The Fear Trilogy

by Blake Crouch

  He placed his daughter down in the chair, stretched her legs across the ottoman, and pushed her close to the flames. In light of her disease, he couldn’t bring himself to even consider what her time in the snow had exposed her body to. She’d be going straight to a hospital the moment they left this place.

  Pulling a stack of blankets off a shelf above the hearth, he wrapped Devlin in them, her body still cold to the touch, shivering.

  He knelt on the floor, ran his hand over her thawing hair.

  “Dad’s here,” he said. “You’re safe, baby girl.”

  Footsteps echoed in the lobby.

  He turned, stood looking through the open door at darkness and candle flames. Unlacing his boots and slipping them off so they wouldn’t squeak, Will hustled out of the library, softly shutting the door behind him.

  He didn’t hear the footsteps as he ran across the stone back toward the entrance, waited there, listening to the moan of wind pushing on the doors, his face burning with frostbite, his legs sore from yesterday’s wolf bites.

  Someone appeared in the passage beside the library—from his vantage point, just a silhouette-shaped black hole in the darkness. Will, who wasn’t standing in the illumination of any lantern or candle, wondered if whoever it was could see him, then wondered if the person standing there had the same thought.

  He pumped the shotgun, held at waist level, aimed at the opening of the passage. When he spoke, he tried to make his voice sound bigger, more unfazed than he felt.

  “That lantern mounted to the staircase . . . walk into its light so I can see you. I’m holding a shotgun, I’ve just killed five men, and I won’t hesitate to do the same to you.”

  The dark spot in the passage moved forward, entering the illumination of a lantern, firelight giving texture and depth to the troubled face of Kalyn Sharp.

  She said, “Will?”

  FIFTY-FOUR

  Will lowered the shotgun and moved quickly across the lobby, feeling the cold of the stone through his socks. Drawing near, he let the shotgun drop to the floor.

  They embraced, Will burying his face in the soft, warm side of her neck, just breathing her in. “You in one piece?” he whispered.

  “Yeah. Where’s Devi?”

  “In the library. They threw her out in the storm.”

  “Oh God. Is she okay? She talking?”

  “Not yet. She’s still unconscious.”

  They came apart and Kalyn said, “What’s wrong with your face?”

  Will touched the cut across his cheek, the blackened skin. “I had a run-in with some mean-ass wolves. Spent last night outside, all of today trying to find you and Devlin. Between the wolves and the cold, I’m in pretty rough shape.”

  She glanced over her shoulder into the passage. “I see you took out a few of the guests.”

  “Guests?”

  “Don’t worry, they had it coming. But there’re three more of them, probably unarmed. They were playing cards in the dining room before you rolled in.”

  “You okay? You seem—”

  “No, I’m not okay. Look, Will, I have to—”

  The library door opened. Devlin stood on the threshold, a blanket draped over her shoulders, hair hanging down in her face.

  “Dad?”

  Will smiled. “Hey, baby girl. How are—”

  “Who’s that with you?”

  “It’s all right. Just Kalyn.”

  “No, it’s not all right.”

  “Honey—”

  “She was gonna leave us both here.”

  Will looked at Kalyn, felt her beginning to pull away from him. He stared into her eyes, said, “What are you talking about, Devi?”

  “Do you have a gun?”

  “On the floor behind me.”

  “Get it.”

  “I think she’s confused from the cold,” Kalyn whispered. “Let’s go reassure her.” Kalyn started past him, moving toward the shotgun. Will grabbed her arm.

  “Dad!”

  “Where are you going?” Will asked. “Devlin’s over there.”

  “You trust me or not, Will?”

  He smiled weakly. “Of course. You take the gun. You’re better with it than I am.”

  Kalyn smiled, said, “You gonna let go of my arm?”

  “Oh, yeah. Sorry.”

  “No, Dad.” Devlin was crying now.

  “It’s all right, honey. I think you’re just a little confused.”

