The Shuddering

snapped her mouth shut, blinking at the stain her brother had just been inspecting. She rushed behind him as he continued toward the car, crawling back into her seat and slamming the door behind her before he could get around the Nissan’s front end.
    They drove the rest of the way in relative silence. But Ryan couldn’t get it out of his head. Something, or some one , was out there, and close to the cabin. It made him uncomfortable. It wasn’t safe.



CHAPTER FIVE
    R yan and Jane had only three balls left on the table—the blue two, the red three, and the burgundy seven—while Lauren and Sawyer had six. Lauren leaned over the table while Ryan lined up a shot, a mischievous smile dancing across her lips. She tugged down on the hem of her T-shirt to distract him, her cleavage perfectly lined up with his shot. Jane chuckled as she picked at a slice of leftover chocolate cake, giving Sawyer a dubious look.
    “Your teammate is cheating,” she told him, licking a smear of frosting off a fork tine. “You should both be disqualified.”
    “It’s okay,” Ryan said, bending over the table, his chin close to the Kelly green felt. “I’m undistractable.”
    “ Undistractable isn’t a word,” Sawyer told him.
    “It doesn’t matter,” Ryan said, pulling back the pool cue before forcing it through his fingers. The cue ball cracked against the red three, forcing it into the corner pocket with a muffled thump against the table’s bumper. He straightened, squared his shoulders, and made an announcement: “They’re only boobs.”
    “ Only ,” Lauren snorted, snatching her pool cue from against the wall.
    “Once you’ve seen a few dozen pairs,” Ryan teased, “you’ve seen them all. Now, if you don’t mind, take your shot. I’m ready to win this thing.”
    Jane took a seat on the leather sofa that flanked the wood-paneled wall, her gaze shifting from the game to the girl at thecouch’s far end. April had been coiled into its corner for the last hour, not saying a word, looking forlorn.
    “Oh, come on ,” Ryan complained, motioning toward Lauren. She was climbing on top of the table, her hair in a wild ponytail, her eyes brimming with determination. “Does someone have a rule book?”
    “Shut up, boyo,” Lauren told him, tossing her hair over her shoulder before squinting down the length of her pool cue, the tip of her tongue curling over the corner of her upper lip.
    Jane bit back a laugh and glanced to the girl beside her. “Are you okay?” she asked. April wasn’t Jane’s favorite person by a long shot, but seeing her looking so down made Jane feel guilty for having such a good time.
    April forced a smile and nodded faintly. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
    “Are you sure you don’t want to play?” Jane motioned to the pool table. “You can take my spot.”
    “I suck at pool.” April slid her hand across the leather cover of Dracula . Jane smiled at the book.
    “Did Sawyer ever tell you that he read that book like a dozen times?”
    “This one?” April peered at the novel in her lap.
    “Well, not that one specifically, but yeah. He had this tattered paperback he’d take with him everywhere. He just about cried when the cover fell off.”
    “It was a tragedy,” Sawyer told them. “I never did get a replacement copy.”
    “Take that one,” Jane told him, nodding to the novel in April’s lap. “There’s no way you’ll finish reading it before we leave here anyway,” she told April. “It took me nearly two months to get through it.”
    “Is that the unabridged version?” Sawyer asked, stepping over to the girls to take a look at the hardback. “It is .” He was pleased.
    “It’s an old copy, I think it has some Old English or Elizabethan in it or something…” Jane said.
    “I guess that’s why it doesn’t make any sense?” April said, and Jane chuckled in commiseration. The old-timey language had given her a headache too.
    “Hark, fair maiden!” Ryan sidestepped the pool table and saddled up to Lauren with a flourish. “Thou art beautiful, but a lousy cheat.”
    “I play to win, Count.” Lauren batted her lashes at him.
    “And I live to drink,” Ryan shot back, “and must drink to live!” He seized her in his arms and she squealed as she fell back in a dip, Ryan exposing his teeth vampire-style before biting her neck.
    Jane held back a laugh as Lauren tried to hide her blush, looking back to April with a faint smile. “Would you like some tea?” she