by Dave Bowman
He would find them, and they would be sorry they had ever crossed into his territory.
25
“Welcome to your new home,” Garrison said.
He had led Bethany and Mia through the woods for over an hour. It had been a never-ending journey through the forest with so many twists and turns that Bethany felt completely lost. Now, they came to the top of another hill, and a cabin came into view.
It was a low, squat structure with few windows and cheap siding. The forest came up close to the walls, and it seemed dark inside. Bethany felt her throat constrict as she looked at it.
This couldn’t be happening.
How could she go inside that horrid little place with a lunatic? For all she knew, he was a serial killer. And now she and Mia had been forced at gunpoint to march up to his home.
Would it really end like this? It didn’t seem possible that she could be standing before this dismal, oppressive house with her hands bound and an insane man ordering her inside.
“Well, come in,” Garrison said, grabbing her elbow and leading her inside.
The cold interior stank of mildew, filth and chemicals. The light coming in the front window was paltry, and at first Bethany could see nothing. When her eyes adjusted, she gasped.
Everywhere she looked was pure chaos. Mysterious bottles and packages, strange equipment, animal skins, dirty plates, and pieces of meat and bones – she could only hope they came from the same animals as the skins being tanned – were strewn about in a disturbing display of sloth and madness. Bethany fought back nausea. Mia whimpered.
“What the hell is all this?” Bethany mumbled under her breath.
Garrison didn’t hear her. He removed a stack of notebooks from a metal folding chair and motioned for Bethany to sit in it. Clearing a deer skin that had partially been stripped of hair from another chair, he nodded to Mia.
“Sit.”
They collapsed in the chairs, their hands still bound. After the grueling walk up to the cabin, Bethany’s energy was depleted. She hadn’t eaten enough since the night before, and the exerting hike had made her muscles weak with fatigue. Her heart pounded from fear and the urgency of needing food and drink.
“We need water,” Bethany muttered, watching Garrison putter around the room. “And food.”
“Patience, cupcake,” he said.
He produced two metal cups from the disorder on his desk and poured some water into each. Returning to stand in front of them, he held them up.
“Mama bear and baby bear.”
Bethany’s stomach twisted in nausea and fear. He held the cup to her lips. She hesitated just a moment, worrying the drink may have been poisoned, but in the end her thirst won out. She gulped the water down. Then Garrison held the other cup to Mia’s lips and let her drink as well.
Bethany watched as the strange man walked to the kitchen area, just a few feet away from them in the open space. He seized a large, bloody chunk of raw meat and began to slice it in thin strips with a sharp knife directly on the counter. He hummed as he worked.
“I hope he doesn’t expect us to eat that,” Bethany whispered under her breath to Mia, who sat watching the man.
Garrison opened the door of an old cast iron wood stove and arranged some wood inside. He blew on the coals and watched the kindling catch, the flames quickly engulfing the dry wood. He closed the stove door and set a skillet and pot on the top surface of the stove. As he worked, Bethany looked around the cabin.
The large front room contained the living area she and Mia were in, a desk, and the kitchen. There appeared to be two or three other rooms in the back of the cabin.
Were there others back there? Were there any still alive?
Bethany shook her head, pushing the thoughts away. She had to focus on escape.
As the fire began to crack and the grease in the skillet sizzled, Bethany used the opportunity to talk to Mia.
“Was Charlie . . . dead?” Bethany asked in a whisper.
Mia didn’t take her eyes off the man. “I’m not sure. Did you see Trina anywhere?”
Bethany shook her head. “Do you think Nick and the rest will find us up here?”
“I hope so, but . . . I don’t know. This place is so far away from the road. What if they can’t find it?”
Bethany bit her lip and looked around. The thick wooden door was locked with a deadbolt on the inside. There were only two windows in the front room, and Bethany wouldn’t be able to fit through either of them.
