Shadow Creek

by Joy Fielding

“Not till I know where we’re going. We can’t just keep wandering around in the dark all night in the middle of a storm.”

  Another flash of lightning, this one unmistakable, followed seconds later by a loud clap of thunder.

  “Try your phone again,” Brianne instructed.

  Tyler pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket and began punching in numbers. “Not getting a damn thing.”

  “No!”

  “Okay, look,” Tyler said. “We passed a little clearing a while back. I think we’d be safer there. There aren’t so many trees.”

  “I don’t remember any clearing.” Brianne struggled to stand up. “Shit. I can’t put any weight on my ankle.” She tried hopping, feeling the wet earth cold on the bottom of her bare foot, as twigs, like dozens of hypodermic needles, poked at her flesh. “This isn’t going to work.”

  “All right. It looks like I’m gonna have to carry you.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “Good idea. Don’t think,” he said, lobbing her earlier words back at her. “It’s not your strong suit.” With that, he hoisted her into his arms, almost losing his balance in the process and staggering forward half a dozen steps before he was able to regain control of his footing.

  “Don’t you dare drop me,” she warned.

  “Don’t tempt me.” He carried her back in the direction from which they’d just come, trying to retrace their steps in the dark. “Damn it. I can’t see a thing.”

  “Guess we should have left breadcrumbs.”

  “Breadcrumbs?” Rain dripped from the tip of Tyler’s nose into his mouth, causing him to spit the word out.

  “Your mother never read you the story of Hansel and Gretel?”

  “She may have. I don’t remember.”

  “You really don’t remember the story of Hansel and Gretel?”

  “I don’t remember my mother.”

  “What do you mean, you don’t remember her?” Brianne burrowed her face into his chest, trying to escape the worsening rain.

  “She died when I was two.”

  “She did? You never told me that. What happened to her?”

  “I don’t think this is the best time to be having this discussion.” Another bolt of lightning split the sky, followed almost immediately by another crack of thunder.

  “The storm’s getting closer,” Brianne observed. “Where’s that stupid clearing?”

  “It should be around here somewhere.”

  “Great. That’s very reassuring.”

  They continued on for another minute, the rain pelting them from all sides as the wind picked up its pace. “Okay, here we are,” Tyler said after another minute, lowering her carefully to the ground and kneeling beside her.

  Brianne brought her hand up to shield her eyes from the rain and looked warily around. “What do you mean, ‘here we are’? We’re nowhere.”

  “We’re away from the trees, so there’s less chance of us being struck by lightning.”

  “But we’re gonna get soaked out here.”

  “We’re already soaked.”

  “We’re gonna catch pneumonia.”

  “Would you rather be struck by lightning?” Tyler sat down, removing his wet jacket and holding it above both their heads. “I had pneumonia once,” he said. “It was no fun.”

  “And this is?”

  Another flash of lightning, another rumble of thunder, one right on top of the other.

  “That should be the worst of it,” he said.

  “So, how’d your mother die?” Brianne asked him after another minute had passed. Might as well make conversation, she was thinking. Anything to distract her from her predicament.

  “Drug overdose.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded, turned his head away.

  Is he going to cry? Brianne wondered, beginning to regret having been so mean to him. “Accidental or on purpose?”

  “They think it was an accident.”

  “What do you mean, they think? They don’t know?”

  “It was kind of hard to tell. She was into some pretty heavy stuff. Heroin, crack, junk like that.”

  “She was a drug addict?”

  “And a prostitute.”

  Holy shit, Brianne thought. What the hell am I doing with this guy? “What about your dad?”

  “Last I heard he was rotting away in some Texas jail.”

  “Wow. Talk about heavy stuff.”

  “I guess.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?” Why didn’t Sasha?

  “Would it have made a difference?”

  “No.” Probably. “Of course not.” Definitely.

  “We never really talked a whole lot,” he reminded her.

  “What did he do? Your father, I mean.”

