“She doesn’t know yet?” Isabelle asked, for a moment her good mood growing darker at the thought of Jess’s reaction.
“No, she was still asleep when he went into town, and I don’t think mom is going to tell her.”
“I’d like too,” Vicky chimed in. “Just to see her face.”
“Be nice,” Isabellescoldedsoftly.
“Why?” Vicky demanded her face scrunched in anger.“She’s not nice to you.”
“Do you blame her?”
“Yes!” they both cried.
Isabelle sighed softly as she shook her head at them.“If it was one of you guys, you wouldn’t be saying that.”
They both scowled at her. “Obviously the two of you are supposed to be together,” Vicky said.
“She doesn’t know that,”Isabelle reminded them gently.
“Well, she will now!”Abby snapped.
Isabelle stopped as they reached the tree house. She glanced around the small clearing, but there was no sign of Cassidy or Kyle. A feeling of impending doom was beginning to grow in the pit of her stomach. An hour was much too long for Cassidy and Kyle to be missing. She knew how quickly they could get themselves into serious trouble. “You guys head to the lake, Willow and I will go toward the canyon.”
Vicky and Abbynodded,the amusementon their faceswasgone as they broke off to take the path to the lake. Willow followed behind Isabelle as she moved swiftly down the path, calling loudly for Kyle and Cassidy. Sun splashed through the thick leaves, casting a myriad of light patterns across the pine needles and rotten leaves astheymoved rapidly along. The forest seemed eerily quiet, too quiet. She broke into a brisk jog when the canyon was only a hundred feet away. The bad feeling in her belly was starting to spread throughout her body, making it difficult for her to breathe.
She burst out at the end of the path, panting slightly as she skidded to a halt at the end of the canyon. It was about twenty feet long and forty feet down. It was the same one that Ethan had thrown himself off of when he was fifteen. She swallowed down her fear and forced herself to look down. The bottom of the canyon was littered with rocks and debris, the sides of it had ragged rocks jutting out of it. Isabelle scanned the bottom and the jagged rock walls quickly, but there was no sign of either Kyle or Cassidy.
“Maybe they went home,” Willow said softly.
Isabelle wished that was true, but the awful feeling in her stomach had begun to spread to her chest. Glancing quickly at the woods she ignored the bird calls, and the animals that moved within its shadowed depths. She forced herself to concentrate on her brother and sister, hoping to get some glimmer of where they could be.
Then, a sinking possibility crashed around her. She turned away from Willow, breaking into asprintas she rushed down another path, darting tree branches and twigs, ignoring the thorns that tore at her clothing and skin. She forced herself to move faster, blurring as she rushed down the path. Please no, she pleaded silently. Please no.
She burst off the path, rushing through the clearing to the edge of the bear trap.Holding her breath,she peered into its shadowed depths. Cassidy was huddled against the wall, looking up at her with tears streaming down her dirt, and blood streaked cheeks. She held Kyle tightly in her arms, his head cradled gently in her lap. Blood had soaked through his clothing and onto Cassidy. His wheat blond hair was caked with blood and dirt, and his clothes had turned a fierce shade of red.
Isabelle’s heart jumped into her throat as tears sprang instantly into her eyes. Willow let out a startled cry as she skidded to a halt beside her. “He fell,” Cassidy whispered pitifully.
That heart breaking whisper snapped Isabelle out of her fear filled paralysis. “Get help!” she hissed to Willow.
Willow nodded quickly and took off into the woods. “Isabelle,” Cassidy whispered.
“Hold on Cass, I’m coming.”
She sat at the edge of the hole, glancing worriedly at the stakes. Now that she wasn’t hanging over the pit, she was able to get a better look at the jagged, deadly stakes. They were old, and some of them had rotted and broken off from time and weather, but even the blunted wood was lethal looking. She scooted closer to the edge, biting nervously on her bottom lip as she tried to figure out the best way to get down. Finally deciding that there was no best way, she lowered herself over and slid down the side.
A cry of pain tore from her as one of the stakes pierced through her shoe, tearing into the bottom of her foot. The sudden agony almost caused her to pitch backward onto all of them, but she managed to catch herself in time. Flinging herself forward, her fingers dug frantically into the dirt and tree roots of the wall as she steadied herself. Breathing heavily, she remained against the wall as she slowly pulled her foot free of the stake. She winced, gritting her teeth against the throbbing pain in her foot as the stake slid slowly free of her flesh, and shoe.
She took a deep breath before turning herself slowly around. Cassidy watched with wide eyes as she began to edge her way carefully around the stakes, trying to keep her weight off of her abused foot. It seemed like hours passed before she reached Kyle and Cassidy, but she knew that it was only a matter of seconds before she knelt at their side. Kyle was still, his breathing labored and barely noticeable as it rattled out of him. The sound of that rattle sent a bolt of fear through her so fierce she almost choked on it. He was so pale that even his lips had become white, and all of his veins were clearly noticeable through his nearly translucent skin.
It took everything Isabelle had to push through her fear, and nearly choking sorrow. With trembling hands she pulled his shirt gingerly up. There was a huge, gaping wound in his stomach that was slowly oozing up bubbles of blood. Cassidy began to cry harder as Isabelle shoved his shirt the rest of the way up to find another large, jagged tear in the middle of his chest.
Panic tore through Isabelle, rocking through her with a force so fierce that she could hardly breathe. He was bleeding out so fast that he hadn’t even begun to close the wounds on his own. “Oh no,” she whispered.
Cassidy was shaking from the force of her tears. “Pleasehelp himIsabelle,” she pleaded.
Isabelle ripped her tank top off and pressed it firmly against Kyle’s chest. His eyelids flickered, but he made no other movement, no sound. “Hold this,” she commanded Cassidy.
Cassidy pressed a trembling hand against the shirt that was quickly becoming saturated with blood. Isabelle fought back tears as she bit into her wrist and forced Kyle’s mouth open. She pressed her wrist to his mouth, allowing her blood to seep into him.She needed to replace the blood that he was rapidly losing, needed to attempt to keep his strength up.
