Chapter 3
Grace’s smile was on the verge of bruising her cheeks as she passed the sign for Holiday Hollow.
Ever since she got off the phone yesterday morning, she had been practically bouncing with excitement.
Before she’d even had breakfast, Grace loaded up her car from the hotel, and began her cross-country journey into the northern countryside.
The drive was long and laborious, but it had been far more beautiful than Grace ever expected it to be.
All her life, she lived in the southern states, sequestered to the warm and dry summers that seemed to stretch on throughout the entire year.
Seasons often alluded her, besides the single tree that changed colors and respectively lost all its leaves.
But as Grace trekked further into the mountainous regions, where the national parks stretched into wide forests, she felt like she had entered another world.
The higher elevation rendered the sky an unbelievable blue, without a cloud to stand in the light’s way.
The trees were taller than any city landscapes, filled with more creatures than she could imagine.
As she passed into Holiday Hollow’s town lines, the trees took on a more crooked nature, almost like they had been in the middle of a dance, and were frozen in place.
The mountains curved around the town, placing Holiday Hollow in the midst of a safe valley.
As if plucked out of an old storybook for children, the neighborhoods were nestled within nature, like blooming flowers of their own kind.
The town center was a long street where people already walked and mingled, their laughter carrying on the gentle breeze.
All the trees in Holiday Hollow were in the midst of a color change – their green was fading into a sharp yellow, while some were deepening into a scarlet red.
Autumn approached, and judging by the series of Jack-o-Lanterns being placed outside of storefronts, Halloween loomed right around the corner.
Grace took a turn out of Holiday Hollow’s town center, about to take a loose gravel road into the thick of the woods, when a bouncing figure perched on the street corner caught her eye.
Though colder weather loomed on the horizon, the stranded woman wore a bright colored sundress, the thin straps barely hanging onto her rounded shoulders.
She looked to be pacing around her unmoving car, one of the back tires obviously flat, while smacking her short-heeled shoe against the rear every once and a while.
Grace caught her kicking once before her pretty face scrunched up in pain.
“A haven since 1614,” Grace murmured, remembering the welcome sign.
Something like that could mean a lot of things. It didn’t say ‘safe haven.’ It reminded her of when the man on the phone mentioned ‘outsiders,’ as though there was a clear distinction between those who belong there and those who were visiting for the aesthetic.
What made a town a haven? Safety? Community? A haven for what – for who? But she didn’t need to ask herself all those questions to decide whether or not she should’ve pulled over for the stranded woman.
Grace was doing it before she had even made up her mind.
She leaned forward while parking on the main street’s corner, peering out through the front windshield.
Where the sky was once an unblemished blanket of baby blue was suddenly engulfed by a growing storm.
Dark and heavy clouds crept across the golden sun before it was snuffed out entirely, matched by a raven’s gurgling caw echoing down the long valley.
Grace turned the engine off. “It’s okay to be creeped out,” she whispered to herself as she got out of the car. “Totally okay.”
A few yards ahead, the pretty blonde, with hair cut close to her ears, waved an eager hand over her head. Silver jewelry chimed and clacked along her arms as she gestured, the sound as musical as an airy band.
Grace left her convertible parked on the corner as she met the woman in front of her cherry-red punch buggy.
Now that she could really see the woman’s face, Grace was a bit awe-struck.
They had to have been around the same age, not quite middle-aged but well into their forties.
Despite that, the woman carried the youth of someone half her age.
She wore it well, like she knew what she was doing.
In the reflection of the woman’s spotless windows, Grace caught a glimpse of her own image in her classic comfort outfit, the holey clothes she always turned to in days of long travel.
Old converses smudged with stains she never remembered, denim overalls that managed to always be a bit too big on her, and an oversized t-shirt tucked beneath – that day, the shirt was from over ten years ago, the white print almost entirely faded across the front.
If Grace managed to not look her age, it was because she was too busy dressing like a child.
“Need some help,” Grace asked, and the woman’s gaze turned toward her.
“You’re not the knight in shining armor I was expecting,” she called out, already extending a hand toward her. Neatly manicured nails, perfectly shaped into long claws, colored a bright shade of pink screamed out at Grace. “But I’ll take you all the same!”
