My Hockey Alpha

Chapter 225: Long Shadows

Nina

My friends and I sat around the fire, listening quietly to the crackling of the logs and the sounds of the forest around us. It was so pitch black that we couldn’t see anything beyond the dim orange glow cast by the first. Everything else beyond that was nothing but inky blackness, despite the fact that the moon was full in the sky. It made no sense; there had to have been some sort of spell on this forest, as though someone was trying to slow us down or get us lost.

We were all exhausted, but none of us felt safe enough to sleep. Every so often, we would hear some sort of strange sound in the forest and we would all leap up out of fear, shining our flashlights frantically into the darkness only to find that nothing was there. It felt like tricks were being played on us. Maybe, if we got tricked enough times into thinking that the sounds we heard were all in our head, someone would ambush us from the shadows. It was like the boy who cried wolf.

“Um… Maybe we should try to sleep in shifts,” Lori finally said, breaking the silence. “I don’t think it’s super helpful if we’re all sleep deprived. I think we’re starting to see things.”

“There’s no way I’m sleeping out here,” Jessica grumbled as she pulled her jacket closer around her shoulders. “It’s too creepy.”

finally said, standing. “The longer we sit out here, the easier of a target we are to

spot. Not only would we just get even more lost in the darkness, but it would be too easy to lose each other if we were moving. Someone could have easily gotten snatched away if we walked through the dark forest and we

back down. “And if anyone needs to sleep, then sleep. I think we’re safe as long as we stay put and keep someone

going to rest — not even me. I was more on guard than ever, because I had a sinking feeling that Selena might suddenly show up. Of course I told my friends that we were safer here, but I didn’t think that we were

started to hurt from being so tense. Still staying next to the fire, I decided to lay back and stretch out a bit. I let out a bit of a sigh as I felt my back align on the hard ground, and I stared up at

sense it. As twins, we were more connected than I had previously realized. I was funny, because I had never once thought that I had a twin, and I had never felt connected to anyone like that. Somehow, I thought that returning to the

I passed through the portal. It was only for a split second, but I felt an unmistakable feeling of dread. In my mind, a single image flashed for that brief moment: an image of Selena’s body laying next to mine. We were both dead. But I knew that it didn’t have to end up that way. If I could stop her without killing her, then neither of us would die; and yet, if I did have to kill her, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to survive. The bond between us was too strong, and if one of us died, then so would the other.

it. I didn’t know if she was working with the Crescents or not, but I did know for sure that she had sinister intentions. She hated my existence, not only because I was a threat to her chances of finding love, but also because I was

another sound in the woods. I instantly shot up, my eyes wide. My friends stared back, their eyes equally as wide

the sound of twigs

and they weren’t