Experiment in Terror 06 Into the Hollow (24 page)

I paused and gauged the way the lines were wrapped around the tree. Mitch had said that if we turned them loose, they wouldn’t leave. I needed to believe in that because there was no way we were going to keep them tied up and unable to run if some beast was going around killing them.

I had just reached the pine tree and was untying Tonto’s lead with fumbling fingers when I heard a low moan from behind me.

I froze on the spot, the terror seizing me from limb to limb. I had seconds to try and process what the hell I had heard when the moan got lower, nastier. And human.

“You trying to make a run for it, girly?” Mitch’s depraved, sloppy voice roared from behind.

Before I could whip around to face him, he had grabbed my shoulders and spun me around then he shoved me backward onto the hard ground.

I screamed as I fell and the llamas bolted. I fought to get back up but before I could he placed his boot on my stomach and put the weight down, crushing me.

“Dex!” I tried to scream but he pushed even harder, taking my breath away and replacing my world with pain. My arms flailed, trying to grab onto his leg, to fight back, to do something but I could only lie there, writhing, as Mitch towered over me. His face was drunk, and demented with lust.

“You think I wouldn’t notice if you took off with the llamas and left me here?” he sneered. I didn’t think the man could look uglier but here he was, looking like a disgusting, red-faced animal. “You think I’m too stupid to catch on to your plan?”

“Dex,” I cried again, turning my head to the side and trying to see beyond the spots that were forming in my eyes. Where was he? What had he done to him?

With the last reserves of strength I had, I whipped my hand up and dug my nails as deep as they would go into his pant leg. They broke through the fabric and then into his skin.

He yelped and took his foot off in surprise. I used that time to roll onto my side and try and scramble to my feet. I didn’t get far before he yelled, “you bitch!” and reached out. He grabbed me by my hair and yanked me backward until his mouth was at my ear.

“I’m not done with you, girly,” he murmured, warm drool leaching out of his mouth and down my neck. He took his free hand and yanked down at the front of my coat, trying to get at my breasts. I refused to panic and going on sheer adrenaline, I took my leg and kicked the heel of my boot back into his shin as hard as I could, then crunched down on his toe.

His grip on my hair loosened but instead of letting go he threw me forward until I slammed against the tree, my cheekbone catching most of the impact. I held on for a few seconds, trying to figure out where I was, what was happening, trying to figure out how to fight the dizziness that was threatening to take over, the grey that was creeping up on the sides of my vision. My cheek throbbed with starbursts of acute pain.

He grabbed my hair again and flipped me around. I cried out and his other hand went to my mouth, covering it and my nose at the same time. I fought for breath, feeling weaker by the second, while this mammoth beast of a man pinned me against the rough bark, that predatory leer on his twisted mouth.

“Pretty girly all bruised up,” he jeered. “Don’t worry, I’ll just have you from behind. Won’t have to look at your ugly face.”

My heart lurched at the finality of his words, at the separation between my lungs and the air. I was either going to die or I was going to get raped, or both. The whole time I was fearing a beast but I hadn’t been fearing the right one.

“Perry!” Dex’s voice broke through the haze and Mitch’s hand slipped off my nose enough to get a good inhale. I drank it up like water and tried to regain my courage and strength.

Behind Mitch I could see Dex running toward us. His hands were empty and all I could think was
get the gun, Dex, baby get the gun
. I didn’t want Mitch dead but nothing short of a gunshot wound to the kneecap was going to stop this man.

Dex slowed a few feet away, his eyes wild but in a rare form of control. He looked at me intensely and I felt only relief and anxiety. He was here. And he was going to get hurt.

“Get your fucking hands off her,” Dex threatened quietly. He sounded far too confident for what was about to transpire.

Mitch agreed. He snorted contemptuously. “Oh, is that what you think? You don’t even have a gun, you idiot.”

“I could run back and get it,” he replied calmly, his eyes like blackened lasers boring into Mitch’s bald head.

“I’d finish her off before you got back,” Mitch told him, practically salivating as he said it.

“
Or
I could stay here and teach you some manners,” Dex went on to say. He raised his brows and grinned coldly at him. “Which is it?”

