by Margs Murray
Moments later, Natalie returned, wearing makeup and what smelled like a whole bottle of perfume. She carried the plates and silverware past us, giving Greer a little wink. “Donna is feeling exhausted and wants to sleep.”
“Too much hiking for one day.” Nate shrugged. “She played hard today.”
Natalie placed the plates on the metal table. Two plates at the head and two plates on one side, one on the other. Natalie sat on the side with two plates. With the way she was eyeing Greer, it was safe to assume she wasn’t saving that seat for me.
For a moment, Greer’s eyes narrowed like he was figuring out the best and easiest way for us to get away. Finally, he said, “So, what’s for dinner?”
“Chicken, corn on the cob, and hot rolls, picnic style.” The huge smile plastered on Nate’s face was too big; it was suspicious. I wondered why. “And the best news: it’s done.”
He gave his wife a kiss on the cheek and took a platter filled with food from her hands.
I sat down where Natalie intended. Greer took his plate and moved it next to me. This didn’t really bother Natalie. Him moving made it easier to give him moon eyes and bat her eyelashes.
“Thank you for having us,” Greer said.
Nate filled up my glass with iced tea. “It really is our pleasure. It can get lonely out here.”
Tea with ice! I had ice, and I so wanted to down it right there, but I was afraid. Poisoning us would be easy.
I leaned in close to him. “It is okay to drink?”
Greer took his spoon and stirred the drink. Carefully, and with intent, he let a drop fall onto his sleeve. He kept his eye on his shirt for a moment. Nothing happened. He drank a big gulp.
I followed suit.
“You see nobody now, especially with the lost princess. Wherever she is,” Natalie said.
I choked on my drink.
Greer patted my back to help settle my cough.
“You all right?” Laura asked.
“Sorry,” I sputtered, trying to both talk and catch my breath. “I got over excited about having tea. Drank it too fast.”
“About tea? Excited? That’s weird.” Natalie leaned towards Greer, her eyes directly on his lips. And as irrationally as it seemed, I felt like pinching her hard in the arm.
“I mean, kind of a loser thing to get excited over.”
“Nat-Cat!”
“What, Dad? It kind of is. It’s iced tea.”
“No, it isn’t.” Greer defended me. “It was all she was talking about on our hike. Right, Sam?” He waited for me to respond. “Sam, honey?”
Honey? Honey!? He meant me. The look on my face must have given away my surprise because both Laura and Nate gave each other these knowing nods.
“Trouble in paradise?” Nate asked.
“Oh, you’re a couple.” Natalie leaned back in her seat. “Figures.”
I explained, “Oh, we’re not—“
“Talking right now.” Greer finished my sentence for me and took my hand. “She’s mad at me right now. This is our first trip to the woods. Real love test, camping.”
If this was our love test, I’d say we were failing completely.
“It must be some test,” Laura said. “I’m not sure she’s having too much fun.”
Greer smiled down at me. “I don’t know, honey, what do you think?”
“It’s hard with my parents also being at camp,” I explained, because Greer didn’t know what I’d said to Nate back in the woods.
“Your dad loves me.” Greer gave me his best smile. “I know you’re not used to long camping trips, but aren’t you having fun?”
Loads… “It’s fine.”
“Oh no. I know that fine.” Nate laughed. “I’ve been on the receiving end of ‘I’m fine’ too often to count. Take her to a nice beach resort when you’re out of the woods. Otherwise, you won’t pass her road test.”
“I’d say it’s Sam’s fault. Why in the world did you wear that?”
“Nat-Cat!” Nate scolded.
“Dad, it’s summer, and she’s dressed like a 1970s Libratier in November. And the shirts all ripped. And what’s with the sunglasses? It’s dark.”
I looked ridiculous and out of place, but this hot, scratchy uniform was the best I had.
“Yeah, I know I look ridiculous, but my grandma was a Libratier years and years ago.” Like the Epps. “Compulsory.”
