The car finally came into view and I scrambled to hit the trunk button on the keypad as I ran toward it. It popped open, and when I reached it, the weapon shone at me like a golden trophy. As a special prize, there was an extra set of handcuffs near the gun. I snatched both up, checking to make sure the gun was loaded, and I grabbed a handful of shells in case I needed more, shoving them into my pockets with the handcuffs. I slammed the trunk and ran back into the woods, feeling that the odds were evening out even though we weren’t sure who we were upagainst.
I stayed close to the trees, darting from one to another, heading back toward Chris as I chambered a round. There was another shot in the distance, then footsteps pounding my way. I leapt behind a tree for cover, but when I peered around I saw it was Chris running toward me. “This way,” he cried when he saw me. “I hit Chase in the shoulder. It should buy us a few minutes. There’s someone else out here, Mason. I don’t know him, but he pointed toward Elijah’s house. There was something... I trust him. Come on.”
Chris took off running, and I took off after him because I couldn’t leave him alone, but I wasn’t done with that weird conversation. “What the hell are you talking about?” I cried. “You’re telling me we’re out here being shot at by a group of serial killers and you see some guy you don’t know who tells you togo that wayand you trust him? Who the fuck would be out here but them?”
Chris spared a glance back at me. “I don’t know, Mason. But I know he’s trying to help Elijah. Just... trust me. Let’s fucking go.”
I ran after him through the woods, annoyed. The guy was probably trying to throw us off the trail. “Really, man?” I muttered as branches and leaves hit me in the face. “We’re out here being hunted like fucking deer and you trust some random dude in the woods? Do you see how wrong we’ve already been?”
“It’s an instinct, Mason,” he said curtly, without looking back. “He was... it was weird. Just fucking trust me, dammit.”
I rolled my eyes behind him but had no choice but to follow. I thought I heard something behind me, but I kept going. When I dared to look back, I saw nothing but trees.
???
It felt like we should be nearing Elijahs’s property when there was a noise in front of us. Danny stepped out from behind a tree, gun aimed. Chris stopped in shock, but by now, I wasn’tsurprised to see him here, just that he’d caught us off guard. Once I’d realized who Will was, it all became so clear. The fact that the killers had found the unalarmed window in Brock’s house hadn’t been dumb luck, nor had it taken any research. They already knew how to get in. They already had control of the cameras. My shoddy detective work made me want to punch myself in the face.
Before we could even try to aim our weapons, the sound of a shotgun chambering a round behind us froze us in place. I glanced back to see Chase, weapon aimed, bleeding shoulder not slowing him much. “That hurt, you bitch,” he hissed at Chris.
“Drop your guns, motherfuckers,” Danny bellowed. Chris looked at me. I knew he wanted to try, but I also knew we’d lose. They were aiming at both of us, and even if we were fast, their fingers were already on their triggers. I shook my head slightly.
It was over. I’d failed, again. Maybe death would show me mercy this time. I couldn’t live with more death on my hands, especially not Elijah’s. Maybe we could stall them if we did as they said. Maybe it would give Elijah a little more time to get away, running from one person, not being ganged up on by three. Maybe he’d make it to town.
We slowly put our weapons on the ground and stood with our hands up. Chris obviously had the same idea of stalling them. “You guys know this can’t go on forever. You’re getting too reckless. I’ve already called for backup. They know I’m after Derrick. They’re going to find you, Chase. He’ll take both of you right down with him.”
“Hm,” Chase said, sneering. “Or did you both try to kill me, you know, since I’m shot? Are you out here helping Elijah because you’re both in on it? I mean, his hairwasat the last murder scene. His fingerprints were there. Were we sloppy? Nah, it was always going to end here. You’re involved now, and that’s unfortunate, but it is what it is. Don’t worry. We’re still going to win.”
Chris squared his shoulders. “What the fuck do you all want with Elijah anyway? What the hell did he do to you for you to kill so many innocent people? I’m so disappointed in you,Chase.” Chris was the only one still in the dark, but his ploy to keep them talking was working.
