by Lukens, Mark
“We’re going to be okay,” she whispered to him. “We’re going to get through this. I promise.”
*
They all watched Stella and David come out of the bathroom and walk back to the couch. Stella stared at Frank.
Frank could see something different in her eyes—defiance, a lack of fear. He finally tore his eyes away from her and turned to Trevor. “Find some blankets and sheets. Pillows. Sleeping bags. Anything you can find. We’re all sleeping out here in the living room together where we can keep an eye on each other.”
Trevor took off down the hall for the bedrooms.
Frank looked at Cole. “Tomorrow, when the storm lets up, you check out Stella’s truck—see if it can be fixed.”
Cole nodded.
“Check out that other truck out there, too. And the garage. Maybe you can use some parts from that truck on Stella’s truck.”
Cole shrugged, but he didn’t look too hopeful. “Yeah, maybe.”
Trevor came back with an armload of blankets, sheets, and pillows. He dumped them on the floor, but he kicked a blue sleeping bag away from the blankets and sheets. “I got dibs on the sleeping bag,” he called out to everyone.
“We’ll sleep in watches tonight,” Frank said. “I’ll take the first watch.”
CHAPTER 11
Cole’s eyes popped open in the murky, early morning light that invaded the dark cabin. Something had woken him. A noise … some kind of thumping noise. Over and over again. And it was cold in the living room, like someone had turned off the heat.
Thump. Thump.
Cole sat up quickly, his fingers already wrapped around his gun, a black H&K nine millimeter with hollow-point bullets. He looked right at the front door—the source of the noise.
The door was opening slightly, and then it thumped shut. It creaked back open again from the freezing wind outside.
Creak. Thump.
Cole had slept on the floor, blankets spread out around him. He was still fully dressed except for his heavy coat, gloves, and hat.
He twisted around and looked at the couch. Stella and David stared back at him in the early morning light, their eyes dinner plates of fear that glistened in the semi-darkness. They stared at Cole, and then they looked at the front door as it creaked open again and then thumped shut.
Cole turned towards Trevor who was already sitting up on his blue sleeping bag. Jose sat near him. Both of them looked like they had just woken up, both still groggy, but they had their pistols in their hands.
Cole’s eyes darted to the other blankets spread out all over the floor—Frank’s blankets.
But Frank wasn’t there.
Everything seemed to be moving in a syrupy slow-motion for Cole; he was tired, he was sure of that, but this was a degree of grogginess he’d never felt before, like he imagined it would feel to be coming awake from anesthesia after a surgery. He forced his sluggish mind to think.
He looked back at Jose and Trevor. “Where’s Frank?” he whispered.
“That’s what we want to know,” Jose whispered back.
Cole sighed, his mind finally chugging back into action, not quite at full steam yet, but getting there. “Who took the next watch?” he asked. “After Frank.”
“Not me,” Jose answered.
“Me either,” Trevor said.
Needles? Cole wondered as he got up and stared at the front door that had just thumped closed again. No, Cole thought. Frank wouldn’t have woken Needles up for a watch, not in the mental condition Needles was in these days.
“Who opened the door?” Cole asked.
“It was like that when we woke up,” Jose answered.
Cole walked to the front door with his gun still clenched in his hand. A knot of dread sat heavy in his stomach. Something was wrong here.
He stood in front of the solid wood door and watched it for a moment. Then he brought his pistol up, ready to aim it at whatever might be on the other side. He could hear Jose and Trevor getting to their feet in the living room behind him.
Cole pulled the door all the way open. He stared out at the front porch which was empty—nobody out there. He relaxed a little, lowering his weapon.
“Is he out there?” Jose asked from behind Cole.
“I don’t see him,” Cole answered. He stepped through the doorway and looked out past the front porch to the front field which was hidden under a blanket of pristine white snow. The line of dark trees stood in the distance like a wall that surrounded the clearing. The snowstorm had stopped sometime during the night and everything was quiet and calm. The scene outside could be the front of a postcard, Cole thought. The freezing wind immediately bit at the skin of his face and hands.
“Frank!” Cole called out. “You out here?”
No answer.
“Frank!” Cole took a tentative step onto the floorboards of the porch. Something in the snow caught his eye, something just beyond the four steps that led from the porch down into the snow. He stared at what was in the snow for a long moment.
Cole hurried back inside the cabin. He shut and locked the door. He saw that Trevor and Jose were still standing on their blankets and sleeping bags, their guns ready, but they weren’t making a move towards the front door. Needles struggled to come fully awake on the recliner; he knuckled sleep from his eyes.
“Maybe Frank’s in the bathroom,” Cole said as he stood in front of the door, almost like he was blocking it.
“I don’t think so,” Trevor said. “But I’ll check.” Trevor took off for the bathroom. They could hear him stomping around in the hall, and then in the bathroom.
Cole’s mind was still a little sluggish. He had slept like a rock even though he didn’t think he was going to be able to sleep very well in this cabin, especially with the corpse of the former homeowner stuffed down inside the kitchen freezer. Yet he had slept deeply and without any dreams that he could remember.
