A Sound In The Dark

by Kyle Alexander Romines

  Zack made his way farther into the lodge, which seemed far more expansive in the dark. The cool air gave him the chills. He soon found himself standing in the main hall. Eyes of animals long dead followed him as he wandered down the hall, aware of their frozen gazes. The mounted animals somehow appeared even more menacing than before. A flight of stairs loomed at the end of the hallway. Zack had forgotten where they led. He didn’t intend to venture any farther into the darkness than he had to.

  Moonlight filtered through the windows over Fields’ empty desk. Zack wondered if the park ranger was still alive. He reached the gift shop and peered into the room through the glass door. There was a shelf covered by medicines and bandages. He tried opening the door, which was locked. Taking a plaque from the wall, Zack shattered the glass door. He clenched his teeth at the loud sound and stepped inside the room. Even the stuffed toy bears took on a sinister appearance under the cover of night. Zack quickly grabbed a handful of bandages.

  The floorboards squeaked back in the main hall. Zack froze. He crept back into the hall, walking softly so that the floor wouldn’t creak under his weight.

  “Is anyone there?” he called. “Beth? Will?” Other than the taxidermied animals, he was alone.

  On the way back, he spotted a phone on Hickory Johnson’s desk. Zack ran over to the desk and set the bandages down. His hand shaking, he reached out and lifted the phone.

  “It won’t work,” a voice said flatly behind him. Zack jumped. A figure was staring at him in the dark. “I already tried it.”

  “Will?”

  “He cut the power,” Will said. Moonlight spilled into the room, illuminating Will’s face. Zack didn’t like what he saw. His friend’s eyes were manic, his grip on the shotgun constantly tightening.

  “Will, are you okay?”

  Will stopped and looked around suddenly. “He’s here,” he whispered.

  Zack shook his head. “I left him in the forest. He was wounded.”

  Will gritted his teeth, and his eyes darted around the room.

  “Did you hear that?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “It’s like a whisper,” Will muttered. “Burrowing its way into my head. We need to get out of here.”

  Zack held up the bandages. “Beth’s hurt. She needs our help. How could you just leave her there?”

  “Don’t look at me like that,” Will said angrily. His voice rose, and he began making animated gestures with the shotgun. “Don’t you dare judge me. You would have done the same thing. We’re survivors, Zack. Now if you’re not coming with me, get out of my way.”

  “You’re not going anywhere. We have to stick together. You have the shotgun.”

  Anger flashed across Will’s face. “I’m getting sick and tired of this. You think that just because your girlfriend cheated on you, that gives you the right to point the finger at everyone else?”

  Thunder echoed outside the lodge, a faint reminder that the storm wasn’t over yet. Will blinked and seemed to realize what he’d just said.

  “I never told anyone that Lily cheated on me,” Zack said. The two men circled each other. “Anyone.”

  Just like that, it all clicked. Will, who had frequently complained that he’d set his sights on Lily first. Will, the woman-chaser who could never handle not getting his way. Zack had told Will everything about Lily. His friend had gotten to know all of her flaws and vulnerabilities, and then he used her, just like he used everyone else. Anger rose within Zack like a blazing torch.

  Will silently slipped off the shotgun’s safety and took a few steps back. “Zack, it was just one time.”

  “I’m going to kill you,” Zack roared.

  He lunged forward. Will raised the shotgun and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. The gun had jammed. Will felt Zack’s weight slam into his body, pushing him against the desk. Papers spilled to the floor. Zack tightened his hands around Will’s neck. Will gasped for air and swung the shotgun at Zack’s head. Zack stumbled back, and Will took aim again with the shotgun. Before he could pull the trigger, Zack was on him again. He tackled Will, and they stumbled back over the edge of the staircase. With one hand on Zack and one on the shotgun, Will couldn’t steady himself in time. The two men rolled down the stairs toward the unknown.

