Hand in hand, through the maze.
Running. Bel’s phone swinging at her side, lighting the way in nightmare flashes.
Metal shadows loomed, catching their clothes, snatching their hair.
A rusted saw blade in their path, trying to separate them, but Bel would not let go of her mom’s hand.
A clatter of sliding metal, somewhere behind, the distant silver of the flashlight in Jeff’s hands, sharper, stronger than theirs, a spotlight stalking through the dark shapes.
“I got one, Charlie!” they heard him call.
Charlie’s voice, fainter. “Hurry!”
“Keep going,” her mom said, moving faster, holding Bel’s hand tighter, skin to skin, bone to bone.
Around a burned-out car on its back.
A sharp intake of breath beside her.
Rachel disappeared.
Hand snatched out of Bel’s.
Bel swung the flashlight over.
Rachel was on her hands and knees, shoe caught on a metal bar.
“You OK?” Bel helped her mom stand, retook her hand.
“I’m OK,” Rachel said, a change in her gait now, a limp on one side, leaning into Bel’s hand. It didn’t slow her down. “Just got to get to the car.”
The way cleared ahead of them, no more shadows, no more metal, just grass, downhill, pushing them faster. Rachel hissed each time her right foot pounded the ground.
They reached the fence.
Bel grabbed the loose panel of chain-link, held it up for Rachel to clamber through. She followed, looking back at Price & Sons Logging Yard. A fence around nothing, just more darkness, except a faint white light, glowing inside the red truck in the middle.
“Come on, I parked in front of the gates.”
Running again. Not together anymore, out of time, Rachel’s steps growing uneven.
She pulled her car keys out, pressed the button.
A blip as the car unlocked, a flash of white and red, guiding them forward, a map in the darkness. Relief sparked in Bel’s run-down heart.
They drew close and Bel’s flashlight found it too: Rachel’s silver car, waiting, nose parked right against the front gates.
But it wasn’t alone.
Another car faced them. Jeff’s. He’d parked right behind Rachel, sideways, blocking her in.
Rachel breathed out. “No, Jeff!”
She darted forward, studying the gap between the cars. It was only a few inches, just the span of her hand.
“Fucker!” Rachel kicked out at Jeff’s front wheel. It cost her, hissing and reaching for her right ankle.
“Mom?”
“Get in, Bel.” She opened her car door, dome light flicking on, a faint yellow through the windows. “Maybe I can turn it. Have to try.”
Bel climbed into the passenger seat, shut herself in.
Rachel started the engine, a metal growl in this cold metal place full of dead machines. The headlights flicked on, through the bars of the gates, glaring against the old sign, into the darkness beyond.
Rachel’s elbow bumped hers as she put it in reverse.
Taillights stained the night red. Rachel pulled the steering wheel to the right, as far as it would go, tires complaining, grating against the dirt road. She pressed her bad foot to the gas with a wince.
The car juddered back, only half a second before it bumped against the side of Jeff’s car.
Rachel sniffed. Put the car in drive. Turned the wheel all the way to the left.
The car shuddered forward, crashing into the gates with a dull thud. They bent inward, as much as that heavy chain around the middle would let them.
Bel looked out the window. It wasn’t much at all; the angle of the car had hardly changed. They were stuck here, trapped.
“Mom.”
Rachel gasped, leaning forward to peer through the windshield.
Bel looked too.
Two tiny figures crossed one of their headlight beams, into the other, moving fast, out the metal maze, onto the grass. Someone was ahead, a ball of light in one hand, something dark in the other. Heading straight toward them.
“He’s free.” Rachel’s hands dropped from the steering wheel. “We don’t have time.” Terror reshaped her face. “Run, Bel!”
Bel didn’t hesitate this time, heart ahead of her, fight-or-flight fast against her ribs.
She sprinted around the back of Jeff’s car, catching up to her mom.
“Don’t look back, just run!”
Bel couldn’t help it; she looked back.
Both car doors left open, letting the night in, engine running, headlights glaring.
But it was another light she looked for. Moving fast, now reaching the gap in the fence. The ball of light became a long silver beam, hacking away the darkness. The sound of feet behind it.
And a voice.
“Charlie, what are you going to do!?”
The beam of light twisted, following them down the road.
“Hurry.” Rachel pushed herself harder, gritting her teeth, breathing through it.
Bel hooked their arms together, taking some of the weight off her ankle.
“I know the way.” Bel’s voice shook with the patter of her feet. “The reservoir, across the railway bridge to the main road. We can get help there.”
“Charlie!” Jeff shouted weakly, some way behind them. “What are you doing!?”
Did Jeff realize already, that he’d made the wrong choice? That he shouldn’t have set him free.
Bel wanted to glance back, to see how close they were. But she didn’t need to, she only needed to look at Rachel; silver lighting up her flyaway hairs. The beam wasn’t just following them anymore, it had found them. Charlie and his flashlight chasing them down.
“Mom. He’s catching up.”
