The Wicked Woods Read online

  Wicked Woods

  kailin gow

  Wicked Woods

  Published by THE EDGE

  THE EDGE is an imprint of Sparklesoup LLC

  Copyright © 2010 Kailin Gow

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher except in case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  For information, please contact:

  THE EDGE at Sparklesoup

  P.O. Box 60834

  Irvine, CA 92602

  www.sparklesoup.com

  First Edition.

  Printed in the United States of America.

  ISBN: 1597486310

  ISBN: 978-1597486316

  DEDICATION

  For my awesome editors, cover artist, and theEDGEbooks.com team. Thank you for helping me make the story of Briony and the townspeople of Wicked, MA come alive.

  Prologue

  Briony Patterson was in bed, unable to sleep, fearing that simply closing her eyes would bring forth the monsters she thought lived in the dark. Except for the full moon shining through the window of her room, it was dark. Very dark. So dark Briony could barely see her fingers in front of her. Scary things happen in the dark. Bad things happen in the dark. As far as Briony could see, there was a lot of darkness in front of her, laid out in acres over acres of woodland.

  Briony could not close her eyes into blissful sleep, for this was the same house her parents and little brother had stayed in before they vanished forever, leaving her an orphan, leaving her alone, except for Aunt Sophie, who owned this little bed and breakfast at the edge of the Wicked Woods.

  Briony turned, trying to make herself more comfortable in the rickety antique bed. It was the wrong bed. Briony’s bed was small, and comfortable, and hundreds of miles away. The Edge Inn was nice enough, but Briony still couldn’t think of it as her room. Thinking that would be like admitting that she would never be going back, that her parents and little brother weren’t waiting for her in her real home. Of course, they weren’t, but that only made it worse.

  This wasn’t home, this old-fashioned little place in the town of Wicked, Massachusetts, even though her aunt was working hard to make it feel that way. It was too antiquated, with its exposed beams and its leaded windows, too isolated, and above all too different feeling. Had her brother had this room? No wonder Briony couldn’t get to sleep.

  She closed her eyes for a second. It was still hard to believe her entire family was gone. Missing. Vanished. Into the woods, never to be found…into the very woods staring at her right outside the windows of this seemingly cozy little guest room.

  Although Aunt Sophie was kind enough to take her in after her parents and little brother’s disappearance, Briony knew Aunt Sophie didn’t want her here to complicate her life. Aunt Sophie lost Uncle Pete in the same excursion into the woods that took away Briony’s family. The last thing Aunt Sophie wanted in her life was probably a teenager.

  But Aunt Sophie was the only family she had now, and Briony was Aunt Sophie’s. Briony didn’t want to be here, away from her home in Florida, away from her friends, away from the life she once had. Briony took a deep breath. Adjusting to this new life would be hard. She missed her old life, she missed her parents, and even her irritating little brother Jake, but it sure beat being homeless. She experienced being that for about one week after her family’s disappearance, and her house was sold to pay bills she didn’t know about. Briony found herself without a home for nearly a week, staying with friends, then a shelter…until Aunt Sophie could claim her as her legal relative and move her over to Wicked. Somehow, there was a paperwork mixed up, which Briony couldn’t understand. Great Aunt Sophie and Uncle Pete had always been part of her family, but Briony had never understood her mother’s connection with Aunt Sophie, besides Aunt Sophie being a distant relative.

  Briony got up and went over to the full-length mirror in one corner. Her honey blonde hair was a mess from all the tossing and turning she had been doing, trying to get to sleep. Her blue eyes were just starting to take on that hollow look that came when you went without sleep too long, making her normally pretty features look older than their sixteen years.

  Outside the window, something howled. Briony was used to Florida, where the only sounds at night were of cars, and horns and occasional sirens. Now though, she found herself living next to about a thousand acres of woodland, complete with mysterious howling creatures. She didn’t even know if what was out there was a stray dog or a wolf deeper in the forest.

  Briony moved over to the window, staring through the diamond pattern of the glass at the world outside. Even with the moon out, there wasn’t much to see here on the very edge of town. It was so much darker out here at night than in the cities she was used to. It took some getting used to.

  She should have been getting used to it last month, when her family came up to stay with Great Aunt Sophie and Uncle Pete. It hadn’t sounded like much fun, even then. Slogging around in the wilderness wasn’t really for her. Thankfully, Briony’s parents had agreed, and she had gone off to cheerleading camp instead. That had been so much better, right up to the point when the phone call came through to tell her that her mother, father, brother and uncle were gone, just like that.

  Something moved in the darkness, out beyond the window. Briony forced herself not to jump. It was probably just a small animal or something. Except that when it came again, Briony couldn’t see anything. Instead, all she could see were shadows, shifting as a deeper darkness on the edge of the trees around the inn. Oh yes, the Edge Inn, run on the edge of the forest by Sophie Edge and her husband. That seemed so funny now that there were things out there, didn’t it?