“We’ll have to find some way out of here. I don’t know how, but I’ll find some way. Just be ready to run when the time comes.”
Mia nodded.
Garrison approached the wood stove and glanced up at Bethany as he stirred something in the pot.
“Just give it a chance, Judy,” he said. “In a couple of days, you’ll learn to love it here. The peace and quiet up in these woods, the tranquility – there’s no place better for introspection than right here.”
Bethany rolled her eyes.
“Just give me a chance,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at her.
Freak.
He walked over to them with two steaming bowls of soup.
“Potato leek soup. Just what the doctor ordered,” he said, grinning. “I made this from a dehydrated soup mix. But in the spring we’ll plant the garden and we can make this homemade next year.”
The sight of the soup made Bethany’s mouth water. It smelled so good, and she was so hungry, that she couldn’t resist.
He fed them himself, giving first one of them a few spoonfuls, then the other. They finished the soup quickly.
“You girls were hungry!” he exclaimed, grinning.
“We still are,” Bethany said. “Can we have some more?”
“I wouldn’t want you to fill up on soup,” Garrison replied. “Since the second course is much better.”
He returned to the stove and dished out the food from the cast iron skillet onto two plates. He sat in front of them again and lifted a forkful of meat to Bethany’s mouth.
“See how well I take care of you? You’re going to eat well up here.”
She twisted her mouth in disgust. “No thanks.”
Garrison’s face fell. “What?”
“I’d rather not eat that.”
His face darkened like a storm moving in. “Why not?”
“I don’t know what that meat is,” Bethany said. “It was just sitting on your counter. It’s kind of gross.”
“It’s venison. Deer,” Garrison said, his hand clenching the fork a little tighter. “Why wouldn’t you want to eat meat that your husband hunted for you?”
“Because you’re not my husband and I don’t trust you.”
Mia tensed. “Bethany,” she pleaded quietly.
“You ungrateful hussy!” Garrison said, standing up. “I hunted and processed this deer for you. And it’s the backstrap! I gave you the best cut.”
His face turned red. Making a primal sound, he threw the fork across the room, and it clanged against the wall. Bethany flinched.
“I’ll have some,” Mia said in a tiny voice.
Garrison turned to her and blinked a few times, coming out of his rage.
“Thatta girl, Suzy! You see, Judy? Our daughter knows how to be good. Why can’t you be good like her?”
Garrison turned away to get another fork from the kitchen. Bethany looked at Mia and mouthed the word Suzy with her eyebrows raised.
Mia took a forkful of the meat and nodded appreciatively.
“It’s great, Daddy.”
Garrison nodded approvingly and looked at Bethany.
“Fine. I’ll have some.”
Bethany accepted the meat, and to her surprise, it was good. He fed them the venison, bite by bite, until it was gone. She was glad for the food. Without her stomach growling, she could concentrate on getting out of there.
“Thanks, Garrison,” she said as he took the food away. It pained her to be nice to her kidnapper, but she knew
Mia had the right idea. They had to win his trust.
She watched as he washed the dishes. He had set his gun down on the kitchen table. It was the first time it was out of his reach since he had taken them from the tent. He washed the chef’s knife, dried it and put it in a drawer.
“I can wash those dishes for you,” Bethany called, forcing her voice to sound steady.
He flashed her a smile. “No, darling, you just rest.”
Bethany and Mia exchanged a look, recognizing the fear in each other’s eyes. They were trapped.
“Well, can you untie us now? This rope hurts our wrists. And my arms are getting tired like this. It’s not good for the baby for me to be stressed, you know.”
Garrison dried his hands and returned to Bethany, kneeling at her side.
“Yes, the baby,” he said, gazing at her stomach as if he’d forgotten she was carrying a child.
He tentatively put a hand on her belly and held it there. Bethany fought back an urge to vomit, to scream at him to remove his hand.
He looked up at her and she forced a smile.
“It’s our son,” he marveled. “It is a boy, isn’t it?”
