Free A Circle of Time by Marisa Montes Page A

night.
    Allison ran to the mouth of the cave. “Joshua, where are you?” she screamed. But her cry was swallowed by the crash of the waterfall.
    What if something had happened to him? What if he were lying somewhere, injured? The image of the bloodstained calico dress filled her mind. Allison swallowed, trying to rid herself of the bitter taste of fear that tugged at the back of her throat.
    â€œHelp me, Allison. I’m running out of time,” the voice whispered in her ear. “Hurry, hurry! Find Joshua. Joshua can help.”
    Yes, find Joshua. That’s what I have to do,
she thought.
Joshua will help us.
    For more than an hour, Allison meandered through the forest, following the whispers. The farther she went, the more urgent the instructions. “Faster, Allison, faster. I’m running out of time. Hurry! ”
    The deeper she went into the woods, the more dense the trees and the darker the night. She could barely see branches that reached out and scraped her face. She was beginning to pant. A twig snapped somewhere behind her.
    â€œRun, Allison,
run!
” The voice screamed in her ears. “Save me, Allison. Run!”
    Panic spread through her like wildfire. Blindly, Allison tore through the forest, arms stiff in front of her, trying in vain to protect her face from the outstretched branches that ripped her skin. Her lungs burned. Her heart thundered. She began to slow.
    As her bare feet slapped dead pine needles and crunched dry leaves, Allison became aware of another pair of feet,
thump-thump-thumping
behind her. Heavy, labored breathing grew closer.
    â€œOh, Allison, help me, please. Save me!”
    The air around her seemed electrified. Drawing strength from it, Allison caught a second wind. She tucked her head and rammed through the branches. She sprinted along the forest floor. The trees appeared less dense. Moonlight filtered through the branches. On a narrow path, Allison picked up her pace. Her foot hit something. She tripped and fell forward. Her arms stretched out to break her fall.
    Time seemed to slow to a crawl. She fell onto a soft mound, the wind knocked out of her, and her hands slid forward in something thick and sticky. Gasping for air, Allison pushed herself up and sat back on her heels, wiping the slimy goo on the front of the calico dress. Still in slow motion, she poked the mound before her. It was covered with cloth, and beneath the cloth was a squishy mass. Slowly she looked from one end of the mound to the other.
    In the dim moonlight, empty white eyes stared up at her. A wave of nausea swept through her body, leaving her limp with fear. A scream stuck in her constricted throat. Behind her, the thumping footsteps grew closer.
    â€œRun, Allison! Save me!”
    Lightning shot through her limbs. She scrambled over the lifeless mound. Her hands and bare feet slipped on the thick slime that surrounded it. The last thing she felt as she stumbled away was the stiff, cupped hand she stepped on when she bolted from the body. As Allison veered off the path and crashed into the unmarked forest, her brain reeled with the image of the face she had seen in the moonlight: the death mask of Sadie Thompson.
    Â 
    Allison broke through the branches and stopped, panting heavily, at the edge of a clearing. Her throat was dry and her lungs felt as though they were on fire. Her limbs trembled. Becky’s body was simply not in the athletic condition hers was in and could not take the stress. Allison’s spirit alone had willed it onward.
    She bent over to ease the painful stitch in her side. As she did, she noticed dark stains on the front of the calico dress. She looked down at her hands and feet. They, too, were smeared with dark stains.
    Oh, God, no ... it can’t be happening again! Not again!
    Tentatively, she lifted her hands to her face. The smell was unmistakable.
    Blood.
    She was covered in Sadie Thompson’s blood!
    Behind her, an explosion of twigs cracking