Page 17 of Shadowface

She points up ahead through the mist as raindrops fall on the windshield. “Over there, it’s some sort of store. The abandoned warehouse I was looking for.” She drives closer. The roads out here aren’t even paved, as if the wealth and privilege stopped at the tree line and there is nothing enchanting about this place.

Everything is dusty.

We drive toward the abandoned building, the name Fresh Mart still sun-bleached on the side of the building, even though the sign has long been taken down. Something about it is familiar. My Papa used to talk about the Fresh Mart; he used to go meet my grandmother there, because that’s where she worked. I had no idea it looked like this.

My palms begin to sweat as she drives past it and carries onto the road beyond. “Where are we going, exactly?” I ask her and glance back at the abandoned general store, which looks nothing more than an abandoned warehouse. At this point, it seems like we are driving through tall grass that leads to nowhere with a few scattered trees that look like they got rejected, too.

She fires me a devious smirk. “There is an old, haunted house out this way, and I wanted to check out in the daylight hours.”

My heart leaps. “Dani, really? We’re going to be late for class.”

“Relax. We have lots of time. We are going to do a quick drive by for my research.”

Research? What kind of research is she doing?

“I’m trying to piece together all the weird things that have happened in this town. Plus, this place gives me the creeps, and I want to find out what happened here. I need ten minutes, then I’ll take us back to Kinsmen.”

I can’t stop her. She’s hellbent on doing this, and it’s not long before I realize we are going to a place that holds a piece of my history. My grandmother lived in a house near the Fresh Mart and used to walk there for work. The house, from what I’ve heard from my Papa, had bad things happen in it before she lived there. It must be the same place.

We carry on, and it doesn’t take long for us to find the skeletal remains of a home deep in the grass, as if the grass has taken over it. Its walls are crumbling, broken and haunted, and if we weren’t specifically looking for it, we could have easily missed it.

She stops the car, and we both stare at it. I’m sure as shit not getting out of the car if that’s what she’s expecting.

“How creepy is that?” I mutter. “There isn’t even a road that leads up to it.”

“They call it the Old Sheffield Place,” Dani says. “Apparently, a man in the 1950s ended up going insane and killed his wife and daughter in this home. They found his body face down in a field a few months later. Rumor has it, everyone who lived here after him lost their minds, too. They ended up condemning it in the 80s after more bad things happened, so no one wants to go near it in case they end up going insane, too. So now it’s here, rotting away…”

My grandmother wasn’t born into wealth like my grandfather was. She lived in this house after the Sheffield family died; she was here during the slaughters of 1979. This was her home. Dani doesn’t realize she’s speaking about my family.

A prickle shoots down my spine and a haunting image pushes into my vision. This fragment of an image, the same in my nightmares. The memory I can’t quite grasp then shifts into an image of my beautiful grandmother going insane.

Everyone who lives here goes insane.

I take a shuddering breath, staring at this old house that’s part of my ancestry.

I turn to face Dani, who is white as a ghost, as if she can sense the intensity of this place, too. “Can we go now?”

She nods and peels away, kicking dust up as we head back into the affluent, and much safer, part of town.

As soon as we drive back into town, I relax. That is, until my phone vibrates, and I hold my breath as I swipe the message open and read it.

Unknown number: Good morning, Summer.

Summer, not pretty girl.

I lower my gaze and frown, but my skin starts to buzz with excitement. I don’t answer, but I do insert the number in my contacts under SF. A few minutes go by before he texts again.

SF: Ignoring me already?

Not knowing what to say, I nibble on my lip as a burning heat settles between my thighs. I scroll up and see the picture he sent of me a couple of nights ago.

Dani is oblivious to what I’m looking at and turns the music to an uncomfortable level as she zips toward campus as drops of rain patter around us. I stare out into those trees, although my heart is taking a beating.

SF: Have you decided yet?

What the hell do I even say to that?

Summer: Have I decided what?