by Vi Lily
He fell asleep with the worries of what in the world he was going to do, how he was going to support himself and Gwen. If his mom was really with Beth’s dad. And then his mind wandered to Beth herself… and the pain of her betrayal stumbled through his mind all over again.
If Ben hadn’t been asleep, he would have jumped at the knock on his door. It had to be his sister, but Gwen never bothered him. In fact, she usually avoided him like he was diseased or something. It was strange, but she tended to avoid most guys. Ben figured she was gay, but just hadn’t figured it out yet.
“Door’s unlocked,” he slurred as he sat up and groaned at the kink in his neck. He wondered how long he’d been asleep in the uncomfortable position. He turned as he heard the door open.
His sister was crying. Ben couldn’t remember ever seeing her cry before, although he’d heard her crying in her room pretty often. He always chalked that up to female hormones. He’d never figure girls out.
He stood and swayed a bit. He was no longer drunk, but still felt a little out of it. He moved toward Gwen, stopping when she cringed. Ben frowned. She’s afraid of me? He couldn’t figure out why and wanted to ask.
But more important was the question of why she was crying… he figured it had to do with the field trip she’d gone on, the one she’d asked him to take her to. Gwen was old enough to get her driver’s permit now, but with their absent parents, she hadn’t been able to take driver’s ed. So, she relied on him for all her rides.
But this time, Ben had told his sister he couldn’t give her a ride to the mountain for two reasons — for one, he knew Beth would be there and he really didn’t want to see her outside of school. Hell, he didn’t want to see her at all. But he also wanted Gwen to start socializing more, to make some friends. His sister was far too timid. So, he’d forced her to find a ride.
Unfortunately, she’d found a ride with Raine.
Raine had become a total pain. Ever since the video came out, she’d been acting like there was a chance for them. Ben had made it clear since they’d broken up way back when that he didn’t want to date her. He’d tried to be nice about it, but when Raine had kept bugging the crap out of him to almost stalker levels, he’d had to get uglier. She had showed up at his practices, meetings, everywhere he was, there her stupid self was.
The last thing he needed was for his little sister to become friends with the bitch. Ben grimaced when he thought of sleepovers they might have — he’d have to barricade his door to keep Raine from sneaking into his room.
Before he could process that, Gwen seemed to come to her senses, and she stepped farther into the room. She swiped at her tears.
“What’s wrong, Little Bug?” he asked, using the nickname he’d given her when she’d been that cute but annoying little sister who wanted to follow him everywhere. She sure had changed over the past few years.
Gwen’s chin quivered. “They left her… just left her there,” she wailed. Ben winced; he hated crying and was always at a loss as to what to say or do.
He smiled at his little sister. So dramatic. “Left who? And where is ‘where’?”
She sniffled. “Beth. Raine lied to Mrs. Rey.” She started crying all over again and Ben had to fight not to roll his eyes. He really wanted the info from his sister, especially since it was about Beth, but he knew he had to be patient with her or he’d never get anything out of her.
“What did Raine tell the teacher?”
Gwen wiped the tears from her face and the action made her look so young. While he looked a lot older than he was, Gwen barely looked older than twelve, yet she was sixteen.
“She told her that Beth already left. And they left her.” She started crying again and Ben was trying really hard to hold his frustration back.
“What about Aleen? Beth rode with her, didn’t she?”
He knew Gwen had gotten a ride with Raine. But he also knew that Beth had ridden with Aleen, because Aleen was the only one who still associated with Beth and Beth’s Mercedes was still in the driveway.
Not that he’d driven by her house or anything.
He didn’t think there was any way Aleen would have left Beth behind. She’d been the only one who’d stuck by Beth’s side. But then he remembered sophomore year, when Aleen had first moved to Bearing. She’d tried desperately to fit in with Raine’s group, but they wouldn’t have anything to do with her. In fact, Aleen herself had been a victim of their bullying. Maybe Raine had used that desperation to be part of the “in” crowd and talked her into turning on Beth.
Gwen sniffled again. “Aleen was in on it.”
Ben growled; stabbing someone you were supposed to be friends with in the back was a total dick move. That bitch was going to pay. Along with Raine and her minions.
He decided he’d have to get the details later, because apparently, Beth had been left somewhere and probably needed some help.
“Where did they leave her?”
She turned her dark eyes up to him. Ben had always thought it was weird that Glen and Gwen got their dad’s light complexion and reddish hair, but their mom’s eyes, while he got Mom’s dark skin and hair with Dad’s light eyes.
Gwen pointed toward the bedroom door, like that was helpful somehow. “Up there, on the mountain,” she wailed as her face scrunched up. While he tried to comprehend what his sister was saying, he realized he now knew what “ugly crying” meant.
“They left her on the mountain?” he asked, shocked. That was ridiculous… and insane. Beth had zero survival skills and there was a blizzard heading their way. Leaving her to fend for herself was practically attempted murder.
“Where on the mountain? Where was the field trip?” Ben knew he needed to get as much information out of his sister as possible, but needed to ask specific questions, or else she’d give him half-assed answers. Like “on the mountain.” Sooo not helpful.
