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As the sound faded into the dark woods a figure stepped out of the front door of the cabin, and a voice filled the silence.

‘Where do you think you’re going?’

She turned around. Ryan was standing in the doorway, a shotgun in his good hand. His other arm hung limply by his side, blood running from his fingers.

‘Well, well,’ he said. ‘Looks like the whole gang is here.’

‘What did you do?’ Mary said. ‘Where’s Carl?’

Ryan laughed. ‘My knife,’ he said. ‘What a beauty. I kicked that crutch away and stuck that ugly fucker with my knife. It’s wicked sharp. Every time I used it, every time I sliced up a chicken leg or a flank steak, I wondered how it would feel doing it to a human. A live human. And now I know.’ He gave a hiss of pleasure. ‘It felt every bit as good as I hoped it would.’ He looked at the shotgun. ‘And now I have this.’

He gestured towards the house.

‘Inside, now.’

Mary had no intention of going back into the house. If they did that they were all dead.

She could only think of one option. It wasn’t a good one, but it was all they had. They had to split up and run. At least then some of them might get away.

Hopefully her children.

She looked at Otis, then at Sally. ‘Go,’ she whispered. ‘Otis left, Sally right. Run as fast and far as you can. I’ll draw his attention.’

‘No, Mom,’ Sally said. ‘Do what he—’

‘No! Go, now!’

Mary knew what doing this meant. Ryan would most likely shoot her, but at least the kids would have scattered in different directions, and they would have every chance of hiding away from him in the woods and eventually getting to safety. Even if he found one of them, the other would be free.

And, horrific as that was, it was better than all three of them going back into that house. She would happily pay the price of her own life to save theirs.

Before Otis or Sally could protest she sprinted forward towards the Porsche, ready to dive over the hood and shelter on the other side. From the corner of her eye she saw Sally and Otis disappear left and right. She waited for the blast of the shotgun and the feeling of pellets shredding her body.

There was nothing.

She slid over the hood and landed heavily on the far side of the hood. In the distance she could hear the sound of people running through the undergrowth.

She peeked around the front of the car, wondering why Ryan was letting them escape.

And then she saw what he was doing, and understood the mistake she had made.

Mary’s Mistake

Ryan was ignoring her and Otis completely. Of course he was; it was the most rational thing to do,

What he was doing was chasing after Sally.

Although he was mad, he was not stupid.

That was Mary’s mistake. She had assumed that Ryan’s rage and hatred would cause him to focus on her. Perhaps he would shoot her; perhaps she would get away somehow, or he would chase her down and slice her up with his fancy fucking Japanese knife, but either way she would have bought enough time for her children to disappear into the wilderness – a wilderness they knew better than him – and go and find help. No doubt by the time they returned, Ryan – and Mary, if she was still alive and he had taken her with him – would be gone, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered were the kids.

That was her plan, but Ryan was one step ahead of her.

What she had not taken into account was that Ryan understood that she, Otis and Sally were a unit. An unbreakable unit.

So if he had one of them, he would have all of them.

And the one he wanted was Sally. Otis would never desert her, and neither would her mom. And a predator like Ryan would know she would be the easiest to catch.