Autumn's Game

by Mary Stone

  The girl immediately burst into tears. “Yes, I’m Gina. Please help me.”

  “I will,” she promised. And she would. She didn’t know how, but she would do it, and soon. “How did you get down there?”

  The girl wiped her face with her arm, and Autumn noticed she was wrapped in a mylar blanket which was probably the only thing that had kept her from freezing to death.

  “It was Linus.” Gina’s voice cracked on the name. “Linus Ashby put me down here. He used a rope. He put it over that tree branch and lowered me down.”

  Autumn scanned the area, then pointed the flashlight beam into the air. There was a thick branch overhead, but there wasn’t a rope in sight.

  She pulled her phone from her pocket and looked at the screen. She had one bar of service. At the car, she’d had at least three. Shit.

  She turned the light back on the girl. “Honey, I need to go for help. I—”

  “No! Don’t leave me!”

  The fear in Gina’s voice broke Autumn’s heart, but she had no other choice. Pulling out the small flashlight, she set it on the edge of the stone to mark the location. “I swear I’ll be back. There are others here with me. I just need to get them to help.”

  “No! Please don’t…”

  Hardening her heart against the sobbing pleas, Autumn took off as fast as the terrain would let her. The going was treacherous, and she soon lost her way. She stopped, turned in a circle. She spotted the small flashlight standing sentinel behind her, but she’d taken a zigzag route to get there. For the return trip, had she already zagged when she should have zigged?

  And where was the freaking moon?

  Noticing a tree with a twisted base she thought she remembered, she headed that way, then she spotted a gleam of light. The light was moving but was too small to be a car. What was it? A cell phone screen floating in mid-air? It was Mike!

  Relief flooded through her. She was closer to the cabin than she’d thought, so she cupped her hand over the bulb of the flashlight. Running in this direction meant that she was running toward the cabin. She didn’t want to blow the raid by tipping Linus off.

  Mike looked as relieved to see her as she was to see him. “Where did you go?”

  “Gina…” She was panting, and she forced herself to breathe. “Found her in a well. We have to get her out.”

  He looked appalled. “A well? Is she…?”

  “Alive. Yes, she’s alive.” Autumn laughed, then stopped because it held a hint of hysteria. “We need to get help.”

  They rushed back to the RAV4, and Autumn looked at her phone. Three bars. The device buzzed in her hand. It was from Winter: Ashby is holding hostages in the cabin. Heat signature is four people. Hold position.

  She turned to relay the message to Mike, but he was racing around the car, searching for something. Oh no. Autumn covered her eyes with her hand. He wasn’t searching for something. He was searching for someone.

  Mike kicked a tire. “I told her to stay right here. Where is she?”

  Autumn dropped her hand. “On her way to the cabin would be my guess.”

  Mike kicked the tire again, cursing a string of four-letter words. This was a new side to her boss, and she found it a little bit fascinating. “We have to stop her. She could be trying to warn her son.”

  “I’ll call Carla.” She jammed her thumb on the call button.

  “Dr. Trent,” the sheriff’s voice was a harsh whisper, “this better be good or I’m going to chew your ass for breaking phone silence.”

  Autumn glanced at the tiny point of light in the darkness, the marker for Gina’s location. “I found Gina. She’s at the bottom of a well on the other side of the road. I have her location marked with a small flashlight. She’s alive, but she’s hurt and I need a rope.”

  Carla whispered out a soft curse. “Yeah, that’s good enough to skip an ass-chewing. Fire and rescue is on standby. I’ll have them head your way.”

  Autumn grimaced. The sheriff wouldn’t be so forgiving about this next part. “One more thing.”

  “What?”

  “We lost Emily Ashby. I think she’s going to see her son. If she isn’t already there.”

  32

  The old cabin had been good to them once, but that had been years ago. Now, even in the dim light of the moon, she could tell that it was falling apart at the seams. Pine needles were stuck everywhere. The wind had picked up, muffling Emily’s footsteps with the hush of the breeze moving through the trees.

