A Sound In The Dark Read online

  “Why go that way?” Dave said. “The creek is visible from the cliff.”

  “We’ll risk it,” Will replied. Having walked it before during the day, he was most familiar with that particular trail. Besides, it was close to the river.

  “I think we should go back,” Dave said.

  “Toward the killer?” Cole whispered.

  “We’re going farther into the park. We should be trying to get away. Our van is back at the lodge.”

  Will had taken the keys from Zack after they parked the van. He frowned and inched his hand into his right pocket. His expression fell when he found empty space.

  “The keys are in the tent,” he said. He’d left them behind.

  “Maybe we could find other keys in the lodge,” Dave volunteered, “or try to make it to the highway.”

  Will grabbed Dave’s shoulders. “We’re not going back,” he said forcefully. “The killer is that way, so we’re going the opposite direction.”

  “What if there’s a phone in the lodge?” Dave asked. “We could call for help.” He searched for Cole’s eyes in the dark. “Maybe your cell phone will work at the lodge.”

  “A phone,” Cole muttered.

  Will thought he saw recognition on his friend’s face. “What is it?” he asked.

  “You said we’re close to Shatter Creek Trail. Remember the payphone we saw at the recreation center? We can call for help.”

  Will might have hugged him. “Anyone have any change?” To his surprise, Dave nodded.

  “I always carry my wallet with me.” Dave was still wearing his blue jeans.

  “Let’s go,” Will said.

  It didn’t take long to find the trail that led to the recreation area. The three men followed the path of the creek, listening to the sounds coming from the woods. Cole and Dave continued to lag behind Will. The afternoon hike was already starting to catch up with Dave. Cole was wearing only socks. Running down Dead Man’s Drop hadn’t done him any favors. Will couldn’t tell in the dim light, but it looked like his socks were already streaked with blood. He considered himself lucky he was wearing shoes. They were on a dirt trail now, so Cole was okay for the moment. Will didn’t want to think about what would happen if they were forced to continue their walk indefinitely. He swore he wouldn’t let his friend slow them down, if it came to that.

  When they reached a part of the trail he didn’t remember, Will stopped and tried to figure out which way to go. Everything looked different in the dark. None of his experience prepared him for this. Cole was watching him expectantly, and Will wasn’t about to admit he was lost. The last thing he needed was for either of the others to panic. Dave looked like he was barely hanging on as it was.

  “I think we’re close,” he said, hoping he was right. Will was about to start again when something caught his eye. “Stop,” he said to Dave. He held a hand in front of the man’s chest.

  “What is it?” Cole asked.

  “Get down,” Will whispered. The three men crouched and stared down the trail. A few seconds later, Will pointed at something ahead. “See that?”

  Cole squinted through his glasses. The prescription on the old pair was long out of date. “I don’t see anything.”

  “Neither do I,” Dave whispered.

  “It’s a trip wire,” Will said. He crept closer. He didn’t want to know what would happen if they tripped it.

  “A what?”

  “It’s part of a trap.”

  He felt the ground with his hand until he found a large rock. Will hurled the stone at the wire and jumped back. For a moment nothing happened. Then a swishing sound echoed above them as a spear swung from the tree just outside the shore of the river. The sharpened log smashed into a second tree on the other side of the trail, tearing through bark. The three men walked over to the log, which was hanging from a thick rope tied to one end.

  Cole ran his hand along the spear, stopping at its jagged end. “That would have been us.”

  “What does it mean?” Dave asked.

  Will thought about it for a moment. For some reason, the spear reminded him of the bear trap Zack spotted when he and Cole were near the cave. The image clicked with the words the killer said inside their tent.

  “This isn’t just some lunatic with a gun. He’s hunting us.”

  Dave shook his head. “There has to be some other explanation.”

  “There isn’t. How do you explain the bear trap you found? He’s been planning this for weeks. There are probably other traps hidden around the park.” Even as he spoke the words, Will didn’t want to believe them. Unfortunately, he couldn’t afford the luxury of denial. “We need to be careful,” he said. “Let’s get off the trail.”

  The others followed Will as he headed in what he thought was the direction of the recreation area. Each moment felt like an hour. He kept expecting something to jump out at him from the darkness. The not knowing was worst of all. Will wondered if that was what the killer wanted them to feel.

  He was about to go farther into the forest when Dave tugged on his arm.

  “We’re here,” he whispered.

  Will turned and peered through the bushes. The outline of the volleyball court was just visible in the shadowy recesses of the forest. The three men carefully made their way up to the bushes. A dim yellow light glowed from the solitary light pole behind the table area. Rather than making the area seem safer, the flickering light made the region stand out from the dark night, and not in a good way.

  The recreation area was abandoned. There was no sign of life anywhere around. The only noise came from the tire swing moving back and forth in the breeze. Abandoning any pretext of hiding, the three men ran out of the forest toward the payphone. Dave scrambled through his pockets for change and slid a quarter into the slot. Will’s pulse raced. Everyone was staring at the phone. Dave held it up to his ear.