Natalie shrugged her shoulders and shook her head from side to side as if to say so what.
“She used to tell all these amazing stories from when she was young. Half of her stories were so far-fetched that I… I don’t know, I wanted to experience a few of them. So, I came out here to honor her.” The truth came out a lot easier than lies.
“Yeah, you still wouldn’t catch me dead in something like that.”
“Well, she is dead, so…” I said, a little snarkier than I intended. I’d blame it on the heat, exhaustion, and pressure of the situation, but it would be a lie. This kid with her moony eyes and attitude was ticking me off. Safe to say, middle school teacher was not in my future. Although the idea of my grandma dying did manage to shut her up.
Laura put her hands in her lap. “I’m so sorry to hear that. Was she sick long?”
“For years.” Because again, honesty was much easier.
Laura tucked her arms around herself. “That’s too bad.”
Natalie’s demeanor changed. “It’s terrible how some people suffer.”
Laura’s eyes were glistening with tears, and it seemed likely that this family understood what it was like to have a sick relative in pain.
Greer picked up on it too. “So, what brings you to the woods?”
“We live in the woods,” Natalie explained. “Well, now—“
“We don’t live in the woods; we’re camping here for the summer.” Nate roughed up his daughter’s hair in what he hoped would appear playful, but from the look on his face, it was more to get her to stop talking. Laura said nothing, just sat looking down at her food, pulling on each one of her fingers.
“Well, we’ve been here since February.” Natalie didn’t get the ‘don’t tell the company’ hint.
Laura’s body shook, and her eyes were brimming with tears. Whatever reason the family had for moving to the woods, it was personal and hard.
“It’s beautiful,” I added to break up the tension. “I wouldn’t mind living up here.”
Greer, who must have read the same pain as I did, played along with me. “See, I knew you would like it.”
Greer smiled at me and put his arm around me, and boy, he was good because if I didn’t know better, I’d say that from the way he looked at me, he had deep feelings for me. Lies, of course; we didn’t know each other and had barely spoken to one another, but it took my breath away regardless.
“Oh, yuck,” Natalie announced.
Dinner conversation turned into a basic blend of common polite topics like the summer heat and the price of food. When we were done, Nate took the conversation lead and focused on keeping things on a happy note, smiling and joking and telling stories the whole time about his travels and camping across the country. It was so… normal. So normally normal.
After a few hours of laughing at Nate’s stories, we were ready to leave.
“Can you help carry the dishes inside?” Laura asked.
Without thinking, just like I was back in my normal life and helping mom in the kitchen, I picked up a pile and followed her inside the tiny house and directly into what served as their living room, kitchen, dining room. The central room had two sets of ladders, both leading to small wooden doors. ‘Welcome to the Red Casa’ was painted on the wall.
I put the dishes in the sink, and Laura ran hot water over them.
“Your place is very nice.”
Laura handed me a towel. “Why, thank you. You dry?”
I nodded, knowing I needed to get out of there sooner rather than later. She handed me a dish.
“You know you two are more than w
elcome to stay the night.”
“My parents will be so worried. We better not,” I said, and I placed the dish on the counter.
“So your parents are at camp?” She handed me another dish.
“Yeah. They wanted to get to know Christopher so…”
“You should still stay the night. You can see them in the morning.”
“No, we can’t.” As I said it, Greer and Nate came in the door.
“We need to get going,” Greer said.
“Sam said she wanted to stay the night.”
“No,” I said, “we really—“
“Good,” Nate interrupted me. “Christopher agrees. Right, buddy?”
Greer certainly did not. “No, her parents will worry.”
“Well, they can stay too. With our security system, it is far safer in here than out in the woods. Nat-Cat and I can go collect them,” Nate suggested.
“No,” I said, knowing perfectly well that they weren’t at camp. “They’ll be fine.”
