by Lukens, Mark
Cole glanced at the trees. “You’re sure it was Frank?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Jose snapped. “He had on that blue flannel shirt he was wearing before. No coat. No hat. It was him.”
Cole looked at Jose. “Did Frank say anything? Did he wave at you?”
“No. He just stood in the woods, and he was staring at me. No expression. Nothing.”
“Did he have his gun?”
“I don’t think so. I didn’t see it.” Jose wiped at his nose with the sleeve of his jacket. “I don’t know.”
Cole looked down at the snow all around them. Then he looked at Jose. “You’re absolutely sure you saw Frank.”
“I know what I saw.”
“There aren’t any tracks in the snow.”
Jose looked down at the snow. His eyes widened in surprise. He shook his head no in disbelief. “He was here. Standing right here in these trees. I’m sure of it.” Jose looked at Cole with wide eyes that were now confused and a little frightened. “I saw him. I swear I did.”
“Cole!”
Cole turned towards the sound of Trevor’s voice.
“What’s going on?” Trevor asked as he ran into the woods.
“Nothing,” Cole answered. “We’re coming back inside.” Cole looked at Jose. “Come on, Jose. Let’s get back inside.”
Trevor stood at the edge of the woods, his gun ready in his hand. He looked around. “What were you guys yelling about out here?”
Cole knew that Trevor wasn’t going to let this go. “Jose thought he saw Frank.”
Trevor stiffened. “Frank?”
“Yeah. He thought he saw him up here in the woods.”
“I saw him,” Jose muttered.
Trevor stepped deeper into the woods, joining Cole and Jose. He scanned the trees, the low-hanging branches, and then the blanket of snow on the ground all around them. “But I don’t see – ”
“I know,” Cole finished quickly. “There aren’t any tracks in the snow.”
“I saw him!” Jose snapped.
“Come on, Jose,” Cole said in a calm voice. “Another snowstorm is coming. We need to get back inside the cabin.”
Jose lowered his gun and turned back to the field. He walked through the trees to the edge of the field. Cole and Trevor glanced at each other, and then they followed Jose out of the woods. Cole could read his brother’s thoughts – Jose is losing it now, just like Needles.
Jose stopped at the edge of the clearing and stared at the cabin which sat in the middle of the field over a hundred yards away. He could see Stella standing on the front porch watching them. Jose wondered why Stella was on the front porch watching them.
She has something to do with all of this, his mind whispered to him.
Jose looked up at the sky which was dark gray with clouds. It looked like a wall of gray snow was heading right for them.
“Come on,” Cole urged Jose on. The wind from the coming storm was already picking up; a wave of even colder and nastier weather was coming, if that was possible. “We need to get back into the cabin. We’ve got other problems to discuss.”
“What other problems?” Trevor asked.
Cole glanced at Trevor, but then he nodded at the snowstorm that was moving in fast. “We need to hurry,” he told Trevor.
The three ran across the front field as the whitewash of a blizzard swept across the back field behind the cabin.
By the time they reached the front porch, the snowstorm was right on top of them. They hurried inside the cabin.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Destroyed?” Trevor asked, his face slack with shock. “What do you mean, destroyed?”
“The engines in both vehicles are destroyed,” Cole told him. He looked at Stella and David but they didn’t seem too surprised to hear the news. He looked at Needles who didn’t seem so surprised either. He looked back at Trevor. “Like someone took an ax to the motors.”
Trevor stared at Cole. His mouth moved, like he was trying to say something, but his voice wasn’t working for a moment. He turned and paced into the kitchen. Then he turned back to Cole. “An ax? Like the ax that’s missing from the fireplace?”
Cole didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.
Cole looked at Stella and David. David had a spiral notebook on his lap and a ballpoint pen in his hand. Cole wondered for a split second where David had gotten the notebook and pen, but then he dismissed the thought. He didn’t really care right now. Cole watched David draw something in his notebook for a few moments; David was really concentrating on his drawing, his dark eyes focused like laser beams on the page.
“Is there any way the engines can be fixed?” Trevor asked, breaking Cole’s hypnosis. The tone of Trevor’s voice didn’t sound hopeful.
“No,” Cole answered as he walked into the kitchen to fix himself a cup of coffee. He poured the coffee into his mug and then held his hands around the cup for a second, letting the heat warm his hands up.
Outside, the blizzard was over top of the cabin like a smothering blanket. The wind howled around the eaves and battered the log walls.
“So, Frank takes the ax with him in the middle of the night and destroys our vehicles with it,” Trevor says.
“Frank wouldn’t do that,” Jose grumbled.
“You said you saw him out there in the woods,” Trevor said.
Needles perked up at this news. “Frank’s out there?”
Cole watched Stella when she heard that Jose saw Frank. Something about the way she looked. It was only for a split second, but he saw something in her eyes. A fear. But not a fear of Frank, a fear of something else. She knew something about this, Cole was sure. But what?
“No,” Trevor spat out the word towards Needles. “Frank isn’t out there.”
“I saw him in the woods.”
“You saw a figment of your imagination. There were no tracks in the snow. No sign of him anywhere. You’re tired and scared and your mind’s playing tricks on you.”
