by Lukens, Mark
“I’ve been to college before. Archaeology, remember? You need to go to college for that.” She wasn’t going to let him weasel his way out of an explanation. If anything, it would keep him from asking her more questions. “What made you decide to rob banks?”
“Long story,” he told her.
Stella looked around. “Looks like we’ve got nothing but time right now.”
*
Cole ran out of the garage, his gun in his hand. He stopped and looked around for Jose. But Jose wasn’t around anywhere. Cole looked at the pickup truck—Jose wasn’t there.
A movement in the snow beyond the front of the truck caught Cole’s eye—it was Jose, he was running for the woods, almost to the first line of trees.
“Jose!” Cole yelled.
But Jose didn’t stop; he kept on running through the snow, his boots kicking up snow behind him.
Cole ran after Jose. “Jose, wait!”
Jose still wasn’t stopping.
Cole ran across the field towards the trees, his leg muscles began to burn from the slight incline of the ground. He caught up to Jose twenty feet inside the woods, the trees already closer together just this far into woods. Jose stood by a tree, his shoulder against it like he was using it as a shield, his gun was out and pointed at the ground, his eyes wild, darting around like he was trying to look everywhere at once. Mucus ran out of Jose’s nose down into his mustache—Cole was pretty sure Jose didn’t realize this.
Cole took a second to catch his breath. His chest heaved from his sprint across the field, his breath clouded up in front of his face. He looked around at the trees all around them, his pistol ready, his finger on the trigger. Some of the tree trunks were powdered with snow from drifts piled up on them. The trees seemed to go on forever, blending together into a gray darkness deeper into the woods.
“What is it?” Cole breathed out.
Jose didn’t answer. He just looked around with his wild-man eyes. His gun hand trembled as he aimed his weapon into the trees.
“Jose?”
Jose finally looked at Cole.
“What is it?” Cole asked. “What did you see?”
“I saw Frank.”
CHAPTER 16
Trevor set his coffee cup down on the counter and looked at the cabin door. He looked back at Stella and David who stared at the cabin door. Even Needles tore his attention away from whatever daydream his damaged mind was stumbling around inside of and looked at the door.
“You hear that?” Trevor asked Stella.
Stella nodded. Beside her, David stared at the door with his ballpoint pen poised in his hand over his notebook page that he’d been drawing on. Something out there scared David.
“Sounds like someone’s yelling out there,” Stella said in a low voice.
Trevor crossed the room in a blur of movement. He pulled his gun out of the waistband of his pants. He opened the front door and rushed outside.
Stella turned to David. “Stay right here,” she told him.
She was about to get up, but David clutched her hand. His eyes pleaded with her not to go. “I’m just going out on the front porch,” she told him. “That’s as far as I’m going to go.”
David let her hand go.
She got up and hurried to the front door. She slipped out through the doorway, and then pulled the door almost all the way closed.
David stared at the door for a few seconds, but then he looked at Needles.
Needles wasn’t looking at the door anymore—he was looking right at David. “I know what you are,” Needles whispered at David.
*
Stella stepped to the edge of the steps of the front porch. She watched Trevor jump from the porch down into the snow and run across the field towards the woods. He had his gun out, ready to shoot if he needed to.
She saw Cole and Jose in the woods.
*
Cole stared at Jose. “You saw Frank?”
“Yeah,” Jose answered with a shudder. “He was up here in the woods. Watching us.” Jose’s eyes darted away from Cole to the trees. “Just … watching us.”
Cole glanced at the trees. “You’re sure it was Frank?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Jose snapped. “He was wearing that blue flannel shirt he had on before. No coat. No hat. It was him.”
Cole looked at Jose. “Did Frank say anything? Did he wave at you?”
“No. He just stood in the woods, and he was staring at me. No expression. Nothing.”
“Did he have his gun?”
“I don’t think so. I didn’t see it.” Jose wiped at his nose with the sleeve of his jacket. “I don’t know.”