“Good. Then the bathroom is through the curtain; our bedroom is up this ladder if you need anything.” Nate continued talking about the house and rules while she and Nate folded the couch down to a bed. I didn’t pay attention to him. Up the opposite ladder, the little door opened, and the missing Donna peered through it with the oddest facial expression. She was shaking her head and making a shooing motion with her hands. Multiple times, she pointed to the door like she was telling me to leave.
I decided we would as soon as the Diddles went to bed.
Eventually, Nate followed my eyes, “Donna, you all right up there?”
“Yeah, Dad. Good night.” She backed away from the door, and Natalie followed her up.
Nate locked the door.
“We’ll see you in the morning,” Laura said. “Nate will make breakfast. Night.”
As soon as they were up the stairs, Greer turned to me.
“What the hell! You’d think after the bird attack, you’d have more sense about the dangers.” Greer was very close to me, and he spoke barely above the sound of an inhale. “My God, you are too trusting. Even with the Libratiers protecting you, it’s a wonder you made it alive all those years. I can’t believe you came to this camp and said yes to sleeping here. What did you plan to do? Hitch a ride back to the Merrics with them?”
Trusting? I trusted no one. “Are you done? I did none of those things. Nate found me in the woods.”
“What were you even doing in the woods? Why’d you leave camp?”
I wasn’t about to say chasing shadows, so I went back to my story. “He found me in the woods, and I didn’t know what to do. He had a knife, and I didn’t want to make him suspicious.
“I didn’t want to spend the night. Laura twisted my words. I did not say yes, and I did not intentionally come here. It’s fine with me if we go,” I said and went towards the door.
Greer grabbed my arm. “We can’t. The house is on a security timer. We try to leave, and the living room fills with a sleeping gas that will knock us out. Did you not pay attention to anything Laura was saying?”
“That would knock them out too,” I replied.
“You know nothing about this technology, do you? The gas fills the downstairs area, and the person will be out for at least twelve hours. Those bedrooms are safe from it. Hell, halfway through the night it could go off, and they’d just find the people knocked out down here in the morning.”
Oh crap. “So, if someone tries to open the door while we sleep?”
“It’ll be a long nap.”
“Well, don’t you have something that would protect us against the gas?” I mumbled, embarrassed because he was right. I didn’t know jack squat about the technology.
“Like in my back pocket? I foolishly thought you were in danger and rushed to rescue your butt from any of the million dangers of the woods when I found you nattering with these people.”
“Again, I didn’t plan on this. I was afraid of Nate’s knife.”
Greer laughed, and he hissed, “You’ve got to be kidding me. You were afraid of a little knife?”
“And why wouldn’t I be?” I whispered back.
“Because you’re…” He stopped himself short, and I waited for the answer.
“Well, what?”
“Nothing.”
We were face to face there in the dark, and I had nothing to say to him. “Fine. Let’s go to bed.”
“Fine. Leave the sunglasses on.”
“Fine. You take the floor.”
“Well, honey, considering we’re a couple, we’re sharing the bed.”
“Fine! Stay on your side.”
“Not a problem.”
“Fine!”
“Fine.”
Chapter 26
The Cat and the Fiddle
Greer wasn’t next to me when I woke up, and it terrified me. He should have been, and if I knew one thing about Greer, nothing would have made him leave me in the Diddle’s house alone without force. This was not good. Not good at all.
I went to the door and turned the handle only to discover it turned halfway and stopped with the click of the lock. There was no mistaking it. The Diddles locked me in. I backed away, afraid messing with it more would knock me out.
I went to the window.
Outside, a horrific scene developed before my eyes. Tied to a tree, Greer struggled against his ropes. Three skinny, bald, rough men threatened Greer with brass clubs. At first, I thought the Diddles were behind the chaos, but then I noticed the three oldest Diddles tied to a nearby tree.
I backed away from the window. They were all in danger, not just Greer. “Hey!” Donna called down from the loft, and she waved me up. I looked outside again and saw a man whack Greer in the ankle. I pounded on the window. If I had to break it, I would.
