by S. C. Wilson
Outside the house, Toby was still trying to escape and help his family. Realizing his struggling only caused Pinky to tighten his grip, he somehow managed to calm himself.
When Willard finished with Sarah, he went outside to speak with Pinky. “We need to get out of here. Now.”
Distracted by the conversation, Toby felt Pinky’s grip start to loosen. This was his chance.
Toby tore away, and the chase was on. He ran toward the barn, his brain racing faster than his feet, and he lost his footing. He rolled, head over heels. When he came to a stop, he looked up, and saw Pinky standing over him. The last thing Toby saw was the butt end of a rifle.
“Get up,” Clay said as he fastened his trousers. “And stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about!”
Clutching Jamie by the arm so hard it was bound to turn black and blue, he escorted her out of the barn.
Jamie saw her lifeless brother as soon as she emerged. The sight gave her a burst of panicked strength. She broke free from Clay’s grasp and ran to Toby. She dropped down and cradled his bloody head in her lap, careful to avoid the large laceration running down the right side of his forehead. Jamie pleaded with him to open his eyes, her tears falling on his ashen cheeks. Her brother was gone. She looked to the sky and released a blood-curdling scream.
Jessica heard her sister’s wail. Though terrified, she felt an urgent need to see what was happening. She crawled on hands and knees out of the stall and across the exact spot on the barn floor where her sister had been violated. She reached the barn wall and found an old knothole she could peek through.
Jessica watched Jamie cradling their brother in her lap. She stared at Toby’s lifeless body, praying for him to get up. She wanted more than anything to run to him. Instead, she stayed rooted in place, unable to move again. Jessica pressed her ear firmly against the hole and listened as the rifle wielding man standing over her siblings spoke.
“Didn’t mean to kill the little bastard. Just wanted to keep him from gettin’ away.”
“One less witness, right?”
Jessica recognized the voice as that of the blond man from the barn.
“We need to get out of here,” the man with the gun said.
“Go ahead. Don’t give a shit what ya guys do, but you’re gonna miss out on this sweet thing!” the blond man said, pointing down at Jamie.
Jessica put her eye back to the hole and watched the blond man yank her sister off the ground. He manhandled her as he drug her back to the house. The other two men hurried to their horses and rode away.
Clay flung the door open. His calloused brother sat eating the stew the women had prepared for supper, at the very table where he had violently assaulted Sarah. Clay loosened his grip on Jamie and she ran into her mother’s arms.
“Where are you hurt?” Sarah asked as soon as she saw all the blood on Jamie’s dress.
“It-it’s not m-m-mine. It’s Toby’s,” she stuttered between sobs. “They killed him!”
“Jamie, breathe.” Sarah’s tone was eerily calm. She gently wiped the dried blood from her daughter’s chin with the saliva-dampened hem of her dress.
It was as if Sarah hadn’t heard the words or her mind refused to believe them. Either way, she did not acknowledge what Jamie had said.
Clay pulled out a chair and plopped down at the table beside his brother.
“Get him some food!” Jake snarled.
Sarah wanted nothing more than to smash the bowl on his head. Knowing their lives depended on it, she sat a steaming hot bowl in front of Clay. She returned to tending to Jamie’s busted lip.
Sarah reached down for the hem of her dress and felt the bag of candy in her pocket. Her mind shifted to Jessica. She glanced the ceiling, put her palms together, and said a silent thank you. It was a true blessing Jessica was at her fishing hole. The men had no idea she existed. Sarah prayed her younger daughter would stay far away from the house, and if she did come home, she would somehow know to hide.
James and Daniel headed back to the house. In years past, James would have been upset about coming back empty handed. This year, however, they had already hunted enough to get them through the winter. The burden he had felt in previous years did not exist. His mind was on his family as he walked back to the house with his son, heart filled with pride. As they approached the house, his thoughts shifted and he thought about Jessica, his little Berry. He wondered how many fish he would have to help clean, as she usually caught more than she could carry.
