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I hugged the large oak tree as I tried to catcharound this creepy little town in the dark��and during winter, no less��was such a bad idea Especially considering I&039;d been scared out of my wits by thosethose howls
Shivers raced up and downsounds? Surely not dogs Coyotes? Wolves? Eek! My shivering turned into full-body shudders
"Crystal One, Crystal One," spat my cell phone It was on tay radio loves were thick, but I ed to press the button on the phone&039;s side "Seriously, Mom," I whispered "Do we have to use ridiculous code naested she&039;d always regretted that decision Oh, please Burdening an infant with "Seraphina Liberty Windsong Monroe" was bad enough I started calling e of ten, much to Mom&039;s disappointment However, my parents were all about free expression and independent thinking If their only child desired to be called Libby, that desire would be honored
"Crystal One?"
I rolled my eyes "I&039;m here, Ruby Two I&039;m still in the woods, but I can see the cemetery, so I&039;ll head toward it Where are you?"
"We&039;re just off thetoward a place called the Thrifty Sip It looks abandoned Sapphire Three is lale dietary weakness was a frothy, sugary, colorful ICEE, which my mother equated to the devil&039;s brew Dad told e in one bad-for-you thing
"Makes life worth living, Peanut," he&039;d said with a wink
I clicked the button again "Any signs of Bigfoot?"
"None," responded Mo Werewolves, maybe"
For the last few months, stories about Broken Heart, Oklaho fro er resist the challenge They&039;d spent the last twenty-five years trying to prove the existence of vaels, aliens, other dimensions, and all kinds of supernatural phenoation Services, aka PRIS I was born two years later, and they&039;d raised me to believe in the paranormal We&039;d lived on the road, so I&039;d been holish, Astral Projection, and Psychic Phenoot my GED, then I took the certificate course at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology After I finished the twelve-ram, I went to California and enrolled in the HCH Institute Another year, another certificate��this one in Parapsychological Studies Getting those certificates wasn&039;t nearly asfor Bayou Boo, half e of twenty-three, I was itching to strike out on my own It wasn&039;t that I didn&039;t believe inthe unknown, or, inall my own I supposed it was time to create the life I wantedonly I didn&039;t yet knohat I wanted I tucked the phone into my coat pocket We were supposed to meet back at the car in thirty minutes We&039;d been in Tulsa to check out a haunted hotel (nope, no ghosties), and decided to hit Broken Heart on the way toCold And I was still unnerved by the animal cries I listened for the howls, relieved when I heard nothing but the wind rattling the branches above ator I was! I wasn&039;t supposed to let little things like olves (ack!) and freezing weather stop ainst the tree No warht of a skimost of me warm, but the hood offered no protection to h bark wasn&039;t exactly helping, either I let go of the tree, but stayed close I readjusted the strap of my oversized purse, which clunked in protest My parents were big believers in being prepared and they&039;d taughton us
I inhaled the loamy smell of earth and the crisp scent of pine It felt like tiny icicles were for and clenched the oak, peering around the wide trunk I stifled a gasp when I saw anext to a heart-shaped ht corner had broken off He placed an arround and appeared to be talking to the headstone
Oh, crap Spying on so But I couldn&039;t quite convince lasses were flotsam in the junk sea of my purse, I had to squint to read the inscription: