After a few minutes, I can’t feel the cold from the rain anymore; my body is a numb mess, my mind even worse. Lightning crackles, lighting up the sky. Not enough for me to see anything vital. The shivering starts about ten minutes into the storm and continues until it passes. My skin is soaked, my hair, my body. It feels as though it goes right down to my bones. Maybe it does.
Somehow during that storm, I fall asleep. I don’t honestly know how, I think my body has just finally had enough. When I wake, it’s to the sound of my name being called. I’m sure it’s a dream at first, because there is no possible way Noah is still alive, but after a few minutes I realize that it isn’t a dream. He’s calling me. I jerk upright, soaked to the bone and shivering. It’s still dark. The rain has stopped, but I can’t see a thing.
Is this another trap?
I’ll risk it.
“Noah?” I call, my voice hoarse and raspy.
“Lara?”
Oh God, he’s alive. Tears, the ones I thought were all dried up, burst forth and run down my cheeks in thick waves.
“Where are you?” he calls.
“I don’t, I don’t know.”
“Keep calling out to me.”
For the next ten minutes I call out his name until finally I hear his boots crunching through the leaves. He’s coming for me. He’s so close.
“I’m here!” I cry happily.
I reach out, I can’t see, I can’t fucking see, but I reach anyway, hands flying around. Finally, they hit a warm, hard, bare chest. I crumple into his arms. His go around me and we both fall to the ground. My tears run down his skin and my body trembles in his arms.
“You’re alive,” I sob against him. “You’re alive.”
“I don’t know how, baby. I don’t know how.”
“H-h-how did you get away?”
“He made a mistake turning to hurt you. I used the rock and hit him over the back of the head just before he turned around once you’d disappeared. Dazed him for a good few minutes. I got a head start. I found a track to the deeper water. I dove in, came out the other side, and went up a tree. By the time he got to me, he couldn’t find me.”
“How did you find me?”
“A stroke of luck in all this insanity. I was following the track and I thought I saw you over a rise, then I lost you in the darkness so I risked calling out. Fuck, baby, you’re soaked.”
“I couldn’t get out of the storm.”
“Me either. I think he’s gone back for the night, but we can’t be sure. As soon as morning light comes, we’re going on the attack guerrilla-style. He might have weapons, but there are two of us and today proved he isn’t as smart as he thinks he is. He turned his back on me, the biggest mistake any hunter could make.”
I make a strangled sound in my throat. “I honestly thought you were dead.”
He makes a raspy sound with his chest and holds me closer. “We’ve got to take him down, Lara. He’s getting desperate.”
“I know,” I whisper.
“Fuck, baby, being separated from you is something I never want to happen again.”
I tremble in his arms.
“Let’s try to get some sleep. God only knows when he’s going to be back and what he’s got planned this time.”
I don’t even want to think about it.
Little by little, my spirit is dwindling.
I don’t know how much longer I can take this.
They think they’ve outsmarted me.
They think they actually escaped.
They think I didn’t allow it.
I just wanted to give them a moment of hope.
I’m a hunter. I know where my prey is, even if they don’t know I’m there.
I know what they’re planning.
I’m going to make sure they know I’m in charge. It’s time to finish the game.
TWENTY-FOUR
Morning comes.
Forcing my tired body to stand up is one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. My leg aches, my body aches, my arm is throbbing. Dried blood coats my skin, and my wound desperately needs to be cleaned.
My body is in no shape for a fight, but my mind needs to be. There are no options left.
“Where do we go next?” I ask.
“Higher ground, where we can see him coming. The best spot is back near the waterfall, but instead of hiding inside it, let’s wait at the top. If you see any good rocks or spears on the way, grab them. We’re going to need them.”
We start walking through the forest, eyes peeled for any sign of Bryce. We walk, trenching through the mud created by last night’s rain, for hours.
We reach the big dam near the cave and swim over to the rocks leading up into it. We should be able to climb up to the top of the waterfall through the cave. It’s the fastest way up. We climb the ledge and with ragged breath push through the waterfall. When we get out the other side, we’re so busy rubbing the water from our eyes that we don’t notice them. The second our vision clears, an agonized scream is ripped from my throat.
I tumble backward, tripping over a rock.
There are bodies. About five of them. All of them young, teenagers maybe. They’ve been slaughtered in the most gruesome ways, and there is so much blood. It paints the walls, the bodies, everything. My screams cut off and become agonized little whimpers as I take in the most horrific sight of my life. I can’t even make out the gender of some of them, they’re that mutilated.
Noah moves. Quickly.
He grabs me, locking his eyes with mine. “You can’t fall apart on me, baby. I need you to block it out and keep going.” His arm stays around my waist and he hauls me up.
I scale the wall as quickly as I can, which is agonizingly slow. “Take your time, Lara. You’ve got this,” Noah coaxes from behind.
Eventually I haul myself up to the top of the waterfall. I turn and watch Noah come up behind me, but the moment he’s over the ledge, his eyes fill with fear.
“Run, we have to ru—”
His voice is cut off when Bryce appears from behind the trees with a shotgun in one hand and a bloodied knife in the other.
“Did you think I wouldn’t figure out your next step? I knew all about it. Just like I knew about your little hiding spot. Did you see how I decorated it? Lovely, wasn’t it?”
I can’t take this. I can’t.
Noah pulls me close, but my legs are weak and trembling.
“I must say, it wasn’t my usual kill. I just stopped a car and they so gullibly let me in. It was fun, you know. There was this blond girl, she struggled so much as I was slitting her throat.” He laughs, shaking his head as if he’s telling a story about a child doing something simple, like going to the potty. Not like he just killed innocent young people. “Do you know how much someone bleeds when they’re injured? Honestly, it’s quite fascinating.”
My knees tremble.
“You would have enjoyed it, Lara. You do enjoy watching people die, after all. Tell me, how was your last visit to your nan’s grave? Did you apologize? Poor old woman, she had no chance against your smart mouth.”
I flinch. Pain rips through my chest.
“Imagine how long and fulfilling her life would have been if you weren’t in it to get her killed? You and I, we’re no different. I’m just honest about the kind of monster I am.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Noah orders.
“You don’t have to listen to me, Lara. You already know it. You’re a murderer. Poor Nan.”
“Fuck you, asshole,” I yell, moving quickly and launching Bryce forward.