Hot Spring

Part 8

Mike's eyes flew open, and he peered into the gloom. Where was he? The only light visible was high above him, a strip of light seeping out from either side of the door. The cellar door.
He had to get upstairs.
Pulling himself upright, he shook his head to clear the fog that muddled his thoughts, and held onto the wall with one hand as he climbed the stairs. The door opened easily. They hadn't been able to lock it.
Score one for Mike. He smiled, and entered the kitchen.
The empty kitchen.
"Where are you hiding?" he called out, although by now they were probably running down the road, screaming for help.
That's when he heard a bark, muffled but nearby.
He stood still, listening. One of the girls was still in here, he thought, hiding somewhere with the dog.
A whisper: "Shh...shh, boy," from the hallway.
He had an idea.

Jessica heard Mike running down the cellar steps. He must have forgotten something. Forgotten to retrieve more evidence of his crimes, she thought. Good. He hadn't heard her or Jake.
"Come on," she urged the dog, and bolted for the front door.
"Not so fast," a deep voice said behind her, and Mike threw the knife at her.
Pain seared in her right leg as the knife went in deep. It stopped her in her tracks, and she cried out in pain, Jake stopping as well. The dog looked at Mike in surprise, then bared his teeth at him in a snarl.
Mike only laughed, and pulled out another hunting knife.
Limping to the door, she managed to yank it open and yelled at Jake to get out. But the dog wouldn't move from his staredown with Mike.
"Go on, boy!" she yelled, then managed to cross the threshold onto the balcony, pain ripping through her leg and making her breathless. Jake finally ran out.
"Run!" she called after him as he darted out onto the lawn, where he turned and looked at her questioningly.
Mike was behind her now. She could feel his breath on her neck. He pulled the knife out of her leg swiftly, and she screamed as the pain intensified.
On her knees now, doubled over in searing pain, she thought of Jana. The car.
She lifted her head, blinking furiously to see through the tears that clouded her vision. The car seemed lower to the ground than usual. No one was in it.
He'd slashed the tires.
Well, that's not surprising, she thought.
"Where's your friend?" Mike asked, and she looked behind her. He stood tall above her, gazing down with a condescending smile. He must have been at least six feet tall, and was a broad-shouldered, muscular man. She'd never be able to take him on, especially now that he'd injured her leg. Clever. So she couldn't run.
"I have no idea," she said. "She was going to get in the car, but I guess you took care of that." Her words came out in short gasps, and she noticed a pool of blood forming on the porch under her leg.
He snorted with laughter, then told her to get back into the kitchen. Whipping out gauze and some transparent tape, he made her take off her jeans while he bandaged her wound. After he was finished he got her a new pair of jeans from her room, then tied her hands behind her back again.
Jessica was puzzled, and remained silent throughout the process. Why was he bandaging her wound? He must not want to kill us, she thought.
Then he went outside to clean up the blood on the porch.
Evidence. He didn't want to leave evidence.
She groaned as terror and despair overcame her, and wondered where Jana was. Hopefully she was running to the nearest house for help. Who knew where that was, though. Miles away. Never again would she go to a place that had no cell phone service.
Mike came back in, and bundled up the towel he'd been using outside with her bloodied jeans. He wiped his knife on the jeans before putting all three items into a backpack, which he slung over his shoulder. He grinned at her and winked.
"Forgot something," he said, disappearing down the cellar stairs. He came back up with the shotgun.
Jessica's eyes widened. So, it had been down there all along, where he must have snuck in and hidden it the other night.
"Okay, come on. We're going for a walk."
Outside, they spotted Jake digging near one of the hedges. The dog started pulling something out of the ground with his teeth, then dropped it once it was out. Mike had her lead the way to the hedge, walking behind her closely with the shotgun.
"Jake," she said in a strangled voice, "run, boy."
Jake picked up the object and trotted over to her, dropping it at her feet.
It was a severed arm.
She screamed and jerked back from it, her stomach twisting in revulsion. She fell backward, crashing into Mike, who stood behind her.
The shotgun went off, Mike aiming it at Jake, but she'd thrown him off balance. The dog yelped and ran into the woods.
"Goddammit!" Mike screamed. He stood still for a few moments, thinking, then cut the tie wrap binding her wrists with his hunting knife.
"Pick that thing up," he said, waving his knife towards the severed arm, "and bury it back in the hedge."
Jessica rubbed her wrists where they'd been tied, an ugly reddish-purple mark forming around each one. "No way," she said, her voice small and childlike. She tried to look anywhere else but at the arm, fighting the urge to throw up.
"You have the choice: bury it, or be dead. I'm the one with the gun here. Even without it, you know I could kill you."
"Okay, okay," she whispered, and picked up the arm by the remains of a shirt that still partially covered it. She continued trying to avoid looking at it, holding her breath all the way back to the hedge.

