Page 100 of Grave Matter

“Yeah but cougars avoid people if they can help it,” Noor points out. “They’re not velociraptors trying to find their way in.”

“I did not need that visual!” Munawar shrieks.

Chaos. It’s utter chaos.

“And why are the windows not covered?” Lauren says, peering out of one.

That gives me an idea. I decide to run up the stairs and back to my room.

I hurry over to the window to get a visual. I can see people running beneath the trees, and though I can’t make out who they are, some of them are carrying rifles.

Jesus. I guess this really is a big deal.

I keep watching, waiting for someone else, something else, but it seems like they’ve all run off some place I can’t see. I’m about to head downstairs and join the rest when movement catches my eye.

It’s crawling all crouched, like an animal, and pale, but then it straightens up once it’s under the cedar tree across from me, looking decidedly human as it climbs up. The cedar branches begin to shake, and every now and then I can see glimpses of hands, of feet, of a face, until finally it moves out onto a branch at eye level with me.

A scream dies in my throat.

It’s Clayton.

It’s hard to tell at first because his face is covered in shadow, but the shadows are slick and when I realize it’s covered in blood, my mouth waters with nausea.

He’s staring right at me, naked. He’s been cut open down his chest, staples holding him back together. His fingers curl around the branch and he’s trying to speak, to tell me something.

I’m about to open the window when suddenly he twists to look behind him and a bunch of people run under the tree. A gun goes off, shaking the window, and Clayton is hit, falling out of the tree and to the ground in a lifeless heap.

I scream.

I scream and I scream and then someone down below looks up at me, his face in shadow.

Michael.

Then he disappears and Clayton is dragged out of sight, just as Lauren and Rav run into my room, followed by the others.

“What is it, what happened?” she cries out. “I heard a gun!”

I point at the tree, shaking my hand violently. “Clayton! It’s not a cougar, it’s Clayton! He was in the tree and they shot him. Oh my god, they fucking shot him, they killed him!”

“Clayton?” Lauren repeats.

“Clayton went home on the seaplane,” says Patrick.

“I know but he didn’t! Kincaid lied, he lied.” Oh my god, he lied to me. “He lied to us all. They’re all lying to us! That was Clayton. I know it was. Go outside and check, there will be blood! They shot him out of the tree!”

“Okay, calm down,” Michelle says from the door as she pushes her way into my room and through the crowd, grabbing me roughly by the shoulders. “You’re the one who is lying, Sydney. Clayton went home. You saw a cougar.”

“No I didn’t,” I snarl, trying to get away from her. “Let go of me! Get your fucking hands off me!”

Michelle’s nails dig in harder, her awful pink lips in a sneer, and then Lauren is there, yanking at her sleeve.

“She said to not touch her, now fuck off!” Lauren yells, and then Natasha steps forward, grabbing Michelle by the other arm. If I wasn’t freaking the fuck out I’d be utterly touched by their support.

I stumble backward until I hit the wall. “I am not lying! I saw Clayton. They lied about him, they’re keeping him here, he looked operated on and?—”

“Alright, alright, what’s going on here,” says Michael.

I freeze when I see him walk in the door, followed by Everly and David. “Everyone clear out, including you, Michelle.”

---