Mitch looked back at me, shaking his head slightly. I watched him with widened, fearful eyes as his grip on my mouth tightened. “Oh this oughta be good, girly.”

“So be it,” was the last thing Dex said before he lunged forward and grabbed Mitch by the shoulders. I had one thought,
please don’t let Dex die
, before he spun Mitch around on the spot. The speed and ferocity in which he turned the oversized man surprised all of us.

All of us except for Dex, who just grinned again, cocking his head to the side like he was examining the psychopath. He took advantage of Mitch’s surprise and in an angry flash of fists, he punched Mitch straight in the face.

Mitch actually flew backward with blood spurting freely from his nose. I don’t know how, or if it was a trick of my mind thanks to the lack of oxygen but Mitch’s feet actually left the ground and he was thrown a few feet, his heavy, hulking body smacking down like a sack of potatoes.

I was free from him now but I grabbed onto the tree anyway, unsure of what to do and if I could and should help.

Mitch staggered to his feet and tried to go for Dex, but Dex beat him to the punch. He leaped forward and tackled him around the waist, shoving him toward me. I yelped and left the tree just Mitch was thrown against it, the back of his head swinging back against the trunk with a sickening whack, pine needles raining on the ground.

Dex tightened his white-knuckled hands around Mitch’s throat, face inches away, gazing down at him with intense hatred. I could almost feel the waves of anger streaming off of him, Dex’s single-minded mission to hurt the man who had hurt me.

“If I see you within a hundred feet of us,” Dex whispered harshly, his words dripping with venom, “I will come back and finish the job. And no, I won’t be using a gun, though you can sure as hell bet I won’t be leaving the guns with you, you fucking monkey. I’ll be using my hands cuz I can just tell an animal like you can’t stand to lose a fight to a guy like me.”

Dex gave his throat one last squeeze, Mitch’s eyes almost rolling back in his head, his mouth sputtering, before he released him angrily.

He stepped away and had turned toward me, when Mitch sprang off the tree.

I screamed in response and Dex flipped around, instinctively ducking as he went and avoiding the punch that Mitch threw. Dex spun around so he was behind Mitch and delivered a solid punch to the back of his head.

Mitch toppled forward like a fallen giant, the ground shaking beneath him from the impact. It felt like the ground continued to shake but I realized it was just me, shaking where I stood, fear and relief flooding through me like a river unleashed. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Mitch’s body as he lay there, watching him breath slowly, waiting for him to rise again. But Dex was suddenly at me, scooping me into his arms and pressing me into chest. He held me tight and kissed the top of my head.

“Baby, it’s OK,” he soothed. “You’re all right. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”

I fought back tears of confusion. He saved me. But how? Dex was leaner and meaner than ever before. I had felt and seen those muscles on him. They were firm and hard but compared to the fallen meathead, he was in a different class. There was no way someone of Dex’s stature, no matter how newly buff, should be able to take on a man of Mitch’s size.

I swallowed hard and tried to calm my heart. My shaking was slowing down, as Dex held me in place, stroking the back of my head with gentle pressure.

“Baby,” he murmured. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

I pulled my head back and looked up at him, blinking my tears away.

“For what?”

“I shouldn’t have left you alone,” he said, rubbing his thumb under my eyes. He took his fingers and lightly traced my cheek where I had hit the tree. “This is swelling up.”

“You couldn’t have known,” I said, ignoring my cheek. “I didn’t think he was just going to…flip out like that.”

He frowned and closed his eyes, shaking his head. “I should have known…I was watching him. I kept seeing the way he was looking at you. As soon as we brought the llama to the woods, I just had this feeling and before I could do anything he whacked me on the back of my fucking head. Thank fuck I woke up in time, I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself if…”

“I should have said something,” I admitted. “He was coming onto me a few times before.”

Dex’s eyes sharpened. “What?”

I looked away at Mitch’s body. He was still breathing and still out cold.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.

I chewed my lip, feeling the pain in my cheek creep up to my head. “I didn’t want you to get upset. You would have called off the whole thing.”

“You’re damn right I would have!” he yelled. I flinched in surprise. “Perry, you should have told me.”

“Then the show would be over.”