Cole looked down at the snow all around them. Then he looked at Jose. “You’re absolutely sure you saw Frank.”
“I know what I saw.”
“There aren’t any tracks in the snow.”
Jose looked down at the snow. His eyes widened in surprise. He shook his head no in disbelief. “He was here. Standing right here in these trees. I’m sure of it.” Jose looked at Cole with wide eyes that were now confused and a little frightened. “I saw him. I swear I did.”
“Cole!”
Cole turned towards the sound of Trevor’s voice.
“What’s going on?” Trevor asked as he ran into the woods.
“Nothing,” Cole answered. “We’re coming back inside.” Cole looked at Jose. “Come on, Jose. Let’s get back inside.”
Trevor stood at the edge of the woods, his gun ready in his hand. He looked around. “What were you guys yelling about out here?”
Cole knew that Trevor wasn’t going to let this go. “Jose thought he saw Frank.”
Trevor stiffened. “Frank?”
“Yeah. He thought he saw him up here in the woods.”
“I saw him,” Jose muttered.
Trevor stepped deeper into the woods, joining Cole and Jose. He scanned the trees, the low-hanging branches, and then the blanket of snow on the ground all around them. “But I don’t see—”
“I know,” Cole finished quickly. “There aren’t any tracks in the snow.”
“I saw him!” Jose snapped.
“Come on, Jose,” Cole said in a calm voice. “Another snowstorm is coming. We need to get back inside the cabin.”
Jose lowered his gun and walked back through the trees to the edge of the field.
Cole and Trevor glanced at each other, and then they followed Jose out of the woods. Cole could read his brother’s thoughts: Jose is losing it now, just like Needles.
Jose stopped at the edge of the clearing and stared at the cabin which sat in the middle of the field over a hundred yards away. He saw Stella standing on the front porch watching them.
“What’s she doing out on the porch?” he asked.
“Probably seeing what you guys were yelling about,” Trevor said.
“She has something to do with all of this,” Jose said.
Cole didn’t respond. He looked up at the sky which was dark gray with clouds. It looked like a wall of snow was heading right for them from the far side of the field behind the cabin.
“Come on,” Cole urged Jose. The wind from the coming storm was already picking up; a wave of even colder and nastier weather was coming, if that was possible. “We need to get back into the cabin. We’ve got other problems to discuss.”
“What other problems?” Trevor asked.
Cole glanced at Trevor, but then he nodded at the snowstorm that was moving in fast. “We need to hurry,” he told Trevor.
The three ran across the front field as the blizzard swept across the back field behind the cabin, whitewashing everything.
By the time they reached the front porch, the snowstorm was right on top of them. They hurried inside the cabin and shut the door on the storm.
CHAPTER 17
“Destroyed?” Trevor asked, his face slack with shock. “What do you mean, destroyed?”
“The engines in both vehicles are destroyed,” Cole told him. He looked at Stella and
David but they didn’t seem too surprised to hear the news. He looked at Needles who didn’t seem so surprised either. He looked back at Trevor. “Like someone took an ax to the motors.”
Trevor stared at Cole. His mouth moved, like he was trying to say something, but his voice wasn’t working for a moment. He turned and paced into the kitchen. Then he turned back to Cole. “An ax? Like the ax that’s missing from the fireplace?”
Cole didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.
David had the spiral notebook on his lap and the ballpoint pen in his hand. Cole looked at him and wondered where David had gotten the notebook and pen, but then he dismissed the thought. He didn’t really care right now. Cole watched David draw something in his notebook for a few moments. David was really concentrating on his drawing, his dark eyes focused like laser beams on the page.
“Is there any way the engines can be fixed?” Trevor asked, breaking Cole’s hypnosis. The tone of Trevor’s voice didn’t sound hopeful.
