Free Blackfin Sky by Kat Ellis Page B

woods!
As her eyes cleared, Sky saw the mounded grave in front of her. Her own name mocked her in bold letters across the headstone, with her birth and death dates below – exactly sixteen years apart. But despite Bo’s assertion, the grave was undisturbed.
Sky’s head began to spin again. Strange images appeared in the strands of light weaving around her – places and things she shouldn’t, couldn’t , be seeing – and she clenched her eyes shut. It didn’t help.
Fear that she would slip and land on her own grave had her scrambling backwards, tripping and landing on her backside so that she had to move like a demented crab to increase the distance between herself and something which simply could not be .
‘I’m not dead,’ she whispered, then repeated it. Over and over again she spoke her mantra, even as her boots pounded towards the cemetery gates and her shaky breathing turned to sobs.
Lightning scored her peripheral vision, chasing her, taunting her, until she was suddenly – inexplicably – on her own front porch.
There’s no way I ran that quickly, she thought, still gasping on sobs and stolen breath. It’s not possible.
Yet the evidence was as tangible as the painted green door of the Blood House now swinging open of its own accord to welcome her home. But that was just the way of things in Blackfin.

8
The two eldest Swiveller brothers glowered at Sky as she walked into the classroom, then turned away. Their well of witty comments had run dry already. Sky tried to emulate her mother’s perfect posture as she held her head up and shoulders back, took off her coat, and draped it over the back of the chair next to Bo.
‘Where’s Cam today?’
Bo looked up from the magazine she’d been reading. ‘She had to go to the orthodontist in Oakridge this morning. She should be here after lunch, though.’
Sky swallowed her disappointment. She had no classes with Cam after lunch, and she’d wanted to ask both her friends to come with her to talk to the old woman in the woods that night. After the weirdness that had led her to the apparition of her own undisturbed grave in Blackfin Cemetery, Sky was a little gun-shy about making another attempt to break in by herself.
But both her parents’ whispered conversation and Jared’s revelation about Madame Curio’s current whereabouts were pointing toward Blackfin Woods, and Sky was determined to get some answers.
‘How come you said my grave’s been dug up? I saw it yesterday, and it doesn’t look like anyone’s messed with it.’
Bo shrugged. ‘It was definitely messed with when I was there Friday. Maybe you were at the wrong grave.’
‘But it had my name on the headstone!’
Bo closed her magazine. ‘What do you want me to say? It was a big, empty hole last time I saw it. If someone filled it back in, or moved your headstone to another grave or something, I know nothing about it.’
Sky sat back, knowing this was getting her nowhere, and that Bo would just ignore her altogether if she kept badgering her. ‘Are you busy later? Tonight, I mean?’
‘Yup. Mum’s off to visit the old man, so I’m stuck babysitting the howlers.’
Bo’s six-year-old twin brothers had truly earned their nickname. Even when perfectly content, they made enough noise to warrant earplugs and had a seemingly endless supply of energy to climb furniture and swing from the curtains. With Bo’s general listlessness, it was amazing that they were even related.
Her plans derailed, Sky sank into her own thoughts while Mr Hiatt took the register. Though he still looked like he might bolt at any minute, he at least managed to talk to her without having a seizure.
Sky was left alone throughout her morning classes, and had even started to relax by lunchtime.
Then the whispers started.
Officer Holly Vega had shown up at the school during third period and had taken Randy, Felix, Jordy and Colby Swiveller down to Oakridge Police Station for questioning.
‘What’s going on?’ Sky set her