  ***

  She stared at what was left of the door. Beth couldn’t bring herself to tear her eyes away from the splintered frame. Outside, the wind had picked up again, blunting itself against the lodge’s exterior. The table held the door in place, but Beth kept watching the door, waiting for something to happen.

  Her wet hair and clothes had long since started to dry. She knew she should be tired. Instead, Beth was fully alert. Her heart was pumping faster than she thought possible. Zack was taking too long. She was scared. She couldn’t bring herself to look down at her thigh, not that she would be able to see the damage in the darkness anyway. That’s when she heard the raised voices. Her hair stood on end.

  She turned her head back to the hallway and listened quietly. She recognized one of the voices. It was Zack. He was talking to someone.

  The door rattled loudly behind her. Beth screamed. Someone was trying to force his way inside the lodge. The splintered door shook, barely held in place by the desk. The door thudded again and again. Finally it fell still. Beth realized she’d been holding in her breath. She exhaled and moved closer to the door. Was the intruder gone?

  “Zack?” she called.

  The door rattled loudly again, inches from her face. Beth screamed. A hand attempted to slip inside the door. Beth grabbed the edge of the table and pulled herself up. The pain was overwhelming. She limped backwards, watching the door shake. As she moved into the next hall, the door started to give way.

  “Zack!” she shouted. There was no response. She leaned against the wall for support and hobbled forward, looking for a place to hide. Beth spotted a closet. She tugged on the handle, which was locked. She pulled harder. The door sprung open, dumping a form out at her feet. As the moonlight sprinkled inside the lodge, she could see she outline of an old man stuffed into the closet, his face frozen in fear. He was dead. Beth screamed.

  She hurried into a room covered with mounted animals. Beth spotted packages of bandages on the ground. She scooped them up quickly and kept moving. The moon vanished into the clouds again, and the room was covered in darkness. Footsteps echoed down the hall. Beth slipped into a dark room near the end of the hall, stepping over broken glass. She crouched against one of the shelves at the back of the room, praying she couldn’t be seen amid the blackness. She opened the package and started wrapping the bandages around her thigh. Her heart pounded heavily in her chest.

  The floor creaked in the hallway. Someone was in the lodge with her. Beth heard the footsteps grow closer. She tried to slow her breathing down, hoping the intruder couldn’t hear her. Glass crunched under the man’s boots. Beth couldn’t get a good look at him over the shelves in the pitch-black room. He wandered down the shelves one row over from her. If he walked to the next row, it was over. She was right around the corner.

  A loud thump sounded below. The man turned and glanced off in the opposite direction. He walked away, and the floorboards creaked under his weight. Beth let out a sigh of relief. She pulled herself up and stared over the shelves. There was no sign of the intruder. Beth fumbled through the products on the shelves and found a lighter. The glow of the flame wasn’t nearly as strong as the flashlight she’d lost, but it was better than walking around blindly.

  Below her, the sound rumbled again. Something was happening below. Beth didn’t know what to do. Should she stay where she was and wait for daylight? Or should she try to find Zack? She bit her lip. Zack hadn’t abandoned her when she needed him. Beth took a few steps forward and looked for the stairs.

  ***

  “Is that a
ll you’ve got?” Will asked. He wiped blood from his chin. Zack was on the ground, reeling. They’d fallen into a game room. Will got up first and kicked Zack in the side. Zack’s chest erupted with pain. Will grabbed him and threw him against the pool table.

  “You took everything from me,” Zack muttered. He reached backwards until his hand closed around a pool ball. When Will struck at him, he smashed the ball against Will’s jaw. Zack struck his friend in the gut, and Will slammed into the ping-pong table.

  Will knocked Zack’s legs out from under him. He punched Zack’s chest again and again, while Zack tried his best to protect his face. The shotgun rested on the staircase, just out of reach. Zack smashed his head against Will’s forehead. Will stumbled back, and Zack snatched the shotgun and aimed it at Will’s chest.