She sniffed again. “It was at Handley Creek.” She shrugged. “I really don’t know exactly where. I wasn’t driving, so…”
He rushed to his closet and pulled out his hiking boots, sitting down on his bed to put them on while he started barking instructions. By the time he’d get up the mountain, Beth would have been up there by herself for nearly three hours.
Ben cursed Raine then. He knew it was jealousy that caused her to want to hurt Beth. Beth was beautiful and smart and sweet, three things Raine wasn’t. She was pretty, yeah, until she opened her mouth and all that hideous bitchiness spewed out. Then she was like a demon that had escaped the pit.
“Grab my bug-out bag there by my door,” he motioned with his chin toward the backpack he always kept stocked with survival supplies. “Get some blankets out of the linen closet and put them in there, and grab one of mom’s heavy coats, some gloves and a hat and shove them in there too.” The pack was big, but it would take a lot of shoving to get all that in there.
Gwen seemed to be happy to have a chore that would be helpful, and she rushed off to do as he asked. Ben finished with his boots, then grabbed his own gloves and hat after shrugging into his coat. He then ran downstairs and out to the drive to start the Jeep. The freezing cold air wiped away the remnants of his vodka fog and he glanced upward. The sky to the north was ominous looking.
The storm had already hit… and Handley Creek was right in the path.
Chapter 2
O N THE WAY to the top of the mountain, Ben stewed over all the stuff swirling around in his brain. The spy camera, for one, and knowing that there had to have been at least three more in the study at one time.
His dad’s disappearance. His mom’s disappearance.
Then there was Beth’s journal that she’d obviously never meant for anyone to read, if the horrified look on her face when he picked it up was any indication. The journal had spoken of her feelings for him, of how she’d been thinking of a sweet future with him.
And how she’d been innocent of the stuff that went down with his dad.
His mom had always said he had a “near photographi
c memory,” which just meant that he could scan something and then recall pretty much everything about it. The ability had come in real handy with school, especially for tests.
But until yesterday in the dining room at school when he’d held her journal for just seconds, he’d never really appreciated his unusual gift.
If Beth wasn’t innocent, why the hell would she have written that she was in a journal that she never intended to be read by anyone else? There was even a line about how no one believed her, didn’t believe that she really didn’t remember what happened and that she had to have been drugged.
Last night, he’d researched date rape drugs. There was one in particular that had a low detection rate and Ben had remembered Rod saying the doctor told his mom that some drugs weren’t detectable after a few hours. It had similar effects on the body as Ecstasy, creating euphoria and strong sexual urges. It also could cause amnesia, similar to the drugs used in surgery.
Beth’s innocence was starting to look more and more plausible.
But what if she wasn’t innocent? What if she really had willing had sex with his dad like the video seemed to indicate? He wondered if it were possible for him to forgive her for that, to just push aside all the hurt, the anger, the jealousy, and move on… to have that future with her that she’d written about in her journal.
It would be crazy hard, but he realized that yeah, he could. It would take a lot of work, but a relationship with Beth was what he really wanted. No matter what.
He snorted at himself; they hadn’t even had sex, and he was whipped.
The GPS told him he’d arrived at his destination. It was barely more than a dirt clearing, which was called “lower Handley Creek parking lot.” Ben had hoped that Beth would be there waiting, wondering where the hell everyone was.
He also hoped their teacher had picked the first trail to the creek, because there were three others spaced about ten miles apart and since the snow was already falling pretty heavily, he knew he didn’t have much time to find Beth before she froze to death.
That thought had him leaping out of the Jeep. “Beth!” he yelled. “Beth! Where are you?” He listened for a minute, but he couldn’t hear anything, even though it was quiet with the snow falling. All the creatures had found shelter. He just hoped Beth was smart enough to find her own hole somewhere.
He cringed as he grabbed his bug-out bag from the backseat when he remembered that just a few days before Game and Fish reported that one of their officers had spotted the first bear of the spring season near MeeLee Lake, which was about six miles away. While it was unusual for a bear to attack a human, this was a mama bear with three cubs, and they were never predictable, except for always being vicious when protecting their babies.
Ben hoped Beth had enough sense not to run if she saw a bear. “Run” meant “chase” to a bear.
He beat himself up as he started up the path toward the creek. He should have spent more time teaching Beth about wilderness survival. Then he snorted; hell, he had never even been able to get through to her the importance of wearing a hat in cold weather.
The snow was falling faster, in big, wet flakes. It was getting hard to walk, and he kept slipping on the slick mud. He then made the decision to move into the trees that lined the path. It was drier with the trees providing a bit of shelter.
On the drive up, Ben had thought about calling Search and Rescue. It would have been the smart thing to do, but honestly, he wanted to be the knight in shining armor who rescued the damsel. As he slipped and fell on a tree root, he cursed and realized that he was a moron. He pulled out his phone to make the call, but then realized he didn’t have a signal.
“What the hell… where on earth is it possible to not have a cell signal?” he muttered. He hoped it was just the tree cover that was blocking it.
