Perilous (YA Suspense)

by Tamara Hart Heiner

  “She’s edgy and doesn’t seem to want to be around us,” agreed Jaci. “Everything I say, she either cries or blows up at me.”

  “Yeah. She spends all her time with Neal and Ricky.”

  “Whatever it is, I’m worried. She’s not acting like herself at all. And Neal and Ricky are nice guys, but how much can we trust them? I mean, they are guys.”

  Amanda arched an eyebrow over her green eyes. “What about Sara? These things can change people.”

  “Well, let’s keep an eye on her.”

  Amanda glanced behind her. “Where are they, anyway? I can’t even see them.”

  “Lagging behind again. Come on, let’s go back.” She turned around and quickened her pace. “Look at that.”

  “What is it?”

  A structure of slender trees and branches wove together from bank to bank. This explained why the river was so shallow. “It’s a beaver’s dam. I bet if it were gone, this whole canal would be full.”

  “Cool,” Amanda said, scanning the horizon. “How come we didn’t notice it on the way down?”

  “Too busy gossiping, I guess.” Jaci looked to the shore twelve feet away. “I think there’s someone on the other side.”

  She squinted, making out three figures. Sara and the twins, of course. They sat in the shade of a tree, one of them sprawled out on his back, propped up by his elbows, the other leaning against the trunk. Jaci pushed down an uneasy feeling. She wished Sara didn’t hang on them so much.

  “Hi,” Amanda shouted.

  The three looked up and Sara wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. The twin leaning against the tree straightened. “Hi.”

  Jaci recognized Ricky’s voice even before she saw the black peeking from the gray sweater.

  “What are you doing over there?” Amanda yelled.

  He stood up, flashing another smile, and held up an orange backpack. “Found some food.”

  The backpack appeared to have been left behind by campers. It had marshmallows, a box of graham crackers, chocolate bars, beef jerky, and raisins. They brushed off the ants and shared the food, too hungry to think about rationing.

  Neal and Ricky walked on ahead to clear a trail, leaving the girls following behind.

  The terrain next to the stream was flatter than the surrounding hills, so they traveled close to the water. There weren’t as many trees to step around, either. Just tree roots.

  Jaci stumbled over one, almost pitching into the stream, but Amanda caught her arm. “Be careful.”

  Jaci paused, noticing what she had almost stepped into. A small fire pit, right next to the river. She crouched down and stuck her finger in the ash.

  Sara stopped. “What is it?”

  Jaci felt a cold shiver run down her spine. “We haven’t been here already, have we?”

  “Of course not.” Amanda shook her head. “That’s just an old pit. Probably belonged to whoever left that orange backpack behind.”

  “It’s still warm.” Jaci stood up, rubbing the ash from her finger tips.

  Amanda lowered her voice. “I’m sure it’s nothing. This is a forest, after all. People camp here.”

  Jaci let out a careful breath. The last thing she wanted was panic in their small camp. “We need to be careful. Not draw attention to ourselves. It might not be anyone important, or it might be someone looking for us. I’ll tell the boys.”

  Sara hugged herself and rocked on the balls of her feet, staring into the fire pit.

  Nobody spoke for the rest of the afternoon. Jaci found herself turning her head at every movement. The familiar feelings of paranoia and fear descended on her. She hoped the camper stayed at least a day’s walk ahead of them.

  The sun went down and with it, all the heat evaporated from the air. Ricky came over to help them set up their fire circle, pulling out his rock to start a spark.

  “Any sign of our visitor?” he asked, crouching over the kindling.

  “I’m not sure we should have a fire,” Jaci warned.

  He put his rock back in his pocket. “You’ll freeze without one.”

  There are worse things, she thought.

  “Hey,” Amanda said, sidling up next to them. Her shoulder bumped Ricky’s knee.

  “Hey.” Ricky shrugged. “We’ll be close by.”

  Jaci felt a surge of panic when he walked away. She didn’t want him to go. What if they needed protection?

  “I don’t like being away from them,” Sara pulled on Jaci’s sweater sleeve.