“Don’t call me scared, you motherfucker.”
“Come on, you two,” Cole said.
“If Frank’s out there, then why?” Trevor continued on, ignoring Cole’s warning.
“I don’t know,” Jose said. “Maybe he is after the money.”
“If he’s after the money, then why didn’t he just shoot everyone when he left in the middle of the night?” Trevor asked. “He would’ve had the chance. Why didn’t he shoot us in Stella’s truck? Or at the side of the road? Or when we first got off the snowmobiles?”
“Maybe there’s someone else out there,” Jose said. “The same people who killed that guy and stuffed him in the freezer. Maybe Frank went out there and they took him. Maybe it’s the same people who are after that bitch and that kid.” Jose stared at Stella and David. “I think we need to question them. Get some answers out of them.”
“Jose, that’s enough,” Cole said as he stared at him. “We’re not going to interrogate anyone. We’re not torturers.” Cole glanced at Needles. “We’re not murderers.”
“Yeah, but she knows something.”
“If she’s involved with this, then how would Frank know where Stella was going to be in her truck?” Cole asked Jose. “We took a different escape route after Needles killed the old man in the bank. Trevor was the one with the map.”
Jose turned to Trevor. “Yeah, Trevor had the map. He knew where we were going.”
“Oh, so I’m involved with this now?” Trevor said and couldn’t help smiling which only seemed to infuriate Jose even more.
“You and your brother, maybe,” Jose looked at Cole. “How do I know?”
“Like Cole said,” Trevor went on. “We wouldn’t even be here if Needles hadn’t shot that old man in the bank. You think Needles is in on it too? You think all of us joined together with Stella and David to create all of this,” Trevor spread his hands out at the cabin, “just to trick you out of your share of the money?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” Jo
se grumbled.
“I didn’t have anything to do with this,” Needles said. “That old man in the bank grabbed me! I didn’t grab him, he grabbed me. And I saw things. I saw this place. And he told me the devil was coming. When are you guys going to see what’s really going on here? Something’s following those two,” Needles glanced at Stella and David on the couch, “and it isn’t human; it’s the devil and now he’s after us.”
“Needles,” Cole warned, “we’ve heard enough of your theories.”
“I say we just kick those two outside,” Needles went on. “If the devil’s after them, then let him have them. We’ll be a lot safer.”
“We’re not kicking anyone outside,” Cole said, as the anger seethed through his words. “We’re not torturing anyone. We’re not killing anyone. And we’re not kicking anyone outside in the snow.”
The others stared at Cole in silence.
“We just came across a bad place,” Cole continued, his eyes burning with anger, his patience completely gone now. “A place where a man was murdered, and whether we want to admit it or not, it’s getting to us. Turning us against each other.”
There was an awkward silence hanging over them for a moment.
“So what are we going to do now?” Trevor asked. “Sleep with all of our guns pointed at each other?”
“We’re going to stay here tonight,” Cole said. “We’re going to wait until these snowstorms pass us by. And we may have to walk out of here tomorrow if we can’t get one of these vehicles to work. We’ll have to flag down another vehicle out on the road.”
“Four wanted bank robbers with two suitcases of money and two hostages walking down the side of the road,” Trevor said. “That sounds like a good idea.”
“Trevor,” Cole said through clenched teeth. “You’re not helping the situation.”
Trevor didn’t retort – he knew when he had pushed his big brother too far.
“Before we leave,” Cole went on after he inhaled a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, hoping the deep breath would help his nerves, hoping that it would help the anger building up inside of him. “I think we need to burn this cabin to the ground. There’s a dead body in here and we don’t need to leave behind any evidence that we were here.”
“What about her truck?” Jose said as he hitched a thumb at Stella.
“We’ll burn that too,” Cole said.
The others nodded.
“Okay,” Cole said. “We’ll sleep in watches again tonight.”
*
Hours later Stella and David slept on the couch. David had his notebook tucked protectively under his arm.
Jose had tried the TV and radio over and over again, trying to get some kind of station or signal, hoping to get some kind of news about the bank robbery. But none of the stations would come in – nothing but complete static. Finally, Jose gave up. He sipped from the bottle of whiskey, but not too much. He wanted to stay sober and ready for whoever was out there waiting for them in the darkness.
Trevor sat at the table for hours and played hand after hand of solitaire with a deck of playing cards that he’d found.
Needles curled up in his recliner and massaged the crucifix around his neck as he muttered silent prayers with his eyes closed. Soon he drifted off into a fitful sleep.
Cole took the first watch as the rest of them slept. He planned on waiting until three o’clock in the morning and then waking Trevor up. They would need to take turns on watch if they had to stay here one or two more nights – even Needles would have to take a watch.
Cole’s thoughts melted together, and his eyes slowly closed, and he drifted off to sleep without even realizing it.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Stella woke up in the middle of the night and she began to scream.
Cole snapped awake in the pitch black darkness of the cabin. For a split second he forgot where he was. It was like he was coming out of some kind of a dream, except he didn’t remember any of it; it was more like he was clawing his way out of a cocoon of darkness. But now he was awake and trapped in a real cocoon of darkness.
