by Ryan Casey
When she reached the edge of the woods, she saw exactly what she feared.
The man was running away with someone over his shoulder.
And that someone was Kayleigh.
Aoife tensed her fists. She had no choice now. It was Robert’s people. It had to be. And whether Kayleigh liked it or not, there was only one direction for Aoife to head in now.
She went to make a run for it when she suddenly became aware of movement behind her.
She wasn’t alone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Aoife heard the footsteps behind her as she watched that man in the distance carry Kayleigh away. She should’ve known this shit wouldn’t be straightforward. After all, when was it ever?
She watched the man disappear into the distance. The warm morning sun beamed down from above. Blue skies, as far as she could see. And she didn’t want to turn around. She didn’t want to look over her shoulder. She didn’t want to accept the possibility or the reality, that there was someone here with her. Someone from Robert’s group, quite possibly.
She didn’t want to accept the prospect that this was a trap.
But she knew she would have to turn around soon because the longer she hesitated, the more chance it gave whoever this was to gain some kind of ground on her.
She turned around, nails digging into her palms. She hadn’t even taken the time to go back into the cabin and grab whatever weapons she could find. Kayleigh was sure to have a few lying around, after all. But right now, Aoife was unarmed. Completely unarmed. Stupid. Complacent. Absolute idiot. If she’d had her bow and arrow, she might even have been able to fire an arrow at that bloke and stop him running off with Kayleigh.
But she couldn’t torture herself for the things she hadn’t done. She couldn’t live in the past right now. She had to get right back into the moment.
Because her own life was in danger here.
She turned around and saw two people standing right there. A man, a little older than her. And a woman, too, maybe around her age. Mean look to her face.
The first thing that struck Aoife? These people didn’t look like the kind of people she expected Robert to knock about with.
But they were holding knives.
“Hey,” the man said.
And Aoife wasn’t sure what to say. She wasn’t sure how to react. Only that she couldn’t trust these people. Not yet. Especially after what’d happened with Kyle.
But she was unarmed. Completely unarmed.
And as much as Rex was growling and barking by her side, something told Aoife he wasn’t exactly fooling anyone. Soft as shit.
“We—we don’t want trouble,” the man said. Raising his hands.
“Jesus, Vince,” the woman said. “Look at her. She’s one of those nutters.”
“We don’t know that, Heather,” Vince said. “She isn’t wearing white.”
“You’ve got us in trouble with your blind faith before,” Heather said. “I’m not going down that road again.”
“I’m not one of those ‘nutters’,” Aoife said. “But I think… I think I know the nutters you’re talking about. And back there. My friend. She’s—she’s just been taken by them. So I need to stop them. So, if you don’t mind me…”
Aoife turned around and went to walk.
“Wait,” Vince said.
Aoife stopped. Gritted her teeth. What the hell was this guy’s problem? She needed to go after Kayleigh. She needed to bring her back. She couldn’t let her fall into the clutches of Robert’s people.
She turned around. “I really need to—”
“I’m telling you,” Vince said. “If you go after your friend right now, you won’t be coming back.”
Aoife frowned.
“I know… I know it’s tough. Watching someone disappear like this. But take it from both of us. Once—once Robert has someone, he doesn’t lose them. That’s—that’s just not how it works.”
Aoife stood there. Heart racing. She could see Vince looking down at the ground, almost nervously. She could hear the crankiness, the shakiness, to his voice.
And she could see Heather looking at her with narrowed eyes, too.
“Unless she’s one of ’em. Only one of them would go running towards Robert in broad daylight like that. I refuse to believe anyone’s really that dumb.”
“Look,” Aoife said. “I don’t know who Robert is. I know he runs some kind of cult. But all I care about… all I care about is my friend. And—and the man from the helicopter. The one from the crash. Thomas. Robert’s people took him. I can’t let that happen.”
Vince looked at Heather. Both stared at one another for a second, not reacting, then looked back at Aoife. “Robert has one of the people from the helicopter?”
“Yeah. That’s what I said.”
Vince sighed. “Damn it. Then we’ll never know who they were. What they wanted. We’ll never know a thing.”
Aoife saw this blatant defeatism when it came to Robert, and it was really starting to piss her off. First, Kayleigh. Now these two idiots, whoever the hell they were.
“Look,” Aoife said. “You two can cower from Robert as much as you like. I’m sick of bending to his fucking wills. He has my friend, and he has that bloke from the helicopter. I’m sick of dithering around. It’s about time I did something about it. About time someone did something about it, anyway.”
Aoife walked back towards the cabin. She’d grab her weapons, grab whatever supplies she had. And then she’d go after Kayleigh and Thomas.
But then something remarkable happened.
Vince stood in front of her, blocked her way.
Aoife frowned. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Vince,” Heather said. “Just let her go, for fuck’s sake. She’s made her mind up.”