  Tyler mumbled something unintelligible.

  “What?”

  “Serial killer,” Tyler said. This time the words were crystal clear.

  “What!”

  A smile began creeping into the corners of Tyler’s dark eyes.

  “You’re making all this up, aren’t you, you sick piece of shit?”

  Tyler laughed. “Sorry. Couldn’t resist. You got to admit you had it coming.”

  “Is your mother even dead?”

  “No. She was in great shape the last time I saw her.”

  “And your father?”

  “Never even had a speeding ticket, as far as I know.”

  “How could you do that to me?”

  “It stopped you bitching for a few minutes, didn’t it?” He laughed again, slapping at the wet ground with the palm of his hand.

  “This isn’t funny. God, you are such an imbecile.”

  “You deserved it. Like I wouldn’t know the story of Hansel and Gretel. Hah! You should have seen your face when I said my dad was a serial killer. That was worth this whole fucking night.”

  “You know what? I’ve had enough of you. Just get away from me, okay? Find a hole somewhere and crawl inside with the rest of the rats.”

  Tyler pushed himself to his feet. “Fine by me. I’ve had more than enough of you, too.” He hesitated.

  “Well, go on. What are you waiting for?”

  “Don’t worry. I’m going. Just don’t start hollering at me to come back.”

  “I won’t. Go on. Get out of here.”

  “You sound just like your mother. You know that?”

  “Good. I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “I wouldn’t. Your mother’s a bitch.”

  “My mother is not a bitch. Don’t you dare talk about my mother like that.”

  He shook his head, water dripping from his hair. “You’re crazy.”

  “Just leave me alone.”

  “You’re sure this is what you want?”

  Brianne looked away, then back at Tyler. “I’m sorry. Are you still here?” She looked away again. When she looked back a moment later, he was gone.

  WHAT THE HELL is the matter with me? Brianne wondered, hugging herself against the cold. What had she been thinking, sending Tyler away like that? She’d only made things worse: she was still lost in the woods, in the dark, in the middle of the night. Except now, she was all by herself. Well done. Okay, at least the rain had stopped. Although the mosquitoes were back in full force. Did they never sleep?

  What time is it? she wondered, glancing at her watch but unable to read what it said. She estimated that Tyler had been gone about thirty minutes, so it had to be at least three, maybe even four o’clock in the morning by now. That meant it should be getting light in another few hours. Surely she could last till then. Unless an animal gets me, she thought suddenly, listening for suspicious sounds as she cast a glance over both shoulders. And if an animal doesn’t kill me, my mother definitely will.

  My poor mother, she found herself thinking. As if she hasn’t enough on her plate to deal with. An alcoholic mother, turning the big 4-0, her soon-to-be ex-husband’s recent engagement to a younger woman. Brianne knew that no matter wha
t her mother said, she was still in love with her father, that she desperately wanted him back, and that her heart was breaking at the thought of him marrying someone else. She also knew, without having to be told, that her father was just using her mother, that he had no real intention of coming back, and that he was stringing her along, keeping her dangling in case things with Jennifer didn’t work out. “Always have a fallback position,” she remembered him saying once with regard to some deal he was working on. Her mother didn’t deserve to be treated so cavalierly, she thought angrily. Not by him. Not by me, she added reluctantly. “I’m so sorry, Mom,” she whispered into the darkness. “I love you. I love you more than anything in the world.”

  Her mother would be hysterical when she woke up and realized Brianne was missing. She’d call the park rangers, who would eventually find Tyler’s car in the ditch; they’d organize a search party. Eventually they’d find her, tired and wet and hungry, nursing her broken ankle. There’d be tears and recriminations, and ultimately forgiveness. Her mother had never been able to stay angry at her for very long, although she’d probably take her BlackBerry away permanently, which wasn’t the worst thing in the world. It had gotten her into more than enough trouble already. Truthfully, she didn’t care if she never saw another cell phone device as long as she lived. Besides, her father would undoubtedly buy her a new one as a way of atoning for screwing up the weekend.

