Blood Games

    ‘Shouldn’t have left them here in the first place with the car unlocked.’

    ‘Good thing we did,’ Cora said. ‘They might’ve ended up in the pool.’

    ‘Well, I think we’d better keep them with us from now on. If we lose our money and credit cards, we’ll really be up the creek.’

    Cora hunted around, and finally handed out the purses. She was holding a roll of toilet paper when she climbed from the car. She tossed it to Helen. Abilene stepped clear of the door, and it fell shut with a solid thud.

    After gathering their things, they trudged uphill past the side of the car. Vivian, holding the lantern, halted. ‘Where to?’ she asked.

    ‘First off,’ Cora said, ‘let’s kill the light.’ She reached out and twisted the knob at its base. The hiss went silent. The brightness faded until the only light came from the hot mantles. They looked like a pair of small, net sacks, glowing white then dimming to red.

    ‘If we’re not going to use the lantern,’ Finley said, ‘why don’t we leave it in the car?’

    ‘We might need it later,’ Cora told her.

    ‘You’ve got the matches?’

    She patted her belly. She had no pockets, so Abilene supposed she must’ve tucked the matchbook under the elastic of her shorts. It was out of sight under the hanging front of her tank top.

    Turning to Finley, Cora said, ‘This is your idea. You want to lead the way?’

    ‘Sure.’

    Cora offered her a flashlight. Finley accepted it, said, ‘You take this,’ and handed the video camera to Cora. ‘Be careful with it.’ Then she started walking. She kept the flashlight off.

    They followed her along the pavement that stretched in front of the porch. Where it met the main driveway, she headed to the right. Away from the lodge.

    ‘Just in case anyone’s watching,’ she explained, ‘we’ll make it look like we’re actually taking off.’

    Abilene turned around. As she walked backward, she gazed at the lodge. With the moon out of sight behind it, the building was masked in black shadow. Someone might be watching -from the porch, from the doorway, from a window, from anywhere. But she saw only darkness.

    She faced the front again. Soon, the driveway began sloping. downward. Gravity pushed at her back as if it wanted to send her running for the bottom. She shortened her strides. Her legs trembled, but she supposed that the shakiness had more to do with her fears than with the exertion of trying to control her descent.

    ‘Are we going all the way to the road?’ Helen asked.

    Finley looked back. They all did. The lodge was out of sight. Abilene could see nothing except the dim, rising lane of the driveway, a few patches of sky through the tree tops, and the dark woods on both sides.

    ‘This is good enough,’ Finley said. She strode to the right and stepped off the driveway. Her sneakers crunched dead leaves and twigs on the forest floor. She ducked under a low branch. Cora went after her, followed by Vivian. Abilene cast a final glance up the deserted lane, saw nobody, and followed Helen into the trees.

    Ahead, she glimpsed a flashlight beam. It dug a bright tunnel through the darkness to the right, then slipped aside and disappeared.

    They trudged along in single file, traversing the hillside, Finley leading them around brambles, boulders and massive trunks that loomed in their way. Nobody spoke. Abilene stayed close to the gray smudge of Helen’s back.

    There was no breeze. The heavy, sweet air felt nearly as hot

    as the water in the pool. It had to be much cooler, but it sure didn’t feel that way. She was sweating. Dribbles tickled her face and neck, her chest and sides. The back of her blouse and the seat of her panties were wet and clinging.

    In spite of the heat, she trembled.

    She supposed she ought to feel safe, surrounded by the woods. After all, the chances of being found in here were remote.

    Unless the guy had somehow followed them.

    Awfully unlikely.

    But if he had followed them, he could be close enough to reach out of the darkness and grab her.

    Would’ve heard him coming, she told herself. No one could possibly tromp through all this without making noise.

    The thought didn’t reassure her. She was scared. She supposed the others were scared, too.

    It’s my fault we’re here, she thought. God, how stupid, picking up the shorts like that. The damn keys were probably right inside the pocket till I did that.

    If only I’d taken my time. If only I’d been more careful.

    It’s little mistakes like that…

    We’d be safe in the car right now, tooling along the road, a nice wind coming in through the open windows. Out of here. Gone.

    Never should’ve come here in the first place.

    Helen must be nuts, bringing us to an abandoned lodge in the middle of nowhere.

    We were just as nuts, going along with it.

    I could’ve been home right now with Harris. Watching some TV, having some popcorn and a Pepsi.

    It wouldn’t be this damn hot, either. And if it was, we’d have the fan going, a nice breeze blowing against us.

    Nobody put a gun to my head, she reminded herself.

    They’d always had great times with their adventures. They’d done stuff that was a lot more crazy than coming to an old lodge. Though Abilene regretted some of the things they’d done, nobody had ever gotten hurt and they’d always gotten away with their stunts, no matter how wild and dangerous.

    We’ll get away with this, too, she thought.

    This time tomorrow, we’ll be in a nice motel.

    If we find the damn keys.

    If we don’t, we’ll hike out.

    Either way, we’ll be gone from this place.

    Abilene suddenly realized that she was walking uphill. ‘Hey! ’ she called in a loud whisper. ‘What’re we doing?’

    Finley halted. The others continued toward her. As Abilene approached, she noticed that neither flashlight was on.

    ‘We’re going uphill,’ she whispered.

    ‘Yeah,’ Finley said. ‘I know. Have you ever tried sleeping on a slope?’

    ‘But we’re heading back toward the lodge.’

    ‘Where the ground is level. Don’t worry, we’ll stay in the trees. As long as we keep quiet and don’t use our lights, nobody’ll be the wiser.’

    ‘I don’t want to get any closer to the lodge.’

    ‘We’re almost to the top of the hill. Just a little bit farther, then we’ll find a good place to sack out.’ Without waiting for approval or more objections, Finley resumed her trek up the slope.

    Cora followed. Vivian shook her head and Helen shrugged.

    ‘We should be going the other way,’ Abilene muttered.

    ‘I knew this’d turn into a Goddamn campout,’ Vivian said, and started after Cora.

    ‘At least we won’t have so far to walk in the morning,’ Helen said.

    ‘We keep this up, we might as well sleep on the front lawn.’

    ‘The whole thing was a big mistake. I wish we hadn’t come here.’ With that, Helen turned around and hurried to catch up with Vivian.

    Abilene stayed close behind her.

    This is what we get, she thought, for letting Finley take the lead.

    Before she could get too annoyed, however, she found that the group had come to a halt.

    ‘Are we close enough for you?’ she asked.