  Emily had only agreed to lead everyone to the cabin because she knew they wouldn’t let her come otherwise. And the moment she’d noticed that everyone was so distracted, she had slipped away, following an old animal track that she’d used a hundred times as a shortcut.

  They wouldn’t even notice she was gone…until it was too late.

  She slipped alongside the broken structure, intending to work her way around to the back and try to slip in one of the windows. But the first one she checked was covered with plywood. So was the second.

  Linus or someone else must have nailed them up.

  How the hell was she going to get in?

  A twig snapped in the distance, and she ducked behind one of the surrounding bushes. The men in black must have spotted her with their night vision glasses, and they were closing in. She had to hurry.

  Hand by hand, she worked her way along the shadows, moving as quickly as she dared. When her hand touched a piece of rotted wood and slipped past it, she was surprised when it flailed around in emptiness. There was a hole in the floor! Only a few slim boards lay across the opening.

  Another twig snapped, and she knew she was out of time. She couldn’t let anyone stop her. They’d told her that Linus had a mission. Well, she had one too.

  That was her son inside. She had to reach him or do her very best to try.

  Emily pushed her arm inside and came up against a thin piece of plywood that shifted under her hand. Quietly, she turned the loose board on its side. She could hear voices now, shouting and angry.

  “I don’t believe you.”

  It was Linus. She’d recognize his voice anywhere.

  “I’m telling you,” an unfamiliar man roared, “we weren’t sent here by the FBI, you nutball wackjob! We’re alone!”

  “Bill!” The woman’s voice was sharp and filled with terror. “Don’t antagonize him.”

  “Why are you here!”

  Linus sounded on the point of a mental break. She knew that tone intimately.

  Emily had lived most of her life wondering when the other shoe would drop. Jonah would hit her, and she would wonder when he would kill her. He’d left her, and she’d wondered when he was coming back. Linus had stopped talking to her, and she’d wondered when he would disappear completely from Sawmill, never to return.

  Now the shoe had dropped, and she didn’t have to wonder anymore.

  She found herself sad, and tired, and only a little bit afraid—more afraid for the people inside the cabin than she was for herself. She had lived so long with overwhelming fear over what might happen, that now that it was happening, she was mainly just relieved to be doing something.

  She climbed in through the hole in the wall, patiently working her way around the boards. Her body was so small, and so easy to hide, that she didn’t have any problems making her way in.

  Once inside, she discovered she was in the built-in wardrobe. Holding her breath, she turned the knob and peeked out. The room was dark with only a dim glow coming in at the bottom of the door that led to the living room.

  Linus was still shouting. “You shouldn’t have come here!”

  “We didn’t know!” It was the man again. “Like I told you, we just wanted to check things out and see how much work it needed before it could be habitable.”

  “It’s fucking January!”

  Emily opened the door of the room and stepped into the stubby little hallway between the two bedrooms.

  The main area was dimly lit by a small lantern. Three strang
ers were lit by its glow, a younger couple and their son, about eight or nine years old.

  About the age Linus had been when Jonah had started giving in to his demons. About the age that everything had changed.

  The boy wasn’t standing with his parents, but within the clasp of Linus’s protective arm. In Linus’s other hand was a hunting knife, the one that Jonah had given to him. The boy’s father was on the floor, holding a bloody kitchen towel to his side. His feet were tied together, and more rope lay curled around him.

  Emily stepped into the light. “Linus.”

  Linus gaped at her. His clothes were filthy and stained with dark patches, probably blood. His face looked about twenty years older than it should. Emily almost had to pinch her arm to remind herself that he wasn’t Jonah, he looked so like his father. His hair had grown over his ears and he needed a haircut. “Mom?”

  “Linus, sweetheart, what are you doing?” She took another step into the room. “Who are these people?”

