Winter's Shadow (24 page)

‘We should be at your house by next Tuesday at the very latest.’

Winter revved the accelerator and the two of them took off into the night.

The most direct route to Holloway Road lay through the centre of town; however, Winter knew that they would probably get there faster if they took the coastal path along the bluffs. For the past month, the town council had scheduled nightly road crews to tidy up the potholes plaguing Main Street, which meant there would be dozens of workers clogging up the street right now. If they were lucky, she and Blake might only be impeded ten minutes or so, but there was always a chance they could be delayed longer. Winter decided not to risk it, especially as haste seemed to be an issue for Blake.

Why was he in such a hurry, anyway? What had frightened him back at the parking lot? Despite his dismissal, Winter was quite sure it had something to do with the
arrival of the ominous black van. Who drove around with tinted windows? The people inside must have been up to no good if they wanted their identity to remain secret. Then there was the troubling fact of Blake’s tyres being slashed while they were inside the surf club. She checked her side mirror and was comforted that there was nobody following them.

Probably some slack-jawed yokel had seen Blake’s truck and decided to cause a little mischief. Similar unprovoked incidents of reckless destruction happened all the time in town. There were too many young people and not enough things to do. All those churning hormones had to have an outlet somewhere, and too often it was through violence or vandalism. There was no reason to think Blake was running from anything. It was just her paranoia playing tricks on her again.

They rode down Maple Boulevard, past Fletch’s and Howl’s Music Jamboree, before turning into Horton Street and heading towards the fishing jetty. The lack of streetlights in this section of town didn’t hinder Winter’s sight – she had the soft blue moonlight. Not quite threequarters full, the moon hung low in the sky, guiding her towards the coastline like a beacon.

Apart from the low hum of Jessie’s engine, the streets seemed eerily quiet, as if the town had opened itself up for her and Blake alone. They didn’t pass another car or pedestrian as they rode past the jetty, didn’t see any other lights cutting through the shadows ahead.

The night was theirs.

Blake’s arms felt strong around her middle, making Winter aware of just how soft her middle must feel in comparison. She clenched her stomach muscles, making a silent promise to herself that starting from tomorrow she’d begin taking better care of herself. She would start going to the gym in the afternoon with Jasmine.

Jasmine had been addicted to Pilates for the past three years, but had given up trying to convince Winter that it was anything more than a painful way to spend a couple of hours – hours which Winter knew could be devoted to something more useful. Like watching TV. The idea of trying to compete with Jasmine and her toned, gymgoing sisterhood was deeply unappealing, but it wouldn’t kill her to try.

Winter barely knew Blake, yet here she was, already contemplating massive life changes for his benefit – and the prospect of any kind of regular exercise for Winter was a
massive
life change. She needed to slow down and keep herself from getting carried away. One step at a time. It would be sensible to wait until she at least had Blake’s phone number before starting to plan their honeymoon. A few loaded glances were wonderful and all but they didn’t exactly add up to a relationship.

Despite Jessie’s engine protesting the steep incline, they crested the hill and turned onto Pacific Drive, leaving the greater town area behind them. Thick scrub rose up on their left-hand side, obscuring the view of the ocean. It ran for a short stretch before thinning as they weaved closer to the bluff. Soon the ocean opened up
beside them in the darkness, the roar of the waves just audible beneath the sound of the scooter, the occasional spray of sea mist cooling their cheeks. The reflection of the moon skittered across the shifting water’s surface, chasing them as they rode along the cliff’s edge, turning the water silver in its wake. It was beautiful.

‘Can you make this go any faster?’ Blake’s voice shouted over the hum of the engine, startling Winter out of her reverie.

She was sufficiently curious by the urgency of his tone to check her side mirror again. This time the reflection wasn’t empty – a car’s headlights were looming. Her second quick glance revealed it wasn’t a car at all, but the same van with the tinted windows she’d seen parked outside the surf club. Her instincts had been right. Blake had been frightened by the van and with good cause, it appeared, by the way it was aggressively bearing down on them. The vehicle had no numberplate, and this made the threat it posed seem all the more real.

Winter applied the accelerator and managed to pull away from the van. The icy coastal wind buffeted her face, making her eyes water. She checked her side mirror again and was alarmed to see the van speeding to close the gap between them.

‘Who are they?’ she cried out above the rushing wind.

‘Just drive, Winter!’ Blake yelled back.