  Brianne wrapped herself up in Tyler’s jacket, grateful he’d either deliberately left it behind or more likely, simply forgotten to take it with him, and tried to find a comfortable spot on the ground on which to lie down. Maybe she’d even manage to fall asleep. Or maybe not, she thought, sitting back up almost immediately, aware of the sound of leaves shaking and wood snapping underfoot. “Hello? Is somebody there?” Her hand foraged through the leaves on the ground for a stick that could serve as a weapon, finding nothing but wet clumps of mud and a few useless twigs. “Hello? Who is it?”

  Tyler was suddenly looming above her, like a giant bear. “Just call me Hansel.”

  Brianne gasped. How could he have gotten so close without her spotting him? “God, you scared me half to death, you jerk.” Truthfully, she felt almost unbearably grateful to see him. “What are you doing back here? You get lost again?”

  “Yeah,” he admitted. “But I also found something. A road. Not the main one,” he added quickly. “It’s just a dirt road, but there looks to be a cottage or something at the far end of it.”

  “A cottage?” Brianne asked hopefully. Then, more skeptically, “Is it made of gingerbread?” She wasn’t about to be fooled by one of his stupid stories again.

  “I’m not making this up. I swear.”

  “You better not be.”

  “Look. You can believe me or not, but there’s a road and a cottage about a mile from here. I don’t know if the place is occupied or not, but I think it’s worth a shot.”

  “A mile? I can’t walk a mile on this ankle.”

  “You don’t have a choice.” He grabbed her elbow and pulled her to her feet.

  “You better not be kidding,” she told him.

  “Trust me,” he said. “This is no joke.”

  TWENTY-ONE

  WHAT TIME IS IT?” Val asked, feeling a fresh army of tears gathering strength behind her eyes.

  “I’m too bleary-eyed to read my watch,” James told her.

  “Closing in on four o’clock,” Melissa said, the words escaping her mouth on a yawn.

  Val nodded. “Still no luck with that number?” she asked Jennifer.

  “I’m not getting any reception at all,” came the answer Val had been simultaneously dreading and expecting. Henry Voight might have a phone that operated by satellite, but she didn’t. “I think we’re going to have to wait until the office opens in the morning.” She was referring to the Starbright office, which had a landline. It didn’t open until seven. “But I’m sure Brianne will be back by then.”

  “I can’t believe this is happening again.”

  “Three times a charm,” said James.

  Melissa suppressed another yawn. “I’m certain she was planning to be back before any of us realized she was gone.”

  “Listen, why don’t you guys try to get a little sleep?” Val suggested. “There’s no point in all of us being up the whole night.”

  “You sure you wouldn’t mind?” Melissa asked.

  “Positive.”

  “You’ll shout if she comes back?” James said.

  “They’ll hear me in Canada.”

  They exchanged hugs, then Val watched her two friends disappear inside their tents.

  “If you don’t mind, I’d rather stay out here,” Jennifer said.

  Val nodded. The truth was that she didn’t mind. The truth was she was actually quite appreciative of Jennifer’s efforts on her behalf. The young woman had spent the better part of the last hour prowling the campground, trying to get through to Henry Voight’s private line, albeit with no success.

  “At least it stopped raining,” Jennifer said.

  Small comfort, Val thought, staring into the night, praying to see her daughter take shape in the darkness. But all she saw was the swaying of the tree limbs and all she heard was the whispering of the leaves. Your daughter’s in trouble, the leaves told her. Your daughter needs you.

  “Are you okay?” Jennifer asked after a silence of several minutes.

  Val nodded. “I’m just scared. And angry. And disappointed. Which I guess pretty much sums up being the parent of a teenager.”

  Jennifer chuckled sadly. “Looks like I won’t have to worry about that.”

  “You don’t want kids of your own?” Val realized she was genuinely curious.

