Devils Roses 04 - Witch

turned to her bedroom door. She flung it open, panicked suddenly. His last thought made her skin crawl.
    “Your sister.” Jake’s words were a whisper.
    Her feet couldn’t move quickly enough on the bare hard wood floor. She skidded down the hall and flung the door open. Abbey's dark room sat empty. The only movement came from the huge picture window, where the long white silky curtains billowed in to the black room. The open window looked different. She shivered walking forward, feeling the carpet beneath her toes. She gulped. Her sister wasn’t there. Her bed sat empty. The covers were pulled back. The cool breeze that played with the curtains found its way to her. Her skin prickled with fear and confusion. She stopped one foot short of the window, seeing the screen was missing. Her sister was obsessive with bug screens. She was allergic to mosquito bites.
    Ophelia leaned forward to see the torn screen lying on the grass below.
    She gulped again and looked back at Jake who filled the lit doorway behind her.
    “She’s gone.” Her voice was a whisper.
    “We need to call the police.”
    She took a step back to him, “I know but I’m scared Jake. That wolf didn’t look like any wolf I’ve seen before and that man on my window ledge, how did he get there?”
    Jake put a hand out for her. The feel of his warm skin was a welcome feeling compared to cold of her sister's room.
    Jake pulled his cell from his pocket and dialed with his free hand. She let her hand drop from his and walked back in to her room. The dark eyed guy was still perched in her window. His expression looked pained.
    “She’s gone. My sister. Her window, the screen.” She felt dizzy trying desperately to process it.
    He nodded, “Others know about you Ophelia. You need to come with us.”
    “I want my sister back.”
    “You have a spell on the house that will keep you safe as long as you stay inside of it. Nothing can get to you inside of here but you can’t ever leave. They will come for you.”
    She shook her head, “You’ve come for me it seems.”
    He smiled, “I have. I also have no intention of harming you. They do.”
    She shook her head, “I don’t know you. I just want you to go away. I want my sister back.”
    She closed her eyes trying to regain some composure. She felt her grip on her emotions slipping.
    “I called the sheriff. He’s coming directly.”
    She spun, “Jake, he isn’t going to believe us. A huge wolf snuck in my sister’s window and stole her in the night and this guy flew up here.” She looked back at the guy in the window, “Will you even be here if the cops come?”
    He shook his head.
    She put her hands on her hips and looked back at Jake.
    His face was flushed, he looked angry in a way she’d never seen, “Ophelia someone is fucking with us. He climbed, he never flew. The wolf was probably trained to distract us so they could kidnap your sister. They’re holding her ransom until you go with them.”
    It made more sense than the explanation she was processing. She couldn’t shake the feelings she was having or the fact she wasn’t afraid of the guy in the window. The wolf didn’t seem trained, it seemed savage.
    She looked back at the guy in the window but he was gone. The wind blew in the empty window. She frowned at the empty space and slumped onto the floor.
    Jake went to the window and closed it and the blinds.
    “Sheriff’s here.” He ran out of the room and down the stairs. She sat on the floor alone, waiting for something to start making sense.
    ‘Ophelia you need to get out of here. They know. They know you’re alive.’
    She looked around at the air. The voices usually brought the ghosts with them.
    No one was in the room with her.
    She walked down the stairs after Jake.
    “Sheriff I saw it.”
    Sheriff Walker stood in her doorway, he didn’t seem to be able to walk past the threshold of the door.
    He grinned when he saw Ophelia.
    “Honey are you okay?”
    She nodded. She couldn’t help but notice he stood at the line of her doorway. His feet never budged past the doorway.
    “Sheriff come-“
    “NO!” She shouted wild-eyed at Jake. She leapt at Jake and clamped his mouth with her hands. She whispered, “Look at his feet, it’s like the wolf.”
    Jake’s eyes dropped to the feet staying exactly out of the house but as close as they could get.
    “Ophelia what’s the problem? Why don’t you come to my car and we’ll see about your sister.” He stepped back and