Dangerous Past

by Cobe Reinbold

  “Doctor Kim, my therapist,” I spat the words, glaring at her.

  She just smirked and stroked Jessica’s arm.

  Mackenzie came to and seemed to shrink into herself, a haunted expression on her face. I wondered if she had suspected Jessica all along. I certainly hadn’t.

  Kent came around last. He just looked angry. His face was florid with anger and the heat, his chest heaved with agitation. He must be beyond pissed; I mean Jessica was his girlfriend!

  “Looks like we’re all back in the land of the living.” Nancy looked up from a map she’d been studying on the table after she let Jessica go. “Who’s ready for some show and tell?”

  When none of us responded she called down the hall. “Jessica, why don’t you come and join us again?” What was she doing in the hallway?

  Jessica came around the corner and smiled, looking as normal as anything. She had one of the mining masks that we saw in the house on Oak Street, and it was darkened with sweat stains. She was just as hot as us which gave me some satisfaction.

  “I’m sure you have a lot of questions, but wait until we are done telling you the story,” Jessica said. It was as if she was talking to a bunch of grade school kids.

  “Where is Mady?” I shouted before she could continue. Pain exploded in my head and jaw, but all I could think of was Mady. I didn’t know how long I had been out, and who knew if she was still alive. She was beaten up when I had seen her and I doubted she could last much longer in these conditions. Nancy ignored me completely.

  “I’ll start at the beginning, shall I?” Nancy pulled a chair away from the table and sat in front of us sprawled on the floor. “I’m sure you all know Mady and her friend Mackenzie here were abducted when they were younger. Right before Mady moved into your quaint little town. What you don’t know, is the man who abducted them was my brother. He was incarcerated and never made it out of jail. The other inmates killed him because he was charged with a crime against a child. None of it was his fault though. We were born into a cult our parents belonged to. They abducted people and tortured them to death. There was a river by the complex so they just dumped them in. It was in the wilderness, so even if the bodies surfaced, no one was around to find them. We grew up in that environment. When he was to be initiated into the higher council, he had to prove himself by abducting young girls. He was supposed to take them, keep them for a month, and release them, kind of like fishing where you catch and release. The cops caught on to him before his month was up, and the higher council was furious. When I heard he had been killed in prison, I was devastated. He was my brother.” Her voice broke and she stopped to compose herself. “I was hell-bent on getting revenge on the people responsible for putting him in jail in the first place. The council insisted I find Mady and abduct her, so they could exact their revenge. That’s how I ended up in this hick town.” She leaned back in the chair and took a deep breath.

  My mind was still focused on Mady, but I couldn’t see her from where I was tied up. The best thing I could do was focus on getting out of my restraints and worry about Mady when I could actually do something to help her.

  Nancy leaned forward and continued. “When I finally found out where Mady was, I set up a base in town, and started searching for an accomplice. Small towns aren’t easy to assimilate yourself into, so I either had to wait until I was entrenched in the community, or find someone that was.

  Jessica was perfect. She was popular and came from a respected family. But I knew she had deep seated secrets. She ran a hate website on the deep web, and posted about killing Mady. That’s how I found her. If that information ever got out she could face prison time. I confronted her about it, and to my surprise, I didn’t even have to blackmail her. She was all in, and we started to devise a plan in short order. We started to send Mady mail, trying to scare her into coming with us. Then we threatened her parents.” Nancy got up and walked behind me. I struggled to turn my body so that I had a view of her and caught sight of Mady. She went over to Mady and stroked her forehead. Mady’s eyes were closed and sweat sheened her forehead. She needed to get to a hospital.

  I took advantage of Nancy’s distraction and wriggled my hands. I could feel the knot and tried to loosen it.

