She yanks her now mangled hand protectively back to her and senses something behind her. Before she even has a chance to turn and see who it is, she feels two cold hands on her shoulder blades. The hands shove her into the cave. She is twisting, writhing, shrieking.
She tries to resist the image of a thousand crystal blades coming at her, but they come at it her anyway. They surround, then consume her. They hug her like a long-lost friend, then destroy her like a foe.
They shred her apart from the inside, but she doesn’t bleed. Her body shows no evidence of their harm.
She wakes up from her dream.
She knows what she must do.
*******
Saturday, September 16: 8:00 a.m.
Mia had been really relieved to wake up the next morning and not receive another death threat taped to her. Was it a sign of things maybe turning positive for once? Maybe, if she had been the one writing the notes herself, the promise of getting to Blueflower eased her heartbreak enough to make her stop writing them.
“You’re not going to just pull a U-turn right on the highway, are you?” Glenda clutched one hand on the dashboard and the other hand pressed on too-big Gucci sunglasses to keep them on her face.
Mia ignored the question and slammed on the brakes. The car spun in a giant circle to a screeching stop. Stones barraged the sides of the car as she swerved to the shoulder of the highway.
“Goddamnit.” Glenda’s glasses plunked forward off her face to the floor.
Mia gripped the steering wheel and she turned to look over her shoulder before making the precarious turn over four lanes of traffic. “Leo’s client, Nate, texted me to meet him at Gilded Pass. I’ve missed my exit and need to go back.”
After the police and Leo had left last night, Mia had searched for Nate Rapple online and quickly found his still-in-construction hiking website. She reached out to him via email and begged him to take her up to Blueflower on his hiking tour, leaving the next day. She didn’t tell him she had to get to Blueflower or why. Those details weren’t necessary to divulge to strangers who could only add to her police file and make her look even more insane in the eyes of the investigators. When he’d said sure without asking why, Mia was startled by how quickly he responded. He said he would be “captivated” to bring her the following day, but only on one condition: that she bring Glenda along.
Of course, Glenda was not too thrilled to have the opportunity to film in a new, adventurous, potentially highly deadly locale she’d never filmed in before, let alone ever set foot in. The big, bad forest. But being the good spirit she was, she agreed to come. Reluctantly.
What a great guy. Nate seemed so nice and helpful, Mia thought as she turned her car around. She was sure on the way to Blueflower they were all going to have a lot of fun. She was just grateful Leo had not mentioned that he would be coming along on the trip. She didn’t think she could stand the awkwardness between them for another minute, let alone days together in the wilderness.
“So, who is this Nate guy?” Glenda asked. “How’d you find out about him?”
“Matter of fact, Dr. Lawson recommended him,” Mia said.
“Do you realize I could be filming, like, seven makeup tutorials during the time I’ll be stuck up in the woods with you?”
“You can vlog as we hike. Show your viewers some new scenes,” Mia offered.
“Gross.”
Nate had mentioned he was a huge fan of Glenda’s and so Mia knew her roommate’s sour mood would spin around to narcissistic flattery the minute he started pouring his worship on her. She’d just have to endure Glenda’s pissy attitude until they got to him.
The drive up to Gilded Pass pierced between deep, old forests along the coastline. The thick, cold River Gallop wound along black rocky beaches beside the road.
Mia pulled her car into the empty parking lot that she had almost missed were it not for a chipped red sign that dangled from a fir tree branch and swung in the hot summer wind. As she pulled up the driveway, she let out a jagged sigh seeing two men instead of one, watching her approach.
“No…” Mia wanted to scream.
“Oh look.” Glenda perked up again. “Dr. Lawson is there too! How is that even possible? He looks even hotter today than he did yesterday.”
Leo and Nate stood outside what appeared to be Nate’s beat-up orange Beetle. Nate stood with impatient crossed arms, stabbing an odd glare in Mia’s direction. He didn’t seem nearly as friendly in person as he had by email. Leo, on the other hand, leaned casually against the car, his hands in his back pockets and the morning sun glinting off his tattooed forearms. Gawd. He was a delicious sight for starving eyes.
