Chapter 12

Halloween

 

Laughter and chatter filled the air on a brisk night. Fireflies lit the sky, dancing and twirling beneath a curtain of stars. Weary eyes found it impossible to tell where the stars’ twinkling ended and the fireflies began.

One by one, rays of light flickered to life, stretching from torches held by a circle of party guests. No sooner would one’s eyes adjust to a new beam before the one next to it made itself known, appearing to the former’s right, and so on, until the circle of light was complete.

Tori found herself standing in the center of the circle. Funny, she thought, squinting. I don’t remember being invited to a party. She looked down at her dress and smiled. Fabric and lace in soft pastels blossomed from a belt of lollipops cinched around her waist. Her gaze followed the knee-length hem to her legs, covered with tights banded red and white like candy canes sticking out of clumps of mud. She frowned. Instead of dainty ballerina flats, she’d worn her hiking boots.

Confused as to why she’d forget such an important detail for her costume, Tori ran her fingers through her blue and pink wig. Feeling the weight of a handle pulling against her other hand, she looked down, expecting to see a trick-or-treat bag filled with candy.

She stared at her hand as a sick feeling washed over her. Instead of a bag, she held a lantern. All of the torches were aimed toward it, making it glow more brightly than she’d ever seen. Trembling, she lifted the lantern away from the converging beams of light. She sucked in a breath as she stared at an unlit globe, empty with darkness.

“What’s wrong, Tor?”

Tori’s mouth fell open. “Shawna, what are you doing here?”

“You invited me, silly. I wanted to check out that lantern you’ve been telling me about.” Shawna’s broad shoulders shrugged forward as she bent to look inside the lantern. “Hmm, not much going on in there tonight.” Silky black sleeves and leggings accentuated the slim outlines of her arms and legs as she straightened up. Brows lifted above gray eyes in a mock accusatory look, which Tori might have taken seriously had it not been for the mini witch hat perched on her head.

“Great costume,” said Tori. “How come you’re not dressed in your volleyball uniform this year?”

“I had time to come up with something different while you were away. I wanted to surprise you.”

Tori squeezed her friend. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m happy to see you.”

“I brought someone with me.” Shawna smirked. “He’s been waiting a long time to see you.”

Jared? Is he here? Is that why he’s not inside the lantern? Before Tori could repeat her questions aloud, Shawna playfully shoved someone in front of her, a male dressed in a plum-colored cloak; his regalia sparkled with candies made of silver and gold.

“Surprise! I hope you don’t mind that I hinted at your costume. You know, so you could match.”

Tori stared up at the dark-haired prince, his eyes half hidden behind a mask of candied plums and strawberries. He grinned.

“Jared?”

The prince’s grin immediately fell away. “No, Tori.”

She paled, both disappointed and embarrassed when she recognized his voice. “Adam?”

“Surprise!” Shawna giggled, her face glowing.

With her heart thudding in her ears, Tori stared at the lantern. Where’s Jared? I was supposed to go trick-or-treating with Kimmy. Where am I?

As if responding to her question, a glint of light appeared in the center of the globe. It brightened, deeper and warmer until Tori’s eyes burned. She could neither blink nor look away. With a hiss, the condensation clouding her view melted. Steam rose from the globe, misting her hand and evaporating. The lantern dimmed.

Tori’s bones turned to jelly as the figure of a person took shape inside the lantern. For the briefest moment, her heart embraced a hope. But then her lips tugged downward as the image became clearer, revealing a cherubic face framed with blond curls. “Ha!”

Her body jolted. Sweat from her palms caused the lantern’s handle to slip underneath her grip. Tori screamed, frozen and unable to unlock her gaze from a pair of eyes that were both bright blue and terrified.

She looked on helplessly as the lantern fell to the ground. Glass shattered, spraying the air with a thousand diamonds, each bearing the tiniest reflection of her baby brother.

 

Tori woke up with tears streaming down her face, her head pounding. She gulped for air so violently that it started an episode of hiccups. Sweaty skin stuck to the shorts and T-shirt she’d worn to bed.

Sunlight poured into the room through a seam between drapes covered with feathered scrolls. The drapes matched the pattern on her comforter, half of which was bunched up and twisted with her sheets. One of her pillows had fallen on the floor.

With a single leap, Tori stumbled over herself to the corner where she’d hidden the lantern. She lifted the quilted covering and hiccupped again. It was still there, metal and glass—dark, cold, and empty. She pulled the lantern onto her lap and sat curled around the globe until her breathing steadied. “A dream,” she said. “It was just a dream. But how much of it?”

Once she calmed down, Tori restarted her day with a shower and breakfast with her family. She went through the motions as politely as she could, relaxing slightly when she found Kimmy smiling up at her from his booster seat while nibbling a pancake. His whole, solid presence was just what she needed to get excited about trick-or-treating—for his sake. She didn’t want to ruin his holiday.

After breakfast, Tori followed her grandmother out of the kitchen and handed her the key to the side door.

Her grandmother frowned as she stared at the cleft piece of metal. “You’re giving up?”

“It’s a long story,” she whispered, looking over her shoulder. “Can I keep the stethoscope until I have to go home?”

“Of course, dear.”

“Thanks, Grandma.”

For the first morning in what seemed like forever, Tori felt neither worry nor guilt about sneaking out of the house to visit the site where the lantern had been. She hoped it would remain unnoticed in her room until she figured something out. But time was running out. After Halloween, she and her family would return home, nearly a day’s drive away from the plantation. Something needed to happen before she left her grandmother’s home. She thought of different ways to stash the lantern in her luggage, hoping maybe her grandmother would give her an extra bag that wouldn’t prompt her parents to ask questions.

Daylight hours passed quickly, partially due to Tori’s nervousness about hiding the lantern in her room. She uncovered it about a thousand times to check for Jared. But there wasn’t the tiniest flicker of light. On the end table next to her bed, the vase stayed filled with water.

“I don’t know where you’ve gone,” she said, gently smoothing the quilt over the lantern. “I have to get ready to take Kimmy trick-or-treating. I hope to see you when we get back.”

Tori’s costume hung from a hook on the back of the bedroom door. A flouncing of pastels and lollipops raised her spirits. The corners of her lips almost lifted into a smile as she pulled on her red and white tights.