allieoop: Every villain might be the hero of his own story but that doesn’t mean he’s not completely wrong LOL
tyz7412: How do you know?
allieoop: Come on, you don’t think killing random people is wrong?
tyz7412: What if the killing isn’t random at all?
THEY ATE BREAKFAST, AND then Steve and Allie moved the furniture away from the front door while Madison sat with Cam. The morning sunshine seemed especially bright as Steve opened the door, blinding Allie for a moment until her eyes adjusted.
“I guess we know that way is east,” she said. “At least we can orient ourselves generally. I wish I knew what direction we came from, though. You really were out the whole time we were in the car?”
“Pretty much.” Steve shrugged, and then pointed at the barely visible track that led up to the cabin. “I don’t see why it matters, anyway. We can just follow this dirt road back to a main road.”
“Sure,” Allie said. “But it would be nice to know where we are, especially in relation to school. How long did we drive? Four, five hours?”
“Something like that,” Steve said, kneeling down to peer at the porch. “Hey, look, there are footprints here. Big ones.”
There were several clearly delineated muddy footprints on the porch. Allie frowned at the prints. They were large, and that reinforced the sense she’d had of the shadow through the window. But there was something wrong with them, the same sense of wrongness that she associated with the untreated wood in the closets. She just needed a minute to think, to put her finger on the problem.
Madison came to the door to see what they were doing. She shivered as she watched Steve follow the footprints off the porch and into the clearing in front of the cabin. Allie watched Steve, trying to catch the butterfly in her mind that kept flitting away.
“I can’t believe this is really happening,” Madison said, her voice sad. “Brad gone and Cam drugged and someone smashing up Brad’s car and then breaking the windows and everything. It doesn’t seem real, does it?”
“That’s it,” Allie said, snapping her fingers. “It doesn’t seem real. That’s the thing I’ve been trying to figure out. This doesn’t seem real. It’s like it’s all, I don’t know, staged or something.”
Steve, who’d been crouched on the ground trying to follow the pattern of footprints, stood up. “Staged?”
“Yeah,” Allie said. “Isn’t it weird that we were all knocked out in the car except for Brad? Isn’t it weird that this cabin seems strangely unfinished—no locks on the windows, untreated wood in the closets? Isn’t it convenient that we seem to be miles from anything, no lights of civilization in any direction? It’s like someone set up a half-assed horror movie scenario, then sent out a performer to terrorize us—someone conveniently large and looming, who would leave muddy footprints on the porch despite the fact that there was no rain last night and the ground is dry as a bone.”
Steve’s eyes had sharpened when Allie first mentioned Brad, and she was sure he would have defended his buddy then, but as she went on with her little speech, he looked more and more unsure.
“You think Brad . . . ?” he asked, but it was like he couldn’t bring himself to articulate what he was thinking.
“Yes,” Allie said firmly. “I think Brad had something to do with it.”
“But why?” Madison said. “I don’t get it. Is it just some big prank?”
“What if he’s watching us?” Allie said slowly, thinking it through as she spoke. “What if he, and whoever helped him set this up, are watching us to see what happens?”
“Come on,” Steve said. “Like he’s making his own reality show or whatever? And then he’s going to pop up at the end and laugh at us for freaking out? I don’t buy it.”
“There’s something larger going on here,” Allie said. “I can feel it. It’s not just a stupid prank. A stupid prank would have been over by now. But Brad’s not back, laughing his ass off at us. And there’s no sign of whoever was stalking around the cabin all night.”
“He might be in the woods, watching us,” Madison said, and Allie heard that note of panic in her friend’s voice again. “He might be right out there, waiting for us to try to leave.”
“Look,” Steve said, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands. “If there is some larger plot at work—and I don’t think there is, really, and I don’t think Brad is a part of it if a plot exists—”
“But he brought us here, Steve,” Allie said. “You can’t argue with that. He brought us here, to a place none of us knew about. That shows some kind of complicity.”
“His car,” Steve said, as he’d said several times before. For Steve, it appeared that the destruction of the BMW was absolute proof positive that Brad couldn’t be a party to whatever was happening to them.
