Free Chilling Effect by Unknown

business card into Joe’s hands and then strode for-
    ward to shake Aroostine’s hand with a vigorous pump. She stood
    and gripped his fi rm hand with a wan smile on her face.
    Joe showed him out and deadbolted the door behind him. He
    stood, back against the wood-hewn door for a moment and looked
    at her wide-eyed. Finally he said, “What a creep.”
    She arched her stiff back, and heard the bones crack in protest.
    She needed to do some yoga, or stretching, or something. Tomorrow.
    Whether Joe knew it or not, he hadn’t been exaggerating. She
    was ready to fall asleep standing up.
    “Yeah, he’s defi nitely a creep. Let’s go to bed.”
    63

CHAPTER EIGHT
    Aroostine sat on the fallen log. Th e orange sun overhead warmed her bare shoulders. Th e wildfl owers danced in the soft breeze, and birds chattered and called from the trees.
    Lily was running and twirling, dancing through the meadow with
    her beribboned fairy wand fl oating on the breeze. She laughed and jumped and sang a tuneless song.
    Aroostine felt herself smiling. It looked like the girl was playing with her shadow. But as she looked more closely through the long, wavy grass that swished with the girl’s every leap, she realized that Lily was playing with a large beaver.
    She squinted. No, not a beaver. Her beaver. Her spirit guide. As if it sensed her looking, the beaver turned to face her, and the sun glinted off its sleek fur. Yes, it was defi nitely her beaver with the wise, silver eyes that saw into her soul.
    What was her spirit guide doing here? What do you want? she asked it silently.
    CHILLING EFFECT
    Th e beaver didn’t answer. It turned and resumed its frolicking with the girl. Aroostine settled back on the log.
    Th en something blotted out the sun. A dark cloud?
    She turned her face upward, as the birds shrieked and fl ed the trees with a furious fl apping and calling. Rabbits thumped by at top speed.
    Th e dark silent shape hovered above, exactly over Lily and the beaver. Th en the bottom opened soundlessly and an object streaked toward the earth.
    Aroostine’s brain processed what was happening just seconds before the blast hit.
    “Run!” she shouted, but the sound of her voice was drowned out by the tremendous noise that accompanied the blast. Intense heat baked her face.
    A bright white fl ash fi lled her fi eld of vision, and when it cleared, the meadow was engulfed in fl ames, and the spot where Lily and the beaver had danced was a just crater in the charred and broken ground.
    Joe bolted upright in the dark, unfamiliar room. His heart ham-
    mered in his chest. Th e metal taste of fear fi lled his mouth.
    Aroostine was screaming. An anguished, high-pitched wordless
    scream.
    He fumbled for the bedside light, terrifi ed of what he’d fi nd
    once he managed to force his trembling fi ngers to switch it on.
    A soft yellow circle of light illuminated the bed, and he steeled
    himself.
    Beside him, his wife continued to scream, open mouthed and
    drenched in sweat. She thrashed from side to side.
    She was sound asleep.
    He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her up from the pillow,
    pressing her shaking body into his chest.
    “Wake up! Roo, you’re having a nightmare. Baby, wake up!”
    65
    MELISSA F. MILLER
    He held her struggling shape as tightly as he could and just kept
    repeating the words in her ear, over and over. Still, she screamed.
    He leaned back and held her at arm’s length. He shook her
    fi rmly.
    “Aroostine! Snap out of it.”
    Should he slap her? Th row cold water on her face? His brain
    raced as fast as his pulse.
    Th en, all of a sudden, she stopped screaming and slumped for-
    ward and began to sob softly.
    “Roo?”
    She opened her eyes and looked up at him, hot tears streaming
    down her face.
    “I . . . I had a vision . . .”
    She was panting, struggling to bring herself under control.
    He stroked her hair.
    “Shhh, it’s okay.”
    He felt her heartbeat begin to slow.
    And then a fi st began to pound on the door