SilverMoonLight (SilverMoonSaga Book 1) (19 page)

Shaking
my head, I went over to the washrooms to brush my teeth and wash my face.

All
of a sudden, I heard screams. They rang out shrilly across the campground,
making the blood freeze in my veins. I turned around and ran over towards the
shore of the lake in the direction of the commotion. Out of the corner of my
eye, I saw sleepy faces peering out of tents. Ethan rushed past me, pulling on
a T-shirt as he ran. But just before I reached the shore, Calum caught me. He
held on tightly, stopping me from going any farther.

»Don’t
go over there, Emma, please. Listen to me for once. It’s not a pretty sight,
believe me.«

Out
of breath, I let him hold me in his arms. Then I saw Bryan leading a distraught
and crying Jamie away from the lake. Other girls, who just moments before had
been giggling and messing around in their bikinis, came stumbling back, clearly
in shock and leaning on each other for support. A few of the teachers had
positioned themselves by the banks of the lake and were stopping anyone from
passing.

»Calum,
what happened?« It was wonderfully warm in his arms and he wasn’t showing any
signs of letting go. He looked as if he was wondering what he should tell me.

»Someone
drowned last night,« he said in a raw voice.

»Who?«
I asked tonelessly.

»Maria,«
he answered, not looking at me.

The
red-haired girl from my sports course who had sat next to me by the bonfire
last night? I gasped for air, my legs turning into jelly.

Calum
pulled me in closer to him. I tried to formulate a coherent thought. Something
which wouldn’t be easy, given that I couldn’t think straight when I was close
to him.

»Drowned?«
I asked after a while, my voice husky. »Surely, you don’t believe that anyone
would have wanted to go swimming in that ice-cold lake at night?«

He
looked at me imploringly.

»Is
that why you didn’t want me to go wandering around last night?« I whispered.

»Are
you feeling less shaky now?« he asked, without answering my question. When I
nodded slowly, he let me go so abruptly that I almost fell, then turned around
and walked off. Suddenly deprived of his warmth, I felt ice cold and began to
shiver.

I
walked over to the tent. Amelie had completely missed the commotion and was
still fast asleep. I pulled my jumper on and shook her shoulder gently.

»Amelie,
you have to wake up.« It took a while before she was awake enough for me to
tell her what had happened. When I did, she stared at me, her eyes wide. At
first she didn’t want to believe it and kept shaking her head. But when Aidan
crept into the tent looking pale, she buried her face in his chest and started
to cry.

I
went out, wanting to leave them alone. But that turned out to be a mistake, for
two men clad in white were carrying a stretcher past. The cloth covering the
body slipped to the side. Maria’s green eyes stared up at me, rigid with fear.
I bit my hand to suppress my scream. The men looked at me in concern and
quickly pulled the cloth back over Maria’s face. But not quickly enough, for
the expression in her eyes had imprinted itself on my memory.

It
took a good while before the investigation was carried out and we were allowed
to depart. The official report concluded that Maria had fallen into the lake
and drowned. As far as everyone else was concerned, there was no other
explanation for why she would have been in the sea. I could think of one, but I
tried not to dwell on it. That day, I tried to make eye contact with Calum a
number of times, but eventually had to accept the fact that he was ignoring me.

We
drove home, the mood somber. Ethan dropped us at home with Bree, then drove off
to see Maria’s parents. I didn’t envy him the task.

Chapter Thirteen

I
sat at my desk, staring straight ahead. I wasn’t paying any attention to Dr.
Byrd’s voice; his words simply deflected off me.

The
weeks following our trip to Loch Ness had been awful. Calum didn’t even look at
me anymore. It was as if I didn’t exist for him.

I
wanted an explanation for what had happened to Maria. I was convinced it must
have been the shellycoats. Why hadn’t he stopped it from happening? Had he ever
lured a girl into the water and left her to drown? What did I even know about
him? How dangerous was he? How dangerous could he have been to me?

At
school, a memorial event was organized for Maria, which we all attended. I
didn’t want to, but Ethan insisted on it. I could tell he blamed himself, but
he didn’t talk about it. At least, not with us. Seeing Maria’s parents and
brothers and sister there almost broke my heart. It reminded me of my mother’s
death. Even though I hadn’t known Maria that well, I cried, as did all the girls.
But I was crying for my mother, for Calum, for myself.

It
took a while for a sense of normality to come back at school and at home. But
eventually, time and the familiarity of daily life ensured that the horror of
the incident gradually faded.

Tim
had given up in his pursuit of me and was no longer hanging around constantly.
Instead, Amelie was bombarding me with suggestions that I should meet up with
one boy or another. But I didn’t want to listen; I had no interest in getting
involved with anyone.

It
was fall now, and the days were becoming colder and foggier. The others didn’t
seem as bothered by the damp weather as I was. But it wasn’t the cold outside
that affected me the most. The real cold was inside me, and couldn’t be chased
away by the warmth of the open fire.

The
fire in the house burnt all day long now, and my favorite pastime was snuggling
down in a chair next to it and staring at the flames. Admittedly, though,
sitting around like that tended to lead my thoughts to Calum. My longing for him
became stronger with every day that passed. By now I was sure that he would
never have done anything to hurt me. Otherwise why would he have sat outside my
tent to protect me that night out on the lake? But what could I do? My
rejection of him had been absolute. I had reacted to his confession about who
he really was in exactly the way he had feared. I had pushed him away.

If
I had any hope of getting through the days without him, I had to try to
distract myself. I began to go out painting with Peter again, sitting around
for hours on end in the biting cold up on the cliffs, wrapped up in warm
clothes like a mummy, trying to capture the raging sea on my blank paper. The
more depressed I became, the better my pictures turned out. In the evenings I
cooked with Bree, or played cards with Hannah and Amber. At the weekends,
Amelie dragged me along to the pub, trying to guide my thoughts toward other
things. Calum never came.

