a perpetual state of confusion.
“There you are.” I snatched her as a stiff wind rushed by.
Shivering, I clutched my cloak tighter. Something wet hit my cheek. Feeling the first rain was a bad omen. After the week I had, I wasn’t in the mood for worse. But then a snowflake danced in front of my eyes. It hadn’t rained, after all. Snow fell when it was hardly the fall season.
“Strange.” I had to get home before a storm blew in.
When I turned around, the cottage wasn’t there, nor any of Westshire. The mist rolled in, as high as my knees, and the forest darkened. Raising the lantern high, I took a step from the fort. All that met me was a vast sea of trees.
“What…?” I whispered, mortified when I faced the hut, only to find it missing, too.
My heart leapt into my throat. I opened my mouth to call for help, then it came: a howl followed by another and another and more than I could possibly count.
2
Where Indy Meets a Wolf
Thehowlscrescendoed,creatinga cacophony of horrific harmony. Wolves never prowled the Misty Woodlands. Coyotes and foxes stealing a chicken were the worst of our troubles.
Hearing them brought on fear and confusion, as I wasn’t entirely certain I could trust what I heard after my eyes were playing tricks on me. Then, a growl emanated from the mist, and a darkened silhouette stalked closer.