She nodded. “Yes, it’s a boy. How did you know?”
“I told you, Judy, this is our destiny. It’s written in the stars.”
Bethany rolled her eyes as he looked away.
More like a lucky guess.
Garrison stood up and paced back and forth a few times across the room as Bethany and Mia silently watched him. He looked outside the window.
“Soon it will be dark,” he said, staring outside. “The sun’s getting lower.” He turned back to face them.
“You two should be in bed. I’ve already got your room all set up.”
Bethany frowned and looked nervously at Mia.
“Don’t worry,” Garrison said soothingly as he ran his hand over Bethany’s hair. “You’ll have the room to yourselves. This is how it will be in the beginning. You need time to get used to me.”
He took a brown ringlet and pulled it straight, then watched it bounce back. Bethany’s skin was crawling. Her eyes darted to the shotgun out of Garrison’s reach on the kitchen table.
“That’s – that’s very considerate of you, Garrison,” she said.
“You see? I’m not a bad guy,” he said, bringing his lips down to her ear. “You’ll learn to like being here. Once you accept it.”
Bethany nodded. She took a deep breath and lowered her voice so that Mia couldn’t hear.
“This place is already starting to grow on me,” she murmured. “Why don’t you untie my hands, hmm? I don’t need my own room tonight. I can stay with you, if you want.”
He looked at her. She gave him a little smile. “But I just need my arms to be free. That’s all I ask. Then we can go to bed.”
Garrison smiled at her and ran his finger down her arm. Bethany’s heart pounded. It was almost more than she could bear. His touch sickened her.
She felt his hands at her wrists, untying the rope. Her pulse quickened, her wrists burned as the rope once again rubbed at her raw skin. Little by little, the rope became looser. Her breath hitched in her lungs as she felt her hands become free, finally. She brought them into her lap, rubbing her skin.
“There,” Garrison said. “Now let’s go –”
Bethany snapped her elbow up and smashed it against his eye. He recoiled instantly, screaming from the pain and bringing his hand up to his face.
Bethany flew up from her seat and lunged at the table. Grabbing the rifle, she swung it around.
But he was already there, wrenching it out of her hands. They struggled. She twisted to the side, fighting to keep the gun in her hands. Everything moved so fast, and she only saw flashes of his shirt, his face, and the room as she fought with everything she had to keep that gun in her hands and raise the barrel at him.
He was too strong. He overpowered her, grabbing her from behind and keeping her arms down. She screamed in despair as he pried the shotgun out of her hands and she was left to grasp at the air.
“Bad girl!”
His face was red as he shouted at her. He turned the rifle toward her.
“You’re a very, very, very bad girl!”
She cried in desperation and utter defeat. She had been so close.
She felt the rope slipping over her wrists again as he pulled her arms back and tied them once more. He grabbed her arm and pulled her. She kept her feet rooted where she was, and he yanked harder until she staggered from her spot.
“You don’t get the special room! You have to go in here tonight.”
He pulled her through the living room. He opened a door and revealed a small, cramped closet. She recoiled in horror.
“No!”
He pulled her toward the closet. She fought him, clawed and kicked at him, but it was no use.
“This is where bad girls go!”
He pushed her inside the closet and slammed the door shut. She heard him turn the lock on the doorknob.
“Suzy has to be punished too!”
Bethany listened as Garrison stormed over to grab Mia, leading her to the closet. The door flew open, and he pushed Mia inside the tight space with Bethany. The door was locked again.
They listened as his footsteps retreated. He was back in the kitchen, mumbling to himself.
Bethany and Mia slid down to the floor of the closet. Tears streamed down Bethany’s face. She could feel Mia shaking.
Bethany had tried and failed. How could it have come to this? How could she and Mia be trapped with a psychopath in the middle of the wilderness?
Bethany began to hear something outside the closet. She held her breath and listened.
