Krista
We’ve been driving fora while now, and I keep turning around to see if he is following us. He is never there, but I know he is. He is out there somewhere, and we are literally fucked. We have no fucking idea where we are or what to do. Without our phones, we can’t navigate. We don’t have a map either, so we have no way to know which way is the right way back to civilization. We have uttered a word, but we all know how bad this is.
No food, only a few bottles of water. The gas light has been on for so long that the poor truck isn’t going to make it much longer. Just as I start thinking about the possibility, the truck starts to rumble as it loses power. “Shit,” Luke barks.
“There,” Brady points. “Get in the dirt road. We shouldn’t be on the main road.”
Luke turns the wheel and lets the truck coast off the road and down a dirt road. Once we are hidden in the treeline, he parks us and shuts the truck off before it does so on its own. He lets the power for the truck stay on so he can roll the windows down, and Brady opens the back glass so we can get some nice cross breeze.
No one says anything, but I finally break the silence with just a few words. “We are going to die out here,” I say calmly.
“Kris, baby…” Brady starts to say.
“No!” I scream at him. “He was following us the whole goddamn time… He saw… Fuck, he saw everything. Everything, Brady. Do you know what he will do to me? You? We are going to fucking die.”
I throw the door open and step out before Brady can grab me. I am falling apart as I walk down the trail more. I need to get away from them. If they aren’t around me when Austin gets here, he will leave them alone. Maybe I can convince him that they left me behind.
Arms wrap around me, and instead of fighting it, I collapse. Sobs crack from my chest, and I cry as they surround me. He always told me I would never escape him.
The words echo in my head as Brady’s arms tighten around me, holding me together while I fall apart in the middle of the dirt road. My knees give out completely, and if he wasn’t holding me, I’d be on the ground right now. Luke is right there too, one hand on the back of my neck, the other gripping my arm like he’s afraid I’ll disappear if he lets go.
“Hey, hey… breathe,” Luke says, his voice low and steady, even though I can hear the tension in it. “You’re okay. We’ve got you.”
“No, you don’t,” I sob, shaking my head. “You don’t understand. He doesn’t stop. He doesn’t get tired. He doesn’t fucking let go. He will find us, and when he does…”
“He won’t touch you,” Brady cuts in, sharper than I’ve ever heard him. His hands come up to cup my face, forcing me to look at him. “Do you hear me? He will not fucking touch you again.”
“You don’t know that!” I scream, shoving at his chest. “You didn’t see him before. You didn’t…”
“I saw enough,” Brady snaps, his jaw tightening. “And I’m still here, aren’t I?”
That stops me for half a second.
Just long enough for Luke to step in closer.
“We’re not leaving you,” Luke says quietly. “Not for a second. Not for him. Not for anything.”
“That’s the problem,” I whisper, my voice breaking. “If you’re with me, he’s going to hurt you too.”
“Then he’s going to have to try,” Luke says simply.
There’s something in his tone that makes my chest tighten all over again, but not from fear this time.
From the realization that they mean it when they said that they’re not going anywhere.
“No,” I shake my head again, panic clawing its way back up. “No, you don’t understand. If he gets you… if he…” My voice cracks, and I choke on the words. “I can’t watch that. I can’t…”
“You won’t,” Brady says firmly. “Because we’re not letting it get that far.”
“You can’t control that!” I snap.
“No,” Luke agrees. “But we can control what we do next.”
That pulls me up short, and I blink at him, my breathing still uneven, and my whole body is trembling. “What do you mean?” I ask weakly.
Luke glances back toward the truck, then out into the trees surrounding us, his expression shifting into something more focused. “We don’t stay here,” he says. “This is too open. Too easy.”
“He could already be out there,” I whisper, my eyes glancing toward the woods.