  Amanda snorted. “That’s because you have a crush on Ricky.”

  “I do not!” Sara said, her face turning crimson.

  “Keep it down,” said Jaci. “Start gathering leaves for insulation.”

  Ignoring her, Amanda growled, “Out with it, Sara. What’s going on with you and Ricky?”

  Sara’s mouth tightened. “More than what’s going on between you and him, that’s for sure.”

  “Oh, you think?”

  “Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Jaci intervened.

  “I’m done with this.” Sara sat down by a tree and closed her eyes.

  “I’m still talking to you, Sara,” said Amanda, but Sara didn’t move.

  Jaci heard someone whisper her name from the shrubbery. Ricky beckoned and disappeared into the foliage. She hurried after.

  “What is it, Ricky?”

  He nodded back toward the campsite. “I actually came to talk to Sara. Guess I have bad timing.”

  “It’s all the tension. Lack of food, lack of sleep. And I think Amanda’s jealous.” She raised an eyebrow. “Is that why we’re hiding? You don’t want her to see me talking to you?”

  He laughed. “I could care less what she thinks. I have some questions for Sara. About something she told Neal.”

  “What did she tell Neal?”

  “Well, it’s a secret. Can’t tell.”

  “Fine. But don’t hurt her.”

  “Hurt her?” He put his hands over his heart. “Never. Besides, Neal would kill me.”

  “Well, if that’s everything, I should go back.”

  Ricky reached out and grabbed her hand. “What are you afraid of? That she’s going to be Ricky Collins’ next victim? Or that you will be?”

  A sliver of heat ran through her wrist at his touch. “I’ll never be the victim.”

  He pulled her up, his hazel eyes roving over her face. “Sorry. Wrong word. I didn’t mean a victim—like, a real victim.” He took her chin in his hand and leaned closer.

  Jaci jerked her face away and backed up, keeping her eyes averted. Emotions—embarrassment, anger, desire, confusion—rushed through her in a split second, vying for her attention. “I need to be with the other girls. To make sure there’s no trouble.”

  Ricky jogged a little to catch up with her. “I still need to talk to Sara.”

  She felt a flash of anger. “Why don’t you watch for intruders? You’re here to keep us safe. You can talk to her tomorrow.”

  Ricky stopped walking. “Okay. Yeah. I’ll talk to her tomorrow. See ya.”

  She ran a hand through her hair and sighed in annoyance. A few strands came out of her ponytail, and she paused to stuff them back in.

  It was silent at the campsite. She made out the still forms of Sara and Amanda in the dark, sleeping several feet from each other.

  Jaci went back to her leaf pile and shoved them into her clothes, trying to insulate her thin body from the cold. Her stomach growled, and she stuck a leaf in her mouth and chewed. She laid her head down and closed her eyes, a bitter taste in her mouth.

  October 9

  Johnsburg, New York

  Carl leaned over the counter in the North Creek Deli and Market. Outside a cold wind whipped through the Adirondacks and howled at the windows.

  “Think really hard.” He kept his voice warm and encouraging. “What did the girls look like?”

  The young man behind the counter with ‘Derek’ written on his name tag squinted and scratched at his stubby brown hair.
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br />   Carl glanced out the window. The hour drive from Queensbury through the mountain range to Johnsburg had been dizzying and breath-taking. Tall pines and dense vegetation surrounded either side of the highway as it twisted and turned through the hills and valleys.

  But that wasn’t the point. The point was that two boys here had been reported missing. When the New York state police began the investigation, an interview at the North Creek Deli and Market reported that the boys had last been seen with three girls. The police had been quick to contact the Idaho Falls police department.

  Carl shifted his weight, working to stay calm. He wanted to verify that these were the right girls. But even if he couldn’t, he would proceed as if they were. It was his best lead in days.

  “Well, Derek?”

  “It’s been a few days. I can’t remember for sure. But there were three. They sat over there.” He pointed to a booth by the window. “Ricky and Neal ordered for them.”

  Carl glanced at his notepad. He already had the names ‘Ricky and Neal Collins’ written down.

