Page 15 of Burn for Me (The Last Snow of the Season 2)

Chapter Eleven

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Rumer

A scream pulls me out of the deep and I'm sitting up trying to find out where I'm at. Beside me, arms wrap around me and hands start checking me out. Mark finally reassures himself that I am okay and both of us stare at one another in the dark, "What's going on? What… was that?"

"I don't know. At first, I thought it was you, that you were hurt."

"I'm fine. Just...scared." I think I'm alright with telling him something that makes me so vulnerable because he shared his fear with me. He really thought I was hurt, and that scared him. I can tell by the look in his eyes and the ghost of his hands as they go over my body again.

"Yeah, I'm going to find out what's going on."

"Don't leave me!" The words are out before I can call them back. There is a deep-seated fear that goes with those words.

"Okay, little rabbit. You can come with me. But you stay behind me, you understand. Don't do a damn thing that is going to get you hurt and if I tell you to do something you do it. No questions asked."

"No questions asked." I need to make sure he understands it is just for this instance that I will do something he wants with no questions, "When we're in danger." A sly smile tilts his lips, and I can't help but think this is a conversation we will be having again. One he seems to be enjoying having with me by the look on his face.

We make our way out of the room, and I'm not entirely surprised to find others out in the hall. That scream was loud and bloodcurdling. I wasn't lying, not even a little bit, about it terrifying me. And the sounds afterward, the loud pops that me and Mark haven't even talked about because it scares me to think about what they could mean.

Jag tells Milly to stand next to where me and Rani are standing, and we all wait. Why didn't Tinsley come running out? Was that her screaming? Were we all wrong about her making shit up to get attention? Was she really in danger and we didn't listen?

Once we made it back to the room, Mark made love to me...oh! My! GOD! I just used the 'L' word. What the fuck was I thinking? Is it the fear? I think I remember reading something about it heightening emotions. Yeah, that's what I'm going with. Fear.

"What do you think is wrong? Did you hear that scream?"

"Yeah. I don't know what the scream was about, but the popping sound was a gun, I'm almost sure of it." Betsy comes a little closer at Rani's words. We all stand a little closer. It doesn't take the guys long before they come back, and I can tell by the look on Mark's face that the news isn't good. “Tinsley wasn't just telling the truth about being in danger - she's way worse. She's dead.”

The guys take charge and lead everyone downstairs. Some of the girls are crying, some are in shock I think and just stand there staring off into space. A few are trying to figure out who the fuck did it. Betsy starts trying to lay the blame and I'm pretty sure Jag has to hold Milly back when his name is the one that comes up first because of the tiff he and Tinsley had over the sauna thing.

"That's bullshit! Jag didn't do it!"

"How do you know?" Betsy isn't trying to be snotty I don't think. I'm pretty sure she just really wants to be sure the people she is with aren't killers but she seems to be going about it the wrong way.

"Because he was with me - all night." Betsy waits for more. "He was sleeping with me."

"Oh my God! You slept with him! Like really slept with him!" Rani says it like this is news but I thought everyone, especially Rani, knew Milly and Jag were hitting it hard and fast. Was I wrong to assume that I was the only virgin here? Is Milly the only virgin left? Oh shit! Does that mean everyone in the house is fair game except Milly? And I'm the idiot that lost it on camera?

I calm down when I see Jag staring a hole into Milly's belly like there might be...something there already. Oh! Oh my fucking God!

"Someone in this house is a murderer."

Jag's statement takes some of the shock away from the thought that went flying through my brain like a bullet. It would have caused less damage if it had been a bullet. No, this is one tiny thought that strikes more fear into me than the killer running around. We - me and Mark - never used a condom. I know he didn't pull the fuck out because I felt every time he came in me and I'm damn sure I'm not on anything!

My stomach turns at the thought of how stupid I could be. What the fuck was I thinking? Rani starts asking questions. Questions that should be on everyone's mind but ones that I could give two shits about now that the nagging thought has settled in my thoughts. I tune back in to find out what everyone else in the room is saying.

"We'll try to send someone down to bring back help."

"Me and Mark can go." Everyone turns to look at me and I immediately turn red. I look over at Mark realizing that I'm not the only one who needs to make that decision. I shouldn't have said anything without asking him first. I was just thinking that the faster I'm off the hill and back in town the faster I can get my hands on a test. Can I even take one now and find out or will I have to wait?

"You can take my jeep." Jag offers. I have to ask if this is all alright with Mark. I step closer to him.

"Is it okay?"

He smiles down at me and takes my face in his hands. "Of course it is. I damn sure wouldn't leave you here while I left."

"But it's alright that I volunteered us?" It didn't have to be 'us' that tries to get down the mountain. He realizes that surely.

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