“Julie,” I said, “how are you feeling? Are you doing okay?”
“I’m fine. I forgot to tell you I drank a Long Island iced tea. Do you know how much liquor they put in those things?”
“Yeah, you told me already. How’s your neck?”
“Fine, but that stupid vase nailed me real good. Wanna know the worst part though?”
“What?”
“I didn’t even get the blond’s phone number. He was so hot.”
Jesse cut in. “Trust me, you don’t want that guy’s number.”
“Yes I do.”
“He’s way too dangerous.”
“A bad boy, huh? I like that.”
“Not a bad boy. He’s a bad man—a real bad man—and like many of the guys back there, he’s nothing but trouble,” Jesse said. “You two had no business being at that party out in the middle of the woods with a bunch of older strangers.”
“Yeah? Well, I guess we were lucky you were looking out for us,” Julie said.
He smiled.
“So what can we do about the tire?” she asked.
“My friend’s coming,” Jesse said. “I’ll wait outside for him. You two stay put.”
“Why not stay in here with us?” I asked.
“Because I have to make sure the big, bad wolf doesn’t come and eat you.”
“Ooh. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” Julie slurred.
I laughed as he slammed the door shut.
“He’s cute,” Julie said, “and funny too.”
“Yeah, but if that party was so dangerous, what was he doing there?” I asked.
“Maybe he’s just as dark and dangerous as they are,” she said in a creepy voice. “Boo!” she said as she grabbed my arm.
I jumped and screamed, “Julie! Stop that!”
She began laughing like a crazy person. “Oh, man! You…Taylor, you shoulda seen your face! Priceless.”
“Ha-ha. Very funny.”
“I’m sorry the party didn’t work out, but at least you found Prince Charming. Wasn’t that the important thing?” She shot me a sly smile as she gave me a fist-bump.
Grinning, I bumped her back.
“Look at you, all lust at first sight for our bad boy.”
“There’s definitely a connection, but I don’t think it’s lust…and I don’t think he’s a bad boy.”
“That’s too bad. But anyway, it’s obvious that you’re attracted to him like there’s no tomorrow.”
I smiled and couldn’t possibly deny it.
“You’ve got it for him big time, don’t ya?”
“Yes,” I admitted.
“Then why are you sitting in here talking to me when he’s out there all by himself, glistening in the moonlight?”
“I’m sure girls throw themselves at him all the time. I don’t wanna be like that.”
“Going out there and saying hello would not be throwing yourself at him, unless you intend to take your top off while you do it,” she said, then winked.
“Very funny,” I said, then laughed again. “Okay.”
She grinned as I hopped out of the truck.
Outside, Jesse was sitting in the truck bed, his gorgeous black locks blowing in the wind.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey.”
“Need some company?” I asked.
His eyes twinkled in the moonlight. “I’d love some.”
I jumped into the cab and sat next to him. “Keeping us safe from all the wild animals out prowling around?”
“Lots of dangerous predators hunt at night.”
“Like the bobcat? I know they’re nocturnal.” I smiled, then gazed into his eyes.
“I almost didn’t come tonight,” he said. “Now I’m glad I did.”
I smiled, nervously tossing my hair to the side. “If you knew it was dangerous, why did you—”
Before I could even get the question out, he turned to the left and glanced into the towering woods. “Taylor, get back in the truck and lock the doors,” he said.
I smiled, thinking he was joking. “Why? Are we being stalked? More mountain lions?”
He didn’t laugh, though, and his face remained stern. “Please get back inside the truck.
Knowing he was dead set on protecting me and realizing how serious he was, I didn’t protest. I opened the door and climbed in.
“What’s going on?” Julie asked.
I tried to get a glimpse of some hungry wildlife, but I saw nothing. “He thinks something’s out there.”
“Like what?”
“Like a wild animal.”
She blew out a breath and glanced out the window. “He needs to get his butt inside too. I don’t wanna watch him get torn to shreds!” She rolled down the window. “Jesse, get your butt in here.”