Trevor came back into the living room, shaking his head. “He’s not back there anywhere. Back door’s still locked.”
“Where the hell would he go?” Cole asked as he hurried over to Frank’s blankets. He rummaged through them and he found Frank’s coat balled up in the blanket.
“His coat’s still here,” Cole said, holding it up. “His gloves. His hat. He wouldn’t have gone outside without his coat and hat.”
“What about his gun?” Jose asked.
Cole moved the blankets and sheets around; he tossed the pillow across the room. “I don’t see it anywhere.”
Jose let out a frustrated sigh.
“Oh shit!” Trevor yelled, startling all of them.
Trevor sprang into action. He rushed across the room to the fireplace hearth. He grabbed one of the metal cases, laid it on its side, popped the latch, looked down inside and breathed out a sigh of relief. “Looks like it’s all still here.”
“You thought Frank ran off with the money?” Jose asked in a disgusted tone of voice.
“Yeah, it crossed my mind.”
“Frank would never do that,” Jose growled.
“Well, I wanted to rule it out. Is that all right with you?”
“Okay, guys,” Cole interrupted. “Let’s stay calm and think about this.”
Needles, fully awake now, looked around at them. He had stripped down to only his thermal underwear at some point in the night, the small crucifix hung outside of his shirt. The sleeves of his thermal shirt were pushed up to his elbows, revealing even more tattoos covering his thin, sinewy arms.
“What happened?” he asked.
“We just woke up,” Trevor told Needles. “Frank’s not here.”
“What do you mean, Frank’s not here? Where is he?”
“We don’t know.”
Cole grabbed his coat and shrugged into it. He pulled his wool ski-mask hat and gloves out of the pockets. He stuffed his hands into his gloves and pulled the hat onto his head, covering his ears. He had seen something down in the snow when he’d opened the front door all the way—somet
hing he couldn’t believe.
“Where are you going?” Trevor asked Cole.
“Outside to look for Frank.” He looked at the others. “Alone,” he added. “You guys wait in here and watch them.”
CHAPTER 12
Cole stood on the porch, at the edge of the steps that disappeared down into the snow. And there they were, just what he thought he had seen when he’d opened the door earlier.
Footprints.
There was a set of footprints in the snow that led from the front porch steps out towards the line of dark trees in the distance. Cole stared down at the footprints, trying to understand why Frank would walk out of the cabin in the middle of the night to the woods. Did he see something out here? Hear something?
Cole pulled his nine millimeter out of his coat pocket. He always wore thin leather gloves on bank jobs—they didn’t leave prints behind and they allowed him the dexterity he needed, but now his hands were very cold. He caressed the trigger lightly with his index finger as he stared out at the line of trees.
There was a ribbon of deep blue sky right above the trees where the sky was beginning to lighten up with the sunrise. But there was also a mass of dark clouds building up in the sky in the other direction, the next storm in this series of snowstorms. Right now they were in the calm of the storm, like an eye of a hurricane.
He hesitated before stepping down off the porch. Everything about this felt so wrong to him and that pit of dread was back in his stomach. But then he forced himself to check out the footprints.
His boots crunched in the snow as he stepped down into it. He stood in the snow for a moment, which came up to his mid-calf. He stared down at the set of footprints. A man’s footprints. Regular gait. Not like this man was running. Like he was walking; a leisurely midnight stroll through the freezing snow to the dark woods.
Cole followed the footprints, staying three feet away so he wouldn’t disturb them. His eyes darted around as he followed the trail of footprints to the trees. There didn’t seem to be anything threatening out here that he could see, but that sense of dread wouldn’t leave him.
*
Stella got up and walked towards the kitchen.
Jose watched her in shock. “Hey, lady! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Stella stopped, she looked right at Jose, but she showed no fear of him. “David needs something to eat.”
“Did we say you could just get up and walk around?” Jose spat out.
“I didn’t ask,” she said.
Jose was about to explode with rage, but Trevor’s words stopped him. “Leave her alone, Jose.”
“What?” Jose said, turning his anger on Trevor.
“I said leave her alone. She’s not our prisoner.”
“You aint my boss.”
Stella ignored the two men and continued to the kitchen. She wasn’t going to wait around for them to quit arguing with each other—that might take forever. She looked through the cabinets.
Trevor turned his attention away from Jose and he watched Stella. “What are you making him for breakfast?”
Stella didn’t look at Trevor as she spoke to him. “There are some packets of oatmeal up here.”
“How about some coffee for us?”
Now Stella looked right at Trevor who was giving her his sweetest smile. She was sure it worked on most of the ladies. “Sure,” she finally answered in a sarcastically sweet voice. “Coffee coming right up.”
She pulled out some instant coffee from the cabinet along with the packets of oatmeal.
Oatmeal would be good for her and David, Stella thought as she boiled water on the stove for the oatmeal and started the coffee maker. They were going to need all of their strength for what was coming soon.
*
Cole followed the footprints. He was almost to the woods now. He glanced back at the cabin, which was at least seventy yards away. He looked back down at the footprints and followed them for a few more feet—then he stopped dead in his tracks.
