“Who?” Devin asked.
“Theo said we had to come here...that we had to come and save you. He said he had a vision, and then he said you were in the woods. He pulled the car up on the side of the road, and got out and went tearing into the trees...and then I heard him scream. He didn’t come back. Beth went after him, and now she’s out there and, oh, Lord, I heard the leaves rustling and saw someone coming toward the car.... I saw the knife. He had a knife. I got out and I ran here as fast as I could. Devin—he’s out there! The killer is out there. He’s got Theo, I think. And Beth...Beth is going to die out there, I just know it. Why did Theo go into the woods? What was wrong with him?”
“Calm down, Gayle,” Devin said. “Start at the beginning.”
“Theo...we were closing, ready to leave. All of a sudden he got this weird look, like he was going to black out or something, and he said he’d had a vision. He said we had to get you and bring you into town with us. So we came out. But then he stopped the car and raced into the woods. And then he screamed and Beth went out and I saw a guy with a knife—an athame, it was an athame—and that’s when I ran.”
“Gayle, it’s all right. Jack Grail is out there. He’ll save them.”
Gayle’s eyes grew wider; she was obviously still afraid. “No, no! I have to get out there and stop him. He’ll think it’s Theo. He’ll kill him!”
“Gayle, no—”
“Listen!” Gayle said.
Devin went silent and listened. For a moment there was dead silence. And then she heard it.
Someone was at her back door.
“It’s locked, Gayle. No one can get in—it’s locked and bolted.”
Suddenly they heard the sound of shattering glass.
Before Devin could stop her, Gayle had thrown the front door open.
“Gayle, get back here!”
“No! He’s here—he’s in here now. I have to find them— Oh, my God. I have to find them!”
And then Gayle was gone, heading through the falling darkness toward the woods.
And one of her back windows had been shattered.
The killer was coming in, and Gayle had run into the woods alone.
“Gayle, wait! I’m coming! There will be two of us—and I have pepper spray!”
Gayle disappeared into the darkness and the trees. Devin paused, ready to turn back. Then something dark flapped past her. Poe. Cawing loudly enough to wake the dead, he soared outside, heading toward the forest in Gayle’s wake.
The killer was in her house!
As she ran outside, slamming the door behind her, she heard Gayle calling Beth’s name.
“Dammit,” Devin muttered. “Gayle, Beth, come out here! Now!” she shouted.
No one appeared. And then she heard Gayle screaming again. “Help me! Help!”
“Jack!” Devin shouted. There was no answer.
She looked back and saw the front door open, revealing someone standing there in the doorway.
Someone in a long black hooded robe—with an athame held high.
And that person could see her, she thought as she stood there on the lawn.
She turned and fled into the woods, clutching the pepper spray, and almost immediately she tripped over something.
She reached out to catch hold of a tree limb but missed and fell right onto the thing she had tripped over.
Thing?
It was a body. Trying desperately not to cry out and reveal where she was, she scrambled away, trying to see through the darkness....
To see who it was.
When she did, she pressed her arm to her mouth to choke back her scream.
*
Rocky was already headed to Devin’s when he heard the voice in his head.
Help me, Rocky, help me!
For a moment he thought he was hearing Melissa calling out to him the same way she had thirteen years ago. But this time it wasn’t Melissa.
It was Devin.
Just as he heard her voice, his phone began to ring. He saw the number and answered quickly, his heart beating double-time.
“I’m in the woods—something’s going on. We heard screaming, and I went out. Devin was locked in. But I just heard a window break, and...” Jack took an audible breath. “Please tell me you’re close.”
“I’m on the way.”
“Get here—quickly,” Jack said, then, “Son of a bitch!”
“Jack—what is it?”
The phone went dead in Rocky’s hand.
He dropped it onto the seat and pushed the gas pedal flat to the floor.
*
Devin made it to her feet, then nearly screamed again when she felt the lightest of touches on her arm. She jerked around, ready to fight.
But there was no one to fight—not really.
It was Margaret Nottingham, her eyes huge. But she still didn’t speak, only shook her head.
“Someone is in trouble,” Devin said. “I have to help. I need your help.”
The woman only shook her head and brought her finger to her lips. Then she started to move, beckoning Devin to follow.
Though the night was nearly pitch-dark now, with only the glow from the half-moon filtering through the branches to light her way, Devin could see that she was moving toward a particularly large oak with gnarled branches.