The Secret Keeper

It’s funny how a lot of things that happen in my life end with being chased.

The wolf leapt after me as soon as the rock hit, but I had already turned around and started heading back the way I’d come. My legs fell into a regular rhythm, trying to get the animal to follow me. I knew it was, because I could hear its footprints thumping on the ground behind me.

Random thoughts whizzed around in my skull, as if trying to think about everything before I died. Because at that point, I had almost no doubt in my mind that I was about to die. I can say I’m psychic all I want, but this was more of an instinct.

Holly. I missed her so much. I didn’t even know what had happened to her. And I didn’t think I was going to find out, either.

Faye. I found it strange that she should cross my mind at a time like this. I mean, I’d only known her for a day. But it seemed like she’d be important in my life. I couldn’t explain it, exactly, but we had this… this bond. This connection.Almost as if we’d known each other in another life.

My parents. I loved them. How could I not think about them? They’d given everything for me, some lowly little girl that wasn’t even theirs. They were by far the most gracious people I knew.

I shut my eyes for a second, imagining Ivy’s think red hair and kind blue eyes, Arkarian’s mysterious gray eyes and wavy brown hair. The faces I had known all my life.

I could hear the wolf’s panting behind me, like an added incentive to keep running. I tried frantically to think of a way out of this, but my mind came up blank every time.

Bo.

My heart simultaneously stopped completely and thudded louder than ever. Bo. I loved him more than anything. I was so stupid, not to tell him how I felt. I ruined everything. And now he might never know that I was thinking about him.

Tears started streaming down my face then, exposing it even more to the cold of the night. It stung like needles pricking it, over and over again. But I didn’t notice it. The only thing I was aware of was the wolf, its breathing warm against my back, its footfalls echoing in my ears. I had never been so afraid of anything in my life, and yet, I felt strangely connected with it.

The lake.

The thought sprung up in my mind out of the blue. I didn’t know what had happened, and I looked around quizzically.

Creatures can’t survive in water. Go to the lake.

That must have been Ivy, somehow sending her thoughts to me. I turned my stride slightly, running toward where I was sure the lake was.

Lake Tears was a legend in Witch Hazel. It wasn’t particularly large, but it was plenty deep, and the water choppy. It was nearly impossible to swim in it, even in the summertime. It wasn’t quite frozen over yet, but the water was so cold that you could almost get hypothermia from sticking your feet in.

There was a cliff, right around where I was running to, called Tears Promontory. Legend has it that when someone drowned in the lake (which was actually quite common), the mourners would go up to the promontory and cry for their loves ones. Their tears would fall into the lake, hence its name.

That’s where I willed my legs to take me.

I knew it would be the death of me, to jump into that lake. But it would also be the death of the wolf, and if the wolf was dead then it couldn’t attack Bo and Ivy and Arkarian. And then they would all be safe, and then they could protect the Secret.

I put my entire faith in them. I believed in them. They could do it.

“Come on, mutt,” I snarled bravely. “Time to go for a swim.”

I maneuvered nimbly through the tree, my legs pumping hard. My breath came out in little puffs in front of me, and my heart thudded loudly in my chest.

“Eve!”

That was Bo’s voice. New tears sprung to my eyes. What was he doing here? He should be getting as far away from me as possible. He shouldn’t be close enough that I could hear him.

“Stop! Please!”

It sounded as if he was begging. I wanted to tell him I couldn’t. I couldn’t stop, because if I did, the wolf would attack us all. And that couldn’t happen. I wouldn’t let that happen, not to him.

“EVANGELINE! STOP!”

I shook my head pitifully, feeling the tears spring from my eyes.

The wolf was closing in on my now. I could almost the heat rolling off of it in waves, as if its body had been heated up by the chase.

I looked around, and finally saw it. The promontory.

The moon shone brightly above it, like an all-seeing eye. It looked like a scene straight out of a movie. Too bad this was real life.

My breath rattled in my chest as it fought its way out. This was it. This is what everyone’s sacrifices for me had led to.

“NO!”

A single tear slid down my cheek as I reached the edge of the cliff. As I stared down into the choppy, gray, water, a small sob escaped my lips.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, knowing that no one could hear me, except that wolf.

And then I did the stupidest thing I’d ever done in my life.

I jumped.