  “You could have had anyone you wanted,” he whispered. He eased his finger against the trigger. “Why couldn’t you have just left her alone?”

  Will didn’t reply. He only watched Zack with a look of pure loathing. Zack’s entire body trembled with rage. He hesitated. Somehow Zack knew that taking Will’s life wouldn’t end the pain, the suffering, or the regret. Only he could choose to make a new start for himself—or condemn himself forever. He stared at Will, the shotgun shaking in his hands. Finally, he lowered the gun, disgusted at his own rage and hatred.

  “You’re not worth it,” he muttered.

  Sensing his opportunity, Will lunged forward. Zack hit him in the face with the barrel of the shotgun. He stood over Will and watched him with narrowed eyes.

  “We’re done. You can find your way out of this on your own.”

  Will started whimpering. “Don’t leave me here alone. Not alone in the dark.” He sounded like a frightened child.

  “Zack,” a soft voice said from the stairs. It was Beth. “We need to go,” she said. “He’s here. In the lodge.” She looked from Zack to Will, as if trying to piece together what had just happened.

  Zack nodded. “Come on.” He took her hand and didn’t give Will another look. The two headed up the stairs, leaving the man behind them sitting alone in the dark.

  ***

  The pair managed to surprise the Hunter, something that rarely happened. Instead of heading for the front door, they made their way out the back entrance. They weren’t heading for the road at all. Where were they going?

  “The lake,” he muttered. The pair was heading down another trail, another route that would take them back to Dire Lake. It was one of the few places he hadn’t set any traps. He would have to pursue them on foot. The Hunter frowned when he noticed that Zack was holding Will’s shotgun. The killer glanced at the sky. It wouldn’t be long before dawn, and he was running out of time.

  The Hunter returned his gaze to the lodge. He would follow the two remaining campers to the dock and finish his work there. Before that, however, he had another matter to attend to.

  Chapter Nineteen

  5:37 am

  As Cole predicted hours ago, the cell phone’s battery was dying. It didn’t matter. Soon Will would be close enough to the road to either find a signal or someone willing to give him a ride. Who needed Zack? Let them scurry off to wherever. He didn’t care. Will limped up the steps, using the phone’s light to guide him as he held on to the guardrail. His body ached in pain.

  For a moment, he really thought Zack was going to kill him. Will had certainly been willing to pull the trigger himself. He no longer felt any remorse. He just wanted to survive. The battery sign was flashing across the screen in an attempt to warn him the cell phone’s energy was depleted. If it could just keep going a little longer, he would be safe.

  Lily had never held any special meaning for him. She was just one among a countless number of women who meant nothing to him. He’d found her alone and needy, and he did what came naturally to him. Lily’s own particular brand of self-destruction took it from there. It wasn’t his fault, and it wasn’t his problem.

  If only he’d reached the shotgun first.

  “Screw Zack,” he muttered, hobbling to Fields’ desk. He’d sprained his ankle during the fight.

  Will grinned when he spotted the keychain. The keys were on the desk, just like the park ranger promised they would be. Will snatched them off the desk. Let Zack and his little girlfriend slink off somewhere else. The Hunter would find them and kill them. As for himself, Will intended to get as far away from Drifter’s Folly as he could as soon as possible. He rehearsed his story, thinking of what he would tell the police. When it was all over, maybe he’d even be viewed as a hero.

  A whisper echoed behind him, and Will wheeled around.

  “Who’s there?” he demanded, shining the cell phone’s light toward the back of the room. There was nothing there. He heard it again. “Shut up!” Will shouted, his voice full of rage. “Stop it!”

  The room fell silent. He was alone. Will’s heart thudded in his chest. He was starting to lose it, just like Zack.

  I have to get out of here, he thought.

  Will returned to the entrance hall and stood at the front door, the cell phone in one hand and the keys in the other. He hesitated for a moment. Despite what Zack said about leaving the killer behind in the forest, Will hadn’t survived this long without being cautious. As he waited in the dark, anxiety got the better of him, and Will took a deep breath and swung the door open.