  “I don’t know. I always assumed I’d have a whole bunch,” Jennifer confided. “But Evan …” She stopped abruptly. “Sorry.” She hugged her knees, stared at the ground.

  Val finished the sentence for her. “Evan doesn’t want more kids.”

  “I can understand his reluctance,” Jennifer said quickly. “I really can. He’s older, and he’s been there, done that.”

  “But you haven’t.”

  “No, but … Well, we’ll see. Maybe he’ll change his mind.”

  Don’t count on it, Val thought but didn’t say out loud, sensing she didn’t have to. Evan had always been very adamant about not wanting more children. “I like to be your baby,” he’d told her every time she’d broached the subject.

  “I probably wouldn’t be a very good mother anyway,” Jennifer said.

  “What makes you say that?”

  “I don’t have a lot of patience.”

  “Really? You strike me as someone who has quite a lot of patience.”

  Jennifer laughed, although the sound was far from joyful. “Not according to my sister. She says I’m always on her about something.”

  “Well, sisters aren’t necessarily our kindest judges.”

  “Do you have any?” Jennifer asked.

  “One. Younger. Allison.”

  “Mine’s older. Cameron.”

  “Are the two of you close?” Val thought she was asking the question as a way of passing the time, time she wouldn’t have to spend worrying about Brianne, so she was surprised to discover she was actually interested in Jennifer’s answer.

  “No. We never were. I’m not sure why exactly. We’re just so different, I guess. We always seem to piss each other off. What about you and Allison?”

  “We used to be close when we were growing up. Things changed after my father left.”

  “Why did he leave?”

  “Another woman,” Val said with a wry smile. “Sound familiar?”

  Jennifer stared at the ground. “My father has Alzheimer’s,” she said after a pause.

  “I’m sorry.” Again Val was surprised to realize that she was.

  “So, I guess, in a way, he kind of left us, too.”

  Val nodded. “That must be very hard.”

  “It is.”

 
; “What about your mom?”

  “She’s dead. Yours?”

  “She’s working on it.”

  Jennifer’s eyes connected with Val’s through the darkness, although she said nothing.

  “She drinks,” Val explained without prompting. “A lot. Pretty much all the time, actually.”

  “Because of your dad?”

  “Maybe in the beginning. But I think it’s too easy to put all the blame on him. It’s a disease. And she had choices. We all have choices.”

  Again, the women’s eyes connected.

  Which was when they heard the footsteps and saw the figure emerging from the shadows and lurching toward them.

  “Hayden?” Val jumped to her feet and rushed toward him, catching him just before he collapsed in her arms. “My God, what happened to you?”

  “Is he okay?” Jennifer asked.

  “Go get Gary.” Val heard the incipient hysteria in her voice, which pitched it several octaves higher than usual. Even in the dark she could see that Hayden’s cheek was cut and bruised and that his clothes were soaked through and covered with mud. “What happened? Where’s Brianne?”

  “What’s going on?” Melissa asked, emerging from her tent.

  “Is Brianne back?” asked James, appearing at the same time.

  “Can someone please get me some water?” Val asked, brushing flecks of stone and matted hair away from Hayden’s face.

  James immediately ducked back into his tent, returning seconds later with a bottle of mineral water. Val lifted it to the boy’s lips, watching him intently as he tried to take a sip.

  “Hayden, please, sweetheart, where is Brianne?” Val urged.

  “Hayden! Hayden!” his father called as he scrambled toward them, tripping over his feet and almost falling. He collapsed to the ground, taking his son in his arms. “Are you all right? My God, what happened? Who did this to you?”

  Hayden stared at his father for several seconds without speaking.

  “Is Brianne all right?” Gary spun around. “Where is she?”

  “We don’t know. Hayden came back alone,” Val told him. “Please, Hayden. Can you tell us where she is?”

  “She’s with that guy,” Hayden finally managed to spit out.

  “What guy? You mean Tyler?”

  He nodded.