Cole felt around in the darkness, his hands groped at his blanket and pillows looking for his gun. Then he remembered that he had stuck his gun in the front of his pants. His fingers felt along the front of his pants and they touched the reassuring feel of the steel of his pistol.
He didn’t even remember lying down on his bedroll. He remembered sitting at the dining room table with a cup of coffee. He was going to wake Trevor up for the next watch. Had he woken Trevor up and then went to bed and couldn’t remember it? He wasn’t sure, and he didn’t have time to think about it right now because Stella was still screaming.
Cole remained motionless for a moment, his fingers still touching the handle of his gun.
“Cole!” Trevor called out. “Where are you?”
“I’m here,” Cole called back.
“Stella!” Cole yelled. “What happened?”
Stella’s screams stopped, and for a split second the cabin was silent; there wasn’t even the sound of the snowstorm outside.
“Are you hurt, Stella?” Cole asked her.
Stella didn’t answer. Something about her silence in the pitch black darkness scared Cole even more than her screams. It was like she suddenly realized that there was something in there with them and she didn’t want to make a sound and give her position away.
“What the hell’s wrong with her?” Jose snapped. “Where’s everyone else?”
“I’m on my sleeping bag,” Trevor called out.
“I’m on my blankets,” Cole said.
“What happened to the lights?” Needles asked with a tremor in his voice. “Who turned out the fucking lights?”
“Where are you, Needles?” Cole asked, trying to keep his voice calm as he tried to mentally picture where everyone was in the cabin.
“In the recliner,” Needles answered.
That only left Stella and David. “Stella,” Cole said. “Where are you? Where’s David?”
“David’s gone,” Stella whispered.
Cole’s blood ran cold. “What do you mean?” Cole finally asked even though his words sounded stupid to his own ears. Gone meant gone.
“He’s gone,” she whispered again and there was a movement in the darkness, a rustling of clothing.
“Who’s moving?” Jose called out.
“Nobody shoot!” Cole shouted. “Does everyone understand me? Nobody shoots. We can’t see anything.”
Someone was on their feet and running across the wooden floor of the cabin. Shoes pounded the wood. So loud in the darkness. Someone was running for the front door.
Cole turned to the door and saw the barest outline of the door, a dark blue line that outlined the door. It took him a second to realize that this meant that the door was open just a crack. But before he could say anything, the door swung open wide and he could make out Stella’s silhouette in the doorway.
“He’s out there!” Stella yelled. “David’s outside!”
“Stella, wait!” Cole yelled at her as he jumped to his feet.
But Stella didn’t wait, she ran outside.
Cole ran towards the dark blue rectangle of the doorway and followed Stella out onto the front porch, his gun in his hand already. He didn’t have his coat or boots on and the freezing air bit at him right away, sinking through his flesh and into his bones. He looked out at the snowy field in front of the cabin and he saw Stella running through the snow to David.
The recent snowstorm had passed and there were cloudless patches in the night sky that allowed some starlight and moonlight to filter down which cast a bluish light on the snow, and Cole could see the dark shape of Stella running towards David.
David was just standing in the deep snow, his back to the cabin as he stared at the dark woods.
*
Stella ran through the snow. The cold bit at her as the snow saturated her pants legs, but she didn’t care. Her only thought was getting to David. He was out here
with this … this thing.
She reached David and she dropped down to one knee next to him and grabbed on to him. Tears spilled from her eyes, but she barely noticed. “David,” she said, but his name came out in a strangled sob. “What are you doing out here?”
David didn’t answer her. He didn’t even look at her for a moment. He just stared at the dark trees in the distance. They looked like a black mass of the purest darkness, only the outlines of the tops of the trees to tell what they were.
“David,” Stella said as she touched his arm, trying to make contact with him, trying to bring him out of his trance. “You can’t be out here. You know that.”
David finally looked at her; his dark eyes reflected the moonlight back to her. His expression was calm. “He called me out here,” he finally told her. “Didn’t you hear him?”
“No, I didn’t,” she told him. “But you can’t be out here,” she said in a soft voice, her teeth beginning to chatter, her body trembling from the cold. “It’s not safe out here.”
David took her hand and held it. It was like his way of apologizing.
Stella smiled and held on to his hand as she stood up. She could feel the snow saturating her pants legs even more. “We need to get back inside. Okay?”
“Okay,” David answered.
They turned and walked back to the cabin through the snow, hand in hand.
*
Jose, Trevor, and Needles funneled out of the doorway of the cabin and gathered on the porch next to Cole. They all had their guns in their hands, ready to shoot, ready to kill.
Jose looked out at the field where Cole was looking. “What the hell’s going on?”
Cole couldn’t take his eyes off of Stella and David as they walked back towards the cabin. At some point in the night David had walked outside into the snow. Just like Frank. Did he see something in the woods? Did he hear something?
“What the fuck’s going on?” Jose said, his voice getting louder and louder. “What are they doing out here?”
“I don’t know,” Cole finally answered. “David must’ve walked outside.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” Cole said.