Leo slid his hand into a slow, cocky salute as they pulled closer into the parking lot. Mia pulled her eye contact away from him.
“Howdy, ladies! We just about thought you bailed on us.” He grinned at them. Her insides melted in response to his smile.
Mia pulled up beside him and rolled down her window, offering him a bland look. “Leo, why are you here?”
“Well, hello to you too!” Leo grinned. “I’m here for the adventure. What else?” He smiled, but Mia could feel his reasons for coming were much more than that.
“Hi, Doc Leo!” Glenda leaned over Mia and gushed over the rim of her enormous black sunglasses.
“I don’t need any protection if that’s what you think,” Mia said to Leo.
“Absolutely not.” He saluted her again and his voice dripped with more sarcasm than she would have liked. “Glenda, nice to see you again.”
“Enchanté, as always.” Glenda kept leaning on Mia’s lap, her skinny elbows stabbing into the meat of her thighs. Mia nudged her off.
“Glenda. Mia. This is Nate Rapple.” Leo stepped aside and introduced his client, who cringed and scuttled away before Leo grabbed his sleeve and dragged him back. “He’s a big fan of yours, Glenda.”
“Oh, how nice.” Glenda offered a cheeky smile at Nate. “Hope you brought some marshmallows for this trip, Nate. I love me a well-roasted marshmallow around the campfire with some ghost stories.”
“You people are six minutes late,” Nate blurted in her direction while he avoided anyone’s eye contact.
“Sorry, that’s my fault. I missed the exit,” Mia explained. “Haven’t been around this area for a while.”
“If you read the map I emailed you, then we would not have this problem. The exit was clearly marked on the map.”
“Excuse me?” Glenda touched her chest with a feigned heartbreak.
“Sorry about that.” Leo smiled at them. “Nate is still learning the refined art of spontaneity.” Leo patted an arm around Nate, who nervously pushed him away. “And manners.”
“No worries,” Mia said. She recognized other anxious people when she saw them and offered as much patience as they needed.
Leo winked at Mia and she felt a deep blush sting across her throat. He hadn’t removed his gaze from her face and, in particular, her lips since they’d arrived.
“Hey, I think I recognize you from somewhere.” Glenda yanked off her sunglasses and barked at Nate. “Didn’t you, like, write me some creepy love poems on my YouTube channel? You’re not one of those stalker fans, as you? Are you making me come on this hiking trip so you can try to rape me, or something?”
“Glenda!” Mia cried.
Nate turned away from them and whispered something to himself.
“What?” Glenda’s smile warped into confusion.
“Excuse us, please.” Leo’s words dripped with an insanely peaceful charm that sharply contrasted the awkwardness of the moment. He took Nate by the arm and guided him across the parking lot to an abandoned tree stump. “Sit,” he commanded.
The two men talked quietly and sternly on the other side of the parking lot, and Mia felt an undeniable weird feeling bubbling up inside of her.
“This is such a stupid idea,” Glenda said to her. “I know that guy. He once mailed me a bouquet of mice. He’s a weirdo.”
“Yeah, real cute. Except that they were dead mice…impaled on chopsticks,” Glenda said.
“Oh…”
“At least I had assumed they were dead before being impaled. But now, after meeting him in person, I’m not so sure.”
Mia shuddered. She wanted to let Glenda know it was all right if she didn't want to come along. But Nate said he wouldn’t take Mia up the mountain unless he brought Glenda along with him.
“I mean, maybe he’s just an awkward guy who means well?” Mia squirmed. Hesitant.
But dead mice on a stick? Seriously? Even Mia, in her desperation to get to Blueflower, couldn’t convince herself that was an all right thing to do.
“Listen, Glenda. If you want to go home…” Mia started slowly. Terrified that Glenda might agree to the deliberately casual offer. Even more terrified that she would come and subject herself to whatever Nate had planned for her. “I would completely understand.”
