by Shawn Sarles
“I want you,” Charlie spoke quietly. He pulled Dylan in close and hugged her tight. “Nothing else matters, as long as I have you.”
“Oh, Charlie.” Dylan pulled away again and looked him in the eyes. “Can’t you see that that’s the problem? Don’t you want something more?”
“I do.”
“What?” Dylan challenged. “Baseball? Do you really think you can go pro? What’s your backup plan?”
“I—I—”
Dylan leaned in and kissed Charlie on the cheek, saving him from his sputtering.
“That’s what I want you to figure out,” Dylan said kindly, lovingly. “And then we can see what makes sense for us.”
Charlie stared stonily into the distance, not saying a word.
“I’m going to head back.” Dylan broke the uncomfortable silence. “But think about what I said. Think about what you want.”
She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Charlie on the lips. “You know that I love you.”
Then Dylan turned and disappeared back through the tree line.
Behind her trunk, Maddie squirmed. She hated seeing her brother so down, but Chelsea would certainly be happy to hear about it. Maybe her best friend would get her chance with Charlie. Finally.
Maddie held her breath and willed her brother to head off. But he stood there, staring off into the distance. Maddie looked at her watch, counting the seconds. When a couple of minutes had passed, she knew she couldn’t hide out any longer. She tried to move quietly, but then a twig snapped under her foot and Charlie turned.
“Who’s there?” Charlie called, spotting Maddie’s back.
She froze. Caught. Her mind raced and finally landed on a plan. Though it only had like a ten percent chance of working. She turned around slowly and started shaking out her arms and legs. Panting.
“Oh, hey.” Maddie acted surprised to see him. She pulled her earbuds out and put on her best tired smile. “Sorry, just finishing up my run. I didn’t even see you there. Hope I didn’t scare you.”
“Nah.” Charlie suddenly looked like himself again. “I was just out here thinking.”
“Heading back?” Maddie asked, tilting her head in the direction of camp.
“Yeah. It should be about time for lunch.”
Maddie nodded and followed Charlie. Neither spoke, though. Maddie could see her brother thinking hard. He didn’t look happy.
“So.” Maddie broke the silence. She had to cheer him up. Get his mind off his fight with Dylan. “You have to tell me… did Sadie make it down the mountain?”
“What?” Charlie blinked.
“From your story last night?” Maddie explained. “Did Sadie get away? Or did Red Raven catch her?”
“Oh, right.” It took him a moment to remember. “Well, what do you think?”
Maddie thought about it. If it’d been her, she would have gotten away. She would have done whatever it took to make sure Nicholas’s sacrifice hadn’t been for nothing.
“I think she got away,” Maddie decided.
“Maybe.” Charlie grinned wickedly. “Maybe not.”
“Not fair,” Maddie punched him in the shoulder, relieved to see the spark back in her brother’s eyes. He pushed her back lightly and they both laughed.
“Hey, what’s happening over there?” Maddie asked as they got closer to camp. She pointed at the cluster of people just ahead. She could make out the back of Chelsea’s head among them.
“Let’s find out,” Charlie said.
They headed toward their fellow campers, who were standing around a particularly big tree in the clearing. Maddie got there first and pushed through to see what everyone was staring at.
“What are you all—”
The rest of the sentence stuck in her mouth as she spotted Abigail up front, pointing frantically at the bark of the tree. Behind her, her father, Mark, paced back and forth, his eyes bulging, his hands pulling at his hair. He muttered nonstop to himself. He looked like he might lose his mind.
And for once, Maddie didn’t blame him. She stepped forward, transfixed, and held her hand up to the tree trunk. She let her fingers brush against the wood, let them run along the grooves left there by three long slashes.
Claw marks.
“I found them this morning,” Abigail said anxiously.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Ed said from the back of the group. Maddie hoped her uncle was right.
“I don’t know,” Maddie’s dad replied, leaning in to get a better vantage point. “They look pretty fresh to me. And they’re pretty big. Maybe a bear’s.”
Bambi.
