by Adele Huxley
Kicking off my shoes so I could quietly walk down the hall, the feeling grew stronger, pulsing like electricity. I ran my fingers along the stone wall, the rough texture grounding my nerves, keeping me from soaring off into a full-blown panic attack. I rounded the corner and stopped short, letting my eyes adjust to the deep darkness. The kitchen was bathed in a pale light from the huge windows in the living room, casting everything in awkward silhouettes.
I took a few steps into the kitchen before I saw something hanging from one of the rafters. At first, I had no idea what I was looking at. I thought the shadows were playing tricks on my eyes, turning the mundane into the horrific. Squinting into the darkness, it was only when I saw the slight swing of his legs I realized it was a body.
I muffled my scream in the bundle of clothes I held in my arms, jumping away and into the counter with a hard thump. A jab of pain shot through my hip as I struck the marble counter, and I suddenly felt faint, stars sprinkling across my vision. Feeling along the wall with my right hand, eyes glued to the figure hanging from the center of the room, I found the light switch. I didn’t even know which set I was turning on, any light would do. I had to see who it was.
Heart pulsing fast and hard in my throat, I flicked on the recessed lights and blinked with the sudden change. His back was turned, but I’d seen Noah walk away from me enough times to recognize him from behind. The sound that came from me was simultaneously one of revulsion and relief. At least it isn’t Kayla.
He hung from a rafter between the island and the counter, dangling in the middle of the kitchen like a morbid piñata. I rushed to his legs and tried to lift him, but the second I touched his cold bare skin, I knew he was long gone. I stepped back in horror. The rope creaked and groaned against the wood as his body rocked with the fresh movement. For the first time, he turned to face me. For as long as I live, I will never be able to forget that distorted, strangled expression. A single light from above cast his features in grotesque shadows and I had to turn away.
I flung myself to the sink, sure I was about to retch. Only when the dry heaving ceased did I try to take stock on what was happening. Keeping my eyes firmly on the floor, I tried to make my way out of the kitchen but I caught a glimpse of something peripherally under Noah’s feet. A note.
“Oh Jesus,” I mumbled as I turned towards it. Only two words were scrawled in a frantic handwriting.
i'm sorry
I remember even then, in the midst of all that horror, it didn’t sit right with me. Noah, even on the edge of committing suicide, didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would ever apologize for anything. Regardless, I set the note down and pulled out my phone, ready to call 911.
Stepping past the last counter in the kitchen and into the hall, I finally saw the blood. If the lights had been on in the hallway when I first left my room, it would’ve been the first thing I’d spotted. My mouth fell open as I dropped the bundle of clothes in my arms. There was so much. Dark streaks of it stretched down the wood floors, blotches of it splattered on the walls. It looked like someone had dipped a mop into a puddle of blood and swung it back and forth.
It was like something in my mind snapped. I couldn’t make sense of it. I looked at Noah and immediately thought it was his. I know that doesn’t make sense, but I’d never seen anything like it before. A dead body and lots of blood...it had to be from the same thing, right? Like a zombie, I stepped forward, squinting at the trail on the floor, moving slowly towards the master light switch at the front door.
When all of the lights came on, I simply couldn’t comprehend the scene before me. There was too much of it. No one could bleed this much and still live. It was dizzying to realize this was the source of the metallic scent that hung heavy in the air. In the light, I could clearly make out footprints, streaks that looked like they’d been left by fingers. It was an overwhelming, deadly amount of blood...and so much of it led directly from Kayla’s room.
Fresh panic and adrenaline coursing through my body, I ran down the hall. I rushed into her room, trashed in the same way mine was. Rick. Clothes and belongings were thrown all over the place. Her mattress had been pushed off the box spring and rested at an angle on the floor. The blood was everywhere. A light in her bathroom glowed and, like a moth to the flame, I found myself approaching it.