“Bet Berry caught her weight in fish today,” James said.
Nodding, Daniel replied, “I reckon you’re right about that—bet we’ll be cleaning fish ‘til dawn.”
They both chuckled out loud at the thought as they stepped onto the porch.
Jessica’s heart beat faster when she saw her father and brother. Salvation had finally arrived. Jessica wanted to yell to them, but she was still in shock and unable to make a sound. Look this way, she silently pleaded, hoping their eyes would land on Toby’s body sprawled out in the dirt.
Hearing voices out front, Jake and Clay drew their pistols and pointed them toward the door. The intruders opened fire the moment the Pratt men swung it open.
Sarah and Jamie let out heart wrenching screams as James and Daniel fell backward onto the porch.
Jessica’s mouth was opened wide, but her silent scream hung on her trembling lips, unable to escape.
Choking on lingering gun smoke, Jake turned to Clay and yelled, “Shut those bitches up!”
“Shut the hell up!” Clay shouted. “Wanna just shoot them too?” he asked, pointing his pistol at Sarah and Jamie.
“Dammit! Just go get some rope and tie them up. I need time to think,” Jake shouted.
Clay did as he was told and tied the sobbing mother and daughter in chairs next to the table. When the knots were good and tight, he sat next to them and returned to his meal.
Jake rubbed his sweaty palm down his pant leg. “We need to get the hell out of here.”
“Why? I haven’t finished—”
“You dumbass! We need to get the hell away from this town. You know damn well they’ll be sending a posse out after us. If they catch us, we’ll be swinging by our necks,” Jake said, snapping at his brother.
Clay took one last, heaping bite of food as he stood up. “What are we going to do with them? We can’t leave them here. They know what we look like. Maybe we should burn this place to the ground?”
Jake used his pistol to push up the brim of his hat and scratch his forehead. “Hmmm.” He nodded happily. For the first time ever, he thought his nitwit brother had come up with a good idea. Jake walked over to the mantle and knocked off the oil lamp, watching as its contents spilled across the floor.
Sarah knew what was about to happen. “Don’t do this, Jake!” she pleaded. “Please! I’m begging you. I swear we’ll never tell anyone. I’ll do anything you want. We’ll go with you.”
Jake looked down at her, a look of loathing twisting his already unsightly features. “Why the hell would I take you anywhere? Woman, you wouldn’t give me the time a day when we were back in town. Not good enough for ya then, was I? Now, all of a sudden you want to come with us? I see right through you, lady.”
Knowing she couldn’t get through to Jake, Sarah began pleading with Clay. “I know you like my daughter. I think she would make a great wife for you. Take care of you the way a man should be taken care of. Please, please just spare my daughter!”
Clay scratched his chin, as if considering Sarah’s words. Before he could form an answer, Jake shouted at him.
“You are about the dumbest man I have ever met! You honestly think that girl would ever marry the likes of you? First chance she got she would run to the sheriff and tell him everything we done.”
Clay said, “You’re right. You’re always right. I was just thinking…”
“That’s what you have me for. I do the thinkin’,” Jake said. Without another word, he struck a match on the heel o
f his boot and tossed it. It caught as soon as it hit the flammable liquid. They stepped over the two bodies near the doorway and left without any thought at all for the women left inside.
Sarah had been trying desperately to loosen the rope binding her hands as she pleaded with Jake, but all she had managed to do was tighten the knot. With no way to free their bindings, the one thing she could do was calm her hysterical daughter. She forced herself to smile as she turned to face Jamie, who was crying uncontrollably beside her.
“Sweetheart, look at me. It’s going to be fine. We are going to get out of this. Jessica is out there. She’ll save us,” Sarah said, coughing from the black smoke already filling the house.
Terrified and panicked beyond the point of reasoning, Jamie could not be calmed. She managed nothing more than a scream or two in between her bouts of coughing and her gasps for air.
