Page 21 of Fall

“Doyou want to go home, princess?”

The words jolt me awake instantly, better than smelling salts ever could. As I sit up from the sofa, I realize at some point in the last couple hours, Kieran maneuvered out from under me and replaced his body with a pillow. The blanket is still draped over me, and I’m delightfully warm in the small cabin while rain sounds against the roof.

“Really?” I ask blearily, the blanket falling off of me and all the way to the floor. “I can go home?” It doesn’t seem real, or possible, and the relief that rushes through me is tempered quickly by doubt. I gaze up at Val as I stand, studying his face as my brain comes back to life.

“Almost, okay?” He reaches out to cup my face in one hand and follows that with a soft kiss that’s just a brush of his lips against mine. “I told you we’d figure this out, Noa,” Val murmurs comfortingly. “Put on your shoes and the hoodie I left you this morning. We’re going outside.”

He turns to walk away, but when I don’t move, Val looks at me over his shoulder. “You okay?” he asks, watching as I worry at my lower lip.

“I just…” I take a breath. “Promise me this isn’t a trick?” I’m trying not to beg, but I need something. Some kind of security, even though he could so easily lie to me.

“I promise you, this isn’t a trick.” The words come from Kieran instead of Val. When I turn, I find him standing by the door, looking like he’s ready to go. His hair is wet, just like Val’s, and I wonder what they’ve been doing outside to get rained on. “We want to let you go home, and we’ve got this figured out. Just need you to trust us on this, darling.” His eyes find mine, and a soft, reassuring smile curls over his mouth.

He’s certainly never given me that look before. But I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not, and I rock back on my heels, still suspicious. Finally, I let out a huff of air and nod, my steps taking me to the bedroom where my shoes are at the foot of the bed where I dropped the hoodie earlier. Sliding on my shoes, I try not to consider every horrible possibility in my head. I try to tell myself that this is not an elaborate trick to get me out to the woods so they can literally kill me.

But I’m not quite able to convince myself that any of this is going to be okay.

Once I’m ready, I finger comb my now tangle-free hair and walk back out to the main room where Val and Kieran are waiting. Val is nearlyvibratingwith anticipation, and he flashes me a quick grin. “You’re going to get rained on, but we aren’t going far,” he tells me apologetically. “Sorry. No way around it.”

“That’s fine,” I’m quick to say, hovering close to them at the door with my hands shoved into the pocket of my borrowed hoodie. “I don’t mind the rain.” Though being out in it inNovemberisn’t how I usually spend my time if I can help it. Still, if it means I get to go home, I’m absolutely willing to deal with being soaked.

When both of them just look at me for a few moments, I’m reminded of Halloween night, and the way they’d seemed so coldbehind their masks. For some uncomfortable reason, this feels a lot like that. It does nothing to put me at ease, and I look away after a few seconds, finding myself unable to hold their gaze.

“Let’s go then,” Val says at last. Kieran pulls open the door, revealing a steady drizzle outside. It could be worse, I suppose. It could be absolutely pouring rain. But I’m still going to get soaked if we have to walk for more than a minute. A fact that comes true pretty fast as I follow them down the deck stairs and across the gravel of the driveway. In the fading evening light, the trees are just as menacing as they’d been in the pitch-dark, given the circumstances. So many of them are impossibly tall, and a list of areas near Nashville goes through my head as I wonder where we could possibly be.

When we walk past the SUV sitting in the driveway, I glance at it, my steps slowing. For some reason, I expected us to get in, to drive somewhere, or hell, maybe get shakes on the way back to my apartment. But the two of them keep walking without looking back to make sure I’m still trailing behind them.

But where would I go, exactly, if I weren’t following the two serial killers? I don’t know these woods, obviously, and getting away from them seems impossible. I’m tired and desperate, and at this point I’m willing to do anything to get home to my cats and my normal life. Really, all I want to do is curl up under my blankets and not emerge for three to five business days.

“It’s not far,” Val assures me again, turning to walk backward as he says it. “Literally like, five minutes of walking. I was way too lazy to go any further.” He grins, and when I don’t smile back, he only shrugs and turns away from me. But I’m not sure what joke I’m supposed to be sharing, since I have very little idea what’s going on. Are we going into the woods to make some blood pact, where we all cut our hands and make a vow of secrecy? It feels a littleHardy Boysto me, but if that’s all they’reexpecting, then I suppose I can swallow my fear of infectious disease and get with the program.

We don’t take a trail through the trees, and nothing looks like a landmark, so I’m not sure how they unerringly know where to go. My feet crunch on leaves and forest debris, and my shoulders hunch as the rain soaks into my clothes. With my heart pounding, I glance upwards at the grey, darkening sky, my face immediately covered in raindrops that I shake off once I’m looking down again.

I can be home tonight, I tell myself whenever my nerves start to get the best of me.Whatever they want from me, I can do it. Then I can go home.I refuse to let myself consider what it would mean for me if they’re lying. And I won’t let myself consider a worst-case scenario. Not yet. Not until I’m given a reason to panic.

“We’re here,” Val announces, though he stops in front of me and waits, blocking my view. “But I want you to take my hand, all right?” He reaches between us, fingers outstretched, and I glance quizzically down at his palm.

“Umm. Okay?” Hesitantly, I place my hand in his, letting him intertwine our fingers. “Why?” From what little I know of Val, it really could be that he just wants to hold hands. But something tells me that isn’t the case here.

His smile widens. “Good girl. Just don’t freak out, okay? Seriously, you aren’t in any danger here, and as soon as we’re done, we’ll take you home. Ipromise,” he tells me, but somehow it’s not as reassuring as I’d like it to be. Still, I find myself nodding, and I try not to bite my lip anymore than I already have been.

After another moment of searching my face, he turns, pulling me along with him to where Kieran is already waiting, looking bored, with his hands shoved in his pockets as well. His hair is already soaked with rain, though the handsome man stillmanages to not look like a drowned cat. I’m sure I’m not faring quite so well. He meets my eyes as Val pulls me to him, my heart racing, and when Val stops, so do I. Standing between them, I can’t help but fidget, and I’m ready to ask what the hell is going on when a strangled, frantic scream has me turning to look at a large tree a few yards away.

There I see a man pulling at cuffs on his wrists, his face smeared with blood. The cuffs are connected to a rope attaching him securely to the tree, and there’s tape covering his mouth. When our eyes meet, he screams behind the tape, eyes wide and desperate as he jerks toward me until he hits the end of the rope that binds him.

“Wh-what thehell?!” I gasp, stumbling backward as far as Val will let me. Kieran’s hand comes out as well, and he grabs my other hand when I instinctively move to pry Val’s fingers off of mine.

“I know, I know, but you really don’t need to freak out,” Val assures me. “Seriously, nothing is going to hurt you.Hecertainly can’t hurt you. Remember what we said, okay?” He reaches out to grab my chin, forcing me to look at him instead of the distraught, freaking out man. “Focus on me, princess.”

His words don’t help. My heart pounds and I swear I can feel it in my throat, threatening to choke me. “I don’t understand,” I finally gasp.

“We told you before that we need for you to have a reason, a real reason, not to go to the cops about us, remember?” His smile is soft, reassuring, and not the least bit crazy, even though he most certainly is psychotic as hell. “Thisis that reason.” He drops my chin and reaches back under his hoodie, revealing the same hunting knife I took from him the other night. “All you have to do, Noa, is kill him.”

My stomach drops, and I feel like I’m going to throw up, but Val justbeams.

“Just kill him, okay? Then we’ll take you home and this will all be over.”

11

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