Near the Bone(44)

Mattie nodded.

“But that’s ridiculous. It’s not human. It doesn’t think like a human.”

Mattie wanted to scream. Even Jen, who Mattie was certain would be sensible, didn’t believe. They were all willing to believe in the existence of an animal they’d never seen before but they weren’t willing to believe it could think and reason.

“Not . . . like . . . human. But . . . not . . . like . . . animal . . . either. Warned . . . us.”

Griffin, who seemed to be barely following the thread of the conversation up to that point, spoke up. “You said that the marks near your cabin were a warning because you went into the caves.”

Mattie nodded again, though she was worried about Griffin. His words were slurred together, and he seemed to have trouble focusing his eyes anywhere.

“So you’re saying that because we—me and Jen and C.P.—went into the caves after the cryptid warned you to stay away, that it will come after us, all of us?”

Mattie nodded once more. She thought her head would fall off if she kept shaking it around like that. Anyway, at least one of them understood, or seemed to. She hated the way they kept using that word, “cryptid,” though. It implied something benign, and the creature was not benign.

“So the wackaloon with the shovel is after us, and the cryptid is after us, too?” C.P. said. “Just what are we supposed to do here? There’s no cell service, you and Griffin are on the injured list, and all we have to keep us safe are our tiny nylon tents.”

Mattie had been thinking about this ever since she heard the creature’s roar. The important thing was that at least one of them got off the mountain to get help—or better yet, all three of them.

“You . . . take . . . Griffin. Go . . . down . . . the . . . mountain. William . . . will . . . follow . . . me.”

If Mattie stayed behind then the three of them would be safe from William. He’d only be interested in getting his wife back. The creature would probably follow her and William, as well, because it knew the scent of them and even where they lived. The three strangers would be able to escape, and Mattie would only have to worry about keeping out of William’s grasp until they returned with the police.

“No way,” Jen said. “Forget it. We’re not leaving you up here with your kidnapper.”

Kidnapper. That was the word for what William was. Of course William had kidnapped her, though she couldn’t seem to remember that part. She only remembered William coming in the window—her bedroom window. It was the first time anyone had said “kidnapper” out loud, though, the first time it was explicitly acknowledged.

“You . . . get . . . police,” Mattie said. “They . . . arrest . . . William.”

“By the time we get down the mountain and then back to you he’ll have chopped you up with an axe,” Jen said. “We already know he’s a murderer.”

She covered her mouth with her hand then, her eyes appalled.

“I’m sorry,” Jen said. “I’m sorry I’m so stupid. It was like I didn’t remember who I was talking to for a second. I guess I’m more stressed out than I thought.”

“Gee, I wonder what’s stressing you out?” C.P. said. “Could it be that we’re all going to die?”

“We’re not going to die,” Griffin said. He sounded worse every time he spoke. “But I do need to take a nap before we run anywhere.”

“You can’t take a nap here. It’s too exposed,” Jen said. She turned to Mattie. “You said we shouldn’t go back to those caves up by that meadow. Are there other caves, maybe nearby, that we could use?”

They all looked at her expectantly. Mattie acutely felt the limitations of her life in the cabin then, her lack of knowledge about the environment in which she’d lived for more than a decade.

“Don’t . . . know. William . . . not . . . allow . . . me . . .”

She trailed off. It would take too many words to explain that there were very few places she was allowed to go without William.

Jen watched Mattie closely, and Mattie felt a sudden flush of shame. How could Mattie explain to this woman, this woman so free and easy and independent, how one man had kept Mattie locked in a cabin for so many years? How could she explain that after a time she’d allowed him to do that? Mattie should have fought. She should have run. She should have tried harder, instead of just accepting her fate.

Jen’s hand was taking Mattie’s then, gripping it tight. “Whatever happened wasn’t your fault. You were only a child when he took you.”

“Eight years old, right?” C.P. said. “That’s what it said on the news.”

Mattie wanted to ask what else they knew, what else had been said on the news, if they knew anything about Heather, but Jen gave C.P. a quelling look and he went back to tapping his flat black box.

A third roar sounded through the woods, this one longer and fiercer than the last two. Mattie covered her ears again, and this time the other three did as well. As she hunched over, trying to block out the sound that leaked through, she had a strange thought. The creature sounded slightly different. It wasn’t the triumphant cry it had made when it found its prey in the woods, not the cry of anger and warning it had given when it had stalked Mattie through the woods to the cabin. This call was still angry, but there was something else underneath it. What was it?