Excerpt: The Darklings

With a shudder, Renee realized where she was. She was close to where they had found Michelle’s body. How on earth had she gotten this far? And why here?
“So what were you doing out here?” The officer’s voice interrupted her thoughts.
“I don’t know. I think I was sleepwalking. One minute, I was dreaming, and the next, I was running through the woods.” Renee couldn’t keep her voice from shaking, and she drew the blanket he had given tighter around her shoulders.
The officer sighed. “Well, what do you say we get you back home, okay? I bet you have school in the morning.”
Renee nodded. “Thanks,” she said.
As they drove back to her house, Renee suddenly remembered the face of the girl in the forest.

By lunch time the next day, the school was buzzing with the news of the second body that had been found, this one only two miles away from where they had found Michelle.
“So what did your dad say?” Holly asked Donnie as they set down their trays next to Renee.
“Not much.” Donnie took a bite of his veggie burger. “They only found it this morning. He said the person was barefoot again, but that was all they knew. He couldn’t tell me who it was yet, because they hadn’t notified the family.” Donnie looked at Renee out of the corner of his eye.
“That’s so sad. Did he say if it was someone at the school?” Holly asked.
Donnie ignored her question, turning to Renee instead. “What were you doing out last night?”
Renee nearly choked on her forkful of salad. “How’d you know about that?” “Um, I had something…personal going on.” She should have figured he’d know about it by now. “Did your dad say something?”
“His deputy had to tell him, considering you were at the place they found Michelle’s body. It’s in the case file now.” She still couldn’t read Donnie’s expression. Was it worry or fear?
“You were at the crime scene? What were you doing there? Did you see something weird? Were there any clues?” Holly was bubbling over with questions, and Renee had to hold up a hand to stop her.
“Whoa, whoa whoa! I was sleep walking, all right? I had a bad dream, and I woke up in the forest. That was it.”
“Do you have a history of sleepwalking? I mean, like, did you do it as a kid or something?”
“No. Not really,” Renee said hesitantly.
“Oh,” Holly said, as though that made things suddenly more interesting. “Well what were you dreaming about?”
Renee figured it couldn’t hurt to tell them about her dream, but she left out the identity of the girl in the forest. It was just a minor detail anyway, and she couldn’t figure out why she’d been dreaming about her.
“Dreams can tell you a lot, you know. I once had a dream that my house was getting broken into over and over and over again, and then two weeks later, my step dad made off with my mom’s jewelry box and a bunch of her electronics and stuff. We had to buy it all back from a pawnshop. So what do you think your dream means?”
Renee shrugged. “How should I know? Maybe it was one of those dreams that happens after you see something. I drive by those woods every day on my way home, and there’s definitely no shortage of people making out in the hallways here.”
“Could be,” Holly said, but Renee could tell she didn’t believe her.