“No,” Cole answered as he walked into the kitchen to fix himself a cup of coffee. He poured the coffee into his mug and then held his hands around the cup for a second, letting the heat warm his hands up.
The blizzard was over top of the cabin like a smothering blanket. The wind howled around the eaves and battered the log walls.
“So, Frank takes the ax with him in the middle of the night and destroys our vehicles with it,” Trevor says.
“Frank wouldn’t do that,” Jose grumbled.
“You said you saw him out there in the woods,” Trevor said.
Needles perked up at this news. “Frank’s out there?”
Cole watched Stella when she heard that Jose saw Frank. Something about the way she looked. It was only for a split second, but he saw something in her eyes. It was fear. But not a fear of Frank, a fear of something else. She knew something about this, Cole was sure. But what?
“No,” Trevor spat out the word towards Needles. “Frank isn’t out there.”
“I saw him in the woods.”
“You saw a figment of your imagination. There were no tracks in the snow. No sign of him anywhere. You’re tired and scared and your mind’s playing tricks on you.”
“Don’t call me scared, you motherfucker.”
“Come on, you two,” Cole said.
“If Frank’s out there, then why?” Trevor continued, ignoring Cole’s warning.
“I don’t know,” Jose said. “Maybe he is after the money.”
“If he’s after the money, then why didn’t he just shoot everyone when he left in the middle of the night?” Trevor asked. “He would’ve had the chance. Why didn’t he shoot us in Stella’s truck? Or at the side of the road? Or when we first got off the snowmobiles?”
“Maybe there’s someone else out there,” Jose said. “The same people who killed that guy and stuffed him in the freezer. Maybe Frank went out there and they took him. Maybe it’s the same people who are after that bitch and that kid.” Jose stared at Stella and David. “I think we need to question them. Get some answers out of them.”
“Jose, that’s enough,” Cole said. “We’re not going to interrogate anyone. We’re not torturers.” Cole glanced at Needles. “We’re not murderers.”
“Yeah, but she knows something.”
“If she’s involved with this, then how would Frank know where Stella was going to be in her truck?” Cole asked Jose. “We took a different escape route after Needles killed the old man in the bank. Trevor was the one with the map.”
Jose turned to Trevor. “Yeah, Trevor had the map. He knew where we were going.”
“Oh, so I’m involved with this now?” Trevor said and couldn’t help smiling which only seemed to infuriate Jose even more.
“You and your brother, maybe,” Jose looked at Cole. “How do I know?”
“Like Cole said,” Trevor went on, “we wouldn’t even be here if Needles hadn’t shot that old man in the bank. You think Needles is in on it, too? You think all of us joined together with Stella and David to create all of this,” Trevor spread his hands out at the cabin, “just to trick you out of your share of the money?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” Jose grumbled.
“I didn’t have anything to do with this,” Needles said. “That old man in the bank grabbed me! I didn’t grab him, he grabbed me. And I saw things. I saw this place. And he told me the devil was coming. When are you guys going to see what’s really going on here? Something’s following those two,” Needles pointed at Stella and David on the couch. “And it isn’t human. It’s the devil and now he’s after us.”
“Needles,” Cole warned, “we’ve heard enough of your theories.”
“I say we just kick those two outside,” Needles went on. “If the devil’s after them, then let him have them. We’ll be a lot safer.”
“We’re not kicking anyone outside,” Cole said, as the anger seethed through his words. “We’re not torturing anyone. We’re not killing anyone. And we’re not kicking anyone outside in the snow.”
The others stared at Cole in silence.
“We just came across a bad place,” Cole continued, his eyes burning with anger, his patience completely gone now. “A place where a man was murdered, and whether we want to admit it or not, it’s getting to us. Turning us against each other.”
An awkward silence hung over them.
“So what are we going to do now?” Trevor asked. “Sleep with all of our guns pointed at each other?”