Again, I think something in my brain had snapped. I was moving automatically, pulled along from one horror to the next like I was on a track. When I saw the body floating in the tub, I swear, I saw Kayla. I screamed her name and dove towards the tub, thrusting my arms into the freezing water without a thought. It was only when I pulled the body up and out, I realized the long hair was actually blonde stained dark with blood. Her head lolled to the side, cloudy blue eyes gazing lifelessly up at me. I dropped her in horror, the bloody water sloshing out of the tub and onto the floor.
I couldn’t catch my breath, teetering on the edge of hyperventilating. I backed against the counter, my eyes locked on Stella’s body. It took a few moments before I realized the wretched sobbing sound I was hearing was coming from my own throat. I couldn’t get control of myself. I stared at my shaking hands, covered in blood. Although I was deathly silent, a scream rang out through my mind. Pieces of my reality shattered. I felt trapped inside a terrible dream I couldn’t escape. Why is she dead? What did she do? Why would Rick have done this...why in Kayla’s room?
Wiping my hands on a towel I picked up from the floor, I finally found my voice. It came out in a strangled whisper, as if someone were holding my throat with their hand. “Kayla.” I finally managed to close my eyes, but it didn’t matter. Another terrible image would be burned in my memory for as long as I lived. “Kayla, please...” I begged the universe.
I forced myself to not look at Stella’s body as I stepped out of the bathroom. I scanned the remains of Kayla’s room and felt totally immobilized. It was as if my brain were working so hard and fast trying to figure out what was happening, it didn’t have enough energy to operate the rest of me. I began whispering to myself, working through the flood of thoughts. As I did, I found I was able to move, the dam unleashed.
“Why would he kill Stella? How long have they been dead? What’s going on? What the fuck?”
As I walked from the bedroom back to the hall, I couldn’t find a spot on the floor that wasn’t covered in at least a thin layer of blood. My socks stuck to some spots, pulling up with a stomach-churning riiiip as I pried them from the floor. Pushing away the urge to puke, it dawned on me that fresh blood shouldn’t be this tacky. Noah and Stella had been dead for hours. While I didn’t exactly feel good about this information, it reassured me that whoever had done this, chances were they weren’t hanging around the house.
Gathering enough wits about me to do something, I decided I should at least stop touching everything covered in DNA evidence and make my way to the front door. At least if someone came back, I’d have a chance of a quick exit. I made sure to stand to the side so I didn’t have to see Noah swinging from the ceiling. With trembling fingers, I pulled out my phone to call Bryan. A wave of nausea rocked me when I saw the dried blood under every fingernail. God, help me...
I had to steady myself as the world spun. When I was sure I wasn’t going to collapse on the floor, I swiped my phone on and called him. I had to lean against the door to keep my shaky legs upright.
“Hey babe, I just got to the house. You on your way?” Bryan answered. He sounded so excited. I wanted to hang up, to save him from the horrors I’d just seen. I didn’t want to be the one to rob that enthusiasm and happiness from him.
“Bry, I...” I took a deep, shaky breath.
“What’s wrong?” He knew immediately. Only his name and one word and he instantly knew something was wrong.
I fought for the courage to actually say the words. “Noah...and Stella...”
“What babe, what’s going on?” he said.
“They’re dead. I’m in the house and...Jesus, Bryan. I don’t know what’s happening. Why wou
ld anyone?”
“Wait, are you sure? Are you sure they didn’t just take something. They could be overdosing?”
“I’m pretty fucking sure,” I shouted. “Noah’s hanging like a fucking party decoration and I’m covered in Stella’s blood. I might be an idiot, but I think I can figure out when someone’s dead.” My voice echoed through the empty house, the anger and stress of it reverberating through my bones. He didn’t deserve to be snapped at, but I was in a pretty fragile state.
“Liz, you have to get out of there. Go, now. The longer you stay there, the more danger you’re in,” he said to me in a quiet but firm voice. It was the same voice he’d used with me when Rick was coming for us at the cabin. “Wherever you are, get out. Get as far away as you can. I’m coming.”