“Nope,” Glenda said. “Don't even say it, baby girl. I am coming on this trip."
“But this guy…” Mia said. “Like you said. He's so weird.”
Glenda capped her hands on her ears. “La la la la. I am not going to hear it. You were right when you said I should vlog this. I brought my camera along and I have a pretty damn good feeling I’m going to catch a lot of drama with this psycho as our leader.”
Mia sighed loudly in relief.
And in terror.
“Might even accidentally film some porn between you and Leo.” Glenda nudged her elbow with her own. “If you know what I’m saying.”
“Stop it,” Mia scolded. “There’s nothing between us. He’s just my therapist.”
“Sure.” Glenda grinned. “You’re totally not into him.”
Leo and Nate returned solemnly. Mia tried to ignore the sparks bubbling up in her throat again as Leo’s eyes met hers.
“All right ladies,” Leo said to them. “I think we’re ready to go.”
“Right now?” Glenda said. “Like, we just start walking up that big hill?”
“That’s kind of how a hike works now, isn’t it?” Nate spat.
Mia and Glenda exchanged a long look before Mia pulled ahead to a parking spot. She got out, went to the trunk, and picked up her large collection of bags. One by one, she slid them on their shoulders.
“You brought five bags with you?” Nate scuttled up close to Mia and shook a finger disapprovingly at her, still unable to make eye contact with her. “That’s against the regulations. The limit is two. You need to put three of those bags back. Now. Because the limit is two.” He shot the sentences at her like a lineup of bullets. Saliva sprayed the dry ground with each syllable.
“Nate!” Leo jumped in between them and put a firm hand on Nate’s chest, pushing him back away from Mia. His fingers pressed warningly into him. “You don't talk to her like that ever again. Or anyone else on this trip, for that matter.”
Nate finally lifted his eye contact and stared at him, spooked and confused. “Doc, I don’t understand. You recommended I only let people take two bags and now she’s taking five.”
“Mia needs those five bags.”
“I don’t want to cause any trouble.” Mia slunk three bags off her shoulder back into the trunk.
“Well, I needed my spice rack!” Nate whined. “And you made me leave it behind. And now you’re letting her take five bags. What if she has a spice rack in one of those bags?”
“God, this trip is going to be a nightmare,” Glenda groaned. “Don’t ask me how I know. Just a slight psychic vibe I’m picking up here.”
“The trip will be fine.” Leo’s face danced a murky line between rage and sympathy for Nate.
“I just had some toys that I wanted to bring my son,” Mia explained, feeling embarrassed by her own selfishness to not ask ahead of time. “Some of his video game consoles and some toys he had as a kid. Just in case we do see him in the cabin. I’m so sorry if this is caused problems for everybody.”
“No problem at all,” Leo said, and he took the bags back out of her trunk. The luscious musky scent of him standing so close made her stomach twirl. He was everything a man should smell like. He looked down at her and smiled gently. “Mia if you want to bring toys for your son, that's totally all right. Matter of fact, Nate and I will help you carry some of that stuff up the mountain.”
Nate snapped a glare a resentful glare at Leo. “I don’t want to carry any of her stuff.”
Leo ignored him and bent down to pick up the remaining two bags.
“I'll help you out too, baby girl.” Glenda clicked on her camera to start vlogging and shot Nate a disgusted look. “Because some people here actually have manners.”
“Thank you so much to you both,” Mia said. “Again, I’m so sorry for any trouble.”
As Leo and Glenda busied themselves with collecting her bags, Mia’s eyes caught on to Nate’s, for the first time since they arrived at the parking lot. The darkness, the creepy intensity, bored through her eyes and straight into her soul. She felt herself shudder, even though it was a warm summer morning. She pulled her cardigan tight over her.
“I hope you’re actually being truthful when you say you are sorry,” Nate said to Mia. “Because there is nothing I hate more than liars.”
