Page 102 of The Sister's Curse
I rose up out of the creek, gasping, feeling raw and surrounded by steam. I splashed back and landed on my ass. Cold, silver water curled around me, hissing.
In the distance, a shadowy figure moved away, the silhouette of a woman. She looked like Viv, treading water in a curiously eellike fashion.
“Wait,” I implored. “Wait.”
But she was gone, leaving only the glitter of water droplets in her wake as she slithered upstream.
Gibby stood in the water, barking at the trail she left behind.
My rational mind said it was just a water snake.
My irrational mind said it was the curse, the creature that lurked in the water and drowned victims who shared blood with the Kings of Warsaw Creek.
She could’ve killed me. But she didn’t.
Gibby looked at me and growled. His fur stood on end.
“Gibby!” I gasped, before I realized he was not looking at me, but past me.
I looked over my shoulder.
A fox sat on the bank. Sinoe. She cackled once more, that sound I’d followed into the woods.
I reached a hand to her. She padded to me and sniffed, cautious.
Gibby whimpered.
“All right,” I said to the two of them. “We can coexist, right?”
The fox cackled, and Gibby huffed.
I was not optimistic.
23
Bringing the Fox Home
I lured Sinoe into the car with the remains of yesterday’s sandwich. I turned the AC on while she stretched out on the back seat and yawned. She didn’t seem disturbed at all by the heat of the burning house or the embers drifting like fireflies.
I called an animal sanctuary, to learn that they did not take foxes. But, interestingly enough, they’d taken in two opossum joeys and a raccoon kit the day before yesterday. And Viv had been the one to drop them off.
What the hell?Did she have some premonition that she’d be abducted?
Or did she leave on her own?
Surely she didn’t toss her house and set fire to it…That had to happen after she left.
“What happened to Viv?” I asked Sinoe.
She looked in my direction without lifting her head.
The volunteer fire department arrived in a half hour. By then, the scene was swarming with sheriff’s deputies. Gibby and I sat onthe El Camino’s tailgate and watched the house burn. There’s always something heartbreaking about watching a house fall on itself, the roof trusses breaking and everything in the house collapsing like a star.
Paramedics treated and released me on the scene. I was told I was lucky.
Funny. I didn’t feel lucky.
When I got home, I opened the car door for the fox, unsure what else to do. Sinoe hopped out, stretched, and yawned. She followed me to the porch, jumped up on a chair beside Gibby’s food and water dishes.