I looked at the front door almost in bewilderment, then to my feet. “I’m not wearing any shoes.” That dream-like feeling overwhelmed me again, as if I were floating just behind watching it all unfold. This wasn’t happening to me. It couldn’t possibly...
“Liz, go get a pair of shoes on and a jacket if it’s close by, do you understand me? Go to a neighbor’s house.”
I started giggling as I stepped towards my bedroom, the sound foreign to my ears. It was harsh and a little maniacal. “I never have my shoes on when shit hits the fan, do I?” Even saying it out loud made me laugh even more. “That’s so stupid. I’m totally useless, aren’t I?”
“You aren’t useless, Liz,” he insisted. “You called the police before you called me, right?”
I started laughing even louder as I bent to pick up my jacket. “No, because I’m useless.”
“Fuck...” I could hear his keys jingling in the background. The sound seemed to stir a bit of sense within me.
“You can’t drive. You just got out of the hospital. You have a broken arm.”
“My girlfriend just walked into a multiple homicide and I’m supposed to stay home because I have a bump on the head? Come on.” He said it absentmindedly, like I’d asked him to jump over the Rockies or lasso the sun for me. But the word rang through my mind. I held onto it, my sanity clinging to the identity. Girlfriend. I needed it to keep me grounded. “Are you there? Liz!”
“I’m here,” I whispered. I squeezed my eyes shut and concentrated on keeping myself together. My toes were dangling over a precarious edge and I felt like it wouldn’t take much of a push. “I’m here, with shoes on,” I said as I jammed my feet into the tops of my boots.
“I want you to hang up and call the police, tell them what’s happened. They need to know straight away, okay? After you get off the phone with them, call me right back. I’m driving to you right now.”
“Okay, okay, I can do that.”
“Get out of the house, okay? Get out now. Go and call them, hide if you have to, make sure you don’t come out for anyone but me or the police.”
I nodded. “Okay. I’ll call you right back.”
I called 911 as I stepped onto the porch. As heightened as my senses were with all the adrenaline flowing through my veins, I didn’t have a real sense of danger. Whatever had happened here, it’d occurred hours before. I suppose I was probably in shock, but at that moment, I thought I was taking everything in stride. By the time I’d reached 911 and convinced the operator I was not some teenager playing a prank, I’d only made it down the front steps. My calm demeanor hadn’t worried the dispatcher and she’d been happy enough to let me hang up the phone. I still wasn’t sure she believed me, but the police were on their way.
I stood for a moment, letting the quiet seep into my bones. The unusually warm air felt strange against my skin. A few months ago I would’ve shivered at the temperature, but after living through such a frigid winter, the relative warmth felt good. Just as I was about to call Bryan back, a text came through. I blinked several times, making sure I read it correctly. The words were scrambled, as if written quickly and without care.
Hlp me. Icks took me. She’d
It was from Kayla. With trembling hands, I read and re-read it. At least she was alive. If that’s really her, a voice in my mind responded. I tried to make sense of the garbled text. She’d what? Did it cut off or...
“Autocorrect,” I whispered. “It’s supposed to say shed.” The shed by the pond...
I stood perfectly still, transfixed by the message on my phone. Fresh, hot panic rose in my chest as all the possibilities jumbled together in my mind. I was motionless but rocked to the very core. This proves she’s alive. No, it proves her phone is alive...Rick might be the one texting in which case...
“I shouldn’t go,” I said out loud. I spun on the spot. The dark forest looked menacing, containing shadows in which any number of horrors could hide. For the first time, I considered the possibility I was being watched. I remembered the bloody scene inside and wondered if the same fate awaited Kayla. It doesn’t hurt to just go look...
Following my footsteps back up the stairs, I crept around the back of the house along the deck. I glanced inside the living room as I passed, the outline of Noah’s form causing a shudder to ripple through my body. Crouching as I reached the edge facing the mountain, I peeked through the slots in the railing. The single light that illuminated the slope revealed a pair of footprints heading straight to the pond. From this angle, I couldn’t see much, but it did look like a faint light was glowing from the small utility shed.
