Adam woke to silence. His body told him he hadn’t been asleep very long and he remembered getting up at some point to take a piss in the woods. He lay for a moment, thinking. If he left Moira in her car when he made the delivery, and took her car keys with him, he might be able to protect her from that thing and still do what he needed to do. It was the only plan he could come up with and still keep in Green Man’s good graces. But if they ran, they’d have to do it soon, before Green Man showed up. And there’d be no turning back. Not only would he have nowhere else to go, he wasn’t a hundred percent sure that Green Man wouldn’t decide to be a dick and make an anonymous call to the police. Family had stabbed him in the back before.
He rolled over with a sigh. It’s so quiet. I can’t even hear Moira breathing. Fear suddenly stabbed him in the gut. “Moira?” He sat up and pushed at her rumpled sleeping bag.
It was empty.
* * *
“Moira!” Adam circled the cabin again. He cursed himself for leaving her, if even for a second. “If you hurt her, you bastard, I’ll kill you!” he yelled into the woods. The ridiculousness of his threat wasn’t lost upon him. He had no idea where Moira had gone, or even if her ghost was responsible for her disappearance. She may have decided that being with you was more trouble than it was worth, his inner voice said. Sooner or later, they all figure out how crazy you really are.
“No,” he said aloud. He stopped running in circles, closed his eyes, and listened.
A scream, far and distant. Moira’s scream.
Adam ran towards it.