by R. L. Weeks
“Tommy, stop,” I finally said, resisting his pulling.
We were so deep into the forest, I couldn’t see the empty parking lot anymore, just trees and more trees. Tommy’s eyes were darting frantically around the forest, and he bounced anxiously from foot to foot as though he couldn’t wait to take off again.
“Stand still. You’re not going to get stuck there.”
I was cranky. Being out of breath was a reminder I no longer had the benefit of my personal trainer to keep me in shape for the cheer team back home. I didn’t have anything anymore, except my virginity anyway. Sean would have taken it greedily. I was practically throwing myself at Tommy, and he couldn’t even pay attention to me.
“What are you even doing—”
Tommy’s finger was suddenly against my lips, and his solemn brown eyes were staring directly into mine.
“Be quiet,” he snapped, then closed his eyes and turned away from me.
His hands were balled at his sides, and his head was cocked as he listened to the sounds of the forest. Birds cawed and tweeted nearby, squirrels scratched their way up trees, and the wind whistled gently and rustled the leaves just beginning to fall. I wasn’t sure what he was listening for, but I knew better than to interrupt whatever he was doing.
What felt like minutes passed before Tommy spoke.
“We need to go.” His energy became frantic as he started off down the trail without even turning back to grab my hand.
“Hey!” I called.
He didn’t even acknowledge me. His focus was lasered in on the trail ahead.
I looked back toward where the parking lot was and weighed my options. If I went back, I’d have to walk all the way to the street and up the hill in the dark by myself.
I took off after Tommy, skipping over sticks and rocks to try to catch up. The forest was almost completely shrouded in darkness by the time I finally caught up to him enough that I could reach out and touch his back.
“Look there,” Tommy whispered as he stopped suddenly, causing me to collide face first into his shoulder blades.
I stepped around him and followed his pointed finger. A small cabin was up ahead, set several feet off the trail. It looked abandoned and dark, like the cottage in my own back yard.
“That definitely looks like a murder shack,” I whispered back.
I grabbed Tommy’s upper arm with both of my hands and held onto him tight.
“Where are we going? It’s almost dark,” I told him nervously.
“Your sister is in there, with him.” He spat out the last word.
“What are you talking about?”
I stepped in front of him, eager to see what he saw, but the rotting old cabin still looked dark and empty.
“Shh!” Tommy shushed loudly in my ear and pulled me down to the ground behind a fallen tree log. My knees scraped the ground, and Tommy quickly covered my mouth with his hand to muffle my cry.
“You have to be quiet, or your sister will die.”
Tommy was dead serious. I nodded, and he let his hand fall from my mouth. I licked my lips and tasted salt from his sweaty palms. My heart was beating out of my chest. Tommy crept around the fallen tree and didn’t offer me a helping hand. He was looking straight ahead at the cabin, but I wasn’t going to stay where I was all alone. I followed him and tried to be extra conscious of any sounds I made as I crawled after Tommy.
Netting covered the small windows. I crept up, fully expecting to see wolf heads, dead bodies, or some other horrible sight; instead, I saw exactly what Tommy had warned me I would see.
A whimper escaped my lips, and I quickly covered my mouth and tried to choke back tears. My sister lay flat on top of wood planks supported by chairs to create some sort of altar. Strange, ancient-looking symbols were painted onto the wooden slab, below Pierce’s body, and she wore a long black dress I had never seen before. Her arms hung loosely, and as my eyes traveled up her long slender arm, I dry-heaved. A long trail of dried blood went from her shoulder to her neck where two small wounds were still fresh with blood.
“Oh, God,” I moaned into the windowsill.
Tommy broke away from me quickly and kicked in the door to the cabin. I couldn’t watch anymore. If the serial killer was still inside, I couldn’t bear to watch. I let my back slide down the side of house until I landed hard on my butt. I buried my head in my hands and sobbed. My parents and sister were all gone now, and Tommy and I would probably be next.