  Wrapping a thick robe over her nightclothes, Briony set off downstairs, knowing that there was no way that she would sleep yet. She had only gone to bed because Aunt Sophie had suggested that it might be good to get an early night, what with starting at Wicked’s High School tomorrow. Well, that and she suspected that her great aunt probably needed some time alone. It couldn’t be easy trying to be strong for Briony when Aunt Sophie had her own grief to deal with over the loss of Uncle Pete. Briony knew that her aunt would never show any hint of it around her, because that wasn’t the kind of thing Aunt Sophie did.

  Briony tiptoed downstairs, determined not to wake anyone, though with no guests currently at the inn, there was only Aunt Sophie to worry about. Briony found her asleep in the lounge. She lay in an armchair, wrapped in a robe so voluminous that it made her look vaguely like a yeti and snoring in tones that probably accounted for the lack of guests. Two fluffy pink slippers poked out of the end of the robe. Her graying hair was tied back. It made Aunt Sophie look older than usual, showing all of her fifty years.

  Briony crept quietly past her to the lounge’s television, turning it on with the volume barely audible. The local news was on, which was probably good. So little seemed to happen around Wicked that Briony would probably be asleep in seconds. Alright, so that was probably unfair. Even so, there didn’t seem to be much in the local news beyond the usual round of minor events. There was a Fall Moon Festival coming up, and apparently it was due to be the biggest for years. The local high school football schedule was announced, and people were urged to support the team on their big days. There were a few more announcements about tryouts for local sports teams, but again, it was nothing that seemed important.

  When that was done and the news gave over to the weather, Briony decided that it was probably time to get back to bed. As quietly as she could, she switched off the TV and started to tipt
oe back past her aunt, who was still snoring loud enough to wake the dead. Briony didn’t want to disturb her.

  She had made it almost as far as the stairs when the doorbell rang. Briony didn’t bother looking around for a clock. She already knew that it was far too late for people to be showing up looking for a room. On the other hand, though, it wasn’t like there were any guests at the moment, and Aunt Sophie would probably be glad for the extra business.

  “I’m coming,” Briony muttered under her breath as the doorbell rang again. “Can you not hold on one minute?”

  Briony hurried for the door, but she was not as quick as her great aunt. In the time it took Briony to cross the hallway, Aunt Sophie managed to wake up, leave her chair, and place herself firmly between Briony and the door. Briony found herself smiling at the thought of the sight Aunt Sophie probably presented as she opened it in that huge, furry robe of hers.

  She was certainly a contrast to the couple waiting on the doorstep. They were so glamorous that they could have passed for Hollywood celebrities, though possibly ones from the nineteen-forties, given the way they dressed. The man had slicked back blond hair, a suit that was complete with waistcoat and pocket-watch, and even old-fashioned spats on his shoes. The woman was resplendent in a red dress that matched her lipstick, while her hair fell loose in blond waves. Both of them seemed very pale to Briony, who was used to people who got out in the Florida sun. Also, there seemed to be something slightly odd about their eyes. Maybe they were wearing colored contact lenses?

  “What is it you want?” Aunt Sophie asked. Her voice wasn’t friendly. She probably didn’t like having to answer the door dressed as she was in the middle of the night.

  The man smiled. His voice, when it came, seemed a touch too smooth. “We’re sorry to call on you so late, ma'am, but we were just at a party. We have been driving back through the woods, but it occurred to us that we didn’t really want to drive all night. We were hoping that you might still have some rooms.”

  The woman clung to his arm as he said this. She directed a smile at Briony.

  “Oh, look, Philip. Isn’t she sweet?”

  Briony was a little surprised when Aunt Sophie edged a little further in front of her, though not as surprised as at what she said next.

  “I think it’s time you left. We don’t have any rooms. Try someplace else.”

  “That isn’t very friendly,” the woman said, frowning.

  “Like I said, try someplace else.”

  Something about the couple changed then. They were still smiling, but to Briony, those smiles looked a lot more predatory. The way their canine teeth suddenly looked a lot longer probably had something to do with it. They started to take a step forward.

  So fast that Briony barely saw it, Aunt Sophie reached into her robe and drew out two objects. One was a glass vial, which she waved as though the contents were dangerous. The other was, of all things, a large silver crucifix. It looked to Briony like a moment from some bad horror movie, except that the visitors did look scared, and they did reel back from the sight of the cross.

  They hissed like angry cats, but didn’t come any closer. Aunt Sophie uncorked the vial in her hand, and they scrambled backwards as if they were in a film that was being rewinded. They turned, running into the nearby woods and vanishing from sight in the darkness.

  Briony stood there staring where the couple had been a few minutes ago, her brain and body paralyzed to the reality of what she had witnessed with her own eyes. It couldn’t be true. They only exist in movies, books, and folklore. She bit her lips. She could scream, or faint, or try running up to her room and barricading the door, but those all struck her as stupid things to do. Instead she settled for a nervous grin, trying to remain calm for Aunt Sophie.

  “Um… were those… vampires?” She said it in the tone of someone fully expecting, and frankly rather hoping, that her great aunt would tell her not to be so silly.

  Instead, Aunt Sophie nodded as she shut the door. “They were.” She paused and then said with a wry smile. “Welcome to Wicked, Briony.”

  “And that’s the welcoming committee, is it?” Briony was starting to feel a little light-headed.