Once he broke through the trees at the top of the hill, he quit calling Beth’s name, because he realized that the noise from the overflowing creek would drown her out. He cringed at that word choice. He hoped to God that Beth hadn’t fallen into the creek; there would be no way to find her.
Ben checked his phone again. Still no signal. He gritted his teeth and cursed himself for being so stupid in not calling Search. There was no way he was going to turn around and head back down the hill now to call them. It would take them awhile to get a team together and get up the mountain and Beth had already been out there three and a half hours.
That thought made him start jogging along the creek.
Even though he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to hear her, Ben started calling her name again. It was snowing a lot harder, and any footprints that would have made tracking her a lot easier were now covered. When he slipped and almost fell into the creek, Ben cursed himself for not wearing his snow boots. To be on the safe side, he moved closer to the tree line and continued running.
When he’d gone a lot farther than he figured Beth would have traveled, he turned and ran back the other way. He was getting winded, his breaths coming out in puffy little clouds. While he was in great shape thanks to all the sports he played and fitness training he did, he was still getting tired and figured it was because of the high altitude. The mountain was several thousand feet higher than Bearing.
He cringed at that; Beth was from sea level and definitely wasn’t in peak physical condition. He’d teased her about her lack of muscle tone several times when they were dating. He smiled then, remembering she’d said, “Why should I worry about having muscles when you have enough for several people, He-Man?”
God, he’d missed her sass.
“Beth!” He stopped jogging for a bit and cupped his hands to yell into the trees. “Beth! Answer me!”
Nothing. Ben dropped his hands from his mouth and took a heaving breath. He wasn’t sure if he was just tired from his run, or if he was getting a little panicked by not being able to find her. He reached into his pocket to pull out his phone to check for a signal again and that’s when a flash of color caught his eye.
He frowned and stepped closer to the tree that had something purple dangling from its branch. He immediately recognized the color; it was one of Beth’s shoelaces that she’d laced onto her glittery Converse.
Yanking the shoelace off the branch, he rolled his eyes. Of course she was wearing Converse on a wilderness hike. She probably didn’t have a hat or gloves either. He knew she wouldn’t, which is why he’d had Gwen pack some.
The girl would never learn. And after he found her, he was never letting her walk into the outdoors again without being by her side to make sure she was properly outfitted.
He snorted; like she’d let him get away with bossing her around.
Looking down through the trees, Ben could see why Beth would have taken that route. There was a slight clearing and it almost looked like a path. But it was barely wider than his shoulders in spots; surely, she would have remembered that the path from the parking area was a lot wider.
He shook his head. No, she wouldn’t have even noticed. She probably had been looking at the ground the whole time they hiked up the path. Beth always joked that she looked at the ground so she could see what she was going to trip over.
No wonder she was lost.
“Beth!” he hollered as he made his way down the path. There was less snow on the ground under the cover of the trees, and he spotted her footprints.
Ben kept calling to her as he slipped and slid down the path, following her trail. He’d been so intent on watching her footprints that it was a little while before he realized that she’d started veering toward the east as she headed downhill.
He frowned; if she’d headed straight south like she’d started out, she would have ended up on the road that led to the parking lot. He would have found her a lot sooner.
Worry for her was eating at him and he cursed himself for the hundredth time in the last hour for not calling Search and Rescue when he’d still had a phone signal.
“Beth!” he yelled again, but nothing. Nothing but stillness in the
crazy spring storm that was supposed to dump more than a foot of snow in the area over the next two days.
He continued following her southeasterly path until her footprints disappeared in the leaves that covered the ground in that area. Ben called her name several more times, as he stayed on the same general path.
Nothing… but then he heard what sounded like a moan. He stopped so suddenly that he lost his balance and had to fall back on his butt so he didn’t tumble down the hill.
“Beth!” he screamed. His throat was getting hoarse. He heard the sound again, to the left and back up the hill. Which meant she’d turned at some point and headed almost completely east.
He shook his head at her horrible sense of direction and stumble-ran toward the area he’d thought he’d heard the noise. Scanning the area, he yelled her name some more.
Just as he was about to head in a different direction, he spotted something blue behind a tree. “Beth!” he yelled as he ran toward the tree.
She was frozen.
Or, at least, she was half-way there. He dropped to his knees beside her and yanked his backpack off, unzipped it and pulled out the blankets and clothes. Sure enough, she wasn’t wearing a hat and even had on a light jacket more suited to cool summer nights in the north than in a snowstorm.
Doesn’t she ever watch the news or check the weather? But then he remembered Nadine had stripped her of everything, so she had no television, no radio, no phone. There was no way Beth would have known about the storm in advance, but Aleen should have told her.
Ben was going to make that chick regret stabbing Beth in the back.
When he pulled her away from the tree so he could tug the coat on her and wrap her up in the blankets, Beth moaned. It was a pained sound and his heart caught.
“It’s okay, baby, I got you,” he crooned to her as he tucked the fleece around her. “There. Now you’re a Beth burrito,” he teased, even though she was unresponsive. He then pulled the hat over her wet hair and yanked it down as far as he could. She moaned again, as if he was causing her pain.
