heard my name called, softly, furtively, and I had to catch myself from responding, so great was my need for human contact.
What if I never got out? What if I died in here, all alone without seeing my mother or my aunt or my papa ever again? Without finding Tilly—
I cut off those insidious thoughts. I couldn’t lose control. I had to stay focused. There must be a path somewhere, an animal trail that would lead me to the edge of the thicket.
On and on I crawled. My knees were raw and bleeding, and I was in torment from a thousand scratches. After a while I began to hallucinate. I could see glowing eyes deep within the laurel tunnels, and the ground beneath me trembled, as if in the aftermath of an earthquake. Worst of all, I heard the whisper of my name, and I thought that it was Thane. His voice was so real to me that I once again started to call out. But reason interjected, and I realized that it was only my imagination or some terrible trick. Even if he was there, he might be in league with the killer. He might even be the killer.
“Thane?” I said his name aloud into the wind, but he didn’t respond because he wasn’t really there. No one was. Not even the killer.
I was all alone in my own private hell.
I lost all sense of time as well as direction. I had no idea how long I’d been crawling through that maze, but it must have been hours. The canopy was so solid, I couldn’t see the sky to gauge the time of day. There was no way to follow moon, stars or even the mountain peaks. It really was a damnable web, and for all I knew, I’d been crawling around in a circle.
Energy flagged and I stopped to rest. Drawing my bloody knees up to my chest, I wrapped my arms around my legs and sat there wet and trembling and demoralized. I don’t think I was even frightened of the killer at that point. I might even have welcomed the sound of the ax hacking a path toward me because at that moment, anything would have been preferable to that utter seclusion.
I knew that I would have to somehow rally and keep moving, but for a moment, I allowed myself to flounder in hopelessness and self-pity. I probed at the scrapes on my knees and wiped blood and rain from my face. The scratches from the laurel bark were far more painful than the surface cut left by the ax, but the idea of that blade slashing down through leaf and stem drew a very deep shudder.
Still I sat there. I couldn’t make myself go any farther. It wasn’t like me to give up, but I had nothing left in me. No energy, no hope, not even the anger anymore. The thought of remaining there until a wild animal picked up my scent or until I died of starvation was not without appeal. All I wanted was to just…sit there.
And then through that dense foliage, a sound came to me, and I discovered that I wasn’t quite as apathetic as I’d thought. Something was coming, and my head jerked up to register both sound and direction.
Whoever it was—whatever it was—stayed low to the ground and moved quickly. A scent came to me then, that of a rotting corpse, and even as fear exploded, I again tried to tell myself it was just an animal carcass. Something had died in the bald, and the wind had shifted so that I only now got a whiff.
But that scrabbling sound…
As my gaze scoured the tree trunks in front of me, I caught the dart of something down one of the tunnels. It was only a flash, a shadow, but in that brief instant, I saw the flare of a coat. Or was that wings?
The idea of something not quite human stalking me through that godforsaken warren brought me to my feet, and I plunged irrationally into the thicket only to run up against an impenetrable wall of limbs.
Teeth chattering from cold and fear, I once again dropped to my knees and scrambled down one of the burrows.
I could hear it behind me. Then in front of me. Then off to the side. Whichever way I turned, it was always there. And that smell… Oh, God…that smell…
Panic spiraled out of control, and my breath came in sobs. Twigs snapped directly over me as if the thing had climbed to the top of the canopy and crawled above me. Heart pounding, I stopped and looked up. I could see nothing, hear nothing. But that fetid smell crept down through the branches and gagged me.
Fear flailed anew, and I turned to clamber through one channel and then another. Twigs and leaves rained down on me as the thing kept pace with me.
After a moment, I realized that it wasn’t keeping pace at all. Rather, it seemed to be herding me. It stayed just ahead of me, causing me to turn this way and that in a futile attempt to escape.
The worst part was…I didn’t even know if it was real. Maybe my mind had broken down completely and the thing had been sprouted by fear, panic and insanity.
I glanced up again, saw a pale eye leering down at me through the branches, and it was all I could do to choke back a scream. A shriek would undoubtedly bring the killer, and I couldn’t be certain my otherworldly stalker hadn’t been dredged from the deepest, darkest corners of a mad mind.
Maybe the
I kept going, babbling under my breath, “It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real.”
The rain was still coming down. On some level, I’d been aware of the drum on the leaves all along, but now when I looked up, the drops pelted my face, and I realized that the blind had thinned. Light seeped through and I could see nothing in the trees above me, hear nothing in the underbrush all around me. The thing was gone and with it, my panic. I closed my eyes for one brief moment and let the chill of the rain revive me. Then I rose on shaking legs and stumbled forward.
The edge of the thicket beckoned.
As I stumbled out of the bald, the rain slacked. It seemed like a sign, and I felt almost giddy with relief. I could see mountain and sky and, through a break in the rain clouds, a sliver of moon. The air was fragrant with evergreen, the cool darkness now a welcome cocoon.
But I still had no idea where I was. None of the landmarks looked at all familiar, and after a momentary reprieve, panic resurfaced. I’d found my way out of the maze, but I was still lost. And I was still being pursued by a killer, someone who knew the area
I started to climb, picking my way through the trees and up a steep, rugged incline that quickly stole the reserve of my energy. The going was slow without a flashlight, the path treacherous with fallen branches and slippery stones. I had to stop once to remove a pebble from my boot, but the damage had already been done to the tender tissue in my heel, and I had to bite back a cry of pain and frustration.
Somewhere above me, I could hear the muted sound of rushing water and thought I must have come out of the bald on the back side of the waterfall. If I followed the base of the cliff, I would eventually arrive at that arched opening, and from there I could find my way back to the cemetery and my car.
As I knelt to relace my boot, I heard what I thought was the distant rumble of thunder. But in the next moment, the whole mountain seemed to shudder, and an avalanche of pebbles and stones rained down upon me. Scrambling for shelter beneath a rocky ledge, I huddled there until I was sure the rock slide had run its course, and then once again I began to climb.
Even though I’d never been on this side of the hill, I was starting to get my bearings. The ground leveled out, and a crude path ran along the foot of the cliff. The going here was a good deal easier, but I had to keep constant vigil because I was more or less in the open. The sound of the waterfall grew ever louder as I limped along, and just ahead, I spotted what I thought was the arched entrance to the glade. My heart started to race because, for the first time in hours, I knew exactly where I was. With any luck, I could be back at the cemetery within half an hour.
A hawk took flight from the top of the cliff, and I spun to track it against the gloomy sky. What had startled it from its roost? I wondered uneasily. And then as I slowly turned back to the path, I caught the bob of a flashlight coming across the meadow still some distance away.
