He picked up the pace, eager to meet up with Ashley. He wanted to tell her about the strange events of the prior evening. She needed to hear about the icy bathwater and the strange, horrific scenes that had played on his television. She was the only person in the world who would believe him.
Jude was so lost in his own daydreams that he screamed when somebody leapt out at him from the alleyway. They grabbed his arm and spun him around. When he saw that it was Ashley, he grabbed his stomach and let out a gasp. “You almost gave me a heart attack. I was just coming to see you.”
She looked at him with wide eyes, and it was clear she was eager to tell him something. “I was on my way to see you, too. You wouldn’t believe the shit that happened last night.”
“Your dad?”
“What? No, no. There was some really weird shit that went down though. I found a fucking worm in my sandwich, but then it was gone, like I imagined the whole thing.”
“Yeah, well,” he said, matching her excitable tone, “I slid into a hot bath and a second later, it was freezing. I mean, it literally went from red-hot to ice-cold in about three seconds. It was impossible, but it happened. And don’t even get me started on the two dead kids.”
Ashley’s eyes widened. For a moment, she stared at him like she didn’t know who he was. Then, slowly, her mouth began to move. “Y-You mean, like, two little kids from the olden days? Boy and girl?”
Jude’s mouth fell open. “Y-You saw them too? Was it on TV? I thought I was watching The Hobbit, but then suddenly I’m watching these two little kids get stabbed to death by their mother. It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen, Ash.”
“I didn’t see them get stabbed, but I watched them rot like corpses – maggots in their eyes. I almost puked. Jude, what the hell is going on?”
He shook his head. He’d been hoping she would have the answers. “Maybe it was just some sick movie that was playing. We must have turned to the same channel.”
“I was watching Netflix,” she said. “It was supposed to be some crappy romantic comedy, not a kiddie snuff film.” She put a hand to her neck and sighed, then looked around like she was searching for hidden cameras. Finally, she leaned into Jude and whispered, “It’s the woman. This is all because of her. How could the police not find her? She was right there, chained up.”
“I wish I had the answer,” said Jude. “My mum wants us to change our story so we don’t get in trouble, but I don’t even know what we would say. If we say we made the whole thing up, we could get into even more trouble.”
“I’m not telling anybody that it was a lie. Fuck that. We did nothing except tell the truth. The police must’ve screwed up somehow. Or…” She shook her head.
Jude tilted his head at her. “What? What is it?”
She let out another sigh. “What if the sicko who chained that woman up came back after we left? What if he saw us? We left her alone, Jude. What if he came and took her someplace else? What if he killed her? Maybe last night was her fucking ghost screwing with us.”
“And I thought I was the one with an overactive imagination.”
“Yeah, well, that’s how messed up all this is.”
“One of us should have stayed with her. We did the wrong thing, Ash.”
“We were fucking terrified. How were we supposed to know we would run into some abused, naked woman in the woods? If it wasn’t for Ricky Dalca, we never would have even been there. Either way, we tried to help her.”
It was true – they had tried to help her – but they had also failed. So what should they do now? Did they just move on, change their stories, and hope not to get into too much trouble? Could they put this behind them? Move on like it had never even happened?
Jude grunted, not liking where his thoughts were heading. “We tried to help her,” he said, “but we made things worse. I think…” He shook his head and grunted again. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think we need to go back into Devil’s Ditch. We need to try to find the woman again.”
Ashley spluttered. “Are you fucking kidding me? No way am I going back there. The sicko will probably find us and chain us up as well. If he doesn’t just kill us.”
“That’s not going to happen. Either the woman’s still out there, and the police missed her somehow, or the sicko got rid of her and covered his tracks. If that’s the case, there’s no way he would still be hanging around. Either way, we need to go back. If the woman’s still there, she still needs our help. If not, well, maybe we can at least find something to prove we’re not lying. We’re in a bunch of trouble we don’t deserve, Ash. Don’t you want to do something about it?”
Ashley didn’t speak for a moment. She shook her head. Eventually, she said, “I think I’ll just accept the trouble, thank you very much.”
“Fine, I’ll go on my own. After last night’s weirdness, we can’t just ignore this. You saw those symbols on the floor. You said you pulled a piece of bone from my hand. Something isn’t right here, Ash. It’s almost supernatural. Maybe the woman was calling out to us last night, pleading for help.”
Ashley snickered at him unkindly. “This isn’t one of your stupid fantasy books, Jude. Are you trying to say that woman was some kind of ghost?”
“I don’t know – really, I don’t – but I’m going back to the farmhouse to find some answers. I can’t forget about this, Ash, not
