by Anna Willett
Milly followed Lucas as he strode up a steep slope. Trees grew at strange sideways angles as if they were using their roots to pull themselves up the incline. Lucas appeared unimpeded by the climb, head up and legs moving in confident measured steps. Milly on the other hand had to walk bent over, her hands almost trailing across the rocks and dusty ground.
By the time she reached the top, Lucas had moved farther away from her. His gait swift and urgent. Milly stumbled after him, her mouth open and gasping for breath.
“Lucas, wait.” If he heard her calling, he gave no indication.
His black shirt disappeared into a scattering of trees. Her heart jumped into her mouth. She lurched towards the trees, her mind racing with questions. Why would he leave her? What made him act so strangely? Overriding the questions grew a fear of being left alone and defenceless in the forest.
Milly reached the trees just as the rain began to fall. A light pattering of drops settled on her hair and shoulders. She pushed through the trees and found herself fighting against shrubs and branches. The scrub tore at her clothes and hair. She stumbled forward.
“Lucas? Lucas, where are you?” Her voice sounded thin and tremulous.
She paused and listened. The only sound, raindrops tapping leaves and bark on their way to the ground. Milly scanned the tangle of trees and bushes. She could see no sign of him and no indication as to which way he’d gone. It made no sense. Had he decided she was too much of a liability and taken off? Surely he wouldn’t just abandon her. But again, she realised she knew nothing about him.
Alone, her only option was to keep heading up towards the trail. That had to be where Lucas was going. Even if she couldn’t catch up with him, at least she might eventually run into other hikers. Part of her wanted to give in to exhaustion and stop, but she kept coming back to Judith, touching her hair. We’ll talk when this is over, that’s what she’d said before walking into the forest alone. Milly had to keep going. Judith needed her to get help and that’s what she intended to do.
Feeling more certain than she had in years. Milly forced her feet to move. With or without Lucas’s help, she’d find her way out of this crazy maze of forest and rocks. The rain fell in a constant drizzle, soaking her shirt and chilling her skin. Milly swiped at her face with the back of her hand and noticed blood. Her nose had started bleeding again.
She’d been walking for about five minutes when the she felt the wilderness thin and the spaces between vegetation grow wider. She spotted a small clearing, gloomy and laced with shadows. A branch creaked and something shuffled out of view.
“Lucas?” Milly stepped into the clearing and turned her head left and right. The movement sent shivers of pain running over her scalp.
She could hear the blood pumping in her ears and her breath, sharp and short. She turned back the way she’d entered and Lucas was standing between her and the trees.
The rhythm of her heart changed and she let out a gasp. Frightened and then relieved, she stepped towards him. “I couldn’t keep up with you.” The words tumbled out. “I thought I’d lost you.”
“I just wanted to scout ahead, make sure we were going the right way.” His voice was little more than a whisper. “Your nose is bleeding.”
Milly swiped at her upper lip knowing her hand would come away bloody. She wanted to ask if they could stop for a few minutes, but didn’t know how he’d take the request. The way he’d taken off ahead of her made Milly think he’d grown sick of having to babysit her.
“You should sit down for a minute and take a break.” The sudden kindness surprised her. It was the last thing she expected him to say.
She looked around for a place to rest. Sitting close to the trees offered the best protection from the drizzling rain. Lucas still stood at the edge of the clearing so instead of sitting near him, she chose a tree on the far edge and crouched beneath it.
Lucas waited for her to be settled and then moved over and sat next to her. Thunder rumbled overhead and the rain intensified. The thought of being out in the wilds during a storm made Milly shiver.
“Are you cold?”
“No. Well, yes a bit but it’s the thunder…” Milly turned to look at him and her vision clouded. The buzzing in her ears returned, this time piercing in its intensity. Without thinking, she clapped her hands over her ears and gasped.
“Something wrong?” His voice sounded hollow as if he were speaking from the end of a tunnel.
Milly tried to shake her head, but the slightest movement sent spirals of agony through her brain. She sank onto her butt and lowered her head onto her knees. She felt his hand on her back, warm and strong. Milly clamped her teeth together and tried to will the pain away.
