Hidden (Hidden Series Book One) Read Free Page B

settling at the point over
the door. They were telling me to go inside.
    The door opened in front of me. I wasn’t
afraid. My body finally wasn’t shaking like I was waiting to take
my last breath.
    Inside, the floorboards creaked as I stepped
softly through the house. Not a haunting sound, more like it was
coming alive to welcome me. A single chair sat in the middle of the
living room in front of a fireplace. It rocked back and forth when
I nudged it. There was a table in the kitchen with one chair tucked
under it. It was set for one.
    I followed the creaking wood to the back of
the cabin to the only other room. There was a bed in the corner.
The comforter was soft and girly, covered in pink flowers.
    “This cabin is built for one?” My question
echoed in the silent house. The birds sang together. An answer, I
guessed. “Is it mine?” They chirped yes, again. “I don’t have to go
back?”
    They fluttered away. I saw them take the sky
from the window over the bed.
    Someone tapped lightly on the front door.
Then harder as I made it to the hall. The impatient visitor banged
again, rattling the door and startling me awake in my dorm
room.
    I heard the knocking I’d heard in the dream.
Someone was really at my door.
    “Yes?” I asked, my voice raspy from
sleep.
    “Morning, Spaz … I mean Leah,” Sienna said.
Whitney snickered loud enough for me to know she’d tagged along on
this prank my magic hadn’t warned me of. “We heard some of the
sisters talking at the dance last night.” She giggled again. “I
think you’d like to know what they said about you. Let us in,
friend.” I rolled my eyes. As if I were stupid enough to let her in
this room. By Monday, the rumor would be that I begged her to come
inside and tried to kiss her or something. More feet shuffled
outside of the door. She had a little audience out there. “I’ll
tell you from here then. Since I’m such a great friend, I think you
should know that they have you on suicide watch.”
    Her birds snickered. Oh, yes, because
suicide is so damn funny. Maybe that was why I’d felt the eyes on
me so much lately. Maybe I’d been under surveillance by cameras I
couldn’t see, cameras meant to stop me from hurting myself.
    “It’s true, Leah,” Whitney said. “I heard
them too.”
    “They think you’re at risk,” Sienna said.
“I’d agree. Actually, I thought you would’ve offed yourself years
ago. Especially when Whitney traded up and told us exactly how
strange you really are.” I took several deep breaths and tucked my
hateful hands under my legs. “So … in light of this,” Sienna
continued in a professional tone. “We have compiled a list of
requests in the event that you hang yourself in that room one
day.”
    Incessant, idiotic giggles seeped under my
door. I tucked my head under the covers, fuming. The bed shook with
me. I wanted to invite them in politely and let the fire in my
chest have its way for once.
    What could I say? Come in girls. I’ve
been meaning to tell you guys that I don’t care about Whitney. I
don’t care about anything, actually … except detaching your skinny
legs from your body and turning your bouncy hair to ash on my
floor.
    Words of a killer, of a witch. One that
would be dead before dinner if she didn’t control herself. I drew
in a ragged breath and went with silence instead.
    “Number one,” Whitney said. “Can it please
be a school day so we can get out of class? Number two. Can you
leave a note where we’d see it so your body won’t stink up the
place?”
    They were waiting for me to scream at them
so they could laugh at me. I heard it in the thoughts I couldn’t
ignore. Sienna had promised them she’d spice up their boring
morning.
    “Number three,” Sienna said, taking over
again. “Can you please be wearing the friendship bracelet you made
Whit?”
    They laughed, and I refused the thickness in
my throat warning me of tears, the closest I’d come to them in
years. There was no