But Vince just stood there. Not budging. “I’ve seen… I’ve seen enough people lose themselves to Robert. I won’t watch someone else fall into his trap.”
She looked into his tearful red eyes, and she sensed a lot of stories there. Sensed a lot of trauma there. She wanted to ask him about it. Wanted to know everything.
But at the same time, she knew it wasn’t her business.
“Get out of my way,” Aoife said. “Right this second.”
Vince stood his ground. He looked at Aoife, right into her eyes. Bottom lip going like he wanted to get something off his chest, wanted to say something.
And then he just lowered his head and stepped out of Aoife’s way.
“Just… just be careful,” he said. “Because—because nobody comes back from that place. Nobody.”
Aoife nodded. Walked past Vince. Back towards the cabin.
And as much as she wanted to come across as headstrong, as much as she wanted to put a front of strength across… she couldn’t deny she felt afraid.
But she knew there was only one thing she could do.
She had to go after Kayleigh and Thomas.
She had to find them.
No matter what it took.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
When Kayleigh opened her eyes, she immediately got a sense that something was desperately wrong.
It was dark. Or… or maybe it wasn’t dark. Maybe she had something covering her vision. A blindfold, perhaps. She didn’t know. She felt light-headed. Woozy. Her head was spinning, and she could taste something at the back of her throat. Something medicinal. Something strong.
She tried to move, but her muscles were weak. Really weak. And besides, it felt like she was somewhere… comfortable? Why would she want to move anyway? She was on a comfy bed somewhere. She was calm. She was relaxed. She was okay. All of her worries, they were irrelevant because she was fine. She didn’t have to worry about a thing. She just had to lie back. She just had to relax. She just had to…
A memory. A memory out of nowhere, like a bolt of lightning.
A memory of walking through the woods. Walking away from… Aoife? Wait. Aoife was in her memory? No, that couldn’t be real
. It had to be a dream. There was no way she’d seen Aoife. That just didn’t happen. She couldn’t believe it had actually happened.
And yet something about it felt… real, somehow. Something about it felt… lucid.
She turned around and tried to remember the rest of the memory, or the dream, or whatever it was. But it all went blurry after walking away from Aoife, walking into the woods. It all went blurry, and now she was… here. Wherever here was.
She opened her eyes again and suddenly realised she wasn’t in fact blindfolded. She could see.
Above, she could see a white ceiling. A large window over to her right, with a balcony looking out over a town. A familiar town. Somehow, it made her feel comfortable. She didn’t know why, but there was just a warmth she felt from it. A feeling like she’d been here before, and when she’d been here before she’d felt good. She’d felt okay. She’d felt like everything was right with the world.
She turned around on this comfy king-sized bed, and she just wanted to drift off and sink into the warm, plush cushions. It felt nice. Soothing, on her sore back. The pillows so plump and inviting for her aching head to lie on.
She wanted to fall to sleep again. She wanted to disappear into the comfort. Into the warmth.
And then another memory rose to the surface.
This memory filled her with dread. Made anxiety climb into her chest, gnaw at her stomach.
Because this memory was one of what’d happened when she was last here.
When she’d last stood in this room.
When she’d last lay in this bed.
She realised suddenly why it was so familiar.
And when she did, the warmth was replaced with coldness.
The light was replaced by darkness.
And she wanted to get up. She wanted to get up off this bed and get away.
Her heart rate picking up.
But her muscles still weak.
Still so, so weak…
She went to climb off this bed when she suddenly heard a creaking over to her left.
She froze. She didn’t want to turn around. She didn’t want to look. She didn’t want to see what she feared would be there.
Who she feared would be there.
But as she lay there, heart racing, she knew she had no choice.
It felt like a nightmare. A nightmare she’d had countless times.
Only it wasn’t a nightmare.
It was very, very real.
She turned over and looked to her left, over to where the noise came from.
She saw him standing there. Tall. Slim, but well-built. Just as good-looking as she remembered, with those crisp green eyes. And with those long, curly locks.
And that ever-present calming smile on his face.
He walked over to the side of the bed. Then he sat down on the side of it, right beside her.
She wanted to get up. She wanted to get away.
But she was just so exhausted.
She was just so, so tired.
He reached a hand over.
Stroked her hair. Moved a few strands of it out of her eyes, off her forehead.
As much as she wanted to push back, as much as she wanted to fight him, as much as she wanted to scream at him to get away, she couldn’t. She just couldn’t.
She prayed that this was a nightmare. Prayed it was a bad dream. Prayed it wasn’t real. Because it couldn’t be real. She couldn’t let it be real.
But then she felt him lean in.
Felt him kiss her on her forehead with his soft lips.
Then, he said those words that only he could say.
“Hello, my princess,” Robert said. “I’ve missed you so, so much.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Aoife stepped out of the cabin and looked out at the woods, knowing full well the dangers of the journey ahead.
The sun had disappeared behind some rare grey clouds. The air felt humid, and there was an ominous breeze to the air like a storm was on the horizon.