After what seemed like five minutes, but was more likely ten seconds, the buzzing ebbed and the pain receded to a more bearable thumping. She let out a long puff of air and raised her head.
“Sorry,” she didn’t know what else to say. “My head. It’s been bothering me since the fall. I must be concussed or something.”
Lucas’s face remained blank, unreadable. If he felt concerned or worried, it didn’t show. His dark, almost black eyes regarded her as if she were something strange and unusual. Milly felt the blood rushing to her cheeks and turned away. He was attractive in a rough sort of way, but something about him left her feeling nervous and off balance.
“When I was a teenager,” he began as if Milly hadn’t mentioned her concerns about having a head injury. “I thought I was the only person in the world who knew what it was like to be all alone.”
Milly became very aware of his hand on her back. His closeness made her uncomfortable. If she got up and moved it would be very obvious, almost rude. She thought about suggesting they start walking again, but her legs felt numb and her back had finally stopped aching. She wanted to rest for a few more minutes.
“I bet you’ve never had to feel like that?” He waited, as if expecting some sort of answer. Unsure of what to say, Milly looked down at her lap and remained silent.
“I was in a foster home. Did you know that?”
Milly didn’t like the way his voice changed. The words were laced with anger. The pressure of his hand on her back increased. His fingers dug into the fabric of her shirt.
“I think we should get going,” Milly tried to keep the tremor out of her voice. She moved to stand but his fingers pulled on her shirt and she toppled back losing her balance and falling against him.
“I thought you needed a rest?” There was no trace kindness in his words, only ice. He held her against him, his hand slipping around her back and circling her waist.
Hindered by the binding around her middle and the pounding in her head, Milly felt panic rising in her like a tornado. Her mind reeled with frightening possibilities. Pressed against his side, she could feel his muscular torso and the heat coming from him. There was also an element of embarrassment and confusion. She wondered if she might be misreading the situation, the panic she felt just an overreaction.
“Did you, Milly?” he persisted.
“Did I what?” Milly asked around a quick intake of breath. She didn’t want to say the wrong thing and make the situation worse. The situation is way past worse.
“Did you know I was in a foster home?” He spoke each word slowly, in a flat impatient tone as if speaking to a difficult child.
Milly bit her lip and the cut from yesterday’s fall opened up. She searched her mind for the right reply, but could think of nothing. Lucas gave her an impatient shake. It was only a small movement, but she could feel the power.
“I… I didn’t know.” She stuttered out the answer hoping he’d be satisfied and turn her lose. The change in his behaviour terrified her. She’d been around men who changed when they drank. When she was hospitalised for depression, there’d been men who had problems with anger, but nothing like this. It occurred to her that maybe she was seeing the real Lucas for the first time. She thought of Judith’s words, we barely know him. And he had agreed to Jud
ith and Harper’s scheme to get her out here and frighten her. For all she knew, Lucas could be capable of anything.
“No. You’ve had a pretty sweet life. You and your sister.” He spun on his toes and pushed her down onto her butt so he was crouched over her. “You wouldn’t know what it’s like to be alone and powerless.” He squeezed her shoulders, his fingers biting into her skin. She gasped. “Not until now.” His eyes looked huge and shiny.
Milly wriggled backwards on her butt and pushed at his chest. His shirt tore, revealing the skin underneath. She saw his chest and sucked in air as if jolted by an electric shock. She pulled her eyes away from what the bare skin revealed and met his gaze.
“Surprise,” he said without a trace of humour.
Chapter Twenty-three
Judith jogged across the open ground taking care to avoid a misstep on the chunks of granite peppering the landscape. The rain fell in sharp fingers, not yet a down-pour, but enough to blur her vision and chill her skin. The volley of water darkened the rocks from pink to almost red. Judith felt she was getting close. It wasn’t something she could put her finger on, just a growing sensation of dread.
