Free Dark Hope by Monica McGurk Page B

starting to hurt to breathe in the cold air, and my side was aching. I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to get home and out of this cold, but my body was not cooperating. I dragged myself over to the curb and bent over, wheezing while I tried to work the knot out of my side.
    Everything around me was silent. I couldn’t even hear any approaching cars. Everyone else seemed tucked away inside their warm houses. I was alone, in the woods.
    But I still felt that I wasn’t quite alone. The feeling grew stronger and stronger, and even as I regained my breath, I could feel my heart thumping faster and faster.
    Don’t look up
, the little voice in my head whispered.
    And suddenly there was a rush of a thousand wings all about me. I grabbed my head, covering my ears against the shrieking and cawing that seemed everywhere. All I could see was a wall of black—I was spinning and turning, and everywhere black shapes darted in and out until I lost my balance and fell against the curb.
    I huddled in a ball, pulling my hat tighter and squeezing my eyes shut against the confusion. Then, just as suddenly, everything went quiet once again. All I could hear was my ragged breath until a voice rang out.
    “Hope, is that you?”
    I opened one eye to peek. A flood of relief washed over me, quickly chased by irritation. “Michael!” I called out, my voice shaky. “What are you doing here?”
    He was dressed in a white hooded sweatshirt and running tights.I felt my heart rate slow as he made his way toward me, a look of concern clouding his face. My feeling of irritation grew—I didn’t need anybody’s help. Couldn’t my own body cooperate instead of acting like it was glad to see him?
    “Did you see that?” he asked, gesturing behind him toward the horizon.
    “What?”
    “That murder of crows. It just swarmed out of nowhere, like an enormous black cloud,” he continued, his suspicious eyes scanning the sky.
    “Murder? Crows?” I repeated, still not sure what had happened. “Oh.”
    He was directly over me. I looked up to see him reaching one gloved hand down to me. I paused before letting him pull me up, trying not to think too much about the way the tights highlighted every muscle in his legs.
    “I must have scared them,” I said, dusting off my legs and letting my fingers probe the sensitive spot where I’d landed on the curb. I winced. I was going to get a big bruise, for sure.
    “You were
in
that?” he asked, his eyes narrowing. In the waning light, the blue of his irises seemed to fade into a steely gray.
    I shrugged. “I guess. No big deal.” I tried to be nonchalant about it. I didn’t want him to know how freaked out I’d been. I stepped forward, gingerly. “Though it was kind of weird. I didn’t hear anything at all and then, boom, they were everywhere.”
    He looked up at the sky, speculating.
    “I’m walking you home,” he said, his chin set.
    “Suit yourself,” I harrumphed, pretending not to care, but annoyed at him for his unexplained about-face.
    We set out, him slowing his pace to match me as I hobbledalong. We walked in silence, my resentment hanging around us like the heavy air of a Georgia summer.
    “What are you even doing here?” I asked, my voice accusing, when I couldn’t take the silence any longer. “This isn’t even close to your house. And I thought you had things to do.”
    He didn’t rise to the bait; his eyes remained steadfastly focused on the road ahead. “I took care of them for now.” There was a long pause. “And I needed a run to clear my head. I didn’t plan to find you.”
    His words stung. “Well, don’t put yourself out, then.” The retort flew out of my mouth before I had time to think.
    He sighed as we trudged up the last hill, the silence resettling uncomfortably around us. At the top of my cul-de-sac, he pulled up short. The sun had fully set now, and under the light shed by the corner streetlamp his blond hair seemed to shine with a halo.
    He took a step,