Trying to ignore her fear and confusion, Winter focused all her attention on the road ahead. Somehow she’d been pulled into the middle of a very dangerous
situation – a situation all the more terrifying because of its ambiguity. If they got out of this safely, Blake would have some serious explaining to do.

If only there was a turn-off or a service station or somewhere to stop and call the police, but there was just the bluff’s edge to the left and thick, thorny scrubland on the right. Pacific Drive was the only road winding its way through this section of the coastal nature reserve, and wouldn’t join up with civilisation again for another mile or two.

Winter urged Jessie faster, desperately watching the darkness ahead for signs of another car. The road disappeared into a shadow that even the moon’s glow couldn’t penetrate. No lights shone there, no sign of help. Winter suddenly thought of her parents and realised with horror that she was nearing the spot where her father lost control of the car and disappeared over the bluff. It would be a cruel case of synchronicity if she and Blake were condemned to the same fate.

Winter’s heart jumped as the van’s engine roared louder in her ears. Their shadow was thrown across the gravel by the malevolent glare of the van’s headlights – it was almost on top of them! If they couldn’t pick up any more speed, they were going to —

‘Hold on!’ Blake cried out as the van bumped Jessie’s tail light.

Winter felt the scooter lurch underneath her grip. It was a miracle she didn’t lose control. The next time she wasn’t so lucky. The van nudged her again, knocking Jessie off the
road, angling them towards the cliff’s edge. Blue darkness yawned ahead of her, but still Winter gripped the handlebars, hoping she might avert this disaster. But there was simply not enough ground beneath them.

In a numb state of terror, she was vaguely aware that all the sound seemed to have drained out of the world, except for the rushing wind and Blake’s voice trying to be heard above it (
what was he saying?
). Jessie’s front wheel ran over the edge of the cliff, and then they were plunging towards the churning ocean below.

The frenzied waters rushed towards her. She could see rocks breaking the surface like black tombstones, shiny and slick.

‘
Let go, Winter!
’ Blake was screaming in her ear, but Winter was too terror-stricken to register his voice as anything but background noise.

This was it!

She was going to die!

‘LET GO —’

This was happening! This was really —

‘— OF THE HANDLEBARS!’

Winter was aware of Blake’s arms pulling her, trying to lift her upwards off the scooter as they plummeted, but her hands were frozen to the handlebars in a death grip. She was conscious of a pain in her chest as her heart buckled beneath the strain of this complete and utter mortal terror.

Sea spray salted her open mouth; the broiling midnight ocean filled her vision. Blake’s voice in her ear somehow cut through the chaos.

‘Let go, Winter,’ he whispered with impossibly calm authority, and Winter finally obeyed. She let go of the handlebars and as Jessie fell away beneath her, she released herself into Blake’s embrace, giving in to oblivion.

Dying was easy.

There was no pain, no abrupt end as Winter struck the icy waters. There was just a tightness, a sensation of pins and needles prickling her skin, and then the atmosphere seemed to subtly shift around her, becoming denser, thicker, almost like water. The strange thing was that she remained conscious through all this. She’d always imagined death as being the absence of everything – sight, sound, touch – but Winter’s senses remained sharp.

She smelled death’s perfume as it filled her nostrils and lungs; felt its touch like a warm breeze caressing her face; heard its music in the chiming of distant bells. But could she see?

Hesitantly, Winter opened her eyes . . . She was flying. Flying through a dark sky, stained green as though, just
below the horizon, an emerald sun was about to rise. She wasn’t alone in this place. Blake was flying along beside her in this emerald darkness, his hand clasped around hers, pulling her through this space. The wind ruffled his hair, blowing it back from his smooth brow. His eyes were fixed ahead on some imaginary point in the nothingness, his expression one of supreme concentration.

Suddenly the wind strengthened, and Winter felt herself being sucked down. The draught broke Blake’s grasp on her and yanked her away. She saw his head snap around towards her, his eyes widening with fear, and then she was falling. Whatever magic had kept her aloft failed once her contact with him was broken. She fell through the darkness – slowly. Gravity seemed to be weak in this place.

Despite the fact she was falling, Winter wasn’t afraid. She’d already died once and doubted she could die again. The separation from Blake troubled her, but the worry was distant and easily ignored. She was beyond such negative emotions. With every breath of the sweet perfume in the air, Winter felt warm serenity spreading through her body, stealing away any seeds of fear before they could bloom. She allowed herself to tumble down towards what looked like a thick carpet of clouds. There were immense dark shapes beneath the clouds, backlit by a shifting green light. Soon she was falling through the clouds and finally saw what cast off the spectral light below.