“We’re going to stay here tonight,” Cole said. “We’re going to wait until these snowstorms pass us by. And we may have to walk out of here tomorrow if we can’t get one of these vehicles to work. We’ll have to flag down another vehicle out on the road.”
“Four wanted bank robbers with two suitcases of money and two hostages walking down the side of the road,” Trevor said. “That sounds like a good idea.”
“Trevor,” Cole said through clenched teeth. “You’re not helping the situation.”
Trevor didn’t retort—he knew when he had pushed his big brother too far.
“Before we leave,” Cole went on after he inhaled a deep breath and exhaled slowly, hoping it would help his nerves, hoping that it would help the anger building up inside of him. “I think we need to burn this cabin to the ground. There’s a dead body in here and we don’t need to leave behind any evidence that we were here.”
“What about her truck?” Jose said as he hitched a thumb at Stella.
“We’ll burn that, too,” Cole said.
The others nodded.
“Okay,” Cole said. “We’ll sleep in watches again tonight.”
*
Hours later Stella and David slept on the couch. David had his notebook tucked protectively under his arm.
Jose had tried the TV and radio over and over again, trying to get some kind of station or signal, hoping to get some kind of news about the bank robbery, but none of the stations would come in—nothing but complete static. Jose finally gave up. He sipped from the bottle of whiskey, but not too much. He wanted to stay sober and ready for whoever was out there waiting for them in the darkness.
Trevor sat at the table for hours and played hand after hand of solitaire with a deck of playing cards that he’d found in a kitchen drawer.
Needles curled up in his recliner and massaged the crucifix around his neck as he muttered silent prayers with his eyes closed. Soon he drifted off into a fitful sleep.
Cole took the first watch as the rest of them slept. He planned on waiting until three o’clock in the morning and then waking Trevor up. They would need to take turns on watch if they had to stay here one or two more nights—even Needles would have to take a watch.
Cole’s thoughts melted together, and his eyes slowly closed, and he drifted off to sleep without even realizing it.
CHAPTER 18
Stella woke up in the middle of the night and she began to scream.
Cole snapped awake in the pitch-black darkness of
the cabin. For a split second he forgot where he was. It was like he was coming out of some kind of a dream, except he didn’t remember any of it; it was more like he was clawing his way out of a cocoon of darkness. But now he was awake and trapped in a real cocoon of darkness.
Cole groped at his blanket and pillows looking for his gun. Then he remembered that he had stuck his gun in the front of his pants. He felt along the front of his pants and then his fingers touched the reassuring feel of the steel of his pistol.
He didn’t even remember lying down on his bedroll. He remembered sitting at the dining room table with a cup of coffee in front of him. He was going to wake Trevor up for the next watch. Had he woken Trevor up and then went to bed and couldn’t remember it? He wasn’t sure, and he didn’t have time to think about it right now because Stella was still screaming.
Cole remained motionless for a moment, his fingers still touching the handle of his gun.
“Cole!” Trevor called out. “Where are you?”
“I’m here,” Cole called back.
“Stella!” Cole yelled. “What happened?”
Stella’s screams stopped, and for a split second the cabin was silent; there wasn’t even the sound of the snowstorm outside.
“Are you hurt, Stella?” Cole asked her.
Stella didn’t answer. Something about her silence in the pitch-black darkness scared Cole even more than her screams. It was like she suddenly realized that there was something in the cabin with them and she didn’t want to make a sound and give her position away.
“What the hell’s wrong with her?” Jose snapped. “Where’s everyone else?”
“I’m on my sleeping bag,” Trevor called out.
“I’m on my blankets,” Cole said.
“What happened to the lights?” Needles asked with a tremor in his voice. “Who turned out the fucking lights?”
“Where are you, Needles?” Cole asked, trying to keep his voice calm as he tried to mentally picture where everyone was in the cabin.
“In the recliner,” Needles answered.
That only left Stella and David. “Stella,” Cole said. “Where are you? Where’s David?”