I was blindfolded.
For once, being able to explain my lack of vision wasn’t reassuring.
My ears quit ringing. In its place, I heard loud, steady sloshing noises, and the ground rocked and tilted in time with eachswoosh.
Suddenly, the sound stopped, and ambient noise crept in all around. Insects hummed, frogs croaked, and water lapped at the hard surface beneath me.
Am I in a boat?
Ever so faintly, I heard a fast, low,thrum, thrum, thrum, like distant drumming.
The man cursed under his breath before what I assumed was paddling picked up again, almost frantic.
I could still hear that rhythmic sound, though. It burrowed into my ears and rooted deep in my soul. It was so familiar, its origin on the tip of my tongue, playing hide and seek in my broken and bruised peripheral thoughts, yet I couldn’t place it among the night song all around.
Still, if I could hear whatever it was, maybe it could hear me. “Help!” I shouted over the splashing of the oars. Or tried to, anyway, with my wrecked and hoarse voice. “Help me!”
The boot connected with my stomach, this time. “Shut up.”
Wheezing, I gasped for breath and tipped onto my stomach, landing in the puddle of my own sick. I retched, rolling again so I was on my back, and inhaled a few shallow breaths.
The thrumming metronomegrew louder.
“Impossible,” the monster muttered lowly. “They’ll sweep the roads first. There’s time. There’s time.” Then, his voice switched to something disturbingly neutral, as if he were simply teaching me how to tie a knot. “Alright, far enough. Up and over you go.”
And that was when I finally recognized it.
The reason his voice sounded like someone instructing me on how to tie a knot was because hehadtaught me how to tie knots. He’d also helped me set up my first tent, locate the best kindling to start a fire, and navigate through the forest without a compass.
I’d slept in his house countless nights as a child when Dad had to work, blissfully unaware of the predator that lurked down the hall.
In my brief moments of clarity between pain and unconsciousness, I’d ignored how familiar his voice was,unwilling to even consider my Dad could also be the man trying to murder me.
But as the real killer’s nonchalant words washed over me, I understood with sharp clarity who the true monster was, and just how far he was willing to go to hide in the shadows—even sacrificing the ones closest to him in the process.
Rough hands grabbed my shoulder and yanked me upright. Every functioning survival skill I possessed kicked in, and only one thought raced through my mind.
Up and over.
We were in a boat because I was beingdumped,and if I didn’t act right now, it would be too late.
If it wasn’t already.
I used the momentum to throw myself forward, knocking him back with a heavy grunt. Still unable to see through the blindfold, I rammed my shoulder out indiscriminately, connecting with a soft, fleshy part of him. My thigh landed hard on something bony.
I screamed when he stumbled away, stomping on my injured leg in the process. In a blink, I was flat on my back again after what could’ve only been an elbow hit me in the cheek.
Stars circled around and around and around.
Except this time, it wasn’t just stars. There were trees, too, and the moon, far, far, away, beaming down like a distant spotlight onto the forest below.
Dazedly, I noted my blindfold must’ve fallen off in the scuffle, unless I was hallucinating.
But… No. I couldn’t be, because even in my worst nightmares, I wouldn’t conjure something so evil.
Leonard struggled to his feet, his face dimly lit by the glow of a headlamp and twisted in a grimace. He gingerly prodded at his bloody knee, which he must’ve landed on hard for it to be soaked through the tan material of his pants.
Unless he’d already been injured, and our tussle had only reopened the wound. Maybe by falling down the stairs, fleeing the lookout last night?