“Come on, Pierce.”
I shot up and stared through the window again. Tommy had his back toward me, but I could still see what he was doing.
His head was down, and he waved his hands in circular motions over Pierce’s head and chest. He muttered words I couldn’t understand, and his hands emanated a warm, amber-colored light. I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. Light couldn’t possibly be coming from his hands, but then again, I was sure more than static electricity had come from Pierce’s hands a few days ago.
Pierce’s eyes shot open, wide as saucers, and she bolted straight up as though the wooden planks under her were spring-loaded.
I ran into the cabin and grabbed my sister. She was gasping for air, but I held her tight. I never wanted to let go again. Tommy’s arms looped around my elbows as he attempted to pry me off my sister.
“You gotta let her breathe.”
I backed off, and Pierce swung her legs around the edge of the table and put her hands on her knees.
“What happened? Are we in the cottage?” she asked through raspy breaths.
“We’re in a cabin somewhere deep in the valley. Who brought you here?” Tommy asked.
“A cabin?”
Pierce looked up finally and surveyed her surroundings. Confusion was sprawled across her face as she picked at the dried blood on her collarbone.
“This isn’t right.” She shook her head. “This is Axel’s cabin, but this table, these chairs… none of this was in here and set up like this when I met up with him here.”
Tommy pressed further. “Where is Axel now?”
Pierce looked down and massaged her temples. “I-I don’t know. We were sitting on the couch over there, except it was under the window there,” she explained and pointed across the room. “We were talking about… stuff… and then we started making out. The next thing I know, you’re in my face and I couldn’t breathe.”
“Oh my God, Pierce. This Axel dude roofied you!” I exclaimed.
“No. No, he didn’t. He would never do something like that. He wouldn’t need to rape me. Trust me, and he just wouldn’t anyways.”
“Oh, and how would you know, huh?” I yelled back at my sister. “You’ve known him less than a week!”
“I met him before you met Tommy!” she countered.
“Stop it!” Tommy shouted. “Just stop. Pierce, you are in danger, and Axel is going to hurt you. There’s no question about it.”
Pierce jumped down from the table and stood in front of my boyfriend.
“What do you even know about it? We don’t even know you!”
“You need to trust me.”
I knew there had to be a good explanation. “Who else could have done this to you, sis? You were in here with Axel when you blacked out—”
“That doesn’t mean it was him who hurt me. Maybe we were both attacked. Maybe the real killer came in behind us and knocked me out while our eyes were closed and took Axel!”
I wasn’t sure what to say. Pierce had a point. It wasn’t a very plausible point, but it was a point nonetheless. I turned to look at Tommy and saw he had walked out of the cottage and was making his way farther into the forest down the path.
“Tommy! Wait!” I called after him.
“There’s a lantern on the table. Use it to get back on the main path and go back into town. You need to hurry. It’s not safe. Take your sister and go!”
“Fuuuuuuuuck!” I yelled and kicked the door to the cabin.
“Let’s just go,” Pierce said behind me.
&nb
sp; She already had the lantern lit and ready to go.
Chapter Seventeen
Pierce
Birds fell from the red sky, falling around us like the apocalypse had come. The setting sun was masked behind rolling gray clouds with red linings.
“Don’t move,” I barked at my sister as the hairs on the back of my neck stood erect. I felt like my skin was crawling, warning me something was wrong.
Tommy must’ve heard me shout because he waited before running off into the trees. He heeded my warning before Jackson, coming to a standstill. He looked at me, waiting for my next order. I wasn’t sure why he trusted me, but he did. Jackson, on the other hand, looked annoyed at our sudden halt near the edge of the forest.
“What is it?” Jackson asked, her voice barely a whisper.
I put my index finger up at them, signaling for Jackson to be quiet. An icy breeze swept over my face, washing my body in a prickling cold. I blinked a few times when they appeared. In a thin mist, trailing upward, were the apparitions of the dead girls. All of them had red hair and green eyes. One by one, I looked them up and down.