Maddie couldn’t keep the thought from popping into her head. But that was just a silly story her aunt had made up. Right?
Right. Maddie couldn’t let it get to her. Mark was already hysterical enough for them all.
“What do you know about claw marks?” Ed pushed back.
“Well,” Maddie’s dad began to defend himself, but Caleb walked up just then.
“What are you all doing over here?” the guide asked.
Everyone got quiet, as if they were teens whose parents had just walked in and caught them raiding the liquor cabinet.
“BEAR!” Mark shouted when no one else answered. Caleb looked at him skeptically. “Bear! Bear! Bear!”
This was apparently the only word that Mark could say at the moment. But he said it with intensity as he gestured wildly at the tree. Finally, Caleb looked and saw what he meant. He moved in close and examined the marks. He pulled back after a minute.
“This could be anything,” Caleb said decisively.
“But—but,” Mark said as he craned his neck in, “look at those marks… it’s clear as day… we’re not safe!”
Caleb made a show of examining the marks one last time.
“It’s really not a bear,” the guide tried to reassure Mark, but the man whimpered still.
“Look,” Caleb said flatly, perhaps ruder than he should have. He was tired of Mark’s paranoia. “I’ve been taking people through these mountains for two years and never once come across a bear or mountain lion or whatever else you could possibly be afraid of. Trust me. Nothing’s waiting to get you. We’re safe.”
Mark looked at the guide in disbelief, then back at the marks on the tree. He yelped and hurried back toward camp.
“What a pansy,” Ed muttered under his breath with a chuckle.
“I hope you guys aren’t worked up over this.” Caleb turned to everyone else. “It really is nothing. And even if there was a bear nearby, it’d be more afraid of you than you are of it. It’s not going to come poking its nose around our camp. Trust me.”
Everyone nodded, wanting to believe their guide. He did have the most experience.
“So what’s next on the agenda?” Maddie’s dad asked, trying to change the subject.
“Well, I thought we’d have lunch and then I’d take you all on a hike,” Caleb replied, ushering everyone away from the tree and back toward the center of camp, where sandwiches and chips waited for them. “I know this spot that has the best view of the valley.”
“That sounds like fun,” Kris said. “Maybe I can even convince my husband to come out of hiding.”
She motioned at her tent, where Mark had disappeared in his fright.
“Mark, honey,” Kris called. “Come out here. We’re going to eat and then go on a hike.”
There was a commotion in the tent, and then Mark poked his head out.
“A hike? In the woods?”
“Oh, come on, Mark,” Ed teased. “Don’t be such a wimp.”
Mark blanched but stood his ground.
“I don’t know…” He hesitated. “I might just hang back here.”
“It’ll be fun, Mark,” Maddie’s aunt Julie piped up, much kinder than her husband.
Mark still looked unsure, but Kris cut him off before he could protest anymore.
“You’re coming on this hike. Get your pack ready and let’s go.”
Mark hovere
d indecisively for a moment and then disappeared into his tent.
“You’ve just got to be firm with him sometimes.” Kris rolled her eyes and then smiled.
A moment later, Mark’s tent flap rustled and he came out holding the long brown paper package Maddie had spotted him with the day before. She hadn’t been sure what it was then, but now, by the way he carried it, she had no doubt. It wasn’t a baseball bat at all.
Maddie’s breath caught in her chest as Mark unwrapped the paper to reveal a gleaming rifle.
“Why the hell do you have that?”
Kris’s voice turned shrill as it lost its earlier authority.
“It’s for protection.”
“Protection?”
“From bears! Wolves! Mountain lions!” Mark was adamant. His eyes looked a bit crazed. “You saw the claw marks. I don’t care if he says it wasn’t a bear, I know what my two eyes saw. There are dangerous animals out there. We’re not safe.”
“This can’t be legal.” Ed seemed more amused than worried. “Do you even know how to shoot that thing?”
“I took lessons. I have my permits.” Mark pushed his shoulders back and tried to stand up taller. He swung the gun around to his other hand. Maddie flinched as the barrel’s line of sight moved across her.