  Jessica took up the story now. “I hate Mady with a passion. I’ve always loved you, Brian. We grew up together and I knew we were meant for each other, then this random girl comes into town and takes you away from me. It’s not fair, and I’m not going to let it happen without a fight. I thought I’d start a rumour and break you up. I hate Mady, but I wasn’t prepared to kill her, that is, until Nancy came along. She offered me everything I wanted. She told me she could help me make Mady disappear, and that’s all it took.” Jessica twirled her fingers in her hair the whole time like she was nervous.

  “Then Mady became a problem. She decided instead of coming with us, she’d pretend to kill herself, and we’d give up. For the first couple days, she pulled it off. I was preparing to leave, and then a friend of mine in the cult checked the blog. It was blocked from anyone trying to find it in Idaho, but they could see it. When they discovered there was a new post, I knew she wasn’t dead. Keep in mind this was a long while before our friend Brian got his hands on the blog, and I thought it was about time I got close to the people she loved most. Jessica was good, but you wouldn’t tell her anything, so I posed as a psychologist, got my hands on some fake credentials and a few days later, I got a call from your mom asking to set up an appointment. It was all just too easy.”

  “How did you know I would come to see you?” I had to cut her off.

  “We said, no interrupting!” Jessica stomped over to me. She hesitated for a second, before delivering a vicious slap to my face.

  “That’s enough, Jessica. Let him be for the moment,” Nancy cautioned. “It was more of a gamble than anything else, but I was the only psychologist in town. It was a win-win situation for me. In the end, you didn’t really give me much, but with your help, and Jessica telling me everything you guys were doing, I was able to hide the fact that I was the one looking for her.” She turned her attention to Mackenzie, who shrank back against the wall.

  “How did you find her? We didn’t even know where she was staying,” Kent joined the conversation.

  “Well let’s talk about our little friend Makenzie then, shall we? She was one of the only parts in this entire plan we didn’t count on. I had no idea she was in town, so when Brian told Jessica about her, I was shocked. So, we had to adapt. I always thought my brother killed her to get rid of evidence, just like everyone else. Little did I know she was placed in witness protection by the horrid police. We didn’t find out who she actually was until you found her, Brian. After your little milkshake meeting, she got into her car and drove to an old abandoned building near the edge of town. I didn’t know why at first, until I saw lights turn on upstairs, and two people walking around. We found Mady, and then today we went over and retrieved her from her little hiding place. She struggled, so we had to use a little force, but everything worked out in the end.”

  “Excessive force? You stabbed her, you bitch!” Kent exploded, twisting and straining against the restraints. Jessica didn’t flinch. Instead, she walked towards him, a maniacal look on her face.

  “Listen babe, it’s going to be okay. We’ll kill you all soon enough.” She bent down and caressed his cheek.

  Kent drew his head back and spit in her face.

  Jessica faltered backwards for a second, and then caught her balance and stood up as if it didn’t affect her at all.

  “They have no respect for you. You are a goddess among women, and the four of them will pay in hell when we kill them.” She moved back to Nancy’s side.

  “Are there any questions?” Nancy said, rubbing her hands against her jeans.

  “So how did you know we were coming for you in that house on Oak Street?” Jason was trying to buy time.

  “Jessica. She texted me every single time you went on your adventures. I g
ot her to start talking to Kent beforehand, since I assumed you would be forced to tell him at some point, so they were already close. When I saw Kent and Brian go on that hike, I knew he knew something. She needed to stay close until you were forced to let her in on your secret. You weren’t going to kick her out after you told her, since hardly anyone knew, so we were in,” Nancy explained.

  “Now, any others?” She asked, looking at all of us individually. When we didn’t respond, she continued. “Good, in that case, we can get started.” She pulled a knife from a sheath at her belt and stabbed it into the wooden table.

  Jessica went to Mackenzie and pulled her upright. She forced the rest of us to get up on our own, leaving Mady in the blood-soaked bed by herself. Once we were all standing she ordered us to follow her. I had already loosened the knot at my wrists and felt the rope start to slip away. It wouldn’t do any good. I couldn’t undo the rope around my body. I was too late. I’d have to come up with another plan.