Grace shook the woman’s hand. “Believe me, I’ve had my fair share of blown tires in the middle of nowhere without a car in sight. Luckily for you, it was reason enough for me to learn how to change a tire myself.”
“You’re quite the woman, aren’t you?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say –”
SLAM!
Thunder crashed as a bolt of lightning cracked against the horizon. The sudden clap made Grace flinch, her eyes wide as she stared into the distance. The sound still echoed down the valley, carried through tunnels and across mountains.
“Good Lord.” Grace pressed a hand to her unsteady heart. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard thunder like that. Like –”
“Like it’s right above you.”
Grace eyed the woman closely. She hadn’t moved an inch, entirely unbothered by the oncoming storm. Maybe they get thunderstorms frequently around here. It’s hurricane season, isn’t it? She cleared her throat as she tried to regain her confidence.
The woman smiled sweetly. “My name’s Caroline Shepard.” She raised her arm to eye a stunning sleek watch at her wrist, her brow furrowing as she considered the time. With a sigh, she let her arm fall. “I called my brother a while ago, and he said he was coming, but –”
“Brothers,” Grace interjected with a smile. “I’m Grace Baker. If you’re not in the mood for waiting, I can change your tire.”
Caroline beamed. “Only if you show me how to do it, too.”
“Deal.”
Grace ducked back toward her convertible, popping the trunk to get her tools out.
She gathered the old car jack and the rusty lug wrench she took from Chuck’s toolbox.
Caroline helped collect the spare tire, not at all complaining as she carried the heavy thing with her neat nails.
They waddled toward the punch buggy before setting the tire against it.
Grace got to work swiftly, loosening the lug nuts before moving to lift the car with the jack.
Caroline’s eyes watched her closely, even if she wasn’t quite jumping in to try it herself.
“Looks like you’ve got a packed car,” Caroline mentioned as Grace pressed down on the jack, raising the car. “Are you moving?”
Grace nodded. “Just me and every last thing that belongs to me.”
“When does the rest of your stuff come?”
“Rest of my stuff?”
Caroline jutted her chin to the car. “That can’t be everything you own!” Her eyes widened. “Can it?”
“I’m afraid to say that it is!”
Her jaw went slack. “Well that just won’t do! Where are you moving to?”
“Oh,” Grace drawled, crouched on the ground as she peered up at her, “You haven’t guessed yet?”
Caroline frowned and tapped her chin before realization flooded across her face. “I can hardly believe it! You’re moving here?” She slapped her cheeks, her eyes almost as wide as the sun. In the distance, the sky was lit up by another few bolts of dangerous lightning. “Seriously?”
“I hope you’re not on the welcome committee,” Grace teased with a nervous laugh.
Caroline reached for her in the same second, crouching down despite the hem of her dress dipping into the dirty ground below.
Her cold hands clasped down around Grace’s arm before giving her a reassuring squeeze.
“Believe me,” she said, “I will be the first person to vouch for this town. I’m just surprised!
I can’t even tell you how long it’s been since someone moved to Holiday Hollow. Actually move here.”
“Why’s that so hard to believe? It’s picture perfect, isn’t it?”
“Tourists love picture perfect,” Caroline replied. “But sometimes, gimmicky can be a bit too gimmicky for some people. It’s a diverse town – believe me – but it’s more than a town for us. It’s more like…well, it’s actually like a –”
“Haven,” Grace murmured.
Caroline beamed from ear to ear. “Yeah! Just that. A haven.”
As Grace rolled in the new tire, pushing aside the popped one, she chewed on the inside of her mouth, ruminating over her new friend’s words.
Something about the woman felt familiar, though she was sure she never knew her before.
It was deeper than knowing someone. It was a comfort, an easiness, a simplicity, as if they had already been friends for years.
Connections that were as natural as that were rare and difficult to come by.
Grace almost hardly believed that it was happening for her, right there.
“Where in Holiday Hollow are you moving to?” Caroline asked.
Grace rose to her feet and stretched out her back. “Everyone seems to call it the Lantern House, but I’m not –”
“The Lantern House?” Caroline’s long arms flailed out before landing on Grace’s shoulders, her long nails acting like gripping talons. “I can hardly believe it!”
“W-Why?”