Allie shook her head. “You have to stop thinking that Brad wouldn’t let the car get wrecked if it served his purpose.”
“But he loves that car.”
“Fine,” Allie said, holding up her hands. “Fine. You don’t want to believe Brad is fucking with us. Fine. We still have to figure out how to get out of here.”
“We follow the road,” Steve said.
“What about Cam?” Allie asked. “Are we going to carry her the whole way? Make a travois and pull it? It’s not like we have a little red wagon to put her in, and we can’t leave her here.”
“Well, I can follow the road and come back for you guys,” Steve said.
“No way,” Madison said, before Allie could. “You can’t go out there alone.”
“One of you could stay with Cam—”
“I knew that would be the suggestion,” Allie said, rolling her eyes. “And who is going to be the one who stays behind with the unconscious woman?”
“I don’t want to be here alone!” Madison said.
“Exactly,” Allie said. “So I would be left here alone while the two of you wander out for god knows how many hours, and in the meantime there’s still some huge guy who likes to throw bricks through windows out there in the woods.”
Madison looked hesitant. “We can’t leave Allie here alone. That’s not fair. It’s not safe.”
“Well, we’re going to have to make some hard decisions. Our phones don’t work, there’s no landline and no internet, and one of our group can’t travel anywhere,” Steve said. “That means splitting up.”
“Maybe I should stay here with Allie,” Madison said, though her voice trembled.
Allie knew Madison didn’t want to stay in the cabin without Steve. It was pretty clear at this point that Steve was Madison’s security blanket.
“Maybe I should go,” Allie said. “To the road, I mean.”
“You can’t go by yourself,” Madison said, in the kind of tone normally reserved for Victorian maidens who dared suggest a solo excursion to the library. “You’re tiny. You’ll be killed by the stalker.”
“I don’t want any of us to be separated at all,” Allie said. “But it makes the most sense. You and Steve can protect Cam together. You’ll be in the cabin and safe.”
“And you won’t be,” Madison said. “You’ll be all alone, trying to get to the road by yourself.”
“I can run,” Allie said. “I run almost every day. I’m sure I can run faster than some big guy in heavy boots. This isn’t an actual horror movie, where the killer has endurance beyond all reason.”
“That means you don’t have endurance beyond all reason, either,” Madison said.
Allie pulled off her glasses and rubbed her eyes in frustration. They were going in circles. Everyone wanted to have a say and Allie conceded that was fair, but it would be easier if they would just listen to her. At this point she was getting concerned that decisions wouldn’t be made before midday. And if that was the case, they would all have to spend the night at the cabin again.
Allie didn’t want to think about what the night would bring.
“Look, it makes the most sense for me to go. I can move the fastest and nobody is left here alone. But if I’m going to go, I have to go now. I don’t want to be out wandering on a dark road in the middle of the night.”
Steve and Madison looked at each other. They seemed to be communicating with their eyes. Allie wondered what it was like to trust somebody that much, to be able to talk without speaking at all.
“Okay,” Steve said. “Okay. But I don’t like it.”
“I don’t either,” Madison said.
“I’m not exactly thrilled myself,” Allie said. “But I’ll go, and I’ll be as quick as I can. If we’re lucky, then there will be a main road within a few miles.”
Steve shook his head. “I haven’t heard the sounds of cars at all since we got here. Since there’s nothing nearby—buildings and restaurants and whatever—we should be able to hear cars and trucks if the road were close.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Madison said. “I haven’t heard any kind of engine at all—not a car or a truck or even an airplane.”
Allie tilted her head up to look at the sky. The sunlight seemed overly bright, the sky a little too blue.
It’s like a summer blue, she thought. The way the sky looks in July, not in late September.
“It is weird that we haven’t heard any planes,” Allie said. “I’m not sure there’s anywhere in America where planes don’t pass overhead.”
“I guess there must be some places,” Madison said. “We must really, really be in the middle of nowhere. And that means you’ll be walking a long way by yourself.”
