Page 26 of True Valor
Julie nodded, turned to face forward and,again, wiped her eyes.Nic put the car into gear and pulled backonto the highway.
Snow began to fall again as they pulled intothe motel parking lot.
In the morning, Nic had to scrape snow andice from the windshield.Julie threw their bags in the car.
“Where to?”Nic asked.
“The cabin.”
“What cabin?”
“Uncle Jess and my dad owned a cabin a couplehours from here.They used it for their hunting trips, though Isuspect far more drinking and card playing were done there thanhunting.”
“And we’re going there because...?”
“Because I had a secret place there.It’s theonly other place I can think of that my dad would have hiddeninformation for me.”
“Okay.Which way?”
The roads sucked so it took longer than twohours, even to get to the turnoff to the cabin.It wasn’t snowingas hard as it had been when they left the motel; there was a goodfour inches of new snow on the ground.But back here in theboonies, where plows never ventured, there hadn’t been enoughtraffic to get rid of the snow that had fallen over the lastmonths.
“It’s up this road about three quarters of amile.”Julie slipped on her coat.
Nic shifted into four-wheel drive and bracedfor the adventure up to the cabin.Get up speed.Don’t let off thegas.Keep up the momentum.Don’t rely on four-wheel drive tostop.
Nic cursed.Julie held on tight.The road, ifyou could call it that, was a maze of turns and ups and downs.They’d gone a half mile or so when their journey came to an abrupthalt.The car wedged in a drift.
The car was definitely stuck, four-wheeldrive and all.If there was a shovel at this cabin, then Nic couldlikely get it unstuck.That is, if there really was a cabin downthis so-called road.
Julie insisted it was just around the nextbend.It’d better be.Neither of them had boots high enough for thedepth of snow they’d have to walk through.Snowshoes would havebeen nice.It would be dark soon and walking was their onlyoption.
The cabin wasn’t around the first curve, butluckily was the second.Nic had taken his parka off and tied it athis waist.Neither spoke as they crunched their way through thedeep snow.What would have normally taken five minutes to walk,took twenty and both Nic and Julie were breathing hard when theyfinally made it to the door.
“The key should be above the door, on theledge.”Julie pointed and Nic reached.
It was.
“Yes!”Her voice was triumphant even thoughshe still stood panting, her hands on her knees.
Nic slid the key into the lock and the doorcreaked open a few inches.He leaned into the doorway, peeringinside.
“Lemme have the flashlight.”He reached backas he pushed the door open.He heard the crack and even heard hisown scream before the pain registered.But, when it did come, Nicknew little else.
He lay in the snow on the porch, sucked inhis breath, holding in another scream.Blood soaked through hisshirt, flowing down his arm and side, pooling on the porch.
What the hell happened?Julie, sat a few feetaway—he must have knocked her over.
It was obvious from the terror on her facethat, finally, the nightmare memories had emerged, complete withthe horrors attached.But he needed her to be here now, rightnow.
“Julie!I need your help,” he hissed, tryingto snap her out of her trance.“Julie!Now!Help me!”
Chapter Eight
Julie’s senses reeled.Nic’s cry of pain.Blood on the snow, running down his chest, on her sister’s pillowand the wall above her bed, on her mother’s face, on her father’shead, on the sheets.So much blood.And the man.All in black.Agun.
Her breathing scraped against the silenceengulfing her.Julie looked at her wrists, bared between hermittens and the cuffs of her coat.They stung with the bite of icefrom putting her hands in the snow when she fell.
A voice pleading.Nic.Gotta help Nic.Breathe.Help Nic.Focus.
