Raven's Peak (18 page)

He could feel a presence in the darkness. He turned and looked but saw nothing. Only a black so pure he couldn’t see more than a few inches in front of his face.

But
something
was there. He knew it in his heart and in his gut. He could feel it watching him and waiting.

Bret’s bottom lip started quivering, and he felt tears stream down his face. He’d never been so terrified in his entire life. He started to back up, slowly moving toward the grate as quietly as he could with his hands stretched out in front of him.

Suddenly there was a rattling sound from the mine entrance. Something was shaking the grate. He spun, crying out, but there was nothing there. Only emptiness and the buildings beyond.
What is going on?

The gate rattled again.

And then he heard laughing. Not in the tunnel, but in his head. The same cackling laughter he’d heard in the Church.

He slipped on the wet ground and fell, hitting his head against the stone. Dazed, he tried to stand up but felt the presence holding him down. Not physically, but when he tried to move it felt like he was wearing leaden weights. His body wouldn’t respond to his commands.

“Don’t fight it,”
the presence said in his mind. It was a throaty voice, thick and full of phlegm.

Bret cried, blubbering now and shifting with short jerky movements. He crawled toward the grate, but it felt like it was miles away. He was terrified

“Oh, we’re going to have so much fun together,”
the voice said.

And then he felt something clamp over his face, and the world went dark.

A loud knock on the door woke Kurt from his stupor. He awoke groggily and heard the sound of rain spattering against the window. It was cold and dark in the room, and he wondered how long he’d been out of it.

“…the hell was that?” Alex mumbled, lying on the opposite couch in the living room of their rental cabin.

They’d both started pounding drinks a few hours earlier and ended up passing out. Kurt was pretty sure some of their friends had been drinking, too, but they must have bailed and headed to their rooms upstairs.

Kurt sat up and rubbed his eyes, yawning. “I don’t know,” he said. “Sounded like the door.”

Another knock, this one louder and more frantic. It was definitely coming from the front door of the cabin, and whoever it was, they weren’t very patient.

“Way out here?” Alex mumbled. “We’re in the middle of nowhere. Who the hell would come knocking?”

He sat up, beer cans falling to the floor around him. He was drunk, though it was barely the middle of the afternoon.

“Maybe the cops,” Kurt offered.

“Not funny.”

“Can one of you get that?” Becky shouted from upstairs. She was probably in her room with Derrick, smoking a blunt and giggling at his dumb jokes.

Kurt groaned and rubbed his forehead. “I’ll get it,” he shouted back, staggering to his feet. He wasn’t drunk anymore, but he was still floating on cloud nine after they hit the gravity bong earlier. Alex had filled the bathtub with water to do it, and Kurt’s lungs were still burning.

Now he felt vaguely muddled; not particularly out of control, just tired and hungry. He stumbled across the hardwood floor to the door of their cabin, fiddled with the lock, and then jerked it open.

A woman stood just outside on the deck. She was in her mid-to-late thirties and pretty in a mousy sort of way. She had on a brown rain jacket and was glancing around anxiously. It was raining out past the patio, but only a light drizzle. Kurt felt a breeze roll by him, raising goose bumps on his skin.

“Uh…hello,” he said awkwardly. He rubbed his arms, fighting off the chill.

“I need your help,” the woman said. She glanced past Kurt, into the room, as though looking for something or someone else. “I can’t find my son.”

“What?”

“My son,” she reiterated. “I think he’s lost out in the woods.”

She wasn’t crying, but Kurt could tell she was holding on by a thread. The slightest provocation would send her collapsing into a puddle on the floor.

“You’re the ones who rented the other cabin,” he said, trying vainly to remember her name. They’d met her and her son when they first showed up, even helped bring their suitcases in, but her name escaped him.

She nodded. “Yes, we rented Hawk Cabin. My son went wandering, and I haven’t seen him. I think he’s lost.”

“Lost?” Kurt said, scratching his chin. He gestured vaguely toward the endless woods around them. “Like, out there?”

Alex stepped up beside Kurt and put a hand on his shoulder. “How long has he been out in the woods?”