  “Did Ricky and Neal eat here a lot?”

  Derek nodded. “Oh, yeah. Almost every day. Maybe every day.”

  “Did you overhear them talking?”

  “Sure. They argued over what to buy.”

  “I mean, did you hear them talking about where they were going?”

  Derek shook his head. “No, man! I had no idea they were cutting out of town. No clue.”

  “Thank you, Derek.” Carl handed him a business card. “Call me if you remember anything.”

  “Okay.” Derek stuck the card in his pocket.

  Carl turned away, grunting inwardly. That card would end up in the wash, never seen again. He hadn’t learned anything from Derek, but Carl’s gut told him this was the right path.

  He stepped outside and sat down on a bench, pulling his windbreaker closed. If the girls were out here in this mountain range, how would they survive this cold? Night time temperatures could get below freezing this time of year. Opening the notepad, Carl read over the information again.

  “Ricky and Neal Collins. Seventeen, twins. Joselyn Bennett, grandmother, dead.”

  It had originally said missing, but then the police called Carl and told him they had a cremation record on file for the woman at the local morgue. Carl had crossed out ‘missing’ and written ‘dead.’ It remained to be seen if the boys had killed her or not.

  “Seniors at Johnsburg Central High.” Apparently after four days of not coming to school, the teachers finally reported Neal as missing. Not Ricky—he skipped a lot. But they were concerned about Neal, a devoted student who had already put down pre-med for his undergraduate studies.

  “Born Little Falls, New York. Custody battle.”

  He stood up. The police had said if they found the boys, they would arrest them. They were wanted for arson, and charges might still be pressed for the grandmother’s death. Ricky had broken his probation, first with the fire, and now by hiking out of town. Carl shook his head. What kind of psychos had the girls run into this time?

  They were out there in the forest somewhere among the thousands of acres. He needed the park rangers’ phone numbers. They needed to be on that trail, alerting hikers to watch out for these kids.

  He tried to imagine where they would be, what route they would take. The girls wanted to get back to Idaho. Where did the boys want to go?

  He would spend a few days here to see if he could glean anything from the boys’ friends and teachers. Or even Ricky’s probation officer. He needed to get to Little Falls. He needed to see the court records.

  Those records might give him a hint as to where the boys were heading.

  Chapter 23

  Jaci splashed cold river water over her face, shivering as it fell into her sweater.

  “Hi.” Sara joined her. “Where’s Amanda?”

  “She was already up when I got up.” Jaci searched around the river bank. Standing, she dried her hands on her jeans. “I’ll find her.”

  Sara shrugged. “She’s probably with the boys.”

  “I’ll just make sure that’s where she is. You ready to head out?”

  “Give me five more minutes.”

  Jaci found one of the boys using his foot to cover a small circle of ash with dirt. From the serious expression on his face, it had to be Neal. The light gray color of his sweater was dirtier now.

  “Hi, Neal.”

  He looked up and gave her a brief smile. “Jaci.”

  “We’re going to leave soon.” She glanced around. “You seen Amanda? She wasn’t up at our camp.”

  Neal shrugged his shoulder toward the path they’d made the day before. “She went that way.”

  Jaci started down the path, straining her ears to hear voices.

  She didn’t need to go far. She almost walked into the grove where Amanda and Ricky were kissing.

  She tiptoed back, careful not to step on a twig or give any other notice of her presence.

  “Let’s go, Neal,” she said shortly, not bothering to look at him as she hurried back to Sara.

  Catching up to Sara, she jerked her shoulder bag from the river bank. “Come on.”

  Sara jogged to match Jaci’s stride. “What about the boys?”

  “They’re coming.”

  Sara kept pace with her and didn’t ask any more questions. Amanda and Ricky stayed behind, close enough that the murmur of their voices carried.

  Neal moved ahead, staying in front of Jaci and Sara, moving thorn bushes and stamping on dry underbrush.

  The air grew colder when dusk fell, as if the sun had taken the last rays of warmth with it. Just like the day before. The stream gurgled and bubbled over rocks close to the shore.

