The Dead and the Dark(78)

“Where are we actually going?” Logan asked.

“You know where we’re going,” Paris said. “You kids have been out here a dozen times already.”

“The cabin, right?”

“I am sorry,” Paris said. “I would’ve kept you out of it if I could.”

Logan closed her eyes. “Are you gonna kill me?”

“No.”

Paris signaled his way off the main road and pulled into the gravel turnout. His headlights cut through the trees. Deep in the woods, Logan could just see the outline of the cabin. Inside, a single lantern glowed orange against the night.

The ghosts, the deaths, her fathers: it all started here.

Logan let out a shuddering breath. A piece of her had thought the voice she heard in the water was a hallucination. That it was something her mind had created to keep her from dying. But it had told her she needed to go to the place where everything began. And for one reason or another, that place was here. Something told her that the cabin was where it would end, too.

“Why are we here?” Logan asked.

“Because it says I’ve gotta do one more thing, then I’m good.” Paris turned in his seat to face her. His eyes shone like glassy obsidian in the dark night. “Look, I don’t know what it wants with you or the kid from the Bates. Carrillo.”

Elexis. Logan’s eyes widened.

“Anyway, I’m supposed to tell you that, if you want your answers, you gotta head into the cabin. The Carrillo kid’s inside. You think you can do that?”

Logan swallowed. It was probably a trap. It was probably dangerous. But she’d left Nick at this cabin and he’d been killed. She couldn’t leave Elexis, too. They could find a way to signal someone from town. There had to be a way out of this.

“Just go to him?” Logan asked. “You won’t hurt us?”

“I won’t.” Paris unlocked the doors and pushed Logan’s door open. “Now get in there.”

Logan swallowed her fear and nodded. She stepped into the night and waited for her dizziness to pass. Without a flashlight, she only had Paris’s headlights and the light in the cabin to follow. She tripped over roots and stumps, scraping her arms against the rough juniper trunks as she went, but she didn’t stop. Behind her, Paris’s headlights seared yellow against the dusty forest floor.

And then they didn’t.

She turned in time to watch Paris’s cruiser reverse out of the gravel turnout and drive away.

He was gone; he’d left her here.

Something wasn’t adding up. If he wanted to kill her, why would he leave?

Logan made her way onto the cabin’s porch and placed her hand against the front door. Inside, she heard the strangled sound of Elexis’s breathing. Logan sighed in relief. “Elexis. Hey. It’s me.”

“Don’t come—” Elexis started. He choked on the rest of his sentence as if the words were too big for him. “I can’t…”

“It’s okay,” Logan said. She pushed open the front door and stepped into the cabin. The wind followed her inside, gusting against the old wood like a whistle. “I’m not gonna leave you. We’re gonna get out of here.”

Elexis sat against the back wall of the cabin, tied to the piano. Other than the rope, he looked unharmed. Logan scanned the room for some sign of danger, but it was exactly the same as she remembered it. Another wave of wind gusted into the cabin again and snuffed out the lantern.

“Hello?” Logan asked in the darkness.

“Logan, you—”

Something crawled over her skin, and she was frozen. The sensation was the same one she’d had underwater. It was the same creeping blackness, the same cloying, thick tar crawling up her throat. Logan could just see Elexis across the room, and he shook his head. The long shadows of the room crawled over her skin like icy fingers, pressing into the exposed skin of her neck. She willed her legs to move, but they didn’t answer to her anymore.

I am glad you could join us, a voice whispered. She felt its sickly breath against her throat. It has been a very long time.

“What…?” she began.

She couldn’t remember what she meant to ask.

You want to know why you dream of death. You want to know why your bones reach for the earth. You have spent your nights starving for the truth.

Logan’s stomach churned. She nodded. The voice’s words were true, but they were true in a way she’d never felt before. They were true in a way that had no alternatives. Logan was peeled away and something else took her place. The truth was the only thing she wanted; she couldn’t remember wanting anything else.

“The truth…”

The dark rested just above her skin like gathered cloth. Sweetly, the dark breathed, Would you like me to show you?

Logan didn’t answer. She didn’t need to answer. The dark swallowed her whole and she was gone, hurtled out of time.





34


If The Truth Is A Lie


Ashley followed Tristan to the police station with her heart in her throat.

As soon as she killed the engine on the Land Rover, Tristan’s silhouette disappeared and she was left in the yellow glow of the station lights. She’d followed Tristan because there was supposed to be an answer at the end of the road, but the station was empty. None of the police cruisers were parked outside. The only car in the lot was the scuffed-up ParaSpectors minivan.