“Don’t! You’ll release the gas,” she said.
I stopped. If I released the gas, Greer wouldn’t stand a chance. I was his only hope. They’d hurt or kill Greer. It was my stupid fault we were there. I climbed the stairs.
Donna stared out a small window. The men walked towards her father, bats raised.
“Get away from the window,” I said, and I put my body before her view.
"Those three showed up, and Dad and your boyfriend went outside and then they tied your boyfriend to a tree, followed by my dad and then Natalie and Mom.”
“Why?”
Donna hid behind her long blond hair. “Dad called The Hunters this morning because… he, um… Dad turned you in to them for the finder’s fee, but then they turned on him.”
“Crap.” On all fronts. From the little window, I saw Nate get hit in the shoulder with a club. These guys were hurting them, maybe they even planned to kill them. I had to do something.
“Do you have a weapon or anything?”
“Dad has an old hunting rifle, but he took it out with him.” As she said it, the man hit Laura. She screamed, and Donna let out a squeak. “Not Mom.”
No matter if they were going to turn me in, I had to help.
“I’ll save them, okay? Just tell me how to get out of the house so we won’t get knocked out,” I said.
At that point, Donna was too scared to talk, and she pointed her shaking hand to a small window on the other side of the loft.
“Thank you. Hang tight, okay?”
She gave me a weak nod, and I opened the window and shimmied out. The ground wasn’t far; if I hung down the drop would be four feet max. I let go, landing as softly as possible on the ground.
As soon as I was out, I heard the shortest of the men yelling. “You should’ve called the Libratiers last night, Nate, but you didn’t! You called me, me! of all people. You owe me thousands of dollars and you called me to make a deal. You should’ve known better. You run like a little girl out into the woods from me. Me? Have I ever seemed kindly to you or forgiving? Like I’d share the reward.”
I put my sunglasses on and silently moved around the building. The three men were all young. On the back
of each of their shaved heads, I saw a tattoo of a serpent with the head of a man. These men looked rough and dangerous, and the Diddles betrayal deepened. The Diddles never earned my trust but handing me over to these people was truly terrible.
“Take the girl and leave,” Nate demanded. “You can have all the money; just go.”
“Go near her and I’ll kill you!” Greer yelled.
“You kill us. You?” the short one mocked. “You’ll be dead long before that.” One of the bigger men stepped forward and slammed the baton right into Greer’s chest, and Greer let out a growl of pain. The man raised the club again, this time aiming for Greer’s head.
I couldn’t stand there and watch. I stepped out of the clearing. “Leave them alone!”
The man did a slight bow. “Well, Princess, it’s nice to meet you but nah. Not going to happen.”
“It’s a royal order!” I called. “Leave them alone.”
“Again, nah. We’re out here to take you in, return you to the Merrics, and you won‘t stop us.”
“Waverly, run!” Greer said. “I will be right behind you.”
The man stepped closer. “I don’t think so. You’re not going anywhere.”
He lunged for me. I jumped back, and he missed, knocking my glasses off.
The men saw my eyes and let out a whoop. The little one couldn’t hide his sickening delight. “Quick Silver. Like a true Merric.”
“Let’s get her.” Two men came towards me, but the third moved back to Greer, his club poised, ready to swing it into Greer’s temple. The temple could be a kill shot. The thought of him being killed flashed in my eyes.
My whole body screamed no. Ice cold blood flowed into my veins.
“No!” I screamed. They turned to see me and the world went still… or, more accurately, the hunters and the Diddles went still. Slack-jawed, staring, hypnotized still.
Greer stared too, but unlike the rest, he wasn’t hypnotized.
I stepped forward to help Greer, and realized he already held both ends of the rope with knot untied.
“You’re untied?” I said.
“I untied myself right before you got out here.” Greer waved his hand in front of Nate’s face. “I told you I had it.”