Allie held up her hands. “Don’t start again. We can’t keep talking in circles. I’ll go; you two stay. I’ll pack a bag with water and food and keep track of the time. If I’m gone for two hours and I haven’t reached the road, I’ll turn around and come back and we can formulate a new plan for tomorrow. Fair?”
“I guess,” Madison said. Then she rushed at Allie and threw her arms around her, hugging her tight. “I just don’t want to lose you. I already kind of feel like I have.”
Tears pricked at Allie’s eyes. She shouldn’t be so mistrustful. She shouldn’t have put the distance between herself and the other two. She could have moved off campus with them—they’d asked, after all—but she’d thought it would be better to be on her own. She’d used some of her summer savings to get a single room on campus so she wouldn’t have to deal with a roommate, so she wouldn’t have to make accommodations for anyone else. She wouldn’t have to deal with being interrupted late at night when she was studying, or tolerate the company of anyone else’s boyfriend or girlfriend.
You did it so you could feel superior, so you could keep yourself above it all. But even you need people. Even you need friends, sometimes.
“You haven’t lost me,” Allie whispered into Madison’s ear. “It’s okay. You haven’t lost me.”
“We need to hang out more,” Madison said, sniffling. “This weekend was supposed to be for us.”
“Yeah, it was,” Allie said, sighing.
“I’m sorry about all this,” Madison said. “I knew you wouldn’t like it when Brad convinced Cam to let them come along.”
“No use crying over it now,” Allie said, a heavy weight in her chest. Cam should have told Brad no, it was a girls-only weekend. We’d be waking up around now, stumbling out to find somewhere for brunch. We wouldn’t be terrified and exhausted and isolated. We wouldn’t be contemplating our mortality.
“Hey,” Madison said, and leaned back to look into Allie’s eyes. “Happy birthday.”
Allie choked out a laugh. “Best birthday ever.”
“I’ll make it up to you. Both of us will—me and Cam. When Cam wakes up. If Cam wakes up.”
“She’s going to wake up,” Allie said. “Whatever she’s been given will wear off eventually.”
“But what if it doesn’t?”
“Don’t worry, I’m going to return with an ambulance,” Allie said. “If she hasn’t woken up on her own, then the EMTs or a doctor at a hospital will know what to do. She hasn’t been placed in a permanent coma.”
But Allie worried that whatever drug had been given to Cam had done permanent damage. Cam’s deep, untroubled sleep was concerning in itself. It implied, to Allie’s way of thinking, a concussion. But they’d already established that Cam hadn’t been hit on the head.
Or maybe she was and you just didn’t know? You’re not a doctor, after all.
“Okay, I’ve got to go,” Allie said. She couldn’t stay here talking while the day wore on.
Steve had continued to root around in the clearing while Allie and Madison talked. He’d followed the footprints around the edge of the cabin.
“They just keep going around,” he called.
“Yes, we know,” Allie said, and tried not to sound impatient. They’d seen the evidence of that with their own eyes, and she didn’t want to go back inside the cabin without Steve. She wanted to make sure that he stayed with Madison while she was gone, that he didn’t get caught up following some line of inquiry of his own.
“Well, I’m trying to see where he goes after he circles the cabin,” Steve said, a little defensively. “We might be able to track him to . . .”
“To where?” Allie asked.
“I don’t know. Wherever he came from. And Brad might be there. Or he might not be.”
Allie couldn’t believe that Steve was still trying to prove Brad was an innocent party, but she supposed that it was hard to think of your best friend as the kind of guy who would put them all in this position.
“You can’t go haring off after footprints,” Allie said. “You have to stay with Madison and Cam while I’m gone.”
Steve’s mouth twisted. “But—”
“You have to stay with me,” Madison said. “Or I’ll lock you out.”
“You wouldn’t,” Steve said. “Besides, there’s no locks, anyway.”
“That’s not the point,” Madison said. “I could block the door and leave you outside.”
“With a psycho?” Steve said. “Some girlfriend you are.”
“Okay, look, just come back up here,” Allie said, trying and failing to keep a note of impatience out of her voice. “We all need to stay together.”
“Except you,” Steve said. “You’re going off on your own.”
Allie opened her mouth to retort, but before she could, Madison crossed the porch, grabbed Steve’s arm and pulled him toward the front door.
