Kailin Gow - Wicked Woods

Wicked Woods

kailin gow

Wicked Woods

Published by THE EDGE

THE EDGE is an imprint of Sparklesoup LLC

Copyright 2010 Kailin Gow

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher except in case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

For information, please contact:

THE EDGE at Sparklesoup

P.O. Box 60834

Irvine, CA 92602

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First Edition.

Printed in the United States of America.

ISBN: 1597486310

ISBN: 978-1597486316

For my awesome editors, cover artist, and theEDGEbooks.com team. Thank you for helping me make the story of Briony and the townspeople of Wicked, MA come alive.

B riony Patterson was in bed, unable to sleep, fearing that simply closing her eyes would bring forth the monsters she thought lived in the dark. Except for the full moon shining through the window of her room, it was dark. Very dark. So dark Briony could barely see her fingers in front of her. Scary things happen in the dark. Bad things happen in the dark. As far as Briony could see, there was a lot of darkness in front of her, laid out in acres over acres of woodland.

Briony could not close her eyes into blissful sleep, for this was the same house her parents and little brother had stayed in before they vanished forever, leaving her an orphan, leaving her alone, except for Aunt Sophie, who owned this little bed and breakfast at the edge of the Wicked Woods.

Briony turned, trying to make herself more comfortable in the rickety antique bed. It was the wrong bed. Brionys bed was small, and comfortable, and hundreds of miles away. The Edge Inn was nice enough, but Briony still couldnt think of it as her room. Thinking that would be like admitting that she would never be going back, that her parents and little brother werent waiting for her in her real home. Of course, they werent, but that only made it worse.

This wasnt home, this old-fashioned little place in the town of Wicked, Massachusetts, even though her aunt was working hard to make it feel that way. It was too antiquated, with its exposed beams and its leaded windows, too isolated, and above all too different feeling. Had her brother had this room? No wonder Briony couldnt get to sleep.

She closed her eyes for a second. It was still hard to believe her entire family was gone. Missing. Vanished. Into the woods, never to be foundinto the very woods staring at her right outside the windows of this seemingly cozy little guest room.

Although Aunt Sophie was kind enough to take her in after her parents and little brothers disappearance, Briony knew Aunt Sophie didnt want her here to complicate her life. Aunt Sophie lost Uncle Pete in the same excursion into the woods that took away Brionys family. The last thing Aunt Sophie wanted in her life was probably a teenager.

But Aunt Sophie was the only family she had now, and Briony was Aunt Sophies. Briony didnt want to be here, away from her home in Florida, away from her friends, away from the life she once had. Briony took a deep breath. Adjusting to this new life would be hard. She missed her old life, she missed her parents, and even her irritating little brother Jake, but it sure beat being homeless. She experienced being that for about one week after her familys disappearance, and her house was sold to pay bills she didnt know about. Briony found herself without a home for nearly a week, staying with friends, then a shelteruntil Aunt Sophie could claim her as her legal relative and move her over to Wicked. Somehow, there was a paperwork mixed up, which Briony couldnt understand. Great Aunt Sophie and Uncle Pete had always been part of her family, but Briony had never understood her mothers connection with Aunt Sophie, besides Aunt Sophie being a distant relative.

Briony got up and went over to the full-length mirror in one corner. Her honey blonde hair was a mess from all the tossing and turning she had been doing, trying to get to sleep. Her blue eyes were just starting to take on that hollow look that came when you went without sleep too long, making her normally pretty features look older than their sixteen years.

Outside the window, something howled. Briony was used to Florida, where the only sounds at night were of cars, and horns and occasional sirens. Now though, she found herself living next to about a thousand acres of woodland, complete with mysterious howling creatures. She didnt even know if what was out there was a stray dog or a wolf deeper in the forest.

Briony moved over to the window, staring through the diamond pattern of the glass at the world outside. Even with the moon out, there wasnt much to see here on the very edge of town. It was so much darker out here at night than in the cities she was used to. It took some getting used to.

She should have been getting used to it last month, when her family came up to stay with Great Aunt Sophie and Uncle Pete. It hadnt sounded like much fun, even then. Slogging around in the wilderness wasnt really for her. Thankfully, Brionys parents had agreed, and she had gone off to cheerleading camp instead. That had been so much better, right up to the point when the phone call came through to tell her that her mother, father, brother and uncle were gone, just like that.

Something moved in the darkness, out beyond the window. Briony forced herself not to jump. It was probably just a small animal or something. Except that when it came again, Briony couldnt see anything. Instead, all she could see were shadows, shifting as a deeper darkness on the edge of the trees around the inn. Oh yes, the Edge Inn, run on the edge of the forest by Sophie Edge and her husband. That seemed so funny now that there were things out there, didnt it?

Wrapping a thick robe over her nightclothes, Briony set off downstairs, knowing that there was no way that she would sleep yet. She had only gone to bed because Aunt Sophie had suggested that it might be good to get an early night, what with starting at Wickeds High School tomorrow. Well, that and she suspected that her great aunt probably needed some time alone. It couldnt be easy trying to be strong for Briony when Aunt Sophie had her own grief to deal with over the loss of Uncle Pete. Briony knew that her aunt would never show any hint of it around her, because that wasnt the kind of thing Aunt Sophie did.

Briony tiptoed downstairs, determined not to wake anyone, though with no guests currently at the inn, there was only Aunt Sophie to worry about. Briony found her asleep in the lounge. She lay in an armchair, wrapped in a robe so voluminous that it made her look vaguely like a yeti and snoring in tones that probably accounted for the lack of guests. Two fluffy pink slippers poked out of the end of the robe. Her graying hair was tied back. It made Aunt Sophie look older than usual, showing all of her fifty years.

Briony crept quietly past her to the lounges television, turning it on with the volume barely audible. The local news was on, which was probably good. So little seemed to happen around Wicked that Briony would probably be asleep in seconds. Alright, so that was probably unfair. Even so, there didnt seem to be much in the local news beyond the usual round of minor events. There was a Fall Moon Festival coming up, and apparently it was due to be the biggest for years. The local high school football schedule was announced, and people were urged to support the team on their big days. There were a few more announcements about tryouts for local sports teams, but again, it was nothing that seemed important.