While we looked out at Jesse, who was pacing the road and staring deep into the dark woods, I began to get really creeped out. Where the heck is this friend of his? I wondered, knowing we needed to get back on the road and get home before Julie’s mom did. She had worked the nightshift at the hotel, but she would be home by eight a.m. at the latest. If we didn’t make it home before she did, my own mother would find out, and I’d be grounded for weeks.
BANG!
Suddenly, something shattered the driver’s-side window of the truck. I ducked as flying glass sprayed everywhere. Disoriented, I glanced up at my friend.
“Now you’re bleeding!” Julie shouted. “Where’s that medic when we need her?”
Chapter 5
I glanced down and realized that some of the glass from the window had cut the top of my hand. “It’s okay,” I said. “I just got cut when the glass shattered.”
Suddenly, rifle shots echoed through the darkness.
I froze, and a cold chill shot down my spine.
“Somebody’s shooting at us!” Julie said, her voice wavering as she stated the obvious. “We’re being robbed or somethin’.”
The words remained frozen in my throat, and I could only shake my head in shared disbelief. I reached for my phone and quickly called 911, but the call wouldn’t go through. “No signal!” I said.
“Same here,” Julie said, trembling with fright.
“Jesse!” I shouted through the broken window. I glanced around for him, but he was nowhere in sight.
BOOM!
More glass shattered like rock candy, spraying us with shards as the windshield was shot out.
“We’ve gotta get outta here!” I said. “Some crazy person is shooting at us, and I’ve kinda got the feeling he’s not gonna stop until we’re dead.”
“No!” Julie said. “I’m not leaving. If we step out of this truck, it’ll be like target practice for our trigger-happy stalker!”
“Julie, if we stay in this truck, we’re as good as dead.”
She met my gaze, her eyes wide with terror. Clearly, she’d been scared sober.
I gripped her hands. “We can hide in the woods.”
“No way! Haven’t you ever seen a horror movie in your life? The hockey mask guy always chases girls into the woods, and I don’t wanna be chopped up with a meat cleaver!”
“That’s just the movies, Julie. I’ve been in those woods already. I know it’s dark, and there are so many trees and shrubs and boulders. He’ll never find us.”
“But what about Jesse?” she whispered.
Droplets of sweat rolled down my face. “I-I don’t know. I don’t see him anywhere.”
“So he just abandoned us? Your knight in shining armor left two damsels in distress?” she snapped. “Humph. Some Prince Charming he turned out to be.”
I tentatively glanced out the window, and another chill shot up my spine when I noticed a puddle on the street, glimmering crimson in the moonlight. “Oh my gosh!”
“What?”
Biting my lip hard, I pointed. “Blood! Jesse’s hurt.”
She cautiously glanced out, peeking through her fingers the way someone would look at a car accident, then let out a trembling b
reath. “Wh-where did he go?”
A cold feeling washed over me, and I felt as if all the blood had instantly drained from my face. “I dunno.”
BANG!
More glass shattered as a bullet destroyed one of the side windows, garnering another scream from Julie.
I gripped Julie’s hand. “We’ve gotta get out of here. We’re sitting ducks if we stay.”
She nodded, finally realizing I was right.
I opened the glove compartment and fumbled around through all sorts of junk, everything from gum wrappers to a tire gauge to coupons for fast food places. “You got a flashlight in here or under the seat or anything?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I know I should, but I didn’t expect to be…”
As she trailed off, I heard an unmistakable howl echoing in the distance, and the hair on my neck rose.
“Did you hear that?” Julie frantically whispered. “Maybe my Little Red Riding Hood joke wasn’t so far off. There are wolves out there, Taylor! Wolves!”
With that cruel realization, I second-guessed my decision to run into the woods, but staying in the truck and being easy pickings for the deranged Rambo wasn’t an option either.