Rachel looked at her, one side of her face lit up, one eye, losing the rest to the night. Half here, half disappeared.
“Off the road. We’ll lose him in the trees.”
Rachel dragged Bel into the tree line, then Bel dragged her, the ground growing rough and uneven.
Bel lit the way, much darker now, the trees looming over them, blocking out the sky, roots catching hold of their legs. They moved as fast as they could, darting through and around.
The world tilted, reaching uphill, taking the trees with it.
The breath was tight in Bel’s chest, hauling Rachel up alongside her.
“Charlie!” They heard a strangled cry behind them. “Wait!”
He was somewhere in the trees too, hunting them down. Bel couldn’t see the silver beam; the trees were blocking it, hiding them.
“This way,” Rachel whispered, pointing to where the trees thinned out, a path snaking up. “The hikers’ trail.”
They climbed together, picking up their pace. Bel could even see the moon through the canopy of shadows, over the mountain. Leading the way, and that way was up.
Bel’s hand grew sticky against Rachel’s, but she wouldn’t let go.
“How’s your ankle?”
Rachel squeezed her fingers. “Just have to keep going.”
Without warning, the trees broke away all at once, in a clean line, letting the sky have them. The huge track where the forest had been cleared for the power lines, running in and out of town.
They moved out into the open, exposed by the moon.
“Faster,” Rachel said, but she was the one who couldn’t move any faster.
Bel eyed the tree cover ahead, racing to it, crossing the shadows of the power lines, too clean and straight to belong in this wild place of trees and moonlight.
They were so close. Bel looked back to check how far they’d come.
A silver light emerged from the trees, the dark shape of Charlie behind it, charging into the open ground. The beam shifted, veered over, pointing directly at them, straight through Bel’s heart.
“Fuck, he sees us. Go!”
She pulled Rachel into the trees, back on the trail.
Up and up, just keep moving.
Bel had made her choice, she chose her mom, and she chose her again, every single second, fingers around hers, dragging her up as fast as she could, away from the man who was going to kill her.
A howl behind, but it wasn’t at the moon.
“Charlie, wait! What are you going to do?!”
Bel knew. And Rachel knew. Jeff must know too.
She tried not to look at her mom, to read the pain in the set of her jaw, the fear in the blacks of her eyes.
“Where are we going?”
“Up,” Rachel said, eyes ahead, not sharing the fear, not letting Bel take any of it. “Mascot Mine. We can hide, lose them. Not far now. We can make it.”
Up and up, steeper and steeper, Bel’s knees screaming, muscles burning.
“We have to leave the trail,” Rachel panted. “This way.”
The way the trees grew thick and untamed, leaning up the mountain as they fought their way through.
Rachel dropped Bel’s hand to climb a steep pass on all fours, checking back for her, flashlight catching the sheen of sweat across her face, a bloody scratch on her cheek.
Bel retook her arm, choosing and choosing again.
There was nothing left, only adrenaline, only fear, working together to keep Bel’s legs moving, every breath snagging, ripping at her lungs.
“This way.” Rachel veered off. “The mine’s here somewhere. It must be …”
The trees trickled out, making way for the moon, rocky beneath their feet. Bel held up the flashlight. They were on a ledge, the ground disappearing over there, a sheer drop into darkness.
“No, no, no.” Rachel limped, moving closer to the edge, looking down. “We came too high.” Her foot nudged a stone and it rolled over the edge, clattering down the rockface. Bel never heard it hit the bottom. “The mine is down there.”
Bel joined her, looking down into all that nothing, her light barely scratching the surface, stomach peeling away, toward her spine. She looked ahead instead and saw stars on the ground, reds and whites and yellows, pinpricks of headlights, windows that glowed small as specks. It was Gorham, not quite sleeping, and Bel knew where they were now, wearing night as its disguise. Point Lookout, where you could see the whole town and the mountains beyond in the day. Which meant the entrance to the mine was all the way down there, hundreds of feet below, over the ledge.
“It’s OK.” Bel took her mom’s hand, pulled her back from the edge. “We’ll follow the trail down to the other side of Hogan Road.”
“No,” Rachel said quietly. She dropped Bel’s hand, grabbed the other one instead, took the phone out of it, swiped the flashlight off.
“What are you doing?” Bel blinked, eyes adjusting to the moonlight.
“It’s the light he’s following.” Rachel passed the phone back, pressing Bel’s hand closed around it, like Bel had done with the key. “Bel,” she said, a change in her voice, a break in the middle, like she had just decided something too.
Rachel put her hands on her shoulders.
“No.” Bel knew before she said it, shaking her head.
“I’m slowing you down, Bel.”
“No, Mom.”
“You run that way.” She pointed. “Without the light. Be careful. Find the trail again. Keep going. I’ll draw him here with my light.” She said it fast and she said it hard.
“No, Mom, I’m not leaving you.”
“It’s me he wants.” She shook Bel’s shoulders, trying to get her to listen. Bel wouldn’t.
“No.”