  The mostly empty parking lot sat under the shadow of the mountains. Moonlight reflected off vehicles resting idly on black pavement. At the end of the parking lot, a mesh fence closed off the area. Will spotted his van as he scanned the area for Fields’ vehicle. He saw the vehicle in a lot closest to the fence. Casting one last glance at the distant forest overlooking the lodge, Will exhaled and started limping toward the parking lot as fast as he could.

  As he crossed the threshold of the lodge, a solitary bar appeared on the cell phone. Will’s heart soared. He punched in 911 and kept moving, never taking his eyes off the van’s shimmering metal exterior. He was free.

  “911, what is your emergency?”

  “I’m in the park,” he stammered. “Someone’s trying to kill me!”

  “Where are you, sir?”

  “Drifter’s Folly Memorial Park,” he repeated, limping toward the vehicle.

  “Are you injured? Is anyone else with you?”

  Before he could reply, Will’s foot tripped over a wire strung across the ground. In his haste to reach the van, he hadn’t noticed the wire. The Hunter had left one last trap, and he’d walked right into it.

  Will took off, running for the fence. His ankle was slowing him down. He heard the first explosion behind him and felt its searing heat as the van erupted in flame. Another car exploded, and another. Each car across the entire parking lot was rigged to blow, like a set of dominos.

  The operator’s voice had fallen silent. Will reached the mesh fence and tried to scale it. He couldn’t make it to the top. The final explosion knocked him against the pavement. Something heavy landed on him, pinning him to the ground. Columns of thick, black smoke rose into the air. The remains of the cars were covered in flame. Will’s eardrums had burst. Blood poured out of his mouth, and several of his bones were broken.

  He tried moving the deformed metal husk pinning him to the ground, but it was no use. Will’s head was spinning. Then he saw the man walking toward him across the parking lot, and he knew. It was the same look he’d seen reflected in his own eyes in the game room’s mirrors.

  “You,” he tried to say. Instead, he coughed more blood out of his mouth.

  The Hunter had come to claim him. Will shook in fear, gripping the cell phone. He tried shining its light to scare away the monster, but no light came. The cell phone was dead.

  He started shaking. “Please don’t,” he begged. “Please don’t kill me.”

  The Hunter smiled and pulled out t
he same knife he’d used to kill Rodney Crowe. The camper screamed.

  When he was finished, the killer crossed the parking lot until he reached the one truck left untouched by the explosion. It was the only vehicle he’d left unrigged. The Hunter swung the door open and stepped inside. He slid the key into the ignition and the engine fired to life. He felt for the gun at his side. He was finished with arrows and traps. It was time to end this.

  Two left.

  ***

  They were almost a mile from the lodge when the explosion rattled the night sky.

  “What was that?” Beth asked. Zack could see pillars of smoke rising above the trees.

  Will, he thought briefly.

  “Come on,” he said. “We have to keep moving.” Beth was moving on her own now, without his help, but her injury was still slowing her down. Zack thought back to the man he left in the forest stuck in the bear trap. How had he gotten out?

  “How does he keep finding us?”

  There was desperation in her voice. The inner strength she’d displayed after Ron’s death was starting to succumb to injury and fatigue.

  “Don’t worry,” Zack whispered in an attempt to comfort her. “It’s almost morning. We’ll be safe once the sun rises. It won’t be long until someone comes looking for us.”

  Though he didn’t mention it to Beth, he was concerned with the killer’s ability to track them. It was almost inhuman. Everywhere they had fled, the Hunter was always right behind. It didn’t make any sense. What if Beth had been right hours earlier, when she’d suggested there was more than one person hunting them?

  The pair wandered farther down the gravel-covered path that led downhill from the lodge. The moon peeked out from behind a wall of clouds, providing at least a small degree of illumination. Occasionally Zack caught himself looking back at the smoke.

  “You were right not to make for the road,” he said to Beth.