Garrison was making a deep, groaning noise. It started out quiet, then grew louder.
She cringed as his voice became more intense. But it wasn’t just the volume of his scream that disturbed her. It was the rage she could hear that sent a chill down her spine.
He was roaring.
26
“Mia! Bethany! Trina!”
Jessa cupped her hands around her mouth and called into the woods. There was no response except for a breeze blowing the branches of the pines towering above her.
“He’s still alive,” Liz said, her fingers on Charlie’s throat. “His pulse is good.”
“But he’s out cold,” Matt said, looking down at him. “And Trina, Mia, and Bethany are missing.”
Matt charged into the woods, calling their names as he searched the area.
Nick squatted by the tent. “There was a struggle,” he said to Liz. “The tent floor is torn, and the sleeping bag and pad are all twisted up.”
Leaving Charlie’s side, Liz moved to the tent and looked over Nick’s shoulder.
“What?” she said, stunned. “Someone took them?”
“It looks that way,” Nick said.
He stood up and looked over the area. The ground in front of the tent had been disturbed, with dirt kicked up. It appeared there had been a struggle in front of the tent, too.
“I found Trina!” Jessa called from a few yards away in the forest to the left.
Nick and Liz exchanged a look, then followed Jessa’s voice to find her kneeling over Trina. Matt came running up behind them.
Trina lay on the ground, unconscious but alive. “She’s in pretty much the same shape as Charlie,” Jessa said. “Someone knocked them out.”
“So Mia and Bethany have to be around here somewhere,” Matt said.
Nick looked back at the truck they had left behind. All the gear they had taken out of the Forest Service truck still waited on the ground beside the Dodge, undisturbed.
Nick shook his head. His heart sped up as his hands went clammy.
“I don’t think we’re going to find them here,” he said.
“Why not?” Matt asked nervously.
“Because this wasn’t a robbery,” Nick said as he crossed the distance back to the trucks with the others following him. He stopped in fro
nt of the pile of bags and gear they had unloaded from the truck and looked it over.
“All of our things are here. Nothing’s gone except Mia and Bethany,” Nick said, looking at the woods. “This was a kidnapping.”
Matt swallowed and shook his head. His panicked eyes darted around. “They have to be around here somewhere. Bethany and Mia have to be all right, they have to be.”
He started off toward the woods again, but Nick grabbed his arm.
“Hold up,” Nick said. “We’ll look for them, but we have to be careful. We can’t go stomping around in the woods and destroying any tracks or signs that might lead us to where they are.”
Matt frowned. “But why would anyone want to take Mia and Bethany?”
Because this is a sick world, Nick thought.
“I don’t know, Matt,” Nick said quietly.
“Well, do you think it’s the BSC?” the teenager asked.
“No, it can’t be,” Jessa said. “They want us all dead. They would have killed Trina and Charlie, then hidden in the woods and shot us as we drove up. This is somebody else.”
“Unless it’s a trap,” Liz added. “Maybe the gang members want us to think that.”
“Maybe,” Nick said. “But I think Jessa’s probably right. It’s not the BSC’s style. I think somebody has a cabin up in those woods and they saw us arrive. When the four of us left, they used the opportunity to come down here and take what they wanted.”
A chilling silence fell over the group.
A rustling nearby broke the quiet. Nick turned around to see Charlie move his arm. He mumbled something as they walked to his side. He opened and closed his hand a few times. Liz took his hand in her own.
“You're all right, Charlie,” Jessa said. “We're here.”
She and Nick helped Charlie sit up and propped him against the tree. He opened his eyes, blinked a few times, and looked around for a moment.
“Something bad happened, didn't it?” he asked, eyes darting around.
“You were unconscious for a while,” Liz said. “Trina is still out. And Mia and Bethany are missing.”
Charlie squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. When he opened them again, he seemed disappointed to see everyone standing over him. It was hard to believe it wasn’t a dream.