“Uh, an hour. Maybe a little longer. I told him to stay close but he kept wandering farther away. I was on a conference call for work, and when it ended I couldn’t see him anymore.”

“OK. We’ll go find him.”

“We will?” Kurt asked. Alex had already turned back into the cabin and was heading over to the stairs. He was wide awake and sober now, totally in control of the situation. Alex was just one of those guys, the type-A personality assholes that made Kurt sick to his stomach when they started bossing people around.

“Everyone, wake up!” he shouted up the stairs. “Get dressed and get down here.”

Rustling from upstairs, followed by shouted questions. Alex didn’t answer them, he just stood by the stairs and waited. Kurt knew they would all obey. Alex was the de facto leader of their group, and whatever he said was what happened. He was why they had rented the cabin in the first place.

Kurt stood in the doorway and then finally remembered that the woman was still standing outside on the porch.

“Uh. Do you want to come in?”

She nodded and he stepped aside, letting her through.

“I’m Kurt,” he said.

“Desiree,” she said, shaking his offered hand.

It only took a few minutes for the entire group to assemble. Becky, Alex, Mary, Aniya, and Derrick. They gathered in the living room, looking around at each other curiously. Derrick sat down and started putting his shoes on.

“A kid is missing,” Alex explained. He waved at the mom, and she stepped a little closer. “Where did you see him last?”

She pointed out behind the two cabins. “Outside in the woods back there. I was on a conference call with work, and when it ended…”

“All right,” Alex said, nodding. “What’s his name?”

“Bret.”

“Let’s head out in groups of two and find him. He couldn’t have gotten far. Mary, you’re with me.”

“Should we bring some supplies?” Mary asked.

“Shouldn’t need it,” Alex answered. “Tim, Aniya, you guys fan out to the south, and Becky and Kurt have the north. Let’s go before it really starts raining.”

They headed outside, grabbing coats and umbrellas on the way. Desiree followed them, still looking concerned.

“What should I do?” she asked.

“Stay here in case your son comes back,” Alex said. He turned back to his group. “Stick together and walk an hour out and then back. Don’t go any more than you’re comfortable and don’t get lost. If we don’t find him, we’ll call in a rescue team.”

They all glanced at each other, hesitant but unwilling to object. Slowly, the pairs shuffled out into the woods, filtering through the trees in their little teams.

Kurt reluctantly followed Becky into the cold rain. He’d brought a coat, but he didn’t have an umbrella. Probably for the best, because the wind was really starting to pick up and would probably just rip it out of his hands.

They walked for ten minutes through the drizzle, and Kurt could feel his wet coat slapping against his legs. He hated being rushed out like that, never mind that a kid might be in danger. He should have at least been given a chance to put long pants on.

Hell, he shouldn’t be out here at all.

“This is stupid,” he said.

Becky glanced over at him, then looked back ahead. She didn’t seem too thrilled to be paired with him.

“It’s cold and wet and this is dumb,” he added.

“We’re searching for a lost kid,” Becky said. “How is that dumb?”

“He isn’t my kid.”

“You don’t have any kids,” she said. Then she added, quieter: “Probably never will, either.”

He laughed, then ended up coughing instead. “No, I definitely won’t. Little snot and poop factories. I don’t get why anyone would want them.”

She fell silent again, scanning the woods. They walked like that for a few more minutes, the only sound the rain pattering against their rain jackets. Hers was yellow, his clear, and the bottoms of his pants were damp where they weren’t covered.

“Shouldn’t we call the police or something?” he asked finally, sick of the silence.

“It would take hours for them to get out here,” she said.

“But they could organize a search party or something.”

“We
are
a search party,” Becky replied. She cupped her hand around her mouth and shouted: “Bret!”

Kurt winced, feeling a shock of discomfort as she shouted. There was something wrong about it, like it wasn’t a good idea. “Don’t do that.”

She looked over at him, narrowing her eyes. “Do what?”

“Call out,” he said. He looked around at the trees and wilderness, feeling very uncomfortable.

“Why not? We need to find this kid.”

“Yeah, I know, but…”

He trailed off. “But what?” she prompted.

