Cohen woke in the cave with Hippie and Than. They were still asleep, and he felt an ache for them. He wondered why they had to find the Beast, why this responsibility was theirs. He leaned forward and looked at Than for a long time, the way he slept, melting into the rock, hidden in the shadows at the back of the shallow cave. He stared down at Hippie, his eyes following the softness of her cheeks, the round slope of her nose, the pitch-black of her hair. He sighed, leaned back against the rock.
“You okay?” Hippie whispered.
She caught him off guard, and he looked down at her and nodded. He looked over at Than. “What exactly are we doing?” he asked in a low voice. “What is this Beast? Where did it come from? Why are we killing it?”
He looked back at Hippie, and her eyes grew sad. She looked away, and for a long time he thought she wasn’t going to answer, that she would go on staring at the ceiling of the cave until the end of time. He looked out through the evergreens and could see light falling in slants through the needles. The smell of pine was intoxicating, and the safety he felt there, hidden away from the world, was something he hadn’t felt for a long time. He wondered if they would have to leave. Couldn’t the three of them stay there, hunt for food, keep the fire going, make the cave a little more comfortable? No one had to find them.
“The Beast,” Hippie said quietly, “is a killer, Cohen. It has already taken the lives of children, and it will not stop.”
A chill moved slowly through Cohen’s body when Hippie said “the lives of children.”
“There is evil in the world,” she continued. “Did you know that, Cohen? There is evil, and most people live their lives content to ignore it. But someone has to do something. Someone has to stop it.”
He tried to nod, but his neck seemed suddenly inflexible, as if a metal rod had replaced his spine. He swallowed hard.
Hippie looked over at Than. “We’ll stay here until it gets dark. We’ll rest and eat. After the sun sets, we’ll track down the Beast. By the time the sun rises tomorrow, all of this will be over.”
“Then what?” Cohen asked, but Hippie didn’t answer. She rolled over so that her back was toward him and fell back to sleep.