Danny scoffed. “That little whoreruinedour family. He destroyed any chance Derrick ever had at a decent life. His mom’s in a mental hospital and he’s saddled with a mound of debt that isn’t his, paying for a disaster of a house he never wanted. He gets no life of his own, he’s chained to a shitty one. Our whole family is broken over it all. His mom is gone. She’ll never be the person we used to know. Elijah fucked everything up.”
Chris was staring at him blankly. “What he’s trying tosay,” I put in, glaring at Danny. “Is that Derrick’s dad got on a hookup app, lied to Elijah about who he was, where he lived, and his marital status, met Elijah a town over to fuck him, and somehow now all of Derrick’s problems are Elijah’s fault, even though Elijah had no clue about any of it. And that was worth killing multiple people, apparently, even though really, only Derrick’s adulterous father’s to blame. By the way, Elijah was with Derrick’s dad when he lost the bracelet. Interesting, huh?”
Chris turned to me, wide-eyed, the truth of it all finally dawning on him, but Danny’s gun was at my temple a second later, before I even realized he was advancing on me. “Fuck you, Hale. You’re just upset because you’re fucking him now and it’s personal to you. Do you know what kind of a slut he is? Your dick is probably getting ready to fall off.”
I was getting ready to punch him, even though I knew I’d get shot. I didn’t even care anymore. Before I could move, though, there was a loud crack above us. We all looked up in time to see Elijah’s one-eyed cat leap to a low branch from a higher one, and the higher one snapped as she did. Thankfully, my reflexes didn’t fail me, and I scrambled backward. Danny watched open-mouthed as the branch fell from above and landed right on his head. It was a dead branch, but it was big. He dropped to the ground, his gun falling beside him.
Enyo scrambled down the tree and took off running the other way. Even though I’d had little warning, I dropped andslid sideways to grab my weapon, as I saw Chris in my peripheral vision doing the same. Chase was staring wide-eyed at his comrade, momentarily frozen in shock. Danny wasn’t moving. We whirled on Chase, guns aimed. “Drop your fucking weapon,” Chris bellowed.
Chase glanced at us, unexpectedly outgunned. He slowly lowered his weapon to the ground, raising his hands in the air. Chris marched toward him but I moved over to Danny, grabbing the gun beside his still hand. He was unconscious, but still breathing. I did a quick weapon check on him and found nothing else, then I handcuffed his hands behind his back in case he came to. He wasn’t stuck, but the handcuffs and the head injury would definitely slow him down.
Chris was handcuffing Chase to a tree. “Fuck you, Chase,” he said, pissed that one of his brothers had betrayed him so deeply. Chris pistol-whipped him before turning to me, a look of fury on his face. He grabbed Chase’s discarded gun, holstering his own and keeping the shotgun in his hands.
I shoved Danny’s gun into my waistband and turned to Chris. “Where’s this other guy you saw?” I wasn’t convinced he wasn’t with them, even though Chris didn’t know him. Being outnumbered in the woods was still a possibility.
Chris shrugged as we headed in the direction Enyo had run. “I don’t know, man. I haven’t seen him since I heard you coming. He was pointing in this direction, but when I looked back, he was gone. I didn’t see him leave. I don’t know where he went.”
I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. “Well, going this way nearly got us killed.”
“Yeah.” Chris shrugged. “Nearly, but not. Instead, the two of them are subdued, thanks to a fucking cat in a tree.”He had a point.We kept going.
???
We were near a clearing and I was pretty sure I could seeElijah’s garden through the trees, but there was a snap of a twig to our right. We looked over to see Derrick, gun aimed right at us, his face twisted up into a crazed snarl that told me he didn’t care about anything other than taking me and Elijah out. I couldn’t believe he was the same person I’d thought was my friend.
Derrick’s finger was on the trigger, the gun aimed at my head. We didn’t even have time to ready our weapons. There was a blur near him as a shot rang out, and I waited to figure out if I’d been hit, while my brain tried to catch up to what was happening.
Derrick had disappeared from his spot. Chris was turning, trying to aim. I didn’t feel any pain, and I finally registered that two figures were rolling through the dirt. It took a second for me to recognize Elijah’s shirt as they wrestled on the ground. The words in his notebook reverberated through my brain. Your sacrifice won’t be in vain. “Elijah! Fuck!No!”