  Linus didn’t answer, but the woman pulled against something, trying to move. It was the first time Emily noticed the blue rope surrounding the woman’s wrists. She was tied to a chair. “I’m Dana Carter. This is Bill. That’s my son, Gavin. He’s only eight. Please help us.”

  The fear in the woman’s voice broke a crack into Emily’s already brittle soul. She remembered that fear so very well. By first the father…now the son.

  “Linus, sweetheart.” Another step closer. “Let the boy go. We can talk about this. I can help you.”

  “Stop!” Linus screamed and swung the tip of his blade toward the couple. “They just showed up. Like a miracle. It was a sign.”

  Dana Carter caught Emily’s eye. “This is my grandad’s property, Hank Leetsch. He passed away, and we wanted to inspect the cabin and—”

  “Shut up!” Linus screamed again. “You’re lying! Sheriff Morton sent you here to find me!” He turned the knife toward Emily. “You too.” His anger morphed into confusion. “Why are you here? Are you in on this too?”

  Emily put her hand over her heart. “You let them go, Linus. They weren’t the ones who found you.” She lifted her chin. “I told them where you were.”

  Linus’s face turned even redder. “Why?”

  She ignored the question. “The sheriff is outside waiting to take you in.” She held out her hand. “Put down the knife, Linus. If you need to hurt someone, you can hurt me. It’s my fault you’re like this. I’m the one who let you down. These folks are innocent. Let them go.”

  The father, Bill, pushed against the floor until he was sitting on his knees. Blood began to drip from the towel. “She’s right. Please, let my son go.”

  “Liar!” Linus pointed the knife blade toward Dana this time. “I saw you fighting when I got here. I saw you yelling at Gavin. You’re not innocent. You’re horrible, and I hate you!”

  Gavin burst into tears. “Mommy…”

  Dana leaned toward her son as far as she could manage, her eyes brimming with panic. “It’ll be okay, baby. Just stay very still.”

  Linus tightened his grip on the boy.

  “Let him go!” Bill shouted and tried to get to his feet, only managing to fall back on his ass.

  Linus laughed, madness and hysteria laced through the sound. “I’m saving him! How do you like it? The shoe is on the other foot!” Linus laughed again. “You’re a terrible mother. You shouldn’t be allowed to have children at all.”

  He pushed the boy in front of him until he was standing almost directly in front of Dana.

  Emily shivered. What was he doing? “Linus, it’ll all be over soon. You have to let these people go.”

  He laughed again and hauled back his hand. With the boy between them, he swung, his palm connecting with the side of the woman’s face. The sound seemed to echo for ages.

  “Mommy!!!”

  Emily found herself remembering the times when Jonah slapped her, beat her, hurt her.

  Now, look what you made me do.

  There was no understanding here, no remorse.

  “Leave her alone!” Bill roared, trying to get to his feet again.

  The little boy began to cry while the mother tugged and tugged at her bonds, the imprint of Linus’s hand blooming on her cheek.

  She couldn’t allow this to happen.

  She needed to make this stop.

  With a deep breath, Emily lunged at her son.

  33

  A shadow covered the mouth of the well, blocking some of the light from the tiny flashlight the woman had left behind. Gina clenched her teeth together to keep herself from screaming in panic.

  Please don’t let it be Linus.

  “Gina, it’s me.”

  Gina sagged against the cold stone, the relief so great she almost couldn’t stand. “I’m here!”

  Another shadow joined the first. “I brought help. We’re going to get you out!”

  The waiting was agony as her saviors worked above her. She couldn’t see what they were doing, but she had to trust that they knew what they were doing.

  After two days in this well, she was weak from trying to climb out. She was scraped up from the efforts too. But more than anything, she was cold. So cold. And she was angry. How could her friend do this to her? To her parents?

  The memory of their blank eyes hit her like a fist, and she forced it away.

