Second Nature by Ae Watson

reached for the door handle. He stomped on the
gas, making me fling back against the seat.
    He didn't say anything,
not even when he stopped the car on the side of the road near Rachel’s. He
parked it and turned it off, climbing out, and closing the door softly.
    I hated that I’d hurt his
feelings, even if I had sort of assumed he only had one.
    “I’m sorry.” I climbed
out and closed the door.
    “It’s fine.” He sighed.
“I have to expect my reputation has proceeded me.”
    I grabbed his arm,
turning him. It was a weird moment for us both, but I shook my head. “It
hasn't. I’m just not good—with guys.” The words felt pathetic as they
slipped out.
    His eyes softened. “You
can trust me, with anything.” His creepy leer crept across his lips. “Even your
virtue.” He winked and walked toward the woods.
    “That doesn't make me
feel better.”
    “It wasn't meant to,
ass.”
    “Right.” I sighed and
hugged myself, noting the ocean air here felt colder as we walked into the
forest next to Rachel’s house. Images of the night of her death started to take
over.
    It was something that
could happen when I was upset or I didn't control it. Seeing things is what
triggered the memory.
    My feet stumbled forward,
my hands gripped harsher to my arms, and my stomach tightened, but I couldn’t
make my feet stop.
    I did a beeline for the
place she had been. Yellow tape pieces were here and there, scattered but no
longer roping off the place in the woods. Tears welled in my eyes, maybe
begging me to stop looking.
    I didn't need to look.
The images were there, perfectly crisp. Her body, twisted into a weird and
broken shape, the blood. “There was so much blood.”
    Warmth surrounded me,
making me shiver from behind.
    “Don't look, Lain.”
Vincent wrapped his arm around my shoulder and helped me toward the house.
“Nothing good can come from being here.”
    We staggered as if we had
been drinking heavily too. Sobs and sniffles broke the silence of the forest.
    When we got to the edge
of the yard, I paused again.
    Lights and music filled
my ears and eyes. Kids laughing and partying. Rachel
screaming. I realized now that I had heard it. I was dancing. It was just
before and then again after the power went out.
    “She was silent during
the dark moment, but as the lights and music came back on, I heard it. She made
noise. I thought it was her whimpering in the woods but the music was so loud I
wasn't sure.”
    “When?”
    “Before the music cut out
and just after. She made noises I couldn't really hear. I knew it was her . I assumed she was being a diva.” Tears silently slipped
down my cheeks.
    “None of this is your
fault.”
    “I know.” I paused. “And
yet, I think there are a thousand clues in my head that are sitting there
meaning nothing. But once we solve this, they will link together, each one tied
to the next with blood-red yarn, and make a pattern I should have seen.”
    “If no one told us to be
scared, how could we have thought to be? We don't exactly live in a dangerous
place where worry and suspicion is part of our lives. We are technically the
easiest kids to trap in something like this. We expect the world to cater to
our every whim.”
    “My biggest worry used to
be Ash.” I laughed bitterly and wiped my eyes and nose.
    “You wanted him to know
how you felt?”
    “No!” I gasped. “I
worried he would know, and I would be an idiot for even thinking it.”
    He rolled his eyes.
“Let’s go before your cheeks light on fire.”
    I lifted my cold hands to
them, realizing how hot they were. Even in the moonlight he could see how
embarrassed I was.
    We crunched through the
grass, stepping on the crimson leaves that had fallen from the red maples
surrounding Rachel’s yard.
    Vincent walked straight
to a side door downstairs that led to the basement where we never really went.
It was where the staff lived. He dropped to a knee and reached into a hedge in
the garden next to the door.
    I