Chapter 15
Maddy stumbled and tripped over loose rocks. She fell and twisted her ankle. Huddled on the ground, Maddy was surrounded by darkness. The cave smelled like the earth, not rotting flesh and snakes. It was also much colder than before. There was an eerie quiet. Maddy could see her breath in the beam of her flashlight. She trembled. She couldn’t tell if it was because she was scared or if it was the cold.
Out of the darkness arms wrapped around her. One around her chest and the other around her mouth.
“Mouse.” It was a faint whisper, but it was enough.
Immediately, Maddy was shushed. “He’s out there. The one that killed the couple. The one that is trying to take me. He’s looking for me now. I got away, but he will find me and do something awful.”
“I’ll get us out,” Maddy said confidently.
Maddy’s mom hugged Maddy tightly and kissed the top of her head. Maddy started to backtrack with her mom close behind her. They got to the split in the cave. Maddy noticed the dim orange light. Her mom adamantly pushed her forward.
Mom whispered, “That is where he is. The glow isn’t real.”
They pushed forward. Past the place where the snakes had been. Past the dead bodies. And finally into the large entrance of the cave. There waited Owen.
Maddy lurched in his direction. She had been so worried. Her mom grabbed her by the shirt.
“Run, Maddy!”
“Mom, it’s Owen.” Maddy was trying to free herself from her mom’s grasp. “He came here to save you just like I did.”
“Look at his eyes, Maddy.”
Indeed, there was something intense, something malicious, in those eyes. And yet there was something else, too.
Tears.
Owen was crying.
“Pike is in his body but not his mind,” Maddy said, repeating something she’d read in The Atlas of Cursed Places and heard from Willow.
Suddenly Owen lunged at Maddy’s mom with a rock as sharp as a spear. She dodged him but slipped on some loose gravel. Owen spun around and pinned her to the ground with his boot. He held the stone spike just above her heart, but Maddy grabbed him from behind. She pulled on his neck and beat on his back.
Owen turned. Maddy saw his eyes once more. Tears continued trickling down his face.
He was mortified at what his hands were doing, but he couldn’t stop them. They went up to Maddy’s throat. They squeezed. Maddy put her hand in her pocket and fumbled around. She found the pocketknife and pulled it out.
“Owen, I am saving you!” Maddy shouted.
She took the knife and pressed the sharp blade into the palm of her hand. Warm blood gushed out. Owen saw the dark, red liquid. His face turned white. His knees quivered, and he fell to the ground. Maddy wrapped a jacket around her hand to stop the bleeding.
Dropping to the cold ground beside Owen, she brushed the hair from his eyes and gently kissed him. His eyes fluttered open.
“I love you, Owen. I always have,” Maddy said with tears pouring down her cheeks. He gave her a wide grin.
“We have to leave, now! Pike will come back and use one of us,” Mom commanded.
“Owen, you have to get up. Can you do that for me?”
Owen nodded, still groggy from fainting.
They slid out of the small opening. First Owen, then Mom, and then Maddy.
The clouds broke apart in the sun. They heard birds in the distance. Owen steadied the canoe as Maddy and her mom stepped into it.
They paddled for a while in silence, catching their breaths.
“So, Detective Connelly?” Owen finally said.
“Yes?” Maddy’s mom replied.
“Sorry for trying to, you know, stab you with a rock back there.”
“No worries,” she said. “Thanks for, you know, coming to my rescue.”
“No worries,” Owen repeated.
The three of them paddled in silence again.
This time it was Maddy’s mom who spoke up. “When we get to shore, how about the three of us grab some dinner?”
“I’d like that,” said Owen.
“PB&J?” asked Maddy.
Maddy’s mom smiled. “You read my mind.”