“The sooner Allie goes, the sooner she can come back,” Madison said, yanking him through the door. “Stop fucking around trying to be a hero and let her . . .”
Madison paused a few feet inside the door, still holding Steve’s arm. Allie crowded in behind them. She wanted to shut the door. She’d felt ridiculously exposed while they were outside, and she tried not to think too hard about how much she would really be exposed once she left the cabin and started off on her own.
“Cam?” Madison’s voice was a wavy, receding line in the air.
“What the fuck?” Steve said.
Allie pushed around them, wanting to see what they were seeing. The world receded to a narrow point, like a focusing telescope in a film. The edges of the room went dark, and all she could see was the blood.
There was blood everywhere, so much blood, more blood than there should be in one small body, for Cam did look small, so much smaller than she’d been in life. There was blood pooling on the couch and running onto the floor and blood smeared in long streaks that looked like footprints.
It’s not supposed to happen this way, Allie thought. The killer is supposed to come at night, supposed to terrorize in the dark. He’s not supposed to walk up in the bright light of day with the rest of us a few feet away, clueless.
And then she thought, He’s not afraid of us at all. He’s not worried about us at all.
She took another step closer to Cam, to Cam’s staring dead eyes, to the long red smile cut into her throat, and wondered if Brad really was behind this. There were easier ways to get rid of your girlfriend if you didn’t want to date her anymore. Killing wasn’t usually the top option. And there was no doubt that Cam was dead. Allie didn’t need to check her pulse to know that. She could see the exposed cords of Cam’s throat underneath the cut.
“Brad couldn’t have,” Steve said, his voice faint and echoing Allie’s own thoughts. “Brad wouldn’t have done this.”
Allie glanced over and saw that Steve was pale, his lips bloodless. He swayed on his feet.
“He’s going to faint,” Allie said, but her words were drowned out as Madison started screaming.
Steve tumbled to the floor, all the bones in his body seemingly turned to rubber. At the exact same moment, Madison turned and fled out the door, her scream trailing behind her.
“Shit!” Allie shouted, looking from the unconscious Steve to the open door where Madison had disappeared. “Shit, shit, fuck! Madison!”
But Madison didn’t reply. Her scream receded into the distance, getting farther away with each second.
Allie didn’t want Madison to get too far away, to potentially get lost in the woods as she panicked. But Allie also didn’t want to leave Steve here alone and vulnerable, passed out and easy prey for a stalker who was clearly close by.
Yes, he’s close by. He’s very close, hidden somewhere in the woods, or even . . .
Her thought trailed away as she looked at the streaks of blood on the floor that led away from Cam’s body, the ones that went into the bedroom that Allie and Steve and Madison had shared.
The bedroom door was closed, the way Allie had left it, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t someone behind it. That didn’t mean the person who’d killed Cam wasn’t waiting for them to panic, to run in every direction so he could pounce.
In other words, waiting for exactly what happened. Anyone with rudimentary observational skills would have known that Madison, at least, was about to crack.
Allie hesitated, because she felt Madison’s need was probably greater than Steve’s, but that closed bedroom door felt more ominous than before. She could almost hear someone breathing behind it, someone waiting.
He could just as easily have popped out a window and gone around to the porch. He could come in that way, especially since Madison left the door open in invitation.
The back of Allie’s neck prickled. She didn’t want to turn her back to any potential opening, to any source of egress that might assist a killer’s transit. But there were windows and doors everywhere, windows and doors with no locks, almost as if they were designed to make it easier for outsiders to enter.
Staged, she thought again as she knelt beside Steve and rolled him onto his back. He didn’t appear to have any injuries. Allie shook his shoulder, a little harder than she might have normally. Madison’s screaming had not stopped, but it seemed very far away now. Allie hoped like hell that Madison had followed the road and not gone haring blindly into the woods.
“Steve,” she said, and as she shook him, she couldn’t stop herself from looking all around, from making certain they were actually alone. “Steve, come on. Wake up.”