“He won’t stop. You keep running, my sweet girl.” Her voice cracked, bringing Bel’s face closer to hers, hands cupped behind her ears. “Don’t look back.”
“No.” The tears came all at once, blurring Rachel’s face, losing it to the darkness.
“Please, Bel. I have to know you’re safe. He’s coming.” Rachel pressed her forehead against Bel’s, eye to eye, heart to heart. “Tell the police. Don’t let him get away with it this time, don’t let him get away with killing me twice.”
“Mom,” Bel cried, throat seizing around the word. Not a hard word anymore, the easiest one in the world. “Mom.”
“Go, Bel.” Rachel blinked, tears of her own. “I love you. So, so much. Take care of your sister for me. I know you always have.”
“Mom.”
“Go.”
Rachel pushed her away.
“Go.”
Bel went.
Rachel said not to look back but she did, from the tree line. Saw her mom standing out there on the ledge, waving the flashlight above her head, another star where it shouldn’t be.
Bel kept going, silent sobs that split her in half, gut ripping open. The knot rolled right out and she lost it forever, in the wild. Running away from Rachel, like the day she reappeared. Scared then and scared now.
“Charlie! Stop!”
Uncle Jeff’s voice, somewhere in the dark.
Bel stopped; breath trapped like a windstorm behind her face.
The sound of feet, crashing through the trees close by. That silver beam, pointing toward the end.
And Bel was going the wrong way. The way that hurt far too much, she’d never live through it, leaving Rachel behind.
Rachel had never left her behind.
Her mom had made her decision, but Bel had made hers too. She chose her mom.
And she chose her again, even if Rachel didn’t want her to.
She went back.
A scream building in her throat, following that beam of light, chasing it down.
“There you are!” Charlie’s voice filled the night, ragged and wild.
“Charlie, don’t!” Jeff shouted. “You don’t want to do this!”
Bel sprinted, breaking through the trees onto the moonlit edge.
The flashlight was on the ground, that harsh silver beam pointing at Bel, two dark shapes entangled behind it.
“Mom!” Bel screamed.
Charlie had one arm around Rachel’s neck, forcing her to the ground.
She fought back, ankle buckling, scrabbling at his face.
Bel jumped forward, but an arm caught her, dragging her away.
“It’s not safe, Bel.” Jeff held on to her, pinning her arms down. “He’s not safe.”
“Let me go!” she screeched, struggling against him.
“Not safe.” He held tighter.
Charlie roared, tackling Rachel, feet grating against the stone, two dark figures, dancing toward the edge.
“Let go!” Bel struggled.
Jeff was too strong.
Charlie too, bearing down on Rachel. Her legs gave out and she dropped with a dull thud, a few feet from the edge.
Charlie pressed one shoe against Rachel’s throat, pushed his weight down into it. His ankle was bleeding, the cuff gone, cut free. She scrabbled and kicked, but he could not be moved.
“Mom!” Bel scratched at Jeff’s arms.
Rachel spoke, voice breathy, crushed beneath his foot. “Protect my daughter, Jeff. You owe me.”
Charlie didn’t look over, only had eyes for her. His arm grew longer than it should, overstretching, inhuman, something dark gripped in his hand. Bel couldn’t see what it was, not until he raised it up against the stars.
An axe.
A click in Rachel’s throat as she looked at it, hanging over her head.
“If you want me to beg, you’re out of luck, Charlie,” she croaked. “I’ve already been dead once.”
He shrieked, a sound that wasn’t human either, an explosion of rage, no shape to it. A monster standing at the edge of the world, bringing it down around him.
It moved Bel beyond fear, to whatever came next.
“Should have done it myself!” Charlie gasped, like the scream had crushed him too, left only half of him behind. “Now look what you’ve done!”
He raised the axe.
“No!” Bel screamed, fighting against Jeff.
Rachel turned her head, found Bel. Don’t look, she mouthed, eyes glittering before she pressed them together, waiting for the end.
“Mom!”
A scream.
But it wasn’t Bel.
A blur of coppery-brown hair, shooting out of the trees. Long legs, bounding past.
Jeff’s arms loosened.
“Carter?” he said, confused, letting Bel go. “Carter!” he screamed, running after her.
But she was ahead, and she was too fast.
“Carter!”
That wrenched Charlie out. He glanced over, just as Carter bounded into him, a double-handed push, shoving him away from Rachel.
He stumbled, tripping over Rachel’s arm. Dropped the axe and tripped on that too, staggering back.
Jeff reached them, skidding, wrenching Carter away from the edge, throwing her behind him.
Charlie was still moving, too much momentum, stones skidding under his feet.
His eyes widened.
He reached out for Jeff, grabbed a fistful of his brother’s shirt.
One of his heels dropped over the edge, the rest of the foot slipping with it.
Charlie tilted.
Falling back, into all that nothing.
The other foot went.
Bel blinked but she didn’t miss it.
Charlie disappeared over the edge.
He didn’t let go, dragging Jeff with him.
One of them screamed, all the way down.
