Nightmare Read Free Page B

the box, moving it close to Emily’s face. “Pick one.”
    It was easier to do what Haley wanted than argue about it, Emily decided. She reached into the box, fingering the stones. One had a tiny rough spot at one end. She closed her fingers around it and pulled it out. On one side of the little stone were three black dots, forming a triangle. With the symbol side up on the palm of her hand, she held out the stone to Haley, who made no move to take it.
    Her eyes wide, Haley said, “I can’t believe you drew that rune.”
    “Why?” Emily asked.
    “It’s the Loki rune.” Haley took a deep breath and explained, “He’s the Norse god of evil and treachery.”
    Emily wanted to laugh. “Don’t look so worried. I’m not planning to do anything either evil or treacherous.”
    Haley just held out the box. The moment Emily dropped in the stone, Haley snapped the lid shut and fastened it. “I know you’re not,” she told Emily. “Drawing the Loki rune doesn’t mean
you’re
going to do evil. It means … well … it’s a serious warning that forces of evil are working against you.”
    Emily couldn’t help shivering. But she insisted, “What you’ve told me doesn’t make any sense. A little stone can’t tell my future.”
    Haley clutched the box again and looked to each side, as though she expected someone, or something, to be listening. “It’s not the stone, silly. It’s the power behind the symbol. It’s the power of the runes. Don’t ask me to explain how it works. It just does. It warned that you’re in danger, Em. Believe it.”
    Emily gulped. “I don’t,” she said. “I won’t.” In the silence she studied Haley’s worried expression. “Anyhow, what could I do about it?”
    “I don’t know,” Haley answered, her voice barely a whisper. “But I’ll stick right by your side the rest of today. Tomorrow—” She broke off and suddenly smiled. “Tomorrow, of course, you’ll draw again, and I’m sure you’ll get a much better message.”
    “The warning’s only good for today?”
    Haley jumped off the bed and put the box on the shelf in her closet. “We don’t know yet. But if you get a new message tomorrow, it means the warning is over.”
    Emily wished Haley had never opened her box of runes. Were there really forces of evil working againsther? Had she sensed this herself when she’d been afraid? When she’d had the nightmares?
Don’t be stupid
, she scolded herself.
You can’t take a box of little painted stones seriously. Forget all about this dumb warning
.
    Emily sighed, wishing that forgetting weren’t so hard to do.

CHAPTER 2
    At last! It’s taken long enough. But now, after all these years, just as I had given up, I have a name to go with the face. Emily Wood. I’d almost stopped hoping to find her
.
    Emily Wood. Yes. She exists
.
    It was a shock to meet her, even more than I had imagined it would be. Oh, yes. I’d imagined it over and over again during the time in which I tried so hard to discover her identity
.
    Then suddenly, there she was, standing in front of me
.
    I covered my feelings well when we met. I didn’t show how it had unnerved me. With all the activity and bustle of people arriving at the camp, I doubt anyone would have noticed anyway
.
    Did she recognize me? I don’t think so. I’ve never been sure that she actually saw my face that day. I checked the position of those curved marble stairs over and over again. Not until I was at her level could I have been seen, and then the flash from my camera must have blinded her. She may have heard my words, but voices can easily be forgotten. And, after all, it was eight years ago. If she had seen anything, surely she would have spoken up at the time, and she didn’t. She’s hardly likely to speak up now
.
    I had no trouble recognizing her. Maybe it’s because of that cloud of pale blond, almost white hair. It’s certainly unusual enough to remember. At the time it reminded me of the puffball on a