They stared back at me with cold, empty eyes. Their faces were whiter than paper, their lips bluer than the sea. “What do you want?” I asked, first quietly, then again louder when they wouldn’t reply. “Please! Tell me why you’re here.”
My voice echoed through the forest, scaring a flock of birds from a tree into the sky.
“Who the hell are you shouting at?” Jackson asked as I stepped toward one of the girls.
Tommy stood silently, watching the ghosts too.
“You can see them too?” I asked, thankful I wasn’t crazy.
He nodded but said no more.
Jackson looked at us in turn and then at the space we were looking at. “I don’t see anything!” she cried. “Can someone please tell me what’s going on!”
Ignoring Jackson’s pleas, I stared at the ghosts. Why were they all here at once? Was the killer close by?
I edged closer to one of the girls and stepped on a dead crow. I almost lost my footing. Steadying myself, I looked up at the trees as they swayed in the howling wind. The sky grew darker, the clouds rolled in thicker and faster than before, and the sky grumbled restlessly. Adrenaline spiked through my body. It was turning out to be exactly like the dream I’d had—well, the nightmare. “We have to go!” I ordered.
Tommy grabbed Jackson’s hand and took off ahead of me. “Hurry, Pierce!” he shouted. I ran with them, hurrying to get away from the forest of nightmares.
As we ran, the apparitions popped back up in different places. One appeared by a tree ahead of me, making me jump out of the way at the last minute. Another girl, one I recognized from the papers, appeared in front of me as I reached a clearing. The maggots crawling in and out of her eye sockets made me gag. I changed direction, trying to avoid them. Before I knew it, I was separated from Tommy and Jackson.
I looked around, panicked. The smell of wet earth pinched at my nose. “Guys!” I screamed loudly.
I walked, but I had no sense of direction. Every point looked the same with no markers to grasp my way back or even what way I had come in. I was alone, with only their distant calls to keep me company.
“Jackson!”
My heart pounded heavily in my chest. I brushed my hair out of my face, then rested my hands on my knees and panted. I attempted to get my breath back. By the time I looked up, blackness had completely taken over the forest.
I shuddered, feeling the heavy key in my pocket. The forest was silent, too silent, and bugs crawled around my feet in their thousands.
I was trapped in my nightmare, but this time it was real.
“Run!” A girl’s voice sounded behind me, setting me off into a run. I hurried through the dense forest, while the ghosts of the girls watched me. I finally reached the tree line and fell out into open space. Ahead of me was a cliff. I felt sick to my stomach. “No, no, no.” I whimpered.
The ghosts disappeared… finally.
Were the dead girls leading me to danger?
I tripped on a root sticking out from the soil and landed on my hands and knees. Dirt sprayed up onto my face. I didn’t want to die. I had so much still I wanted to do. I needed to be there for Jackson. God knew she couldn’t manage another death. And Axel? The first taste of love had been exhilarating. I only wished I had spent more time in the moment, feeling everything instead of thinking about a future I no longer had.
As I felt the emotion from every thought crossing my mind, I noticed something vile.
The smell of rotting flesh stung my nostrils. I pinched them together, knowing already what lay ahead for me. It was just like the nightmare, a coffin, and inside of it would be me.
Not today.
I got to my feet and looked around. I wasn’t going to fall victim to the sadistic man who was hunting me down. The serial killer was close. I could feel it in my bones. I didn’t know what made me think it was a man—intuition, I guess, and balance of probability.
The absence of my sister’s calls to find me set something off inside of me. She couldn’t find me dead. It would destroy her. No matter what happened next, I had to stay alive.
I reached out and touched a tree trunk. The whole forest was tingling with magic. It ran deep into the roots underground and up to the highest leaf. I closed my eyes, concentrating on my swirling emotions and let them get out of control. Imagining Jackson finding me dead, remembering finding my parents dead, and reminiscing about my kiss with Axel sparked something in my chest.
