Page 39 of Released from the Sin Bin

A quick image of a similar robe flapping through the woods comes to my mind, but I shake it out to focus on our task.

“Please tell us Willa is here.” I sigh out a breath I’ve been holding with every knock we’ve made.

At the sound of Kandi’s voice from inside the cabin, Luca pushes past Penny. He leaves us to get some solace in the girl he’s been seeing while I silently beg Penny to give me some good news.

Renna, another Delta Nu sister of theirs, comes out from the hall leading to the bedrooms. “I saw headlights out the window earlier. Do you think that could’ve been her? I don’t remember what time. It was a while ago—”

“Luca let’s go.” I cut her off to get Luca off Kandi’s mouth so we can keep looking. Headlights in this storm? I doubt it was anyone other than Willa, and that means she passed here. “We have two more cabins on this road and then we can check the road on the way down.”

Hope and a plan push me forward.

We get another break in the storm with the snow still coming down lightly, but the clumps of snow that fell before have made the road more difficult to drive through. The sound of it crunching beneath my tires is eerie and ominous as I creep along over the mounds.

“There.” Luca points to the barely visible flat trunk of a blue hatchback.

Willa’s hatchback.

Snow is covering the surface, but I stop the truck in the middle of the road and run out.

“Willa!” I bang on the door before noticing how some of the snow had fallen off the driver side as if the door had been opened. She’s not inside, and the car is cold. “She must’ve gotten out to walk,” I mutter to myself, looking for footprints in the snow or any clue of where she went.

Luca shouts from the other side, and I answer him without fully registering what I’m saying. Still looking for anything in the vast white blanket that could lead to her.

It would have been a while ago if there are no footprints. Luca walks up the road in the direction we were heading while I run back to my truck and slowly drive up, using a spotlight on the car to shine a light along the dark forest edge. She couldn’t have made it too far, but Willa is a fighter.

Luca breaks out into a run while pointing, and I see the mass of dark green balled up against a tree on the side that he’s running toward.

Pulling up closer, I stop the car and run out to her.

“Willa?” I slide down beside her and take off my glove. Her face is freezing, and her breath is shallow, but she’s still breathing.

She moans lightly with a quiver of her lip.

“I got you.” I slide my arm under her and make sure I have a good footing in the snow. “Hold on.”

“Willa?” Luca breathes out from behind me.

“Open the back door.” I direct Luca to help me get Willa into the truck as I lift her from the ground. Slipping into the back seat while still holding her on my lap, I tell Luca to drive to the girl’s cabin we just left.

“So cold,” Willa whimpers into my chest as Luca drives as fast as he can without killing us. Her voice is hauntingly low and high pitched. Her lips are blue and her clothes are soaking wet.

The car stops with a jolt in front of the cabin and Luca helps me get out with her still wrapped in my arms. The door opens, seeing us coming, and the girls are scampering around to help any way they can.

I lay her down on the couch by the fire they started. “Get her wet clothes off.”

I stand back when I see Callie, a medical student at Drexton, jump in to help get Willa undressed, and I strip myself down to my boxers. Willa cries out in pain before I can get my feet out my pants, making me freeze with one foot in my hand.

“Shit,” Luca sighs. His face pales as he looks at Willa’s ankle, but he steps back to let the girls continue with Callie examining the same leg.

She’s hurt. From their faces, it doesn’t look good.

Penny and Renna come out with blankets and I help them set up the floor in front of the fireplace. Once Willa is down to her tank top and underwear, I pick her up and lie down in front of the fire, instructing the others to help cover us in blankets while keeping her pressed against my body to warm up.

“She’ll be ok, but will need water in a little bit, and maybe tea or just hot water if you don’t have any,” I tell the full room of scared faces looking down at us.

Willa whimpers against my chest through chattering teeth.

“You’re ok,” I whisper against her hair, holding her tighter to be flush against me.

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