  Jaci pulled on a thread of her pink sweater, watching it unravel. It ran around and around her sleeve before catching and tearing.

  “We should stop,” Neal said.

  Jaci nodded. She walked over to the creek. Only about eight feet across, the opposite bank looked close enough to jump. She leaned over it and cupped her hand to gather the water for a drink. It smelled clean. The water they had gotten upstream yesterday hadn’t upset their systems.

  Pulling a water bottle from her bag, she began refilling it. Finishing with that one, she rolled it behind her and started on the next.

  “I’ll see if I can find my brother,” Neal said, touching Sara’s shoulder.

  Sara picked up the bottle Jaci had rolled back and shook it. She held it close to her face and examined it. “Do you really think this water is safe? I’d hate to get dysentery.”

  “Looks fine. Is this stream on the map?”

  “Hmm.” Sara unfolded it and examined it. “How am I supposed to know one stream from another? We haven’t been plotting our course.”

  Amanda waltzed over, twirling her arms and swirling like a ballerina. “Hey, you two.”

  Sara stood up and walked away. Amanda looked over at Jaci. “What’s her problem?”

  Jaci shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe she’s still mad about last night. She didn’t tell me.” She stood up, brushing dirt from her jeans, and wandered in the direction Sara had gone.

  She found her squatting on the river bank, throwing rocks into it. It was dark now, and Jaci could barely see her outline. A twig snapped under her foot, and Sara spun around, hands leaping to her chest.

  “It’s me,” Jaci called out quickly.

  “Jaci,” Sara breathed, dropping her hands.

  “Yeah.”

  The younger girl stepped to her side and they walked along the bank for a moment. Jaci stopped and moved over to the edge, staring down into the calm water below. The bank was higher here, a good three feet from the stream. The slender crescent of the moon reflected in the water, slightly distorted by the gentle ripples.

  Jaci felt disturbed inside, and wasn’t sure why. “So many thoughts. So many worries. I need to sit and think and not talk to anybody. Just for a few minutes.”

  She looked up at th
e dark sky. Stars were starting to dot the horizon. “I’m going to cross to the other side.”

  Sara looked down at the water. “How?”

  “I’ll wade. It’s only a few feet deep.”

  “But it’s freezing.”

  “I’ll only be a few minutes. Save me a spot next to you.”

  “Okay. I won’t sleep till you come back, though, so hurry.”

  Jaci waved her off. “Sure. I’ll be right there.” Her head felt heavy with fatigue, her eyelids itchy. She wouldn’t be gone long.

  Chapter 24

  The night sky lit up like a giant firecracker, followed by a crack and rumble that shook the ground.

  “What on earth?” Jaci pulled herself to her knees and slipped on the wet river bank. Large drops fell from the sky, making dents in the soft earth.

  She dug her fingers into the mud. Where was she? Water began to fall from the sky in torrents, soaking her clothing and dripping into her face. The trees overhead shook and the wind roared around her like a train. A tree branch above snapped and crashed to the ground.

  She had fallen asleep on the wrong side of the river. She ran through her options. Cross the river now and try to meet up with her friends, or wait out the storm on this side?

  She could barely see, except for when lightning lit the sky. Where was the edge of the bank? She crept forward on her hands and knees, stretching her fingers out in front of her. The water roared close by. Any minute now—she should be almost to the edge—

  The ground under her fingers crumbled away, and she screamed as she plummeted forward. Her flailing arms hit a tree root protruding from the eroded bank, and she clutched it.

  Her legs swung under her, slipping into the icy water, and it shocked her when she couldn’t find the bottom. The shallow stream had turned into a raging river, eating away at the bank until it was a steep ledge.

  She kicked her legs, trying to find a footrest. She was up to her waist.

  “Help!” she cried. Thunder crashed again and the wind whipped her words away from her.

  Digging her knees into the bank, she tried to get enough leverage to use her arm muscles to pull herself up. It was too muddy, and she lost her footing. She cried out as her body twisted around, but she didn’t let go of the branch.