Everett
The cold wasthe first thing I noticed; frigid dampness beneath my cheek and bare feet that should not have been there. The wind howled through my window and it sounded like somebodycrying.
In that amorphous, half-awake state when reality and dream-reality were impossible to distinguish, I thought this was the most fucked-up dream I’d ever had. I tried to roll over in bed, to find the blanket I’d kicked off, but I encountered only…mud. There was a loudcrackon the other side of the room that didn’t sound at all likeDaphne.
I came to in a moment of panic, thinkingWhere am I?followed quickly and illogically byWhere is Silas?I tried to sit up, but I couldn’t. My left arm was trapped beneath me, prickly-numb like it was asleep, and my head emitted tiny little lightning-shocks of pain when I tried to open my eyes, draw a deep breath, or move in anyway.
I was going to throwup.
What the actualfuck?
I forced one eye to open, even though the action made pinwheels burst across my brain, but it was nearly as dark with my eye open as it had been with it closed. The air smelled like pine and decay and I heard… the ocean? Or maybe just the wind rushing throughleaves.
Either way, I wasoutside, I realized. It was fucking cold, I was dressed in nothing but a thin button-down and jeans, my shoes were not on my feet, andI was outside, when I couldn’t remember how the fuck I’d gottenhere.
I tried to move again, but I realized I was immobile for a reason. My right arm was tied at the wrist to something above my head. If I moved my fingers just slightly, I could touch the fuckingrope.
I was tied down. Withrope.
Sweet baby Jesus, Ihadended up in a Criminal Minds episode. And oh my God, if there was a real serial killer on the loose, Karen Mitchener-Martin wouldliterallynever shut up about beingright.
The moaning noise I’d mistaken for crying came again and I forced my cheek a bare half-inch off the ground, just enough so I could get both eyes open and turn my eyesup. I could barely discern the indigo-blue of the sky through the inkier darkness of the trees, but it was enough to realize that it was late, so late it might nearly bemorning.
Something moved on the ground not far from me and I turned my gaze down. There was a lump of blackness there, like a large dog or maybe a person covered in blankets, and I froze in place, shutting my eyes just in case the person or thing had better vision than Idid.
Don’t let them see you move. This fact had been drilled into me by a hundred hours spent watching police procedurals, because the really depraved shit always happened after the killer saw that you were awake. And that thought made me think of how Silas would laugh his ass off when I told him that my shitty police shows actually were good for something afterall…
If I got to tellhim.
Fuck.
I cudgeled my memory, trying to recall how thehellI had gotten here, but my brain was sluggish at best. I’d been at the diner with Silas. I remembered that. Then we’d gone home and… God, I remembered the fight in Si’s kitchen with total clarity. The terrible, selfish things I’d said, the devastated look on his face. I remembered walking out the door and barely making it down the street before I’d wanted to turn around and apologize, to beg him to hold me and give me anotherchance.
But what had happened afterthat?
Where was I? And where wasSilas?
I heard footsteps and whispers. Someone was walking around out here, talking to someone else. And I wondered for a second if it was Silas coming to get me. I remembered him saying he wouldn’t stop searching for me, if I were ever trapped and…God.
Okay. Okay, brain, we are going to think of productive things now. Getting free. Getting home. Getting toSilas.
I squinted my eyes open again and saw a figure the size and shape of a human walking back and forth. The sky had lightened enough, or my vision had cleared enough, to make out that I was in a clearing, with trees all aroundme.
The lump on the ground moaned again, and the walking and whispering stopped for a second. The human walked closer, hesitant and slow, and suddenly turned on a flashlight, illuminating thelump.
“You just… you juststay quiet, Frank. You hear me?” the person threatened, kicking the lump on the ground. “You stay right where you are or… or I’m gonna have to do somethingbad.”
The voice sounded familiar, so familiar. Like it was someone I’d spoken to before, recently, but I couldn’t place it. Why wouldn’t my brainwork?
“W-what’s happening?” Frank whispered from the ground. “Where am I? W-why are you doingthis?”
“No talking!” the person instructed, kicking Frank again, and Frank cried out sharply. “No talking! I need to think. I can’t… I can’tthink.”
The man turned on his heel and walked away a short distance. It seemed like he was tapping himself on the head as he muttered to himself once more. “It wasn’t supposed to happen again. It wasn’t my fault, with the other ones. The camper. The ranger. She understood that. But I promised no more and now look what I had to do. I’m going to have to kill you, too, and she’s gonna besomad.”
“I don’t understand,” Frank whined softly. His voice broke. “Shane, please. I can helpyou…”
Oh, God. Oh, dear God. The crazy man wasShane?