She saw the irony. Pathetic fallacy, it was called. She remembered studying it in English at school. When the weather matches the mood. Seemed a bit of a cliché in fiction, but it tended to be the case in reality more than anyone really gave it credit for.
The woods were silent. Silent, but for the rustling of the leaves against one another. She couldn’t hear Vince or Heather. Figured they’d given up on her. Moved on. Good. Better that way. ’Cause Aoife wasn’t having either of them stopping her journey. She wasn’t having either of them stand in her way.
She felt a knot in her stomach at the thought of walking away from them. Weird as it sounded… they seemed like decent people. And when she’d been searching for decent people for so long, it felt weird to just walk away from some like this.
But this wasn’t walking away from anyone. This was walking towards a discovery. This was walking towards something new.
She couldn’t just leave Kayleigh behind.
And she couldn’t lose Thomas, either.
She reached into her pocket. Pulled out the dog tag she’d found in there. Thomas Suzuki.
She hoped to God he was okay.
She looked down at Rex. Smiled.
“Let’s go,” she said. “We’ve dithered enough as it is.”
She went to walk when suddenly she heard something that made her freeze in her tracks.
A scream.
A man or a woman’s scream? She couldn’t tell. Whoever it was, it was high-pitched, and it was terrified, and it was close. Closer than she dared admit.
Vince?
Heather?
She looked ahead, into the woods, over towards where she’d heard the scream, and she tightened her grip on the blade she’d found in Kayleigh’s stash.
She couldn’t just walk away from whoever this was.
Whatever her responsibilities were to Kayleigh and Thomas, she couldn’t just disappear.
She started to run through the trees. Laying low. Keeping as low a profile as she could. She felt like she was being watched—a common feeling when she was in the woods. Felt like there were people all around her. Watching. Waiting. Whispering.
She kept on moving towards the scream. But the weird thing about it? It sounded like it was getting further away. Like whoever was screaming was on the run.
She had to be careful. Had to watch herself.
She’d heard about Robert’s traps. She’d seen them for herself when his people tried to get her to run down that alleyway in the middle of last night.
She had to keep as low a profile as possible. And she had to be careful.
She reached the edge of the woods, and she froze.
She stopped. She could see someone right up ahead. Someone standing there in the woods. On their own.
A woman.
Hands cupped around her mouth.
Screaming.
What the hell was she doing? She wasn’t in danger by the looks of things. Wasn’t in any pain. So why was she screaming?
She lifted her bow and went to point it at the woman when suddenly she became aware of movement behind her.
Her stomach felt like it dropped out beneath her.
Her heart sunk right into her belly.
She turned around, sweat pouring down her face, and went to fire an arrow at whoever was there.
But when she looked around, she didn’t see a soul.
She crouched there. Shaking. Heart racing.
She’d heard someone. She was absolutely sure of that.
She’d heard someone, and they were hiding in the trees, and they were going to sneak up on her. Ambush her.
And then she realised something, very suddenly.
The screaming. It’d stopped.
She turned back around.
The woman who’d been standing there, screaming, was nowhere in sight.
The hairs on her arms stood on end. She suddenly felt both very alone and very watched, both at the same time.
She wasn’t alone.
There was someone here in these woods.
And she was in danger.
She kept still. Holding her bow for dear life. Looking everywhere, scanning her surroundings.
She didn’t see anyone.
Didn’t see a soul.
But she did see an opening out of these woods.
An opening towards the fields.
An opening to get to Kayleigh and Thomas and Robert.
She gritted her teeth. No time like the fucking present.
And then she went to bolt when suddenly she heard movement over to her left.
She spun around. Saw the woman flying towards her, knife in hand.
She staggered back, went to fire an arrow, but it went flying off past her, up into the trees.
And then the woman was on top of Aoife.
Knife to her throat.
Knife to her throat and nothing Aoife could do but scratch and punch and kick and try to bite her.
And then…
Out of nowhere, the woman pulled a cloth.
Went to move it towards Aoife’s face.
A cloth that smelled… medicinal. Very medicinal. And so strong that Aoife actually felt faint just catching a whiff of it.
“You’re lucky,” she said. “He wants to see you. After what you did to our people… he’s very interested in seeing you.”
And then the woman covered Aoife’s mouth with the cloth.
Pushed it right down, pressing so hard Aoife’s nose felt like it was going to break.
She shook. Kicked. Tried to bite and tried to break free, but she was just getting weaker and weaker, drifting off, slipping away, and…
Then suddenly, something shifted.
A sound. A scream. A cry.
A bark.
It all happened so fast.
The woman tumbling off Aoife.
That cloth slipping from her face.
Aoife catching her breath, getting back to her feet, slightly dizzy, slightly disoriented.
When she stood up and saw what’d happened, she couldn’t remember feeling this proud for a long time.
Rex had his teeth clamped around the woman’s throat.