Something else danced around the edges of her thoughts clamouring for attention. A sense that she’d missed something. Something of vital importance. Find Harper, that was her priority.
She glanced up at the sky. The light was dying around her, the approaching storm bringing a premature darkness to the late afternoon. Surely Lucas and Milly had at least reached the trail. She’d had to backtrack for over an hour to reach the cliff. Then it had taken her a good twenty minutes to climb to the top. That gave the others a huge head start.
Another thought crept into her mind. What if Milly’s head injury is worse than they thought? Maybe she’d collapsed. Judith stopped jogging and bent over with her hands on her knees. She sucked in air and tried to hold back the worry building up inside her. She kept hearing the sound her sister’s head made when she hit the ground; kept feeling the sick hollow sensation in her stomach when she’d thought she’d lost her.
Judith straightened up and put her hands on her hips. She was no good to Harper or Milly if she let panic overwhelm her. They could be halfway to the carpark by now. But a small voice in her head whispered in disagreement, you don’t believe that. No, she thought. I don’t. Her gut told her they were all in danger.
Judith looked over her shoulder. Scraggy clumps of salt trees and stony ground sat in silence, save for the distant chatter of birds and wailing of the wind. The uninhabited wilderness took on an eerie quality. Alone and fighting panic, it was easy to imagine things moving and shifting just beyond her plane of vision. She turned her attention forward and tried to shake off the feeling that something sinister was creeping up on her. I’m just spooked. “Is it any wonder?” she said aloud.
Moving on, the landscape changed. Salt trees ranging from waist high bushes to towering grey mini-trees grew tightly in some areas and sparsely in others. I’m getting closer to the coast, Judith thought and felt a prickle of fear. In truth, Harper could be anywhere, but her gut told her, she was near. But near to what, she had no idea.
A gust of wind whipped up her damp hair and the smell of seaweed, faint but distinctive filled her nose. She broke into a run eager to reach the trail and hopefully find some trace of her girlfriend. Judith’s boots pounded the sodden ground and struck the occasional smooth chunk of granite with a resounding thud. Her soggy clothes clung to her, rasping and chafing with each step.
The soughing of the ocean told her she was heading in the right direction. Judith forced herself to stop and draw breath. The rocks were slippery, if she kept running it would only be a matter of time before she fell. Despite the wintry freshness of the wind, sweat ran in warm lines down her back. Judith allowed herself a minute or so to catch her breath. She looked up at the sky and poked out her tongue, lapping up drops of water like a thirsty dog. It wasn’t much, just a thin trickle of moisture, but it felt good on her parched lips.
Ready to move on, she happened to look left. The rain saturated, the ground tinting the sand a muddy orange. It struck her that she was looking at a patch of ground where the red leaked onto the sand. Judith frowned and for a second felt only confusion. Then realisation flared in her mind. It wasn’t the colour leaching out of the granite – that would be impossible. The ground was stained with blood.
As her mind processed what her eyes saw, Judith gagged and clamped her hand over her mouth. She became acutely aware of the blood beating in her ears, it eclipsed all other sound. Harper? Her mind threw up images of her girlfriend laying on the couch in fleecy pyjamas, standing over the stove stirring pasta sauce – all the simple mundane things she took for granted. All washed away in a puddle of blood.
She took a step closer trying to breathe through her mouth and keep the smell of death out of her nostrils. Everywhere her gaze landed, more blood. The rocks were splattered with dark stains made streaky by the rain. So much blood. Her mind wanted to shut down and disallow the certainty that no one could survive losing that much lifeblood.
A tremor started deep in Judith’s body and spread through her like fire. All the fear and exhaustion of the last twenty-four hours seemed unimportant, trivial. Her body jerked forward and a guttural sob tore through her throat. She clenched her fists together and jammed them against her mouth. Harper’s face, lit up with mischief, flashed in her mind. A woman of limitless kindness, butchered. Judith’s mind reeled with thoughts of the terror and pain Harper must have felt. The rain drove through her clothes and plastered her hair to her face. She shivered, not from the cold but from sobs that wracked her body. This is my fault, she thought bitterly. Harper never wanted to push Milly into admitting the truth. If Judith hadn’t talked her into it, she’d still be alive. The guilt felt like a physical weight pushing her down.
