The Dead and the Dark(87)

He put his face in his hands.

“Then your friend went missing.”

Ashley’s stomach sank.

“I knew it was the Dark. It never really felt gone.”

“You think it picked someone else?” Ashley asked. She thumped her head back against the seat. She wasn’t sure her head even had enough room for all this information. Brandon wasn’t a killer, but he’d brought back the monster that was. He’d done it to save Logan, and that might be why Tristan was gone.

Logan was dead.

The two men sat silently in the front seat, Alejo’s hand over Brandon’s. Ashley wondered if Brandon had ever admitted this truth to anyone. After all the time Logan had spent searching for these answers, Ashley felt like she’d stolen them. These secrets weren’t hers to hear.

“I thought if I could find the new host, I could convince the Dark to come back.” Brandon cleared his throat. “I thought if I could get it back, the killing would stop.”

“You’d take it back?” Ashley asked. “Even though you don’t know how to kill it?”

“Better than letting innocent kids die.”

“Why didn’t you tell Logan?”

“What would that change?”

“We didn’t know where to start.” Alejo shook his head. “We didn’t even understand how she came back. It would’ve traumatized her. We wanted her to have a normal life.”

Ashley looked at Brandon. “She would’ve known why you weren’t around.”

“But it wouldn’t’ve changed anything.” Brandon stared at the palms of his hands. “I appreciate your concern. But knowing why I was gone wouldn’t have changed that I was gone. She would’ve … I would’ve had to leave her just as much.”

Brandon slumped back in his seat and, for the first time, Ashley noticed how tired he was. The stubble at his jaw hadn’t been shaved in days, his clothes were disheveled, his eyes were rung with half-moons as dark as bruises. She thought of the nights he’d spent alone in the cabin, wandering the woods, looking for the Dark. How he’d been willing to take it on all over again if it meant the killing in Snakebite would stop. He’d hurl himself back into misery and loneliness to save the town that cast him out. She’d always thought of Snakebite as one big, tangled family, but she couldn’t think of a single person willing to lose what Brandon had lost to keep it safe.

“I still think you should’ve told her,” Ashley said. “Then she wouldn’t think you hate her.”

“She…” Brandon turned in his seat to face her. “She what?”

“No,” Alejo said, as though he were trying to convince himself more than anyone else. “No, she doesn’t think you…”

Ashley wished she hadn’t said anything.

Brandon’s expression sank. Of all the things he’d learned tonight, this one seemed to cut him the deepest. He pressed his palm over his heart and closed his eyes. She thought of the sadness Logan wore under her wry smiles. The way she longed for her family, even if she denied it.

“And now it was all for nothing,” Brandon said. “Because we can’t even kill it.”

“The place where it all started,” Alejo said. “We could just go to the cabin. Head it off at the pass.”

“We could,” Brandon said. “If the killer’s there, we can at least try to reason with them. Or the Dark.”

“Does it usually listen?” Ashley asked.

Brandon and Alejo scoffed in unison.

A strange, prickling sensation crept over Ashley’s neck. She looked out the window and, outside the police station, she saw a shadowy figure flickering in the yellow light. She squinted, waiting for it to take shape. The faint scent of fuel wafted in through the air conditioner.

“Tristan,” Ashley whispered.

Alejo turned to look outside the window. His eyes widened, and he looked at Ashley. “So this is Tristan. I’ve seen him a few times.”

“I thought he was bringing me to you guys,” Ashley said. “But I think I’m still supposed to follow him.”

She climbed out of the car into the empty night. Behind her, the passenger door opened and Alejo stepped out. He pulled a jacket from the minivan and threw it on over his T-shirt. “Has he made you follow him before?”

“He hasn’t made me do anything,” Ashley said. “But he led me to Nick’s body. And he led me here.”

“Interesting.”

Brandon leaned across the front seat. “We have to get to the cabin.”

Ashley shook her head. “You guys go. I have to follow Tristan.”

“She can’t go alone. She’s a kid,” Alejo said quietly, like he thought Ashley wouldn’t hear him. He stood with his hands on his hips, brow furrowed in frustration. His gaze traced Tristan’s outline, lips quivering. “I’ll go with her. You go to the cabin. Find Logan.”

Brandon shook his head. “No, I can’t—”

“She needs you.”

“She doesn’t need me.” Brandon’s eyes were wide, magnified by his glasses. His knuckles on the steering wheel were white.

Ashley looked between them. It didn’t matter who came with her and who went to the cabin; they needed to go. Tonight was the night this all ended. Tristan was already gliding out of the parking lot, fading quickly into the night. He turned to look over his shoulder, but Ashley couldn’t see his eyes. They were running out of time.