Slowly, warmth spread through my body and to my tingling fingertips. I was wielding the magic from the earth. It felt so pure, so right.
I was ready to fight. Although I wasn’t sure how, I trusted my body. Internally, I laughed even though everything was so dire. I knew my body well. I knew what was wrong and what to trust. I wasn’t afraid simply because something in me told me not to be. Either I was delusional or right.
Crack.
The sound of a branch cracking in the trees poised me into fight mode. I braced myself, holding in the steady warmth I hoped I’d somehow know how to use when the time came. I waited for someone to step out… It felt like an eternity waiting a figure to appear from the trees, but no one did.
Any moment now…
My heart was racing so fast, I was worried it would give out. I felt numb all over, unsure if it was shock or the magic I had somehow managed to tap into making me feel like I was having an anxiety attack.
After a few moments, I no longer felt afraid. All traces of fear had left my mind. I wondered if this was how people felt when they were faced with death: fight or die. I had nowhere to run. Going back into the forest where movements would be hidden by the bittersweet darkness was suicide, and jumping off the cliff behind me was the same fate.
“Show yourself!” I shouted, feeling braver than I was sure I looked.
The shadows had hid him well at first, but when he stepped out, he was closer than I’d thought.
He was standing about twelve feet from me.
I dug my heels into the mud to keep myself grounded. I was facing him, the killer. The dead girls had led me to him, but why? Did they want him to finish me off bitterly because of their fates, or was it something more?
I took in his appearance, realizing if I got out of this alive, a police report would be needed to capture him.
His eyes were small, his gaze focused. His irises were matte black with a red ring around them. His skin was chalky white, although his features looked Hispanic. He was tall and muscular but slim. His hair was brown, like the color of the bark on the trees, and his clothes were those of a hunter’s.
He didn’t look quite human. There was something about him devoid of the thing that makes us human. It wasn’t just his chalky skin or black eyes, it was the absence of an energy. Call it compassion or empathy, but something felt hollow.
He was unrecognizable to me as anyone I had seen around, until his appearance shifted into
one that shocked me beyond words.
I was frozen to the spot. All the magic I’d held in quickly dissipated.
“Axel.”
The words barely left my lips when thick tears fell from the corners of my eyes.
“Axel,” I said again in disbelief, as if saying it enough times would somehow stop it from being true.
My legs turned to jelly. All the fight in me up and left, along with my balance. I toppled over, falling onto my knees. I caught myself with my hands in front of me and shook as I looked up at him.
The denial in me wanted to naively believe in the shred, however small, of hope that Axel was here to help. Perhaps he had found me wandering the forest, and his strange appearance was simply a trick of the light.
The look in his eyes told me otherwise.
I moved back through the dirt as he approached me, forming a mound around me. How could I have been so stupid to fall for a serial killer? Nothing in this man was even remotely close to the guy with the guitar I had got to know. I pushed back farther.
He didn’t rush. Raindrops fell from the storm clouds above, making everything glossy. It penetrated the soil, forming puddles and making mudslides.
Thousands of cold droplets patterned my arms and legs. Along with the fierce winds, it had dropped several degrees in minutes. My teeth chattered. Brown water ran through my fingertips.
Each sloshed footstep—slow and steady—from Axel, reminded me of my imminent danger. I wanted to get up and fight, but I felt like I was being weighed down by an unknown force. I was broken.
Before I could grab anything to hold onto, I fell backward into the hole I should’ve been wary of.
I landed with a thud. The fall sent shockwaves through my spine, grasping the air from my lungs so I couldn’t breathe. Under me was a coffin. It felt smooth against my palms.
So this is how it would end.
I waited for him to climb down, kill me, and be done with it, but he didn’t.
“Please don’t kill me!” I begged, my voice cracking at the edges.