  “There’s nothing there,” he said. His voice broke.

  Will took the phone from his hand and listened. There was no dial tone, no nothing. The phone was out of order.

  ***

  Cole sank to the ground against the light pole. He caressed his throbbing feet, which ached all the more with the realization they would soon be walking again. Dave stumbled over to the tables and sat down. Will remained standing with the phone in his hand, staring into the distance. Pale moonlight was reflected off the water, illuminating the area beyond the forest. The three men didn’t move for several moments. Each contemplated the magnitude of their shared misfortune.

  Cole was struck by the change moonlight brought to the scenery around them. The recreation area, with its faded lettering and lack of repairs, was at best unsettling during the day. Under the moon, it was beyond frightening. He wasn’t sure if the thoughts occurred naturally, or if everything had taken a darker tone now that they were being pursued. He wasn’t sure he cared.

  It was Will who spoke first.

  “We can’t stay here,” he said, turning to face the others. “We should move on.”

  Cole pushed up his glasses. “We need to rest and sort this out,” he said. “Running scared and blind is what we don’t need to do.”

  Dave rose from the table. When he spoke, the agitation in his voice was clear. “Do you remember what I said earlier about the lodge? That’s where we should go.”

  Will’s opinion remained unchanged. “I told you, that’s the wrong direction to go. No matter how well the killer knows the forest, this park is way too large for him to find us if we stay ahead of him until sunrise.”

  “You’re assuming he’ll keep his word,” Cole said. “What if sunrise comes and he’s still out there waiting for us to come out?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Will said. “If we keep going, we’ll reach the end of the park eventually. It may take days, but we’
ll get out of this.” Unspoken was the impact the lack of food and water would have on such an endeavor.

  After considering the matter, Cole finally agreed. “That may be our best bet. We can stop to rest and try to contact Fields every hour or so.” Cole stared down at his feet. He would probably need to rest more frequently than that.

  “How can you agree with him?” Dave asked Cole. He turned from Will and stood in front of him, looking down on Cole. “He just said there were probably tons of traps waiting for us out there. If we go farther into the park we run the risk of getting totally lost.” He glanced back at Will. “Let’s face it, there’s no way we’ll find the end of the park. We’ll end up walking in circles for days. Once the sun rises, we’ll be sitting ducks.”

  Dave’s words were coherent, but his voice sounded like he was coming apart. He was starting to rant, waving his hands in the air and making animated gestures. Cole didn’t like that Dave’s voice was growing louder.

  “You’re both forgetting about Ranger Fields and Hickory Johnson. Eventually someone is going to discover something is wrong. The killer can’t stay here forever unless he wants to get caught. It’s just a matter of time,” Cole said. “Don’t forget, it isn’t like we can drive away. The car keys are inside the tent.”

  “It’s settled then,” Will said. “We’re not going back.”

  “It’s not settled,” Dave said emphatically. He pointed at Cole. “You still have your cell phone. Let’s try and find a spot where you can get in range.”

  A cloud passed over the moon again, dimming the sky.

  “I don’t want to waste my battery,” Cole replied. “We need to be careful with what we have.” The wind stopped. Will looked around, suspicion in his eyes. “What’s wrong?” Cole asked.

  “I thought I heard something,” Will muttered. Despite his calm demeanor, he seemed unusually jumpy.

  Out of nowhere, an object sailed out of the darkness and hit the flickering light. The light shattered, glass spilling down on Cole. Dave jumped back.

  Without the light, the recreation area was covered in the shadows of the forest. Cole’s eyes locked on the projectile. It was an arrow with a razor sharp tip. He looked up at Will, his eyes widening in terror. Will was standing in the open, with nothing behind him except the water. He dropped down, looking everywhere for the direction the arrow came from. The killer was there somewhere, but where?

  Cole hurled himself under the tables. He prayed the killer couldn’t see them in the darkness. Dave stood against a tree, separated from the other two by several open feet. As he started to move in their direction, a second arrow lodged itself in the tree, inches from him.

  He’s got us pinned down, Cole thought. His mind raced. How did he find us so quickly? From underneath the tables, Cole pointed in the direction of the forest. Will shook his head, as if to imply they couldn’t go back into the woods without knowing if the killer was right behind them. Each second they waited was agonizing. No matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t even catch a glimpse of the killer’s location. It was like the man was invisible.

  Suddenly, Will flung himself into the open and ran toward the woods, leaving the others behind. Cole scrambled to get free from under the tables and raced across the volleyball court. He kicked up sand underneath his feet as he went. No arrows followed either man.

  “Come on!” Cole shouted to Dave from the safety of the bushes. Dave stood rooted to the tree trunk, breathing heavily. He was panicking. “Dave, we have to go!” Cole’s voice shook Dave from his trance. The large man stepped into the moonlight and ran toward the woods.

  Right when he neared the edge of the forest, a third arrow flew straight for him.

  “Look out!” Cole shouted. He was too late. Dave moved, but not quite enough to get out of the way. The arrow tore through the side of his shirt and careened into the darkness. Dave screamed and fell forward just a few feet shy of the cover of the forest.

