Page 7 of Mountain Captive

“Thanks,” Rand said. “I’ll do that.”

The instructor for the evening, Tony Meisner, introduced himself next, along with Sheri Stevens, Jake and Hannah Gwynn, Grace Wilcox, and several others whose names Rand couldn’t remember. Everyone was friendly and offered to help him in any way they could. By the time the building emptied out, Rand had accepted that he wasn’t going to talk to Chris tonight. She would have left long ago.

Except, apparently, she hadn’t. He spotted her and Harley walking across the parking lot and headed after her while trying to appear as if he wasn’t in a hurry. She glanced over her shoulder at his approach but said nothing. The stiffness in her shoulders told him she was a few breaths from telling him to get lost. No sense wasting the opportunity with small talk. “Have you seen any more of the man who was watching you Saturday?” he asked.

She slowed her steps. “No. I must have been mistaken. He was looking at something else.”

She didn’t believe that, he thought.

“Mind if I walk you to your car?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

Seconds later, they arrived at a dusty blue Subaru. She stopped and turned to him. Before she could say anything, he took a step back. “I’m not trying to be a creep or harass you,” he said. “If you don’t want to go out with me, that’s your call. But I saw that guy on the trail Saturday and how you reacted to his attention. If you need help or you just want to talk to someone, I’m here. That’s all I want you to know.”

Some of the stiffness went out of her posture, and she looked at him with less suspicion. “Thanks,” she said. “But it’s not really anything you need to worry about.” She clicked her key fob. The car beeped and flashed its lights, and she opened the rear driver’s-side door. “In you go, Harley.”

The dog started to jump into the car, then stopped and backed out, something in his mouth. “What has he got?” Rand leaned in for a closer look.

Chris took the object from the dog, and all the color left her face. She collapsed against the side of the car, eyes wide.

Rand took the item from her. It was a bird—a hummingbird, made of folded emerald green paper. “Is this origami?” he asked.

She nodded, the look on her face frantic now.

Still holding the paper bird, he reached for her. “Chris,” he said.

But she turned away, clutching her stomach, and vomited on the gravel beside the car.

He pulled her close, half-afraid she would collapse. She leaned heavily against him, shudders running through her. “Tell me why you’re so upset,” he said.

“I can’t.”

Seventeen Years Ago

TEN-YEAR-OLDCHRISwas seated at a folding table in a cold, drafty room, a stack of colored paper in front of her—pink, blue, red, orange, purple, green. Pretty colors, but looking at them didn’t make Chris happy. No one called her Chris then. They knew her as Elita. She willed away tears as she painstakingly folded and smoothed the paper to make a hummingbird like the model in front of her. “You need five thousand of them,” the woman across from her—Helen—said. “You will make some every day. And when you are done, it will be time.”

Tears slipped past her tight-closed lids and made a hot path down her cheeks. She tried to wipe them away, hoping Helen hadn’t seen. “What if I can’t make five thousand of them?” she asked. It seemed an impossibly large number.

“You will. You have a couple of years. It will take that long until you’re ready for the duties ahead of you.”

Chris shuddered. She didn’t want to think about those “duties.” Not that she had a terribly clear idea what those might include, but she had heard whispers...

She made a wrong fold, and the paper creased, the hummingbird crumpling in her hand. Helen took the mangled paper from her. “Start with a fresh sheet. Pay attention, and take your time.”

“Maybe I can’t do it because I’m not the right person,” Chris said. “Maybe I’m not worthy.”

Helen smiled. “You are the right person. You have been chosen.”

Choose someone else!Chris wanted to shout. But she only bit her lip as another tear betrayed her.

Helen frowned. “You should be happy you have been singled out for such an honor. You shouldn’t be so ungrateful.”

“I’m... I’m not,” she lied, and bit the inside of her cheek. Anything to stem the tears. She couldn’t let Helen see what her true feelings were. Even at her young age, she knew that was dangerous.

“Chris.” Rand snapped his fingers in front of her face. “What’s going on? Why are you so afraid?”

“I have to go.” She pushed him aside and slid into the car. Harley bolted in after her, climbing over Chris and settling in the passenger seat. Rand was talking to her, but she couldn’t hear him over the buzzing panic in her head. She drove away, gripping the steering wheel so tightly her fingers ached. She checked her mirrors every few seconds, but no one appeared to be following her.

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