*******
Leo watched Mia walk ahead beside Glenda, her hips swaying hard with each step underneath her tight khaki capris in a way that stirred deep in his gut. Her black hair pulled back into a high ponytail that flounced against each of her shoulders with each sultry step. She wasn’t trying to be sexy in her hiking gear, but goddamn it, he didn’t know how much more of this he could handle. Her fluttery, innocent smiles and overly polite behavior were challenging his every last molecule of restraint.
He almost didn’t come today. After discussing it with Mia last night, his frustration had reached a new height and he’d made the firm decision he would cancel his end of the trip and let Nate and Mia sort out whatever they wanted to do. But when he got the phone call from Nate at three o’clock in the morning, there was something odd about the intensity in his voice, the strained, panicky tone. Leo thought it would be better to just tag along for the trip.
Just in case.
Not that he was jealous of what Nate might do to Mia. Nate was hardly capable of hitting on the sex dolls he’d been too scared to remove from the boxes they’d arrived in, let alone flirt with a real, breathing woman.
Leo just felt deeply uncomfortable at imaging how Nate would handle Mia in her very sensitive state. And after what he’d witnessed this morning, he knew he was right on the money to come along. If anything, he would love nothing more than to cancel the whole trip. But he knew Mia and her stubborn ways. She would think nothing of heading on up there alone without any protection. So, Leo had made the decision to join her and at least make sure she got to her destination.
Leo bent down to pick up the remaining knapsacks that were lying on the ground. Between his crushing attraction to Mia that years clearly had not dulled, and his growing irritation with Nate, Leo could tell already that this was going to be one of the most psychologically punishing hiking trips of his life.
But just when he thought it could not get any worse, a voice from behind him challenged that notion.
“Not so fast there,” a shrill voice blared from behind. “Just where do you think you’re going without me?”
He stood and stiffly turned to face his accuser.
“Well, well,” he said to Constable Barter as she parked her navy Subaru, elbow hanging out her window as she greeted them with a snort. She opened the door and strutted out, wearing a very different uniform that she’d had on last night. White shirt over red sports bra, purple yoga pants and brown hiking boots.
“What are you doing here?” Nate demanded. “This is a private hike and you are not invited.”
She looked Nate looked up and down, assessing every fragment of
his body with distinct judgment in her glowering eyes. “Aren’t you the guy I picked up for masturbating outside the Botox clinic?” She handed him a wad of cash. “I’m joining your hiking expedition. Here’s your payment.”
“Oh, no you are not,” Nate’s voice trembled with frustration. “You have to reserve your space ahead of time. I made that abundantly clear on my website. Plus, I don’t want any cops on this tip.”
“Dr. Lawson here did not reserve ahead of time,” she said. “Neither did Mia Floyd nor Glenda Parks. Ms. Floyd connected with you via email.”
“How do you know that?”
“Listen kid,” she sighed. Blasé. “I am not some chick you want to be dicking around. You get me? Either I’m coming on this trip or I can make this get ugly.”
“Are you threatening my client?” Leo asked her.
“The deadline to sign up was yesterday,” Nate continued. “The rules are very strict. Very strict. I cannot allow late people signing up. It violates the regulations.”
Penelope rolled her eyes and reached in her pocket again. She pulled out another few bills and thrust them at Nate, sighing loudly and looking up at the sky with dramatic impatience as she did so. Slowly he took the bills from her.
“We cool now?” she said.
“It’s still against the rules…” Nate murmured as he thumbed through the money. Eventually, he stuffed both wads in his pocket and shrugged, watching the ground.
“Well, I guess welcome to the hiking trip,” Leo smiled sarcastically.
“Whatever,” she snorted.
“Listen, I don't like the blunt way you talk,” Nate said. “You are making my anxiety flare up. I did not bring much anxiety medication with me. I don’t want an episode. Doc, please tell her I don’t want an episode.”
Kiss Her Goodbye: Thriller/Romance with a shocking twist Page 7