Jana was lost.
After Jessica had given her the keys to start the car, she'd run down the porch stairs and stopped short. She stared at the car, dumbfounded, after she'd realized the tires had been slashed. Then she'd heard the commotion in the kitchen as Mike had come back up the cellar stairs and found Jessica inside.
After hiding behind some hedges to try to get a glimpse of what was happening inside, her heart felt like it was going to leap out of her chest when she heard Mike and Jessica approaching. She'd seen him leading her onto the balcony with the shotgun, and terrified he'd discover her, had run blindly into the woods. There were a group of cabins in the woods used by local hunters, she remembered Jessica saying, and thought if she found them, she might find a weapon inside. Maybe that was where Mike was hiding his vehicle. And where they'd heard the sound of the chainsaw coming from the other day.
Now she collapsed under a tree, exhausted after scouring the area for any signs of a path or cabin, or any red ribbons on the trees used to mark a path.
Nothing.
Everything looked the same as when she'd first entered the forest, except she couldn't find a way out.
Why am I so stupid, she thought. Then she heard Jake bark.
She'd heard the shotgun blast earlier, and could only pray that Jessica was okay. Or that, by some miracle, Jessica had shot Mike, and either injured or killed him.
It seemed Jake was okay, though, wherever he was. But she wasn't about to take the risk of calling out for him.
She got up and brushed off the back of her jeans, then listened again. Another bark, closer.
If I start walking, Jake might hear me, she thought. The dog might be better at being able to find a way out, or a way to the cabins, at least.
But where was Mike taking Jessica?
She had to find them. She had to try to do everything she could to save her friend.
The woods became darker, clouds moving quickly overhead. A low rumble of thunder disturbed the unnatural quiet of the forest, and she shook her head. Great, she thought, another thunderstorm. That's all I need.
Someone, or something, was coming towards her, moving quickly through the brush underfoot. Jana hid behind the nearest tree, praying it wasn't Mike. She squeezed her eyes shut and held her breath. Please, please, she prayed. Then someone barrelled into her.
A warm, furry body. Jake. She opened her eyes and sobbed with relief, hugging the dog close as he licked her hands and face.
"You silly dog," she thought. "Thank God, you're okay. But we need to find Jessica."
The dog whined, and looked back towards where he'd come from, then at Jana again.
"Is that where they are?" she asked him, and he whined again. Suddenly his ears stood up and he froze, listening. Someone was close by.
"Keep moving," she heard Mike say gruffly, then saw him and Jessica come into view on her right. She could only hope he wouldn't see her or the dog. Jake was quiet, behind her. He had the sense not to dash out towards Jessica, at least. For now, anyway.
"Where are we going?" Jessica asked, her voice desperate.
"I told you, no more questions," Mike replied. "I will find that friend of yours. I know you're hiding somewhere around here," he yelled out. "You dropped an earring earlier. I found it near the hedges."
Jana felt her right and left earlobes, and sure enough, the right earring was missing. She was trying not to breathe in case he heard her, but didn't know how much longer she could stand it since her chest was feeling tighter and tighter.
Jessica was doubled over, her hands on her upper thighs, trying to catch her breath from the brisk walking they'd been doing. Pain and terror had drained all the energy from her body, and she kept walking by sheer will alone.
"Keep moving," Mike said, and Jessica started forward, but tripped on a tree root.
"What the hell is wrong with you!" he roared, and pointed the shotgun at her head.
Jake leapt out from their hiding place, heading right for Mike. As he jumped up, snarling, a shotgun blast rang out.
With a high-pitched cry, the dog fell heavily to the ground, blood seeping from his chest into the ground.
"Oh, no," Jessica sobbed, crawling over to him. "Poor baby, my poor baby."
Jana got up to run, but Mike spotted her.
"You come back here or I shoot her!" he warned, and she believed him.
She walked over, kneeling on the ground beside Jessica.
"He's not moving. He's dead," Jessica sobbed, and Jana put her arms around her.
"I'm so sorry," she said.
"Enough of that, it had to be done. That dog was about to attack me. Get up, both of you. It's time to take you to my special place."
The girls exchanged a terrified look, then got up and kept walking to wherever it was he was taking them.