Near the Bone by Christina Henry (the mitten read aloud txt) 📕

and C.P. would not be able to carry Griffin on his own.

If I can only let them get ahead of me, they’ll be safe. The creature wants me, me and William. We’re the ones it warned.

(But how do you know it only wants you? The other three went into its cave, too.)

Mattie’s teeth chattered. Her tongue felt heavy and numb inside her mouth. She didn’t know the right thing to do. She didn’t know how to save all of them, or even herself.

She pointed in the direction of the cliff, then east, the way that C.P. said they needed to go. If they followed the cliff for a while they’d surely find a place where they could turn south again. Maybe they could even find the stream. She knew for certain that the stream ran into the river, and the river would take them down the mountain. Plus, if they reached the stream from here, Mattie knew that they would avoid the cabin and William.

C.P. started dragging Griffin, but Jen didn’t move. She stared at Mattie.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

Mattie waved her hand, indicating that they should go.

“No,” Jen said. Her voice was low but she sounded furious. “Don’t get any funny ideas about distracting it, or sacrificing yourself to save us. You go with us or none of us do.”

Mattie’s fists clenched. Why would these strangers never listen to her? Why wouldn’t they let her help? They had helped her. They’d saved her from William. Now she wanted to return the favor and they were balking.

“Go,” Mattie whispered.

Jen shook her head, and C.P. said, “No way.”

Mattie clamped her lips together in frustration. Her teeth clacked against one another inside her closed mouth. The creature was very close. She could feel it. Her eyes searched the pines, looking for some sign.

The creature’s eyes stared down at her.

Mattie gasped and stumbled back, away from the tree she’d clung to. It was directly above them.

She didn’t know how it managed to heave its enormous bulk up so high, but somehow it did. She didn’t know how it had gotten so close without making a sound, either. They’d heard the branches breaking earlier.

It can move silently when it wants to. It followed you through the woods and you almost didn’t realize at all. You only hear it approaching if it chooses.

She couldn’t see any of it except its eyes, and even that wasn’t exactly right—she couldn’t make out their color or their shape, only the matched gleam of them so far above.

“What is it?” Jen hissed.

“Go,” Mattie said, backing into the three of them, never taking her eyes from the creature’s eyes. “Go, go, go.”

C.P. looked up, squinting into the trees. “Is it there?”

Mattie almost moaned in frustration. They have no sense of self-preservation. When I say “go,” it doesn’t mean “stay and attract the monster’s attention.”

Jen finally caught Mattie’s mood and indicated to C.P. that they should go. The two of them limped ahead, dragging Griffin between them, and Mattie backed away slowly, her eyes on the creature.

We don’t mean you any harm, she thought. Please, leave us alone.

The creature didn’t move. Mattie kept her eyes locked on its eyes until she had to turn or risk falling off the cliff.

Just as she turned she realized something, and the realization made her lungs constrict.

There wasn’t one set of eyes watching them.

There were two.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Mattie stumbled along in the wake of the other three. They were moving along the cliffside, and they could see the cliff continuing ahead for quite some time.

Why didn’t they attack us back there? We were vulnerable, injured—surely an animal smart enough to stalk us through the forest would be smart enough to see that.

She didn’t have any answers. She only knew that it had let them go. She couldn’t shake the feeling, though, that it was somehow worse that it had—that there was something more terrible waiting in store for them.

“It’s getting dark,” C.P. said. His breath was ragged. “I don’t want to pitch the tents by moonlight.”

It was getting dark. Mattie hadn’t even noticed the sun going down. Her mind was full of what she’d seen, or thought she’d seen.

Two creatures? How?

And where had they come from in the first place? Mattie and William had lived on this mountain for years and never seen any sign of such things. How could two such enormous animals suddenly appear out of nowhere?

You know what William would say. They are demons, sent to test you.

But Mattie didn’t believe in demons.

A rifle shot pierced the air.

The four of them stopped dead simultaneously, as if given an order—or rather, three of them stopped and Griffin lolled in between Jen and C.P. Mattie spun around, certain William would be right behind them.

There was nothing and no one, only the broken trail of snow and the cliff and the trees that never seemed to end.

“I don’t think it was nearby,” Jen said, and pointed. “It sounded like it came from that way.”

If William was strong enough to go back to the cabin for his rifle, then the creature must not have harmed him as much as Mattie had thought—or hoped.

(Die why couldn’t you just die you killed my mother and you stole me away I wanted you to die)

“Hurry,” she said. If they got a little farther then maybe the dark would cover their tracks, make it harder for William to follow them.

“We really can’t hurry,” C.P. said. “In case you hadn’t noticed, our friend has a head injury and can’t walk.”

“Stop being such a sarcastic jerk,” Jen said. “She’s only worried.”

“And I’m not?” C.P. grumbled. “We came up here to do some research and now we’re in a horror movie with a monster and an unkillable redneck with a gun.”

Jen retorted something but Mattie wasn’t really listening. She couldn’t stop herself from checking behind them frequently, looking for William’s silhouette on the trail.

The air was getting colder as it grew darker,