Swallowing hard, I slipped out of the passenger’s door and stayed low. Adrenaline spiked in my veins, and I had to force myself to take slow breaths. I motioned for Julie to follow me, and we slowly crept into the woods. Eerie shadows stretched and shifted in the trees like ghouls. Darting forward, I jumped over logs and zigzagged through the towering trees, going as fast as the burning muscles in my legs would allow, with dry leaves and twigs crunching beneath my feet. I continued checking over my shoulder and was glad to see that Julie’s drunk had worn off enough that she was having no trouble keeping up; the moonlight glinting here and there off of her sparkly shirt let her know she was right behind me. I spun and found an alternate route, squeezing through the clustered trees in the hopes of escaping our pursuer.
A few feet behind us, within earshot, twigs snapped and ferns rustled, as if someone or something was hot on our trail. I wasn’t sure if it was human, bobcat, or some other variety of predator, but I twisted through the overgrown ferns and foliage, running faster and encouraging Julie to hurry.
“Taylor!” Jesse’s voice said.
I had no idea how he found us with all the turns and twists I’d taken, but it was a relief to know that he was there and hadn’t deserted us after all.
Jesse sucked in a deep breath and held his chest, where blood was dripping from a gaping wound.
I gasped, then took a deep, trembling breath. “Jesse, I saw blood by the truck. Are you okay?”
He struggled to breathe. “I was…he shot me.”
My pulse pounded in my ears. I had no idea what to do for a gunshot wound, and even if I had known, I was too scared to think clearly enough to play nurse.
Julie took off her sweater and applied pressure. “Stay calm…and whatever you do, don’t pass out.”
“We need to keep moving,” I said. “We gotta get back on the road and find help.”
“He’ll have no idea where were coming out,” Julie said as we walked briskly, helping Jesse along.
“I’ll be fine,” he said. “I just need a little while to recuperate.”
“Uh-uh, buddy. Don’t go trying to be Mr. Macho right now. This isn’t like shaking off a twisted ankle,” Julie said. “You were shot, for goodness sake! You need surgery, medical help, and a lot of prayers.”
I pushed branches aside, took another step into the dense vegetation, then straightened to listen. Barking, whining, and haunting howls echoed in the air. It seemed we’d lost the maniac shooter, but now we were wandering around a lonely forest, a dark labyrinth of trees, possibly being stalked by a pack of wolves.
“We gotta keep moving,” Jesse said.
A deeper, more menacing howl made my hands shake. It reminded me of a bloodhound my neighbor had once owned, but when all the wild canines bayed together, it was beyond freaky and downright ominous.
We kept going, climbing over slippery logs and jagged rocks and pushing our way through thick underbrush and tall grass. My foot caught on a broken log and a cluster of rocks, but before I toppled over, I somehow managed to regain my equilibrium. Still, my ankle throbbed, slowing me down.
“They’re too close, Taylor,” Julie said. “We’ll never outrun them.”
“Forget the wolves,” I said. “They just add ambiance to our spooky night hike.”
She shook her head. “How are you so calm?” she said as we stumbled along through the thick terrain. “Jesse’s dying, we’re lost in the woods, a crazy madman might be following us, and now some wolves wanna make a midnight snack out of us. All things considered, maybe the hockey mask guy with the meat cleaver would be better.”
“I’m not dying,” Jesse said, leaning into me as he used us as human crutches.
“Sorry,” Julie said. “I don’t mean to be so negative. I guess I’m still a little drunk and wondering if this is all a dream and I’m really passed out back at that party.”
I stumbled on a log again, then regained my balance; I was dressed for a party and wasn’t exactly wearing hiking boots. “Don’t be scared. Wolves are predators, but they don’t attack humans. After my run-in with the mountain lion, my dad gave me a lecture on all the wildlife around here.”
“You still have a lot to learn about these woods,” Jesse said.
“But wolves naturally fear humans,” I said confidently. “Dad said that, but so did this guy on this Discovery Channel special he made me watch yesterday.”
“These don’t,” Jesse added.
“Wolves have been known to leave a kill when they saw a human coming in their direction,” I argued. “Besides, I’m more scared about the guy who shot at us,” I said. “And we really need to get you to the hospital.”