Steve moaned a little, but didn’t open his eyes. In movies people always slapped someone who’d fallen unconscious, or poured cold water on their face, or (in certain period pieces) waved smelling salts under their nose. Allie didn’t have smelling salts (what are smelling salts, anyway? Are they even made anymore?), but she did have cold water. She stood and ran for the sink.
The bedroom door opened behind her.
Allie stopped, as still as a child playing freeze tag. She didn’t want to turn around. She didn’t want to see.
You have to look, you idiot. Are you going to stand here and let him kill you, too?
The large chef’s knife was lying on the counter, just a few feet from where Allie stood. Steve had left it there while making breakfast. They hadn’t been as worried about the stalker after the sun came up. They’d thought they were safe in the light.
She took a huge step forward, grabbed the knife and spun around to face the bedroom door.
Nobody was there. There was just an open door, moving a little as the wind sailed through the open window beyond.
That might mean the killer has gone out the window. Or it might mean he’s standing behind the bedroom door, waiting for me to investigate like a dumbass.
Allie listened hard, hoping for some indication one way or another—a creak of the hardwood floor, the rustle of clothing. But she couldn’t hear anything, not even Madison’s scream.
She’s gone too far away. Or something has happened to her. I should have followed after her right away. I should have left Steve here. I care more about Madison than I do about Steve, and that’s the truth, even if it makes me a bad person.
Allie’s eyes darted to all the windows, looking for the huge shadow looming on the other side of the glass. There was nothing.
He could be just out of sight, leaning against the cabin wall between the windows. He’s waiting for me to scream, to run, to do something foolish.
Allie backed slowly toward the sink, the knife gripped in her right hand. She stopped when she felt the counter bang against her back. She switched the knife to her left hand and fumbled with her right to get a glass and fill it while still watching the room.
There was Cam and her blank dead stare, and the pool of blood on the couch. There was Steve, face up on the floor a few feet from the front door.
There was the open bedroom door, a watching eye.
She moved slowly toward Steve, the glass trembling a little in her hand, the water dripping on the floor as she walked. She poured the glass of water onto Steve’s face without kneeling down, her eyes fixed on the bedroom door. Allie was certain that any second now the stalker would appear in the open doorway.
Any second now, she thought, as Steve spluttered and sat up.
“What happened?” he asked, wiping water from his eyes.
“You fainted,” she said, not looking at him. Any second now. “And Madison went crazy and ran out into the woods. We have to go after her.”
“I fainted?” he said, and sounded disbelieving. “I fainted?”
“Yes, you fainted. Men faint,” Allie said, a little impatient with his macho bullshit. She did not take her eyes from the bedroom door. Any second now. “Can you stand? Can you walk?”
“Yes,” he said, and pushed to his feet and immediately wobbled. “Shit, I don’t feel right.”
Allie grabbed him around the waist, trying to support him. It wasn’t easy when he was about a foot taller than she was. “Do you need a glass of water?”
Steve looked down at his damp shirt. “Looks like you already gave me one.”
“To drink,” Allie said, trying to keep her eyes on the bedroom door and a good grip on the knife even as she helped Steve stand. “This really isn’t a time for jokes. Cam is dead. Brad is missing. Madison went off somewhere on her own. Even without the presence of a psychopath, I’m worried that she’ll hurt herself.”
“Right,” Steve said, straightening up and pushing away from Allie to stand on his own. “Right. I know. Okay, yeah, I need some water and then we can go after her.”
“I’ll get it,” Allie said, backing away toward the kitchen area again.
The open bedroom door watched her as she went. Her fingers tightened on the knife. Now was the moment, she was sure, that the killer would appear. She hadn’t taken the bait and gone through the door to investigate the way she was supposed to, so he would pop out now. She had to be ready. She had to be prepared. She knew what would happen. She spent almost all her free time watching horror movies. She was smarter than any killer.
Allie felt around for another glass. Steve gave her a quizzical look.
“What are you doing? Why don’t you just turn around and get a glass?”
“Because I think that someone is—”
But Allie never got to finish what she was saying, because a huge man wearing a red shirt stepped through the open front door, slashed Steve across the throat, and stepped out again almost before she could blink.