“Hey! Watch where you point that thing.” Her dad looked pissed as he leaped in front of Maddie.
“The safety’s on.” Mark flashed the gun’s trigger to prove it. “There’s nothing to worry about. I told you, I know what I’m doing.”
“Well, excuse me if we don’t all believe you, Dad,” Abigail snapped in her snottiest voice.
“Hey. What’s all the commotion about?” Caleb turned back around. He’d been grabbing a sandwich and some chips. His gaze fell on the rifle, and his eyes flashed dangerously.
“What do you have there, Mark?” Caleb kept his tone even. “You know it’s not hunting season, right?”
“I know,” Mark spluttered. “It’s so we won’t be hunted.”
“I thought we already went over this.” Caleb sounded like a very patient preschool teacher down to his last straw. “There’s nothing out there that’s gonna hurt you.”
“I saw the claw marks! We all did. You all heard that roar yesterday in the woods. So don’t you tell me there’s nothing dangerous out there.”
“Nothing more dangerous than a lunatic with a loaded rifle and a hair-trigger finger,” Ed quipped under his breath.
A nervous laugh threaded through the group. Maddie didn’t find it so funny, though. Generally speaking, it wasn’t the best idea to tease a man holding a gun.
“I’m not about to end up some mountain lion’s lunch. And neither are my girls.” Mark eyed Dylan and Abigail. He wasn’t going to let anyone talk him out of this. “I’ve taken lessons. I have a license. I know what I’m doing.”
“Come on, Mark,” Caleb tried one last time. “You don’t really need that.”
“I’m not going without it.” Mark stood his ground, and no one stepped up to argue with him.
“Fine.” Caleb relented. “Just make sure you’re careful where you point that thing. We don’t want anyone’s arm getting blown off.
“Everyone else, grab some food and we’ll head out in twenty.”
NINE
NO ONE SAID MUCH AS THEY walked through the woods, heading uphill. Caleb had tried his best tour-guide spiel, pointing out different trees and flowers and animal tracks, telling stories from the history of these particular Colorado mountains. But when no one seemed the least bit interested, he’d shut up and focused on the trail instead.
Near the back of the pack, Maddie and Chelsea walked together, a rare quiet moment passing between them. Maddie didn’t feel much like talking. She knew everyone else was probably still thinking about those slashes on that tree. The alleged claw marks. Or maybe about Mark’s rifle. But Maddie didn’t have either on her mind. Instead, she couldn’t stop thinking about her brother.
She shot a look forward and saw him walking with Dylan. She could tell things were still off. They weren’t holding hands or touching at all. But they didn’t look totally uncomfortable with each other. A part of her wished she could eavesdrop on them again, but another part knew she’d already overheard too much that morning.
She hadn’t told Chelsea about Charlie and Dylan’s fight. The two weren’t really broken up—yet—and Maddie felt like she owed them the chance to work things out before releasing the she-wolf that was her best friend.
She hoped Charlie was all right. That he and Dylan would work things out. Even if that meant she’d forever have Abigail as a sister-in-law. Maddie didn’t even know if that’s how marriages worked, but she’d put up with anything if it made Charlie happy. She sighed and bit her lip. She wished she could help her brother, but he’d have to figure this out on his own.
“He’s really giving me the creeps.” Chelsea had interrupted Maddie’s thoughts.
“Who?” Maddie asked without thinking. Chelsea pointed off to the side, toward Mark, of course.
Everyone else had backed away from him, giving him plenty of space as he prowled through the trees, rifle clutched in both hands, eyes scanning the underbrush. At least he had a steadier hold on the gun now. And he had it pointed at the ground, like he might actually know what he was doing.
His eyes, though, buzzed frantically in their sockets. And that made Maddie anxious. Mark could barely walk straight for his nerves. He jumped at every twig snap and leaf shiver. Every bird that landed on a tree branch. Every squirrel scampering through the grass. It was a miracle he hadn’t already blown a hole in some defenseless tree.
