Page 2 of Make Me Hunt
I'm usually very calculated. Now, I’m just a mess. I stir the coffee in the mug, not even sure if I put sugar in it, when my phone lights up on the counter with a notification.
I know that sound, and as I rush to grab it, my pulse buzzing in my ears. The fucking AirTag just sent me its latest location.
I look at the map and the blood in my vein’s freezes. It’s coming from Twin Falls State Park.
What the fuck would Elias be doing in the woods at this hour?
I’m afraid to process the thought even further. I just grab my car keys and head straight where the AirTag leads me. It’s an hour's drive from here, and I can barely focus on keeping my car on the road as I speed toward it.
The billboards lining the road ahead blur together. Everything makes little to no sense.
It feels like I’m in a video game now, and it wouldn’t even matter if I crashed. Except it’s not a game. It’s my life. And at this point, I don’t give a damn about it, because the fear crawling through my veins is much stronger than any survival instinct.
I’m not afraid for myself. I’m afraid of what I might find when I get there.
I stop the car as close as the road allows, and head out on foot to the part of the woods where the AirTag leads me. I’m less than a hundred yards, so I follow the red line on my screen, then the arrows.
Twigs and branches snap beneath my feet, and a musky, almost rotten smell fills my nostrils. It’s freezing cold outside, and since Elias’s phone is still off the grid, I suspect the AirTag was triggered by a dog walker or a hunter carrying an iPhone. I don’t see either of those along my way, but my senses stay sharp, alert to every movement.
As I close in on the location, dread blooms inside my chest because I still don’t see him. But my phone says I’m getting closer.
I step closer to a pile of leaves gathered loosely on the ground.
Instinctively, I push a few aside with my foot. There’s dirt beneath. Freshly dug up dirt.
I’m ready to scream, but the sound doesn’t escape my lips, just gets stuck there, somewhere in my throat, like any other curse or prayer I’m preparing to say.
I shove the pile of leaves aside. A rectangular patch of freshly turned soil comes into view, and I feel bile rising up in my throat.
I knew nothing good would ever come of my life. It was ruined a long time ago. But Elias… he was supposed to make it. To be someone great, find his way out of all of this. He’s special. That’s why it can’t be him in thisgrave.
I refuse to believe it.
I kneel, pushing the dirt aside, turning my hands into shovels. My nails are cracking, fingertips bleed as I claw through different thorns and twigs caught within the dirt.
I don’t care about the blood or the pain. I just keep digging.
Until I findhim.
My sweet Elias lies there. Eyes wide open, horror still etched across his face.
My whole world screeches to a halt. Like everything just stopped, and I feel like I’ll cease to exist too.
I can’t stop my tears, or the hammering of my heart inside my chest. My mind screams, but nothing comes out. No sobs. No pleas. Only the sound of my lips touching his forehead as my hand brushes over his eyes to close them forever.
Then a shattering sound replaces the screams inside my head. It’s my fucking heart breaking. The only person who had ever given me a reason to live is now dead. And my soul screams for revenge.
I swear I’ll make them pay for what they did. Even if it’s the last thing I do.
Whoever is responsible for this didn’t even give a fuck to cover their tracks. They left him in a shallow grave, like they weren’t worried anyone would ever find him. Even so, it’s impossible to dig him out with my bare hands.
I look around, and I fucking hate the place. It’s so dark and murky, and the treeline too thick for the sun to ever shine here. Elias would’ve hated it here, too, but I’m not going to call the cops and report it. Talking to the police would mean turning myself in; while alerting them anonymously would mean they’d dump him somewhere in an unmarked grave where I’d never have access to him again.
He doesn’t have any family. I’m his only family. And I can’t go in to identify him at the coroners after the autopsy.
Besides, the cops won’t do shit anyway. He’s a nobody to them. Just another one of those unidentified murder cases no one cares about. A file gathering dust on their desk.
But he’s not a file to me. He’s everything.Waseverything. And I’ll help him find his peace.