  “Dave!” Cole yelled, moving to help. Completely exposed, Dave was a sitting duck.

  Will grabbed his arm. “Leave him!”

  Cole broke free of Will’s grasp and jumped through the bushes. He seized Dave by the wrist and pulled him up. Two more arrows passed by seconds after they entered the forest.

  The three men ran as fast as they could in no direction in particular. Hell was chasing them, and there was no refuge to be found.

  Chapter Seven

  11:44 pm

  In the weeks following Lily’s confession, life lost all meaning for him. Baking became a chore rather than a hobby. Zack found himself too unfocused for reading, which had always proven his favorite form of escapism. He went to church with Cole a few times, though he was really just walking through the motions. In the end, his friends were his saving grace. Will was determined that he have a good time, and his enthusiasm eventually rubbed off on Zack. For a while, he almost forgot about Lily and her betrayal, but something in the back of his mind never quite let him forget entirely.

  When Lily took her life, all the feelings came rushing back. Only this time, he couldn’t blame her. Unlike his previous battle with melancholy, he distanced himself from his friends. He couldn’t bother with anyone else, not when each day was a struggle to get by. Though he tried to fight it, Zack had never stopped loving Lily. He knew he could never allow himself to get back together with her, but he regretted cutting her out of his life completely.

  He became obsessed with discovering the identity of the person she’d been seeing, something he never cared about before. The stranger was someone else he could blame. Zack tried tracking down Lily’s friends for more information, only to find she really didn’t have any. Talking to her family was almost impossible. A coworker mentioned Lily crying shortly after their breakup about feeling used. From what Zack could piece together, the mystery man probably wasn’t someone she’d actually had a prolonged relationship with. Maybe Lily was looking for something more, only she never got it. Zack wondered if this was what she was seeking help for when she called him.

  He never found the solace he was seeking, and it was likely he never would. As he found himself standing in the heart of Drifter’s Folly, Zack knew he was lost in more ways than one. He looked around, searching for some element of his surroundings he might have glimpsed earlier in the day. There was nothing familiar, not that it mattered in the dark. He hoped the others had flashlights or something else to guide them. He was too deep in the forest for the moonlight to be much help.

  While being lost frightened him, it also gave him the opportunity to regain his bearings. Zack searched for a weapon. The killer certainly possessed one. The memory of the blade held against his throat testified to that.

  He’s coming for you, said a voice inside his head. Why bother resisting at all? Maybe giving up is the best thing. Zack held no answer for the doubts. They were the same that plagued him after Lily’s death.

  Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered going on. If life held no meaning, was it worth living? Something in him kept going on, some spark of life. It was the shadow of a hope. Zack didn’t know what there was left to hope in, but it was something to hold onto all the same.

  “You’re a survivor,” Lily’s mother had said. She was right. The killer might find him anyway, but Zack didn’t intend to make it easy for him.

  The wind howled loudly above. Zack could hardly feel the breeze inside the dense forest. He wondered if the others were also lost. Cole was the last person he saw before falling in the darkness. If they made it down Dead Man’s Drop, they might have a chance of outpacing the killer until sunrise—unless they too were scattered, separated on the myriad of trails across Drifter’s Folly.

  After several minutes of aimless wandering, Zack spotted a beam of light pouring across the trees. Hesitantly musing which course to take, he made his way up a small slope toward the light. Zack fou
nd himself standing in a grassy field in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. The moon was shining brightly above the grove, which was surrounded on all sides by forest. A small log building rested almost seventy yards away, covered in the moonlight.

  Where am I? As Zack waded through the tall weeds, he tried to remember all the sites listed on the map. The tiny wooden structure was too small to be one of the cabins they passed on the way to Whispering Reach. It was little more than a shed.

  The wind died down suddenly, and his footsteps echoed in the darkness. Although he knew no one could hear him unless they were close, the noise still gave him chills. Before he reached the shed, Zack’s foot slid over something hard. He tripped and landed outside the weeds in a small pasture behind the building. Zack rose and dusted himself off. When his eyes adjusted to the light, he realized he wasn’t standing in a pasture at all. He was standing in a graveyard.

  For a moment he couldn’t breathe. The cemetery was surrounded on three sides by spiky black fence. A rusted gate hung open beside the shed, covered in overgrowth. From the look of things, the graveyard had been left untended for some time. Zack stood in place, his eyes flickering from tombstone to tombstone. Most of the graves were small or broken. Letters and names were long since faded, and on some stones there were no markings at all. All the tombstones were either a dirty gray or a dark black.

  What was a cemetery doing in the park? He didn’t know, but the graveyard’s mere presence was disturbing. The cemetery was impossibly large considering the size of the grove. Graves stretched in every direction. Zack didn’t know when Drifter’s Folly was designated a state park, but it was likely the graves predated the park’s existence. He forced himself to remember that a killer of flesh and blood, not a spectral predator, was pursuing him. The realization did little to calm his nerves.