He stared down at the snow in disbelief, having trouble believing what he was seeing.
A crackling noise deep in the woods startled him. He brought his pistol up and aimed it into the dark woods, his hand shaking slightly, his breath pluming up in front of his face from his heavy breathing.
Nothing moving in the trees that he could see.
He turned and ran back to the cabin. Even in his panic, he made sure that he stayed well away from the set of footprints in the snow. He didn’t want to disturb them at all—he wanted the others to see what he had just seen.
*
The oatmeal was ready. Stella poured some in a bowl for David. She looked at David on the couch. “David, I made you some oatmeal.”
David stared at her, but he made no move to get up. His long hair was a little rumpled from a night’s sleep.
“Come on, David,” she said. “You need to eat something.”
Trevor got up from his sleeping bag and came to the dining room table. He looked down at the bowls of oatmeal sitting on the table. He looked at Stella with a half-smile on his face. “What kind of oatmeal is it?”
“Apples and cinnamon.”
“My favorite.”
Stella looked past Trevor at David who still wasn’t moving.
Trevor sat down at the table and took a big bite of his oatmeal. “How’s that coffee coming?” he asked around a mouthful of oatmeal.
Stella sighed, but she poured cups of coffee and set them on the dining room table. Trevor took a sip. “Perfect,” he said.
Jose sat on his blankets and laced his boots up. “I can’t believe you’re eating that,” he told Trevor. “How do you know she didn’t poison that stuff?”
Trevor stopped eating suddenly, his mouth hung open as he made choking noises, his eyes bulging. He dropped the spoon back into the bowl and grabbed at his throat, clawing at it, some of the oatmeal dribbling out of the corner of his mouth.
Jose stood up and shook his head. “You’re really an asshole, you know that?”
Trevor erupted in a fit of laughter.
Even David cracked a smile.
Stella smiled, too. Her eyes met David’s eyes for a moment and she grabbed a bowl of oatmeal and brought it to him.
Needles didn’t look at anyone or join in the conversation. He sat curled up in the recliner, rubbing his crucifix and staring at the front door.
Jose grabbed his coat and slipped it on. He fished his gloves and hat out of the pockets of the coat.
“Where are you going?” Trevor asked around another mouthful of food.
“Going to help Cole look for Frank.”
“Who said you could do that?”
“I never asked for permission, did I?”
“He said he wanted to go alone,” Trevor reminded him.
“I don’t give a shit. Just because Frank isn’t here right now doesn’t make you and your brother the boss.”
Jose turned away from Trevor and took a few steps towards the front door, but then he stopped as the door flew open and Cole rushed inside.
Cole slammed the door shut and twisted the deadbolt lock. He backed away from the door, and then he turned and looked at the others with wide eyes of shock.
“What’s wrong?” Jose asked. “You find Frank?”
“He’s gone,” Cole said in a hoarse voice.
“Yeah, no shit,” Jose said. “We can see that.”
“No, I mean he’s … just gone.”
CHAPTER 13
They all followed Cole through the snow, all of them bundled up in their coats, hats, and gloves. Cole stopped when they got close to the trees. He pointed down at the snow.
They gathered around, all of them careful to stay away from the set of footprints in the snow. The footprints led from the cabin almost to the woods. About twenty feet before the woods, the footprints stopped, like the person took a step, and then he was gone.
“I don’t understand,” Jose said as he scratched at his head underneath his wo
ol cap. He looked around. “It’s like something picked him up right off the snow.”
No one said anything.
Jose looked at the line of dark trees looming in front of them, the unending forest beyond the first line of trees. “This doesn’t make any sense,” he continued.
Stella and David stood several feet away from the group of men, closer to the trees. David stood in front of Stella, and Stella’s hands were on his shoulders. David pulled away from her and walked towards the trees, staring at them with a fierce intensity.
“Honey,” Stella said as David took another step through the snow towards the trees.
David didn’t turn around at the sound of her voice.
“What’s wrong with him?” Jose asked.
Needles watched David. “It’s like that kid can see something in the woods.”
Needles hurried through the snow towards David, a sudden rage on Needles’ face. “That kid can see something in the woods!”
Stella jumped in between David and Needles, an animal-like look of protectiveness on her face. “You stay away from him,” she warned.
Needles stopped, but he wasn’t letting it go. “What’s wrong with that kid? What’s he see in those woods?”
Cole stepped over to Needles; Cole’s hands hung at his sides like a gunfighter’s hands, ready to grab at his gun in a flash if he needed to. “Needles, back away from that kid.”
Needles looked around, nodding his head quickly. “There’s something wrong with those two. I don’t know why you guys can’t see that.”
Cole ignored the babble from Needles as he trudged through the snow and stood beside David and looked at the woods, trying to see what David was seeing. He looked down at David. “You see something in there, kid?”
David looked up at Cole and stared at him. He didn’t nod yes or shake his head no. He didn’t say anything; he just walked back to Stella and grabbed her hand again.
Stella just shrugged.
Cole looked up at the sky. Darker clouds were moving in fast, promising a lot more snow. “Let’s get back inside.”
