Darrowwood Part Fourteen

14.

            Monica caught up to Jenny in the brown yard between the dormitories and the classrooms. She had to jog a bit as Jenny angled towards the stone meeting hall. They just missed the entrance and the sound of Alendro’s voice emanating from its cold breath, and passed the building entirely, instead moving swiftly down a wooded hall formed by massive pine trunks and branches.

            Monica looked at her cellphone display.  It was about two p.m., but it seemed much darker than that.  To her surprise, there were a couple of bars of cellular reception.

            Monica dialed her mother’s number as she trailed a few quick steps behind Jenny.  “Mom?” she asked.  The enthusiastic greeting was only a recording.  “I guess you and Dad are still on vacation.  Mom, when you get this, please call me back.  It’s urgent.  Something’s wrong with Jenny.”

            A gulp answered her, and some sound like a faucet running water.
            Monica let the call play out for minutes before the phone lost connection. She slipped it into her pocket and continued to run, at a slowed pace.

            Both girls were out of breath when they arrived at the fringes of a wide dirt track.
            Jenny slowed as she stepped into the expansive clearing, heading backwards around the oval’s third turn.  “Do you hear that?” she asked.  She stopped in the middle of the back straightaway, her bare toes and the purple claw scrunching into the sienna earth.  “It’s an angel chorus.”

            Monica opened her mouth for a tart reply, but she caught a high vibration in the air, promising something keener than she had felt at the lake.  There seemed to be a deep rut in the dirt near where Jenny stood.  She was almost certain, though she did not know how, that it was making the sound, though her ears could perceive nothing. She needed to see what was in there.

Read Part 15