  “I am not confused!” Will started toward his daughter, Kalyn toward the shotgun.

  He suddenly spun around, saw Kalyn bending down, then lunged and shoved her across the floor.

  As she fell hard on the stone, he picked up the shotgun.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

  “If I’m wrong,” Will said, “I apologize. Get up slowly, hands where I can see them.”

  “Will, I can explain—”

  “Maybe so. Maybe we’ll all have a big laugh about this in a little while. Walk toward the library. Devlin, we’re heading your way.”

  Devlin stepped back into the library.

  “Why don’t you trust me?” Kalyn asked.

  “I’m not saying I don’t. We’re just gonna sort this out.”

  They entered the library and Will closed the door behind them.

  “She might have a gun or something, Dad.”

  “Kalyn, sit in that corner and keep your hands on top of your knees.”

  Devlin sat bundled in covers by the fire, glaring at Kalyn as she took a seat against the base of the bookshelves.

  Will stood several feet away, the shotgun trained on Kalyn’s chest.

  “Devlin,” he said, “tell me what’s going on here.”

  “I’ve been in this lodge since early this morning, trying to keep from getting caught, looking for you. Then a little while ago, Kalyn found me. She took me upstairs. I thought we were sneaking out. Instead, she took me to this man named Paul. She was gonna trade me.”

  Kalyn said, “Will, please—”

  “Shut up. Trade you for what, Devlin?”

  “Her sister, Lucy. They keep women here.”

  “Why?”

  “For the guests. So they can have sex with them, even kill them if they want.”

  “Where’s Paul now? Was he one of the men I—”

  “I shot him.”

  “Oh, honey.”

  “He was gonna hurt me. I didn’t have a choice.”

  Will stared at Kalyn.

  “You know me, Will.”

  “No, I know my daughter. You’re a big fucking question mark right now.” Will stepped toward her, raised the shotgun, trying to spurn the blood lust he felt. Not even with Javier had he wanted to hurt something this bad.

  Kalyn’s eyes ran over, and she wiped her face.

  Will said, “Did you have this planned from the start?”

  “No.”

  “To use us to help you get here, then trade my daughter for your sister? Was that the deal?”

  “No, I just got caught. I never would’ve let them keep you or her. I would’ve—”

  “I should kill you right now,” Will said.

  “Let’s lock her up, Dad. In one of the rooms.”

  “Do we have a key?”

  “I know where you can get one.”

  “All right, but meanwhile . . .”

  He swung the Mossberg’s composite stock into the side of Kalyn’s head.

  FIFTY-FIVE

  Will and Devlin walked together out of the library, leaving Kalyn unconscious on the floor. They turned the corner into the candlelit passage, the three bodies lying up ahead, thankfully obscured in the low light.

  “Why don’t you hang back, Dev,” Will said. “No sense taking in what you don’t have to.”

  “Okay, Dad. I think each of the guests has a master key that opens all the rooms.”

  “And the dining hall is up ahead on the left?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yell if you need me.”

&nb
sp; Will went on, stepping carefully between lakes of blood as he negotiated his way past the men he’d killed, marveling at the merciful numbness.

  Three torches had been ignited in the great dining hall, the walls aglow and the far end of the table littered with cards, poker chips, wads of cash, wineglasses, shot glasses, highballs, martini glasses, cocktail shakers, bottles of wine, liquor, and two enormous bongs, all shimmering in the firelight.

  “Anybody in here? I won’t hurt you if you come on out.”

  He walked to the near end of the table, the room reeking of cigars and marijuana smoke, soured with spilled alcohol and the licorice stench of absinthe.

  Ten feet away, he spotted a dark shape lying down against the wall beside a potted spruce tree. Will’s finger moved onto the trigger.

  He heard the sputtering of a drunken snore, and his eyes pulled detail out of the dark: an older silver-haired man having partied out of his league.

  Something clanged in the kitchen.

