Page 20 of A Curse On Black Lake
“Eliana Greer,” she mutters.
“Do you remember what happened?” I ask her. Somewhere in the back of my mind I know that name, but I think I’ve seen heronly a handful of times. Her family has been around as long as mine.
“Yeah, I remember, some asshole ran me off the road and I fell into this ditch. Then everything went dark,” she grumbles.
“Someone did this on purpose?” I ask her, ignoring the sour taste in my mouth.
She scoffs and runs her hand through her long white hair. “I can’t say I’m surprised, people don’t really like me. Especially since my grandma is gone now.”
That’s where I heard the name recently. Juniper Greer died.
“Well, I’m sorry for your loss,” I tell her.
She looks up at me, and her blue-grey eyes see right through me. I try to ignore how uncomfortable her stare is, but she holds me captive. She’s not looking at me like I’m a serial killer. It’s more.
Pressure builds in my chest, and her eyes widen like she recognizes me. I guess that’s not unusual, since we’ve lived in the same town for a long time. Not that Iknowher.
She’s still looking at me, and then she mutters something under her breath, and I take a step back.
“I recognize you,” she whispers.
Okay then…“I mean, we both live in this tiny town, so that’s hardly surprising,” I say and offer my hand to her.
She takes it, and grunts getting to her feet.
“Are you sure you’re alright? Did you break anything? I can take you to the hospital,” I offer, noticing the knot on her head.
“No!” she yells.
I take a step back, and she seems to catch herself.
“Sorry, uh, it’s fine. I have something at home that will help with the headache.”
“Alright, and maybe you should call the police.”
“I don’t have a cellphone,” she says.
“Fair enough, they barely work anyway. But I can drop you off if you’d like.”That would really give the people of this town some extra fuel.
I look down into the ditch at her bike. Its front wheel is bent nearly in half, and totally unrideable, but I might be able to bend the rim back. White bars are strewn across the grass, and some sit in the water running through the creek.
Glancing up, I find the girl with piercing blue eyes and silk-spun white hair staring at me again, and it’s starting to creep me out, but she needs help. Then again, maybe there is a reason she was driven off the road. I don’t have any room to talk. People here like to believe rumors instead of facts, and this woman is probably amazing, but no one took the time, like they haven’t with me.
Now that she’s standing, I look her over once more, and there’s a giant bloody gash dripping down the front of her shin.
I reach for her again, and she almost leans into my touch. “You’re bleedin’ pretty good.”
She looks down. “Oh, I didn’t notice. I guess I should clean this up before I walk home.”
“Yeah, if you don’t want to go to the hospital, then at least let me get you some bandages or something.”
“I can’t…” she trails off and looks down at her bike.
She sighs and squats down, picking up white bars, and I catch a whiff, realizing it’s soap. In fact, I think I use that soap. I noticed it didn’t have any labels when I saw it at Cricket’s, but I bought a few bars because I liked the smell. And it works wonders on my rough calluses.
“Wait, do you make that?” I ask her.
“Yep,” she mumbles, and shakes off a couple of the wet bars. “Do you want these? I can’t exactly sell them now.”