  She hated Linus Ashby, but she hated herself more for trusting him. She’d used him as a shoulder to cry on while her family broke apart. He had sat at her family’s table, sharing meals with them all as he and her dad talked about furthering their mission at the community center. Her mom bought groceries for him to take back to his little apartment. He was like part of their family! And he’d killed them. Stuffed her down here to die.

  She’d been such a fool.

  She’d never forgive—

  “Coming down!”

  The person wore a light on his head as he was lowered down into the hole. It only took a few minutes before he was there. “You okay?”

  She nodded frantically, only managing to get one word through her chattering teeth. “Cold.”

  The man wore a shirt with EMS over his heart. He smiled as he pulled another harness out of his pack. “We’ll get you warmed up soon enough. Let’s get you out of here first.”

  “Sssssounds gggoood.”

  In just a few more minutes, he had her buckled in. A few minutes after that, she was being lifted…lifted…lifted. The light at the top grew brighter, then they were pulling her from the top. Seconds later, she was in the arms of a woman, and Gina was hugging her back just as tightly.

  “Thank you,” she managed to say as someone wrapped a warm blanket around her.

  The woman kissed her cheek and let her go so the EMS people could poke and prod, asking a million questions.

  “I’m okay,” she promised, and when they tried to get her to lay on a board looking thing, she refused. “I can walk. Promise.”

  She took a step and winced just a little. In one of her attempts to climb out, she’d twisted her ankle. Not bad, just enough to feel it when she took a step.

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah. Just hurt my ankle a little when I tried to climb out. It was dumb.”

  “It was brave,” the EMS guy said before kneeling to wrap her ankle with an ace bandage.

  When he was done, she took a step. There was barely even any pain. “That helps. Thanks.”

  He smiled again. He was really cute. “Ready to get out of here?”

  She wrapped the blanket around her more tightly. “Absolutely.”

  The woman walked on one side of her, the cute EMS guy on the other. It was actually so good to walk, to be out in the open. To breathe in the air.

  “How did you find me?”

  The woman circled an arm around her shoulders, then introduced herself and told her everything. She didn’t stop talking until they got back to the road. Gina glanced around. It was too dark to see anything except the shadow of a cabin in
the distance.

  “Let’s get you settled in the ambulance,” the woman named Autumn said.

  She didn’t move, just continued to stare at the cabin. “He’s in there now?”

  “Yes.”

  “With hostages?”

  “Yes. He has a man and woman and a little boy. And I suspect his mother is in there too.”

  In surprise, Gina whipped her head around to look at Autumn. “Emily is in there too?”

  Autumn frowned. “I think so.”

  Gina looked toward the cabin again. “Linus hates her. He hates her guts. Why is she there?”

  Autumn’s answer was interrupted by the cute EMS worker who handed them both thermoses of hot coffee. “Let’s get you loaded up,” he said.

  Gina gazed at him, trying to project her appreciation but also demonstrate how badly she wanted to stay right where she was. She needed to see. “In a little bit. Is that okay?”

  The man looked at Autumn before nodding toward the ambulance. “I’ll be right there when you’re ready.”

  Gina smiled. “Thank you so much.” She lifted the thermos and took a tentative sip. It wasn’t as sweet as she liked it, but it was so warm that she immediately felt better.

  When he walked back to the ambulance, Gina asked, “Did Linus kidnap Emily too?”

  Autumn sighed in exasperation. “She was supposed to just lead us here, then wait in the car. We had also thought that she might be able to talk to him if it came to that, but she sneaked away. She somehow found a way in, although I don’t know how. The place looks like it is locked up tight.”

  “I think I might know how she got in.” Gina explained about the hole she’d made in the wardrobe floor. “That’s why Linus put me in the well. He was pissed that I tried to escape.”

  Autumn squeezed her shoulder again. “You’ve been very brave.”

  “What about the other people, the hostages?”

  Autumn took a sip from her own thermos. “As far as we can tell, they own the cabin. We found their van, and Sheriff Morton identified them from their license plate. The woman inherited the land from her grandfather. Why they were here today? Probably just really bad luck.”