It was only a matter of seconds before flames were shooting out of the door. Jessica could hear her mother and sister screaming. She placed her tiny hands over her ears in hopes of stopping the sounds that seemed to shatter her eardrums. No matter how hard she pressed, the sounds of their suffering could not be silenced. Only after the house was engulfed in flames did the screams stop. The only sounds Jessica heard now were the crackling and popping noises emitting from the inferno.
The two men seemed to be amused as they watched it burn. Jessica looked on as the blond man who hurt her sister relieved himself onto the flames. Fearful they would torch the barn too, she crawled backwards until she bumped up against the loose board in the back; the one her father had never gotten around to mending. The gap was barely wide enough for her to squeeze her tiny body through.
Once she was out of the barn, she ran for her life into the fading light. She never looked back.
Chapter Six
Fueled by fear and adrenaline, Jessica raced to her fishing spot in half the time it had taken her hours earlier. Had the route been less familiar, the darkness would have swallowed her. This was the only place she thought to go. Granite Falls had never even crossed her mind. The usually safe and familiar area now seemed totally foreign as the eerie darkness cast ominous shadows everywhere. She had never been here at this hour. It was no longer the place she knew.
She collapsed onto the ground and gazed at the moonlight reflecting on the Devil’s Fork. Any other time she would have found the shimmering lights beautiful. Now, they resembled dancing flames. Even over the roar of the river, all she could hear were the screams of her mother and sister. They were all gone. She would never see them again. The faces of those horrible men who had shot and burned her family flashed in her mind.
Are they are coming after me? Panic and fear replaced her shock and sadness. Jessica couldn’t go home. The river would swallow her if she tried to cross. In her frenzied state of mind, only one option remained. She followed the flowing rapids downstream in hopes of finding help.
Foliage and water were the only things she could make out in the scant light of the waning moon. Thorn trees and briar bushes along the riverbank grabbed at her with spindly claws, tearing into her arms and legs. She was too scared to worry about cuts, scrapes, or pain. Her progress was slow, and her body tired with every step.
She stumbled across a large tree, its base hollowed out from years of rot.
They won’t find me in there.
Jessica crawled inside this teepee of dead wood and curled into a fetal position. She shivered uncontrollably, her torn dress inadequate to keep the cold from her bones. The screams and gunshots ringing in her ears were not silenced until her tears carried her off to sleep.
A small beam of early morning sunlight found its way through a crack in the tree and onto Jessica’s eyelids. It slowly drove her from slumber. Dirt and dried tears caked her eyes. She could barely see as she shimmied her way out of the damp, musty tree.
She stood and rubbed the crust from her swollen eyes. Across the river, a massive waterfall poured down a granite wall and spilled violently into the river. The exploding droplets of water created an epic lightshow, a rainbow of colors dancing across the surface. Jessica paid it no mind. She sat on the ground next to her crude shelter and looked at her ragged dress. It was the one Jamie had made her for her tenth birthday. She only had two dresses to her name, and now she had ruined the one that had meant so much to her.
Jamie is going to be so mad at me for ruining my dress. Mother will give me the switch. Then the realization hit her, like a slap across the face. They won’t do anything. They are all dead. She placed her face in her hands and bawled.
A twig snapped, and Jessica’s heart leapt out of her chest. They’re here. Glancing over her shoulder, she sighed with relief when she spotted a small red fox. The animal was more scared of her than she was of it.
Her relief did not last long. The horrific events from the night replayed over and over in her mind. Scared, she crawled back into the tree and lay there until she fell asleep again. Jessica’s dreams propelled her back to the barn. She was hiding in the stall when someone started removing the hay she hid under. He found her. It was the skinny blond man who had been on top of her sister—the Devil himself.
Jessica shot straight up as she screamed herself awake, slamming her head into the tree. A stream of blood trickled out of a small, crescent-shaped wound on her forehead. Her tiny hand smeared dirt and blood across her brow.
She crawled back out into the daylight, bloodshot eyes blinking, feverishly, trying to adjust to the sun. The hollow ache of her hunger, and fear of the men who had murdered her family, motivated her to keep moving.