“Fuck the show!” he said, throwing his arms out. “I don’t care about the damn show. I care about you and only you. You’re everything to me. Nothing else even comes close.”

He came back and placed his hands on my shoulders, holding me firmly. He eyes roamed my face, and he winced every time they passed over my cheek. “We’ve got to leave and leave now. We’re going back to Rigby’s and then we’re going home. To our home. Got it?”

I nodded dumbly. He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “Come on, we can’t chance him waking up again.”

We scampered back to the campsite and grabbed as many things as we could, shoving them into our backpacks. The space blankets, flashlights, dried foods, walkie talkies, waterproof matches and extra layers of clothing were all we could fit. We decided we had to leave the llamas behind or they’d only slow us down, but just as we were running out of the campsite, we swung up by the llamas and let them loose of their leads. They trotted away from us, then stopped at the edge of the forest and began to graze. I was sure one day they’d find their way back home. They had time that we didn’t.

Dex took the opportunity to get the map off of Mitch. He approached the slumbering giant like Indiana Jones snatching a relic. I held my breath, my grip on the rifle tight, until Dex’s fingers ripped the map out of Mitch’s back pocket. The man began to stir and we both took off running into the woods, trying to find the path we had come on.

We didn’t have much luck and Dex didn’t want us running around in the open while we looked for the path in. So we headed straight into the middle of it, stepping over rotting logs, uneven ground and brushing past a million branches that pulled at our clothes and hair. We were lucky it was morning and there was enough light in the undergrowth to see but it was hard to look straight ahead when you had branches threatening to poke your eye out.

“I think we’ve lost him,” I said after a while, gasping for breath. Dex didn’t slow.

“Dex, please, I don’t think he’s following us.”

“You can’t be too sure,” he said without looking behind at me.

“But we have both guns,” I pointed out. I was gripping the rifle still and he had the shotgun. We made sure the safety was on both of them, knowing how easy it was to trip and have a
major
accident.

“We have guns but he knows this place like the back of his hand. And we’re definitely lost.”

My stomach flipped. “Don’t say that.”

He shook his head, still marching forward, brushing past branches and being careful not to fling them at me. “We’re lost, kiddo. Once we get out of the woods though, we might be able to find the way back.”

“We should have taken his compass,” I mumbled.

“It was in his front pocket.”

“Do you think he sabotaged the walkie talkies?” I asked, something that had been on my mind for a while.

“I don’t know. I don’t think any of this was planned, at least not by him.”

I mulled that over. We walked some more, my knees tired from stepping, my shoulders aching from the backpack.

“Dex?”

“Uh huh?”

“What happened to you?”

Finally his pace slowed and I was able to catch up. He still didn’t look behind at me, though his head was cocked, thinking things over.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re not the same anymore…” I said quietly. “Who are you?”

A beat.

“I’m Dex,” he replied thickly.

“You’re Dex 2.0. You’re different now.”

“So are you.”

I reached out and grabbed his hand, getting him to stop. Somewhere off in the trees, a bird flew, flapping its wings noisily.

“I mean it,” I told him, examining his face. “The other day you picked up Maximus with your bare hands. Now you threw Mitch back with a single punch. You’re turning into Chuck Norris.”

“Will you make Chuck Norris jokes about me?”

“No,” I said sternly. I stepped up to him and squinted at his face. He was hiding something, and despite the grey, dim light, I could see it in his eyes. “Tell me the truth. What happened to you?”

He exhaled through his nose and let his eyes search the woods as he planned his answer. I waited. We didn’t have the time but I made the time.

Finally he said, “I don’t know what happened to me. I’m just…I’m still me, Perry. I feel like me. Except sometimes I feel this extra energy kind of swirling around. In here.” He pointed to his chest. “It feels like adrenaline. Or, like, I’m on a fuckload of meth. And suddenly I know I can do anything. I’m…I just get really strong and I have no fucking clue why. Or how. I just don’t know.”

He brought his eyes to mine, the corners crinkling gently. “I know how fucked that sounds and I’m right there with you. It doesn’t make sense but it keeps happening. I don’t know how to stop it and to be honest, I don’t know if I want to stop it. Perry, I ripped a fucking sink out of the ground when I was in jail. I don’t know how to explain that. I can’t.”