Time passed, she didn’t know how much. Eventually the sobs turned to sniffing and she became aware of the cold. She forced herself upright. The landscape seemed changed, dull. As if Harper’s absence from the world lessened it somehow. Judith jammed her palms into her eyes, rubbing the rain and tears away.
“I should have been with you.” She was barely aware of her own voice. “You must have been so scared.” As she spoke her gaze settled on the bloody ground. Rivers of crusty sand were rapidly dissipating under the force of the rain. The trail of sand and blood no match for the building storm.
Judith frowned and sniffed. Twin gouges in the sand coloured almost black with blood. The marks led away from the scene. Judith held her breath to avoid smelling the thick coppery odour and crouched down. The tracks were clearly visible as they cut through the mess on the sand. For five metres or so, blood filled most of the indentation then the trail continued away.
She stood and picked her way through the grisly mess. The rain intensified and the marks began to blur. Hurrying now, Judith made her way beside the rivulets. Pausing to search for traces of Harper’s presence, she spotted more marks. Some too faint, but a few, clearly boot prints of varying sizes. Judith was no tracker, but she knew what she was seeing. Two people had been through this area. One big and one small. Not only that, but a body had been dragged away from the bloody scene towards a snatch of salt bushes.
Judith’s heart fluttered. Could it be possible that there had been a third person? Maybe the body wasn’t Harper’s but someone else’s. Even as she allowed herself hope, part of her mind resisted, telling her the chances of another person being involved were slim.
“A slim chance is better than none,” she said through chattering teeth, and took off towards the trees.
The greyish-green trunks with patchy foliage were at least two metres high. Judith slowed down as she approached. There are two men, she reminded herself. Could the smaller boot prints be from one of them? No. She decided the second set of marks were either made by a child or a woman. Her gut told her it was a woman.
The salt trees formed a natural arc, creating a pathway flanked by narr
ow tree trunks. Overhead sporadic branches formed a sparse shelter. The whole effect reminded Judith of a giant rib cage, like something out of a palaeontology museum. Stepping into the tunnel of trees, the weak grey light outside plummeted to shadowy gloom.
Judith pulled the knife from her pocket and worked the blade open. A damp oaky smell hung in the air. The ground was dark, the colour of a muddy pond. She narrowed her glance, focusing on the ground. She looked for any signs a body had been dragged this way, but without the light, the marks criss-crossing the dirt looked like a network of gouges. Being inside the trees made her feel trapped and vulnerable. If the men were lying in wait, they could enter one from each end and she’d be surrounded.
A hollow sensation in the pit of her stomach threatened to explode into full-blown terror. She focused on her breathing, listening to the raspy sound as her boots scuffed through the dirt. If her gut instinct was right and Harper did come this way, there might be a chance she was still alive. The thought of reliving the desolation she’d felt when it seemed certain Harper was dead, frightening her more than whatever the two men might do to her. At least that’s what she told herself to keep her feet moving.
When she finally broke free of the trees, Judith ducked to the right and crouched against the edge of the greenery. The area in front of her opened up onto a landscape similar to that near the trail: dusty ground dotted with salt bushes and chunks of pink granite. The rain faltered but didn’t quite stop. She spotted a patch of colour at odds with the greys, pinks, and greens of the landscape. She squinted and then flicked away the drops of rain that hung on her eyebrows. A piece of red fabric poked out from the base of a small salt bush.
Judith hesitated. After a quick look around, she stood and walked the ten or so metres. The fabric turned out to be a hat. She picked it up and felt the damp cloth. It was an odd-looking thing with a flap at the rear. It could have been dropped by anyone and sat out in the bush for weeks. But if that were the case, surely the colour would be faded and the fabric dirty. She turned the hat over in her hands. It had some stains, but they looked fresh and the red too vivid to have been bleached by the sun.