  Jessica herded us past the table and cupboard, and down the hallway, leading the way with the dim light of a flash light. As soon as we left the room all the light disappeared. The hallway narrowed into little more than a crack in the wall and we had to turn sideways just to squeeze through it. Nancy followed up the rear to make sure none of us stuck back in the room, while Jessica led us down the hallway.

  I was terrified. These two were lunatics. Who knew what plan they devised to kill the rest of us. They would have to do something so no one would find the bodies. If they weren’t going to dump us in the lake, the only other option I could think of was fire.

  “Almost there, any final words?” Nancy asked from the back of the pack.

  Our silence seemed to anger Nancy. She shoved Jason who was nearest her and he collided with the rest of us. Once we regained our balance we shuffled forward again until we emerged into a large cavern.

  It looked like a natural formation rather than a man made one. Stone spikes hung from the domed roof, and water trickled off them, landing with a hard slap on the stone below. There was a ledge that was just large enough for all of us to stand on. I looked out past the ledge into nothingness. The only light source in the cavern was a lantern hanging on the wall next to where we stood, and the small light that it gave off was swallowed up by the darkness below, only illuminating the ledge we stood on. Jessica also held a dim flashlight but that didn’t so much to brighten the place up either.

  The lack of light and the echoing of water dropping off the stone roof created an eerie atmosphere. Shivers ran over my skin. Nancy entered last, squeezing past us close to where the ledge dropped off, and I could hear her fiddling with something. There was an audible click, and the cavern was filled with light.

  What was beyond the ledge made me want to puke. It looked like a cave the miners must have broken into while moving deeper into the mountain. There appeared to be some sort of platform stairs that led into the drop below. I stood near the edge of the platform, looking past the broken and fallen scaffolding, leaving a few platforms intact all the way to the bottom of the hole. It must be at least a 3-story drop. Nancy planned on killing us by pushing us off. The one thing that would be worse than fire, in my opinion. At least after hitting the ground from that height a person should die on impact.

  “Which one of you wants to go first?” Jessica asked cheerfully

  I couldn’t believe I had ever trusted this girl.

  “Someone has to volunteer. It would just be cruel of me to pick who should die first,” Nancy said.

  This entire thing was my fault. I dragged everyone into this. If I had just called the police or Mady’s parents right when all of this started, none of us would be in this situation.

  “I’ll go first.” I said, just as Jessica opened her mouth. She looked surprised and I doubted they had expected any of us to volunteer. It was just a way to add more drama to the situation.

  “Fine.” She shrugged like it was nothing to push someone off a cliff to their death.

  She grabbed me by the rope around my body and dragged me closer to the edge. I almost tripped, but managed not to at the last moment. I guess it didn’t really matter; they were going to push me to my death at any second. Somehow, tripping and falling into the darkness seemed much scarier than being pushed for some reason.

  I stood there for a second, looking into the gaping hole beneath me. Maybe there was a pool at the bottom, deep enough for me to survive the fall, but who was I kidding? I’d probably die of fright before I ever hit bottom.

  “Ready?” Jessica sounded spooked now it was time to actually shove me over. Maybe she’d chicken out.

  “Yeah.”

  She took a sharp breath and gave me a slight push in the middle of my back. I waited, teetering on the edge. A much heavier shove sent me reeling forward. My feet scrabbled for support, but to no avail. Just as I was toppling past the point of no return someone grabbed the rope and hauled me back.

  I slipped on the loose gravel and fell over the edge anyway, but I stopped short, suspended in midair. Above me someone wheezed with the effort of struggling to pull me back up.

  Chapter 20

  Everything seemed to happen so fast. Before I could really get freaked out, I was back on the ledge, laying on my stomach, a foot away from plummeting to my death in the gaping pit. I rolled the other way, moving further from the ledge, and looked around.

  Jessica sprawled on her back a meter away from me, a large gash in the center of her forehead. Blood was everywhere. Kent and Jason were getting up from their knees, and Mackenzie was sitting on her butt, fighting Nancy who was trying to shove her towards the edge.

