Second Chance Read Online Free

Joss.”
    A small lump formed in Joss’s throat then. “Really?”
    Henry nodded. “Really really. Watch this.”
    Henry stabbed the tip of the knife into the tree and dragged it down, cutting through the bark and into the wood beneath. Then he pulled it free and did it again, forming a crooked
X
on the trunk. When he was done, he wiped the blade clean on his jeans and closed the knife, slipped it into his pocket, and turned to look at Joss. “That
X
marks the spot where we became brothers, Joss. And as long as it’s here, we’ll always be brothers.”
    Joss’s chest felt so heavy and full of love for his cousin that he didn’t really know what to say. After a long pause, searching for the right words, what he came up with was, “Forever, Henry?”
    Henry grinned. “Forever and ever.”
    As the memory came to a close, Joss reached the other side of the tree. He traced his fingertips along the sunbaked
X
carving and allowed the smile to slip from his face with the realization that he was standing in the front yard of his old yellow house. The home his family shared when Cecile was still with them.
    Slowly, he turned around, toward the house. Staring in disbelief at his surroundings, he crossed the grass, his sneakers sinking slightly into the lawn, and made his way around the side of the house. How could he be here? How was this even possible? Was he in the past? Had he been transported here somehow?
    He turned the corner then, and his heart froze before picking up its pace slightly. Cecile was on her knees in the flower bed that edged the house, facing away from him, focused on her task. Ever so carefully, she picked up a small flowering plant and placed it in a hole she’d dug, before covering its roots with rich, black soil. As she moved through her task, she hummed a happy tune—one that reminded him of his mother. It was an endearing scene, watching his little sister plant flowers in the garden, so Joss had no idea why witnessing it set his nerves on edge. Apart from the fact that he knew the only way he could see Cecile was to travel back in time.
    Without turning toward him, Cecile stretched her arm out, pointing to the spade that was lying just out of reach in the grass to her left. “Will you hand me the shovel, Jossie?”
    After a moment of hesitation—one where he questioned whether or not he really had managed to travel back in time without realizing it, and why his sister was outside planting flowers unsupervised—Joss crept forward and crouched, plucking the spade from its spot in the grass, and held it out for her. “What are you planting, Cecile?”
    She didn’t respond with words, but instead began digging furiously with her hands, as if her task couldn’t wait any longer for the spade that Joss was trying to give to her. Curiosity overtaking him, Joss leaned forward, peering over his sister’s shoulder. The earth had been disturbed in a rather haphazard, desperate way, and several new flowers had been planted in crooked rows along the flower bed. And there, in the middle, poking up from the ground, gray and horrible, was a human pinkie finger.
    Joss’s heart raced, and his head began to spin. Why was Cecile digging in a place where a body was buried? Did she know about the corpse? Had she seen it? Who did that pinkie belong to, and why had the flower bed become their grave? Nausea pushed its way up Joss’s intestines, his stomach, his chest, tickling the back of his throat. A dead body. A dead person. In the garden. But why?
    His throat felt raw as he forced the next question out. “What are you doing, Cecile?”
    Suddenly Cecile’s hand closed over his wrist. He dropped the spade into the grass, his eyes growing ever wider at the image of Cecile’s fingernails. They were long and sharp, almost clawlike, and Joss could feel them digging into his skin. He looked at Cecile, who at last turned her head toward him slowly. Her eyes were closed, and she was smiling. And when she spoke, her