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Back The Ursulina Save as PDF
Chapters (45)
  1. I know you'll never forgive me...
  2. Part One - Your Father
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Part Two - Your Mother
  24. Chapter Twenty-One
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  33. Chapter Thirty
  34. Chapter Thirty-One
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  41. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  42. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  43. Chapter Forty
  44. Chapter Forty-One
  45. About the Author

Norm stared at his son in the hospital bed. In the low light, Will breathed in and out, but he showed no signs of consciousness. Even so, I felt as if Norm were pleading with his son for advice. And for forgiveness.

“Jay is out of control, Rebecca,” Norm said. “He blames himself for what happened to Will. He’s desperate.”

“That’s even more reason for me to find him. Where is he?”

“He was driving his dad’s car. The Mercedes. I told him to go back to my house and park the car in the garage and make sure the door was closed. I said he should stay in the house with the lights off and not answer if anyone came by.”

“How do I get in?” I asked.

“I keep a spare key inside the brass light fixture on the porch.”

“Thank you, Norm. I’ll find him, and I’ll keep him safe.”

I got out of the chair, but Norm took my arm gently before I could leave. “Rebecca?”

“What is it?”

He hesitated, struggling again, as if the lawyer were doing battle with the father. “There’s something else. You need to be very careful if you go in there.”

“Why?”

Norm swallowed hard as he tried to get the words out. “Jay has a gun.”

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

On the highway, the plows had given up their fight against the blizzard, and my tires punched and swerved through wet snow on the way back to Norm’s house. Drifts blew into terraced mountains that I had to navigate around. The storm showed no sign of letting up. My snow-ghosts—my hallucinations—followed me across the county, twisting my gut with the things I saw. I had visions of the three victims of the Ursulina standing on the shoulder, their skin in ribbons. I saw Ricky hiding behind every tree. Most of all, worst of all, I kept hearing the lonely, plaintive cry of a baby in the screech of the wind.

Call it a premonition. An omen or a sign.

Was it you, sweetheart? Were you telling me you were out there? Were you crying about things to come?

By the time I made it to the forest outside Random, the gray late afternoon sky had begun to darken into night. When I reached Norm’s house, I saw that I wasn’t the first to arrive. The vandals had already struck. A gay slur had been spray-painted in huge red letters across Norm’s garage, and several first-floor windows had been smashed. Splintered debris was everywhere, and ash and smoke floated in the air with the snow. I realized they’d broken into the workshop and thrown Will’s woodwork into the yard and burned it like a bonfire. They’d also scattered the contents of Will’s high school locker on the front steps and left a message for him painted on the door.

Don’t come back.