Without another thought, she ran. She ran away from everything she had ever known. With her mind racing as fast as her legs, she leapt over logs and ducked under branches, a speck in a vast ocean of trees and green. She prayed she would find someone—anyone who could help.
She ran until she couldn’t take another step. She stopped, panting and parched. Her only thought was to quench her thirst. The water of the river she followed enticed her. She moved slowly, making her way nearer to the bank, looking for any place that might give her easy access to drink.
Jessica spotted a small embankment and pushed her way through the dense brush. Despite stepping carefully, she lost her footing on the muddy ground, and slid straight toward the rapids.
She reached out, grabbing for anything she could grasp to keep from plunging into the river. Seconds before she fell in, she latched onto an old log. Jessica and the log tumbled into the river. Cold shocked her body as she fought to keep her head above water.
The Devil had her now. Her mother’s warnings about the river came to mind. She knew her only hope was the log, which she held onto with all her might, riding out the violent rapids.
With each submersion, water shot up her nose and down her throat. She coughed and gasped, barely able to take in a breath before the next attack. Over and over the wild beast tried to devour her. It swallowed her whole and spat her out. It threw her at boulders trying to crush her, determined to crack her skull like an egg. Repeatedly it attacked. Repeatedly it was thwarted. No one had ever survived the river’s grasp, but this child, somehow, was conquering it.
She managed to ride out the most savage part of the rapids and made it to a stretch that was a little less violent. Retching up water, she saw an enormous, fallen redwood spanning partway across the river. It was still anchored by some roots, almost as if put there on purpose to reach out and help her. It was her only hope.
She kicked wildly, steering herself toward the tree. Panic mounted as she drew closer. Jessica fought against her tensing muscles, trying to maintain control. If she failed, she would die.
She released the log and stretched her arms out as far as she could as the tree came within reach. Somehow her tiny fingers managed to clamp on. She began pulling herself across, despite the onslaught of rushing water crushing her small frame against the tree.
Inch by inch she went, until she was safely on the bank. She collapsed to her knees,
purging up mouthfuls of river water as she struggled to catch her breath.
Her gratitude for solid ground faded when she realized she was on the wrong side of the river, the uninhabited side. Her heart sank. Jessica watched as the water ripped the tree from the ground with a thunderous crack. Even it was no match for the river’s awesome power. The mammoth piece of lumber hurtled downstream and was soon lost from Jessica’s sight.
Broken in body and spirit, Jessica slowly got to her feet and scanned the river. She found no sign of human life in either direction, just wilderness. She backed away from the raging river with no real thought as to where she was going, dazed by grief and loneliness.
Jessica came upon an impassible granite wall. Exhausted, she slumped against the rock face and slid down until her bottom touched the ground. I’m so hungry. I’d eat a worm if I had one.
She put her hands on her stomach to calm the rumblings and felt a lump in the pocket of her torn dress. She reached in and pulled out a filthy rag. It took her a few seconds to realize it was the piece of bread her mother had wrapped for her to take fishing. The contents now looked like a soggy ball of dough that had been rolled in the dirt. Beyond hungry, Jessica didn’t care how it looked or tasted. She popped the tiny morsel into her mouth and swallowed. She stuck out her tongue to catch droplets of water trickling from a rock above.
With her thirst and hunger somewhat appeased, she stood up and stretched. Jessica tried to ignore the pain in her tired, aching feet, and the throbs emitting from her many lacerations. She needed to keep moving. Unsure of how much daylight she had left, her best chance was to get to higher ground for a better view of the area.
She decided she would approach the rock wall the same way she did the big oak out by the barn. That had been intimidating at first, too. Step-by-step, she found it wasn’t as hard or scary as she thought it would be. Jessica found a foothold and began her ascent. Though climbing as quickly as she could, she wasn’t making much progress. Her legs already felt like they were on fire. She continued upward, occasionally glancing over her shoulder. She saw nothing but treetops.