The Calling (Darkness Rising 2)

"What happened out there?" Corey asked.

I looked up. He was pivoting slowly, shoulders tight, on guard against... Against anything. Everything. Whatever could be lurking in that rolling field of gray.

"Something pulled me under," Nicole said. "It wrapped around my foot and I couldn't get away."

"That's what happened to you, too, Maya, isn't it?" Corey said.

I nodded. "It pulled me to the bottom, then let go."

Nicole and I compared stories. She didn't have much to tell. Something grabbed her leg and pulled her down. Did it feel like a bite? Seaweed? She didn't know.

Finally Daniel turned to me. "Was it like what happened with Serena?"

I nodded.

"Serena?" Hayley said. "How would she know that? No offense, Maya. I mean, I know you were there and it was awful but--"

"Something dragged Maya under that time, too," Corey said. "Daniel pulled her to safety."

Silence. I knew what they were all thinking. Daniel pulled Maya to safety. And Serena died.

"It was my fault," I said. "He didn't know Serena had gone under, too."

"Maya tried to tell me," Daniel said. "I didn't understand. It was my fault."

"It was no one's fault," Sam said. "Neither was this. Maybe there's something out there. Giant eels or whatever."

"Giant eels?" Corey let out a whoop of a laugh, too loud and too long. Desperate to cast off the fear and unease and find his old self again.

"Hey, I'm not the moron who was worried about great white sharks," said Sam.

"Um, that was Nic."

"It doesn't matter what happened," Daniel said, "only that no one was hurt." He looked at me, then Nicole. "You're both okay, right? Well, I mean... I know you're not okay, but--"

"I'm fine," I said.

Nicole nodded.

"Me, too." Hayley straightened, as if not to be outdone. Getting her footing, like me searching for my forest and Corey for a joke. We were all stressed out. We'd deal with it our own way. At least we were dealing with it, not curled up on the beach in fetal positions. Right now, that was the best we could hope for.

It was night by the time we'd gotten ourselves together enough to head out. There were no lights anywhere to break the fog and the darkness. We walked along the shore for a bit, but couldn't find any docks or boat moorings. So no cottages just across the water, as we'd hoped. We needed to head inland.

As we walked in silence, Kenjii whimpered, reacting to the tension. I could feel it myself, bristling through the air like electricity. Every time she made noise, the others would jump, and look around as if they expected grizzly bears to lumber out of the fog. Only Daniel stayed steady, assuring everyone that Kenjii was just nervous because they were.

I was, too. I think that's what got her going the most. I kept telling myself I was fine, that the forest was right there. I could smell the sharp tang of evergreens. But when the wind whined around us, I jumped with everyone else.

Finally, I saw trees and my heart stopped pounding. I walked faster, needles crunching under my feet, the sound, the smell so familiar that my throat ached, and I had to reach out, fingers brushing the boughs as we passed. The fog disappeared, as if kept at bay by the trees. Safe. I was in the forest, Daniel was beside me and I was safe.

"Uh, Maya?" Corey said behind me. "Maybe ... this isn't such a good idea."

I turned. The others were ten feet back, barely inside the tree line. Nicole and Hayley had moved closer to Corey. Sam hung back, looking into the woods as if I was asking her to jump off a cliff.

"The fog's gone in here," I said. "It was marine fog. It doesn't penetrate the forest."

"Yeah," Corey said. "I'm thinking the fog's not such a problem. It's very ... dark. We don't know what's in there."

"Yeah, we do," Sam said. "Bears, cougars, wolves..."