Out of one ear Maddie heard Caleb halting the group and speaking softly to them, drawing them together to peer through the trees at something. She pulled her eyes off Mark for a second and peeked over her shoulder. Caleb was pointing ahead at something large and brown and moving. Something furry.
Maddie glanced quickly back at Mark. He was oblivious to everyone else, still straining to see through the brush. He hadn’t heard Caleb at all. She watched as he jerked excitedly. His eyes bulged in his head. He pulled the rifle up to his shoulder and aimed.
A deafening shot cracked through the woods.
TEN
JULIE’S SHRIEK FILLED THE ENTIRE FOREST. It eclipsed the echo of Mark’s rifle shot as pandemonium broke out. In the middle of it all, Maddie stood surprisingly calm, watching the chaos unfold.
On one side Mark pointed through the foliage, hopping up and down, having a fit, demanding that someone notice him. On the other, everyone had frozen. Dylan and Charlie lay flat on the ground, hands thrown over their heads. Abigail and Chelsea had dived behind the nearest tree for cover. Julie stood straight up, her mouth wide open, wailing her head off.
“Is everyone okay?” Kris asked, the shock of the shot starting to wear off. “Abigail? Dylan?”
“We’re fine, Mom,” Dylan said, getting up from the ground slowly, unwrapping herself from Charlie’s arms.
“Maddie?” Her dad’s head swiveled around, looking frantically for her. She cleared her throat, but before she could say anything, Caleb stormed past.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Caleb was on Mark in a furious flash. He grabbed the rifle in one hand and pushed Mark. The gun came away easily as Abigail’s dad stumbled back, tripped on a root, and fell.
“I—I—” Mark cowered on the ground, rendered speechless by Caleb’s anger.
“You what?”
Everyone crowded around behind Maddie, keeping their distance from the guide as they watched.
“I—I—There was something in the forest. A wild animal. I saw it. There!”
Mark’s hand quaked as he pointed into the woods.
“It was a family of deer, you idiot.”
“Deer?” Mark wasn’t getting it. “No—no—I saw it. It was big. Hairy. It was going to attack us.”
“They don’t attack people! They eat grass. I thought even you’d know that.”
“Jesus.” He muttered under his breath. “I guess you weren’t lying when you said you could shoot.”
Maddie peered after Caleb and saw something moving in the near distance. She focused. And then her hand flew to her mouth as she gulped down a sob.
It was the deer. Maddie watched as it stumbled, lost its balance, and veered into a tree like a drunk man. Its blood left a bright red smear on the tree trunk. Its hooves floundered as it tried to get back up. It looked so pathetic. So sad.
“Camp’s that way.” Caleb pointed back the way they’d come. His voice sounded tired all of a sudden. “Sorry. No more hike. I’ve got to take care of this.”
It took the group a minute to realize what their guide had said.
“Here,” Caleb thrust the gun out. “Make sure he doesn’t kill anything else.”
Maddie’s dad stepped forward and gingerly took the rifle.
“But—but—I thought it…” Mark whined, trying to get someone to take his side. No one looked at him as the group turned and started back the way they’d come.
Maddie held back, though, curious.
She watched as the guide took a few calm steps into the woods, completely focused on the deer ahead of him. His hand fished in his pocket and he pulled out a knife. He flicked the blade open.
It was clean. Sharp. Dangerous. He switched it to his other hand and Maddie caught a glimpse of the initial C stamped on the handle.
Caleb paused as he got close to the deer. It stumbled again, lost its balance, and slammed into another tree. It collapsed to the ground. It didn’t get back up this time.
Caleb approached cautiously. He knelt over the poor creature and pressed one hand down over its eyes. Maddie could see his lips moving in what could have been a whispered good-bye or a prayer. An apology.
Then his blade moved across the deer’s neck in an easy, slicing motion. If Maddie had blinked, she would have missed it.
A second later, a red line opened up along the blade’s path.
Maddie sucked in a breath, and Caleb looked up at her, his hands still cradling the deer’s head. Blood covered his palms and shirt as tears stung Maddie’s eyes.