The Last Winter

Friday: What Should Be Said (3)

Dallas
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Oh crap. Oh crap crap crap crap crap!

I push Nelia out of my way and make a run for it, tripping over stuff on the floor and knocking into the shelves as I make my escape.

"Dallas!" I hear her shout angrily somewhere behind me, and she shines her cell phone light on my back. I round a corner and lose the light.

"I ain't staying down here! Not with the--"

I never get to finish my sentence.

Someone screams across the room, and I freeze in my tracks, blinking quickly. Without Nelia's phone, I can't make out where the stairs are.

Someone else screams, and they both run, their footsteps reverberating off the floor. I can hear more boxes being hit and knocked off the shelves. Items clatter, objects roll, more screams. They're being chased!

I run. I can't see where I'm going, but I run!

Someone slams right into me, and they scream in my face. I fall back against a shelf, grimacing.

"Shut up--" I begin.

I have just enough time to recognize that I had run into Oriana before a shadow appears down the passage, and we both freeze. An antagonizing moment passes in which we all stare at each other. Although I can't see their eyes, I know that this isn't Eugena standing at the end. It's not Nelia.

The figure breaks forward, sprinting at us with alarming speed.

"RUN!" Oriana shrieks, leaving me behind.

More screams. Nelia shouting for her sister. Eugena calling for us to get to the stairs. My own cry of terror as I trip over my own shoelaces.

The figure is towering over me, giving his own animalistic growl of power. He knew that the game is up. I couldn't go anywhere. I couldn't run any longer. It's too late!

I scream as he reveals what's under the hood--a ski mask covering half his face, and dark goggles that hide his eyes. I'm staring into two dark pits of hell.

The lights flick on, and as I stay frozen on the grimy floor, I flinch as the figure's shoulders start to shake uncontrollably. Laughing, he yanks his hood down and shrugs the mask off, grinning from ear to ear. Wesley takes off his goggles and tosses them at my chest. I watch as he doubles over and slaps his knee, almost choking on his own laughter.

"Oh," he wheezes, "oh I got you guys good! Got you so good!"

Nelia is the first who reappears, looking rather irritated.

"That wasn't funny!" she tells him. Oriana and Eugena tentatively come back, and Nelia storms past them, quickly climbing the stairs to the land of the living.

"I think you've traumatized her," Oriana smirks, rubbing the back of her neck. She's trying to act cool, but she's obviously embarrassed that she fell for such a prank.

I scramble to my feet, throwing the goggles back at Wes.

"That stuff ain't funny anymore," I tell him, glancing at Eugena, who looks like she's emotionally hurt.

Crap. Any small thing could set her off, and this whole basement scare was like setting a bonfire to a trail of gunpowder. What might have seemed funny to any normal person would be a dire mistake to Eugena.

Wesley sighs, reaching out to touch the girl.

"Look, I'm--"

She didn't give him a chance to apologize. She whirls around and disappears up the stairs.

"Boy, you've done it now," I say under my breath.

Wes shoots me a glare before he follows Eugena, no doubt to struggle and make peace with her.

Forty-five minutes later, and all of us are gathered in the pews of an early 1900s one-room church about a half-mile from the lodge. Ronnie felt compelled to give us a sermon--he could've talked about the many hardships that Moses and the Israelites endured when they came out of Egypt--the pain, the woe. He could've talked about how Mary felt as she watched her own son die on the cross, and how she overcame her grief. But no. Ronnie didn't talk about any of that.

He saw Eugena, and he wanted to talk about Revelations. He didn't want to talk about the struggles of the past, but the struggles of the future. The pain and the sorrow that has yet to come.

I get the chills as I listen to him speak.

"Hope," he tells us slowly, making an effort to look at each and every one of us with his eerie dark eyes, "hope is what we must grab onto in such trying times. Hope is the future. Without hope, where is Jesus?"

We are uncomfortably silent, glancing at each other for a terrifying moment--does he really expect us to answer?

I glimpse Ralph in the pew in front of me, and he has a faraway look in his glossy eyes. He seems really moved by Ronnie's speech so far.

"Jesus chose to die on the cross to give us hope," the old man goes on, narrowing his beady eyes. "Without him, there is no hope."

He is the light in the darkness of the world. He is hope.

We conclude with a song that Eddie leads, the chorus going something like:

I know there is joy beyond the pain
And that hope has not abandoned me today

I hear a sniffle behind me, and I glance back to see Nelia wiping away tears from her eyes.

I feel a huge pressure on my chest. Oh no. I can't choke up now.

I see the back of Eugena ahead of me, and I see that she's wiping at her face too.

Now would be the perfect time to come forward and say something.

Say what? There was nothing to say.

Oh hey, yeah. What's up? By the way, I'm responsible for killing your brothers.

I grab the pew in front of me for support, my knuckles glaring white.

It wasn't an accident.

Eugena suddenly turns around, locking eyes with me. Startled, I straighten my back, and we stare at each other until the song ends.

She's looking at me as if she's reading my thoughts.

Maggie bumps into me and growls for me to move, and that's when we break eye contact.

As if the sermon had no effect on him, Cameron claps me on the back and steers me toward the exit.

"Come on!" he tells me excitedly. "Time to ski!"

If I had known what was about to happen, maybe I could've saved him. Maybe I could've saved all of us.

God, help me.

..........................

John 8:12
"When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'"

..........................

Next chapter: When You Snoop

My gut is screaming at me to be alarmed. To be on alert.

This is out of the ordinary. Definitely not normal.