Kurt hesitated, then shook his head helplessly. He didn’t know why, but it felt like a bad idea. Like there was something out there, and he didn’t want it to know he was here.

But that was silly. There was nothing out there, just the trees and some lost kid. “Never mind,” he said, then added louder: “Hey Bret, you out here?”

“You check over that way,” Becky said. “And I’ll go this way.”

“All right,” he said.

“Just don’t get out of range where you can’t hear me.”

“I got it,” he said, annoyed.

He turned and walked away from Becky. He pushed branches out of his face, feeling droplets of rain splash his cheeks. They’d only been out here about ten minutes, and already he wanted to get back inside near the fireplace in Owl Cabin.

He heard Becky start shouting for the kid from off to his left. He made sure to keep her in sight and then turned and called out:

“Bret!” he shouted, then listened. Nothing but the pitter-patter of rain.

He kept walking, glancing back from time to time to make sure Becky was still with him. He could see her yellow coat moving in parallel to him about eighty meters away. Every once in while she would shout, but, for the most part, it was quiet.

Another few minutes slipped past. Kurt thought about just heading back to the cabin without Becky. He could sneak away and return to the warmth while the rest of the group froze out here. Becky would be pissed, and Alex would be pissed when she told him, but what did that matter? He would care less if they were happy or not.

He didn’t go back, though. Not because he felt bad for the lost kid, but because he didn’t have the greatest sense of direction. He knew that if he lost sight of Becky he probably couldn’t find the cabin again.

That just annoyed him even more.

This wasn’t how he’d planned to spend his break between classes. Alex had organized this trip, even footing the bill: he came from money, and he liked everyone to know it.

And that was fine with Kurt. A free place to crash and get high had sounded like heaven. That was before the mosquitos, the crappy Internet connection, and the complete lack of civilization.

And now this.

“Bret!” he shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth.

“I’m here.”

Kurt froze, halfway into his next stride. The voice came from behind him. He turned slowly, feeling a shiver run up his spine, and saw a boy standing about three meters away. The boy’s clothes were soaked, and his hair was matted to his face, but he looked completely calm and relaxed.

But, his eyes…
man
, there was something wrong with them. They were open with water running around them, and they were blank. It looked like a doll’s eyes, like the kid was looking at him and through him at the same time.

They stood still for a long moment, staring at each other. Finally, Kurt said. “You…uh…you got lost?”

“No,” the boy replied.

“You’re Bret, right?”

“Yes.”

Silence hung in the air. It felt like the temperature dropped thirty degrees in the last forty-or-so seconds, and Kurt felt his body shivering. The kid hadn’t moved a single muscle, except for his mouth, and he looked more like a statue than a child.

And those eyes…

“I should get you back home.”

“In time,” Bret replied.

What the hell does that mean?

“Let’s go,” he said, then took a step to his left, planning to search for Becky.

“They don’t like you, you know.”

The words stopped him. “Who?”

“The ones you’re with,” Bret said. “The ones you think are your friends.”

“What do you…?” he started to say, and then trailed off. Part of him was thinking:
of course, they don’t like me,
as a sort of self-deprecating joke, the way Kurt usually brushed off insults or challenges. He’d heard hurtful things all his life.

Except this was different. There was a seriousness, a matter-of-fact quality to what the kid was saying that was unsettling. He was stating it, not voicing an opinion.

A fact that felt like a sledgehammer had just hit Kurt in the stomach.

“They never liked you,” the kid said. “They only wanted you in their group because you could get them mushrooms and weed.”

Kurt shook his head:
How would this kid know about mushrooms?

But the words rang true, completely and utterly true in a way that nothing else in his life had ever felt true. They were using him. They didn’t like him and had never liked him.

He stared at the little kid, feeling like he could trust him. “That’s all they wanted?” he asked.

“That’s it,” Bret said.

Kurt felt a little voice screaming in his mind that something was wrong. Something was terribly and utterly wrong. But the larger part of him understood the depth of this new reality.

“You know what you must do?” Bret asked after another pause. He spoke softly, his pre-pubescent voice barely louder than the rain.