“Wolves are…predators,” Jesse gasped out between breaths.
I glanced at him skeptically. “My dad said that in the past century, there’ve only been two incidents in North America. He wouldn’t lie to me, not when he wants me to be safe out here.” I glanced over my shoulder and gasped at the canine silhouettes not far behind. “Wait…they are following us! They’re not acting right. Do you think they have rabies or something?”
“Or something,” Jesse said. He suddenly stopped, then pointed. “There’s a cabin up there. Maybe someone’s home who can help us.”
I glanced ahead but didn’t see anything. I wasn’t sure, but I thought he might be hallucinating from blood loss, like a thirsty man seeing an oasis mirage in the desert. As the howls grew louder and began to come from closer, I hoped my imagination was just playing tricks on me too. Nope. Wolves don’t hunt humans, I kept telling myself, but I wasn’t sure if I could believe it, in spite of my dad and Animal Planet.
“There it is!” Julie said. “How’d you see it from that far away?” she asked Jesse, but he just moaned and didn’t answer.
It was still hard to see but I could make out a structure in the moonlight, a cabin looming in the distance. The barking and howling grew louder, and I knew the wolves had captured our scent. I hoped the cabin would offer us safety and a landline; that hope was the only thing that kept me sane and calm.
“Hurry!” Jesse said.
My gaze fixed on my target destination as I put my body into gear. I knew we needed to run, but Jesse was leaning on us for support. Thirty feet? Ugh! Why does it feel like a freaking football field? There was no time to look back, but I had to take a tiny peek over my shoulder to see how close the wolves actually were.
With their curiosity piqued, the snarling, growling, hungry animals were gaining on us.
Twenty-five more feet. Just fifteen more…now ten…five…three. Almost there! Just another foot!
We climbed up the stairs and pounded on the door.
“Help!” I said.
“The pack is coming!” Julie shouted. “Just break a window!”
When I glanced ov
er my shoulder, I gulped as growls and snarls filled the air. I jiggled the doorknob, but it was locked.
“C’mon!” Julie shouted, terrified.
“It’s locked,” I said.
“Let me try!” Jesse said. He threw his shoulder into the door, busting the lock.
I breathed a sigh of relief, but just as I went to rush inside, powerful arms gripped me from behind.
Chapter 6
I gasped when I glanced up and saw one of the guys from the party, the guy Julie had been dancing with, the “psycho” Jesse had warned us about. I flailed as Jonathon attempted to restrain me.
In a flash, Jesse lunged at Jonathon, knocking him to the ground.
When the fiend’s grip loosened, I jumped to my feet.
“Get inside!” Jesse ordered.
I grabbed Julie’s hand and pulled her inside. “Let’s find a weapon to help him,” I said.
“The kitchen!” Julie said.
We bolted inside the cabin.
With my heart racing, I glanced around for the light switch. My fingers skimmed over it, and the lights came on. “Is anybody here?” I screamed.
“Help us!” Julie shouted.
But there was no answer.
The cabin was furnished, so either everyone was asleep or it was a rental and was vacant until the weekend. I walked through the living room and into the kitchen with Julie in tow. We frantically rummaged through the kitchen drawers looking for anything we could use to defend ourselves. My fingers curled around a butcher knife, and Julie held a long, sharp steak knife in her hand.
“Why is Jonathon chasing us?” she asked. “If he wants my number, he just has to ask.”
“What!? The guy’s a psychopath, Julie. Do not give him your number!”
“Maybe if I go out there and talk to him, I can—”
“No! He’s been chasing us. What’s wrong with you?”
“Maybe he just wants something,” she said, still hung up on the guy.
“He’s been shooting at us. I’m pretty sure he wants us dead.”
Her eyes widened as she pondered the situation and reality hit. She grabbed my arm. “I’m so sorry I got you into this.”
“Listen, just stay here, okay? I’ve gotta help Jesse. He’s hurt and can’t fend him off by himself.” I then rushed back to the front door, which was now closed.
Suspending Reality (Five Fantasy Stories) Page 48