  Jason and Kent had freed themselves, so they must have been the ones that pulled me back. I asked one of them to untie me. Jason came to my aid while Kent tackled Nancy.

  It seemed to take forever for Jason to untie me. The adrenaline was rushing through me and I shook like when I took a shot of whiskey straight up.

  I stood up and looked for Kent. Nancy had pushed Mackenzie closer to the ledge despite Kent’s attempts to hold her back. She was dangerously close to the edge.

  Jason and I ran to help. I got there first and shoved Nancy back against the wall. She fell awkwardly, hitting her head with a sickening crack on the stone wall. She collapsed in a heap on the floor, giving Mackenzie time to scoot herself away from the ledge and work on untying her restraints.

  I was frozen with shock for a second. I hoped I hadn’t killed her. The sickening sound of her head striking the wall made me think of the sound smashing pumpkins on the driveway after Halloween.

  Footsteps rushed towards me, but I thought it was Jason, until Kent yelled at me. He had helped Mackenzie up and was inspecting her injuries.

  “Watch out, Brian!”

  I whirled around. Jessica was coming at me with a knife, and before I could move, she buried it in my shoulder.

  It was one of those big hunting knives with the serrated edges. The blade sunk into my flesh just enough to get lodged. I wanted to throw up, and it didn’t help Jessica was beating on my other arm, trying to get hold of the knife to drive it deeper into me.

  I needed to sit down, and fast. I flopped down, black dots dancing before my eyes, growing larger with every breath. I was going to pass out. I couldn’t fall onto the knife. I didn’t know if the wound was deadly, but the blade was probably large enough to go through my entire body, and I knew there was a chance of cutting a major artery.

  My vision was worsening. My recollection of this part is shaky, but what I do remember is Jessica pounding on my chest while I tried to keep her away from my injured shoulder. Jason pushed her away. Mackenzie had untied her hands and was looking around to assess the situation. Then Jason was running. When I looked, I saw Jessica trip over some rocks and fall toward the edge of the cliff. Jason dove after her, throwing his body and reaching out to grab her.

  He snagged the back of her shirt but it wasn’t enough. It only slowed her up a bit and before he could get a bett
er hold she went over the edge.

  She didn’t scream. The only indication she even made it to the bottom was a small thud that echoed in the darkness. I thought I heard bones cracking, but that could have been my imagination. The horror of what just happened was held at bay by the shock of my injury.

  “Quick, get Nancy tied up before she comes to.” Jason got to his feet, backing away from the spot Jessica disappeared without looking away. He tossed Kent a length of rope they’d used to tie us up earlier.

  Kent and Mackenzie tied Nancy’s arms, but kept her legs free so we wouldn’t have to carry her. We already had Mady, as well as me to get back to the surface, and that was going to be enough without having to haul a raging psychopath.

  Mackenzie helped me to my feet and let me lean on her. She had the big flash light in her other hand. Kent picked up Nancy, we didn’t want to wait until she regained consciousness. Jason stood at the spot where Jessica disappeared for a moment before joining us.

  I had to stop and puke during the trip back to the room Mady was in. When we got there I collapsed in one of the chairs. Mackenzie tore up a towel she found and tried to stabilize the knife so it wouldn’t do any more damage.

  Kent dropped Nancy unceremoniously onto the floor, and went to check on Mady.

  “She’s breathing, but she’s only taking a shallow breath every couple of seconds.” His face creased with worry.

  “Should we call up to the surface and ask for police to meet us up there?” Jason suggested.

  “I doubt Nancy left the phone where we can find it. Let’s just get out of here.

  Mackenzie got Mady to her feet and took most of her weight. She looked like she was really out of it, her eyes only partially open.

  We got to the elevator quicker than I expected, probably due to the fact that I stared down at the ground for most of the journey, concentrating on placing one foot in front of the other. We all got on the elevator.