  “Come out of there!” Will hollered. “Your chance to do this without getting hurt is slipping away.”

  The kitchen doors swung open and two men staggered out—a man in his late twenties, naked except for his boxer shorts, looking disoriented and sheepish, and a shorter, much rounder kimonoed man, balding and more sober.

  “Tell him it’s cool, Reynolds.”

  “Keep your mouth shut, Sean.” To Will: “What’s going on here?”

  “Come closer.”

  The men stepped forward into the full illumination of a torch.

  “Who are you?” Will asked.

  “Guests of this lodge. Who the fuck are you?”

  Footsteps sounded outside in the passage. Will glanced over his shoulder.

  “Just me, Dad.”

  “I told you wait out there.”

  Reynolds said, “Where’s everybody else?”

  “They’re dead, sir.”

  Sean said, “Oh shit.”

  “Are you law enforcement?” Reynolds asked.

  “No.”

  Devlin sidled up to her father.

  “Then what gives you the right to—” The racket of a pumping shotgun stopped him cold. Will turned, to see his daughter leveling a Mossberg on both men.

  She said, “You with no shirt on, step out of the way, please.”

  Sean staggered around the table and sat down unsteadily against the wall beside his father. Reynolds looked confused and terribly put upon.

  “Honey, what are you doing?” Will said.

  She shouldered the shotgun.

  “I’m gonna kill that fat man.”

  “No, Devlin—”

  “Trust me, Dad, he has it coming.”

  “In cold blood?”

  “Yep.”

  “Wait just a second.”

  “Why are you so angry with me?” Reynolds asked.

  “Remember that pregnant woman you raped this morning?”

  “I don’t know what you’re—”

  “You told her you’d made eighty-four million dollars this year? That you could kill her if you wanted?”

  “I think you’re mistaking me for—”

  “I’m not mistaking you for anybody.”

  Will said, “Devlin, this isn’t the way to handle this. You didn’t have a choice with Paul, but you do now.” He reached for the shotgun, saying, “Here, give me that,” but his voice was lost in the shattering report. Will watched, stunned, as his daughter struggled to pump the Mossberg again.

  Reynolds was sitting on the floor in a puddle of himself, not making a peep, just staring at the shredded kimono and all that was leaking through it.

  Devlin approached him with the Mossberg already shouldered, said, “I hope you go to hell,” and shot him in the face.

  When her ears quit ringing, the only sound in the room was Sean’s whimpering.

  Devlin looked back at her father, saw something like disappointment or disgust.

  “Please don’t look at me like that, Dad.”

  Will just shook his head, and for a moment Devlin thought he might cry.

  “You wanna know why I’m never going to lose a wink of sleep over that?”

  “Why?”

  Devlin reached into her pocket and pulled out a key.

  “Come with me. I’ll show you who I watched him rape.”

  FIFTY-SIX

  They locked Kalyn, Sean, and his father into separate rooms on the first floor of the south wing, and Will followed Devlin up the staircase to the fourth, where they stopped in front of the door to room 429.

  “Here.” She handed her father the master key.

  “What do you want me to do with this?”

  “Just open it.”

  Will slipped the key into the lock.

  “I’m gonna wait out here,” Devlin said. “You’ll need this.” She handed him a lantern, and Will turned the key, pushed the door open.

  The room was dark. Someone lay crying in bed. He set the lantern on the table, assumed it was a woman under the covers, one of the captives.

  Will said, “Everything’s okay now. The people who’ve kept you here and the man who hurt you today are dead.”

  The covers turned back.

  Will’s wife sat up, and he lost his breath.

  “Rachael?”

  Firelit tears trailed down her cheeks.

  He had dreamed of this a thousand times—what it would be like to hold his wife again, to wrap his arms around her. None of them had approached the sweetness or the pain of this moment, and he was crying because of her smell. “You smell like you,” he whispered.

  “Is this real?” Rachael asked.

  “I promise it is.”

  “Where’s Devlin?”