I cursed under my breath and backed away, afraid that anyone looking up at the house might see the movement and know I was there. I still clutched the phone in my hand. Should I call Bryan? The police? They’re all on their way, it’s not like they’re going to drive any faster. My body began to tremble from the cold and shock. Nothing in my life had prepared me to deal with anything like this.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when the phone went off in my hand. I answered it quickly, feeling like the sound was unbelievably loud in the silence, not even looking to see who it was.
“Hello?” I whispered.
“Lizzie, thank God. You gotta help me,” Kay said frantically. “I’m down at the pond. Please come and—Rick, no. Don’t!” I heard a loud clatter in the background before the line went dead. As I stood fighting myself, the silent night was torn apart by a ragged scream. I’d never understood the phrase ‘blood-curdling’ until that moment. It felt like someone had dumped ice water into my heart. It ended as suddenly as it started, the life sucked from the world around me. “Kay,” I sobbed.
I was heading down the back stairs before I even realized I was moving. Like every bad horror movie, I knew I was doing exactly the wrong thing but I didn’t care. There was no way in hell I was going to listen to my best friend get killed from a hundred yards away. Sprinting down the slope, I felt horribly exposed under the singular orange light. I couldn’t reach the shadows fast enough.
Pulling up just short of the little shed, I stopped to catch my breath. No noise was coming from the small building but I could definitely see light pouring out from between the cracks. Creeping ever closer to the shed, the crunching snow sounding so loud under foot, I tried to peek in the small window at the back. A jacket had been draped over the glass, obscuring everything inside. Stepping along the wall, I pressed my eye to a larger crack and caught a glimpse of Kayla’s feet splayed out on the floor, bound at the ankles. My heart was jammed so far up my throat I couldn’t breathe. For as long as I dared, I waited to hear any movement inside.
I don’t know how long I stood there staring through that crack, my eyes glued to those stupid heeled shoes. Move, I urged them. Please move. And like magic, her foot twitched. Just a fraction. Oh, thank Christ. Slowly, carefully, my ears alert to the smallest sound, I stepped around the side of the shed and checked the open area of the pond for movement. Nothing. The door of the shed was slightly ajar and I noticed fresh tracks in the snow leading away.
Every nerve in my body was on fire. I was twitchy, nervous, sure that at any second Rick would jump out and grab me before I’d gotten a chance to reach her. With m
y hand on the door, I slowly pushed it open, praying the old hinges wouldn’t creak. I steeled myself for a scene similar to her bedroom but found only a cluttered shed. Snow shovels, paint cans, deck chairs. It was filled to the ceiling with junk. My breath came out in a ragged exhalation, the white cloud dissipating before me. There was no way Rick would be able to hide among the clutter.
Kayla was at the far end of the shed, bound and gagged on the floor. Her chin rested against her chest, hair obscuring her face. I rushed to her ankles, whispering her name harshly as my frozen fingers fumbled with the restraints. Her ankles were only bound with a couple bungee cords, so I made fast work of it.
“Kay, wake up! Kay, please!” I glanced over my shoulder every second but tried to move quickly. She groaned a little in response, her head rolling as she tried to look up. With her ankles unbound, I moved to her mouth and pulled the gag free. Cradling her head in my hands, I brushed the hair from her face. Her unfocused eyes flickered open, but fell shut soon after, like she was battling with consciousness. “Oh Kay, please wake up. We have to get out of here.”
I tugged at her arms but realized they were bound behind her back. The bitter panic rose in my throat. It was taking entirely too long and I knew Rick would be back any second. He couldn’t have gone far. Maybe he’d seen my movements back at the house and had gone to investigate? Ugh, I’d turned the lights on! I thought in horror. I pulled her towards me and felt down her arm to her wrists where I found them secured with duct tape. I cursed and righted her against the wall again. There’s no way I’m going to get her free in time. I need to get her up and walking.