  “Oh, they’re nothing. Amateurs who can’t get the hang of the fact that you don’t wander around wearing evening dress if you want to prey on people. It’s the ones that look just like you or me that are the problem. Well, them and a few… other things. You get all kinds in Wicked.”

  They certainly did. Briony considered fainting, but thought better of it. Somehow with Aunt Sophie around, Briony felt she needed to hold herself together. Aunt Sophie wasn’t the crying or fainting type, and for some reason, Briony wanted her to see she can be strong, too.

  “Um… what’s in the vial?”

  “Holy water, obviously. I bless up a big batch now and then. I’ll tell you, Briony, my life got a lot easier the day it became possible to be ordained a minister over the Internet. Also, it’s kind of useful when we have couples come through looking to get married.”

  “Yes,” Briony said, “it would be.” Briony kept her voice calm, making sure her eyes didn’t widen in surprise. What the heck was Aunt Sophie? Certainly Aunt Sophie had a double life the family didn’t know of…blessing a batch of holy water?

  Aunt Sophie put an arm around Briony’s shoulders. The bottle of holy water pressed up against Briony’s back, so it wasn’t entirely comforting.

  Vampires? Howling things outside her window? A vast woodland just steps away from this inn…where her entire family disappeared? Anyone with some kind of sanity would have high-tailed it out of the same place where your family disappeared, right? No, not Aunt Sophie. Briony couldn’t hold her question back any further. “Why does anyone stay in a place like this?” she suddenly blurted.

  Aunt Sophie just smiled. “I can see that this has been a bit of a shock for you, but you’ll feel better after a good night’s sleep. C’mon, back to bed. You have school in the morning and you’ll want to make a good impression.”

  Briony let herself be shepherded back upstairs to her new room. With everything that had just happened though, sleep proved even more elusive than ever.

  Chapter 1

  As first impressions went, Briony suspected that she had made better ones. The lack of sleep didn’t help. Staying up until four in the morning because you were still trying to process the fact that there were vampires in the world. And that they can just come up to you, knock on your door, and smile charmingly at you like normal people was enough of a shock to keep Briony scrambling around in her room for anything she thought would help keep them away from her. She didn’t let on to Aunt Sophie how frightened she was of this newfound knowledge, especially the way Aunt Sophie acted like it was an everyday thing. This everyday thing was what worried Briony. She did not sleep a wink, which was not a good way to prepare for your first day at a new school.

  Then there was the way she was dressed. The simple dark dress and patterned sweater were ordinary enough, but most people in her class didn’t wear makeshift cross around their necks consisting of two carefully sharpened pencils stuck together with packing tape. Briony had hidden the cross necklace under her dress, hoping no one would see it. She knew it was stupid-looking, but it was all she could find in her room. She figured, if there were vampires coming after her like last night, at least she had something that might work. She didn’t know much about vampires, except what she saw in the movies. She could’ve kick herself for not paying more attention. What were vampires afraid of? Silver?

  Briony looked down at her wrist. It was a last minute thing, but after raiding Aunt Sophie’s kitchen this morning for anything silver, she found some spoons, which she bent into a kind of bracelet. Not exactly what she would’ve worn to school on her first day, but it made her feel a little safer.

  And then there was the effect of the smell to consider. It was amazing how much garlic you could sneak onto your breakfast if you tried, and Briony had certainly tried. The end result w
as breath that might or might not have stopped a vampire from getting near to her, but which was certainly stopping everything and everyone else.

  The upshot of all this was a series of stares as she entered her classes, followed by the kind of whispering that never boded well. Occasionally, Briony heard words like “freak” and “weirdo” floating out from little cliques of girls, while the boys who might have spent time staring at her or trying to talk to her at her old school avoided her completely here.

  Frankly, Briony had bigger things to worry about, and if anything, that was the one good thing about the day. She was so busy worrying over and looking out for vampires that there wasn’t really any time to worry about the usual “am I understanding anything in class?” or “do the popular girls like me?” questions.

  The thing that struck Briony as strange was that everybody else wasn’t as freaked out about living in Wicked as she was. Didn’t they know that they lived in a town containing vampires? That the Wicked Woods in Wicked was home to vampires, werewolves, ghouls, and anything supernatural?

  As the day wore on, it occurred to Briony that no, they probably didn’t know. How could they? If people in one town knew that vampires were real, then people everywhere would know. It wasn’t the kind of thing you could keep to just one place. Someone would phone their cousin in the next town, or post footage on the Internet, or even just stick up a big sign at the edge of town saying, “Incidentally, there are vampires here.” Somehow, the news would get out, wouldn’t it?

  Well, there had certainly been nothing about it in Briony’s introductions to her classes, though to be fair, she had been so sleepy at the time that a teacher could easily have said, “Class, this is Briony, she’s new, so be sure to tell her all about avoiding the undead,” and she might not have noticed. Still, nobody had come up to her to give her any tips along the lines of “be sure to run if you see any bats.” Of course, practically nobody had come up to her at all, and it was lunchtime now. Maybe things would change in the school cafeteria, though Briony wasn’t particularly hopeful.