Every
training session with the swim team was like torture. I didn’t dare look at
him, and he ignored me. How easy he seemed to find it, I thought to myself
whenever I saw him chatting away with Valerie or one of the other girls in the
team.

We
had taken part in two competitions by now, and Calum and I had both won. But
swimming had lost its appeal for me, so I wasn’t even able to be pleased about
my victory. I didn’t want to leave the team though; if I did I would see him
even less.

Whenever
I ran into him at school, he completely ignored me.

I
studied him when he wasn’t looking. He had changed. His eyes no longer had the
color of a warm lake, but instead, of cold blue ice. And he was getting paler
and paler too, probably because it was constantly raining.

I
debated whether I should try speaking to him again, but didn’t trust myself.
The look in his eyes made me uneasy, and he seemed so distant and hostile.

»Emma,
is everything okay?« Dr. Byrd’s voice slowly penetrated my consciousness. I had
been completely lost in my thoughts.

»You’re
very pale. Are you not feeling well?«

»No,
I’m fine,« I stammered in embarrassment, noticing that everyone was staring at
me with curiosity.

»Good,
then you should be able to tell us when Scotland and England sealed the Act of
Union?« He looked at me expectantly.

»1707,«
Bryan whispered to me.

»Thank
you, Bryan,« said Dr. Byrd, turning away. A light giggle passed through the
rows.

I
sank back into my thoughts. Ethan hadn’t mentioned Calum again and had become
immersed in other things and day-to-day life. Amelie had tried to grill me a
few times, but in vain, so now even she avoided the subject. Everyone was
trying to act as though nothing had ever happened. For me, though, the memory
was so painful that I had difficulty getting to sleep at night. And I’d been
having a recurrent nightmare since the events at Loch Ness. It was always the
same one, and I knew it well. I’d had it for the very first time the night my
mother died.

In
it, I’m swimming in a dark lake, and silver, shimmering hands are reaching out
for me. Algae coils around my legs, pulling me underwater. I can’t breathe, and
try to hold my breath as long as I can. At the very moment when I realize I’m
about to lose consciousness, I wake up.

It
was a warning. Maria’s death should have been confirmation enough; I was sure
that a shellycoat had been responsible for it. It was right to be afraid of
Calum, but every day it got harder and harder.

The
clang of the school bell tore me from my thoughts once and for all.

»We’ve
got sports now,« Jamie called to me. »Come on, we have to hurry.« She gave
Bryan a kiss and ran off. I groaned and rolled my eyes. It was hard to cope
with everyone around me being so happy. Bryan gave me an almost apologetic
smile.

An
hour later, I trudged over to my locker to put away my sports things. I was
absolutely shattered. Despite my best efforts, Amelie had beaten me twice at
Badminton.

Even
from a distance, I could hear Valerie’s petulant voice echoing down the
corridor.

»She
doesn’t want anything to do with you. But I see how you look at her.«

I
was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t realize who she was talking about, let
alone who she was talking to. By the time I did, I was already around the
corner and it was too late.

Calum
stood there, staring into his locker as he answered her. »Stop going on about
it, Valerie. There was nothing serious between Emma and me—I just gave her a
few guitar lessons, that’s all. And besides, who I look at has nothing to do
with you.« He fell silent, then added: »I’m not interested in her, and I never
was. I was just being nice to her.«

I
stared at him, feeling rooted to the spot. My books slipped out of my hands and
fell to the floor. Then I turned around and fled.

»Emma...Em!«
I heard his voice behind me.

I
ran to the car. Where on earth was Amelie? She had the keys.

Then
he was alongside me, pulling me against his chest and burying his face in my
hair. He stammered breathlessly but insistently: »Don’t believe a word of it;
you know it’s not true. You must know that.«

I
froze. It was confusing, feeling him so close to me. A thousand tiny tremors
coursed through my body as his familiar scent took my breath away. I took a
step back and leaned against the car. Clearly startled by his own unguarded
reaction, he let me go. Amelie was running over to us, my books under her arm.

»What’s
going on?« She looked from me to Calum.

»Let’s
go,« I said hastily, not looking up. Under no circumstances could I allow
myself to look at him now. Why had I overreacted like that? He was right, there
had never been anything serious between us. I climbed into the passenger seat,
trying to calm myself down. As Amelie drove off, I saw Valerie standing at the
school gate with a furious look on her face. Calum stood there motionless in
the parking lot, frowning as he balled his hands into fists.

I
was still shaking even once we arrived home. Amelie hadn’t said a word the
whole way.

»Are
you okay?« she asked after parking the car. When I nodded, she gave my hand a
comforting pat.

I
went straight to my room without going to the kitchen first as I normally did.
I wanted to be alone. But as I lay on my bed and stared up at the ceiling,
there was a knock on the door.

»Emma,
open up,« I heard Amelie say.

»Come
in,« I called. »It’s open.«

»Valerie
is such a bitch,« she blurted out as she came in, sitting down cross-legged on
the bed next to me. »Aidan called and told me what happened; he overheard. I’m
telling you, she just wants him for herself and it bugs her that he doesn’t
want her. He never has, if you ask me. You seem to be the only one he likes.«

She
looked at me searchingly.

I
gave her a weak smile.

»The
fact that he ran after you speaks volumes. It must have made Valerie furious.«

I
shrugged.

»What’s
going on with you two? I could have sworn that you’d fallen in love. You have
to tell me why Dad forbade you from meeting, I don’t understand. He’s not
usually so...old-fashioned.«