The Shuddering
that very moment, probably sipping tea and watching made-for-TV movies while a maid buzzed around her, paid for by alimony.
And then, as if to solidify that those good times were over, he coiled his fingers into the drapes and pulled.
Jane tore her mother’s curtains into long strips before wrapping them around the end of broken coffee table legs. The torches were crude, but they’d do. Ryan returned from his scavenger hunt upstairs, having tossed all their luggage down the stairs like bags of trash. They would salvage what they could. Armed with the large wicker basket from the master bathroom, he tossed it onto the couch. It would hold weapons rather than fashion magazines and luxury car brochures.
“I need to go outside,” Ryan said.
His words tingled inside Jane’s chest.
“What? No,” she protested, but he held up a hand to stop her, the expression on his face confirming that it wasn’t up for debate.
“First of all, we need the snowboards. I left them strapped to the top of the car, and Sawyer’s is halfway down the road. We’re strapping this”—he motioned to the basket—“to one of them. We can’t carry all this shit by hand. Second, we need fuel for the torches, and there’s no gas in the garage. I checked.”
“Ryan…” Jane hesitated. She was scared, not wanting him to go. Crouching next to her and a silent Oona, Ryan offered a faint smile.
“I’m going to need one of those fancy torches,” he told her.
“Can we at least try the car?” she asked. “Please?”
Ryan frowned, squeezing the bridge of his nose before exhaling a sigh. “You know that isn’t going to work. The snow is even deeper than it was yesterday.”
“There has to be a way,” she insisted. “Walking out there…” She shook her head, not wanting to think about it. It had been her idea in the first place, but now that they were actually going to go through with it, she was sure this plan was crazy. Even with the fire and the blood and the spears, those things were ruthless. “And what about Oona? She can’t possibly make it through the snow on her own.”
“We’re going to make her a sled.”
“And you think she’ll actually stay on it? Ryan, I—”
He caught her hands in his, leveling his gaze on her. “Hey,” he told her. “Trust me, okay? Ten minutes tops. They won’t bother me if I have fire.”
Jane’s stomach churned with nerves, but she nodded anyway. There was no way around it. They were all eventually going to end up outside in the cold with those things stalking them in the shadows. It was either that or stay here forever, where they would eventually grow so weak with hunger those creatures would simply walk in and take them without a fight. She swallowed against the lump in her throat, hoping that maybe, by some miracle, they’d be saved. Maybe a ranger would show up, making sure people were okay after all that snow, or a lineman would appear, since the electricity was out; perhaps the new owners would arrive, ready to indulge in their brand-new home; or maybe, as if being drawn down from the sky by the hand of God himself, their father would come, responding to a bad feeling he couldn’t shake, a cosmic connection with his kids, knowing that something was wrong.
Ryan stood up, grabbed a torch, and turned to step out of the room.
“Wait,” Sawyer said, dropping what he was doing. The two locked eyes, Ryan looking defiant. Ryan hadn’t said a word about it, but Jane knew he had been hurt by Sawyer’s outburst, suggesting that Lauren hadn’t been important, that she had been some weekend thrill, when he had finally made a connection with someone. Whether Sawyer had meant what he had said, or whether he had been rambling his way through a breakdown, it was undeniable that Ryan was struggling to forgive and forget.
“I’ll go,” he said. “You stay here with Jane.”
Ryan furrowed his eyebrows at the offer. Jane’s heart rattled in her chest. She desperately wanted Ryan to stay, but she knew it wasn’t his nature. Once Ryan had a plan of action mapped out inside his head, he was the one who had to execute it. It had been that way their entire lives, one of their father’s lessons that had been ingrained in him despite Ryan’s animosity toward him— if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. That advice had gotten Ryan further than anyone had ever expected; the business, the traveling, following his passion.
Ryan shook his head in
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