The sheer magnitude of what Blake said had my head spinning for the rest of the night. I hadn't known how to respond. What do you say to that? I knew I was falling for him too, but for some insane reason, a part of me wasn't ready to admit it yet. Maybe I was afraid that if I admitted it, things would be that much harder to deal with when I had to leave Maine. I wasn't ready to have that conversation with Blake, no matter how badly my heart wanted to shout from the mountain tops that I was falling in love with him.
It wasn't long after his admission that Blake and I decided to call it a night. I knew he had to get up early, so I couldn't take the time to explain my weird feelings to him. Besides that, I didn't want to somehow disappoint him by not returning the verbiage any more than I already had.
"Thank you for telling me," was probably the stupidest thing I could've replied with, but it had come out of my mouth faster than I'd thought it through and I couldn't take it back. Thankfully, Blake hadn't seemed bothered by my reaction, and instead, he simply kissed me again and a silence fell over the room while we separated to go clean up.
Climbing into bed beside the man who had just told me he was falling for me had my stomach in all kinds of knots. It felt like both of us knew we each had more to say, but neither of us was ready to have the talk.
"Goodnight, Kenz," Blake whispered, wrapping an arm around my waist, and tugging me close against his chest.
"Goodnight, Blake," I whispered back, staring a hole into the wall.
It was a calm night with crystal clear skies that shown the stars brightly. I was glad it wasn't storming for a change. It didn't take long for Blake to fall asleep, and I was comforted by the soft snores coming from the handsome man behind me. I must have spent an hour staring out the window at the stars before I finally fell asleep myself, but then I was plagued by nightmares of the Acadia Killer once again.
He was chasing me through the woods again. I was trying desperately to get back to the beach house to barricade myself inside. I needed a locked door between me and my assailant as soon as possible, and I could see the beach house in the distance, but no matter how fast I ran or how hard I tried to get there, the further away it seemed to get, and the closer to me the killer became.
"Help!" I screamed out. "Somebody! Anyone! Help!"
There was no response. Nobody was coming to save me. I was going to be the next victim of the Acadia Killer. I just knew it.
That's when I felt hands on my body. Strong hands shaking me gently. Blake was saving me – waking me up from this God-awful nightmare.
"Kenz, wake up," he said softly, knowing I was having a nightmare. "It's okay. You're safe. I'm here."
I awakened, gasping and sweating bullets, still able to see the figure in black chasing me as I blinked several times, trying to get my eyes to focus.
"Kenz, it's okay," he said, trying to calm me down. "You're safe. I'm here. It's alright."
"Blake," I gasped, shaking uncontrollably. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up. I had a nightmare."
He looked at me with somber eyes, obviously worried about me. "The killer after you again?"
I breathed out a heavy breath I hadn't realized I was holding in. "Yeah. He was chasing me again."
Blake pursed his lips and glanced down momentarily. "What can I do? How can I help?"
I shook my head. "I have no idea. I don't think the nightmares are going to stop until this guy is behind bars."
He nodded slowly, his eyes darkening with sadness in the dim lighting. "I'm sorry, love."
I shrugged, breathing out heavily once again. "I don't know what to say. It's a recurring thing and it's horrifying. I hate it. But I don't know what to do. It won't stop."
Blake wrapped his arms around me and tugged me close against his chest. I laid my head against his shoulder and did my best to avoid bursting into tears.
This was getting to be a little too traumatic of an experience and I wasn't sure how much longer I could handle the stress of everything piling on. Between the Acadia Killer, stressing over my relationship with Blake, and the article situation with Krista Hall, I was beginning to get so overwhelmed I wasn't sure I could continue. I was starting to second guess myself and my ability to handle this much pressure at one time.
"Kenz, I hope you know I'm going to be here for you no matter what," Blake injected into the silence, holding me against his warm body. "I'm not going to leave. I want to help, and I want to take care of this mess – with you – together. We'll get through all this together. This bastard isn't going to be around doing this sick shit forever. He's going to get caught soon."
I snorted a laugh. "Yeah. How soon? Cause it's been a while already."
Blake sighed and shook his head. "I know. I know it's been too long already. Too many people have died because of my own father. You know, there's a part of me that can't fathom that my father is the one doing this. I guess the few decent memories I have of him from when I was a little kid make me want to believe he wouldn't turn into a murderer, but I can't ignore the signs and the fact that he was standing out there harassing you, pretending to be some neighbor down the way named Steve. That's got to be connected to this whole Acadia Killer thing somehow. Why would he be trying to beat down your door otherwise?"
"He has to know I'm onto him," I said, shivering at the thought. "Why would he be after me like that if he didn't figure that I know about him? He must have figured out that I think he's the killer and he's trying to get rid of me before I tell someone."
It felt wrong to say such a thing about the father of the man I was in bed with. Mostly because I felt like I was being offensive or cruel to Blake in some way. But I knew we both agreed, and I wasn't in the wrong for saying it.
"I think so too," Blake nodded, staring off out the window at the leaves blowing on the trees. "I think he wants to make you his next victim, Kenz. I really do. I think he knows you figured him out and he's coming after you. But I won't let that happen. I promise."
I nuzzled into the crook of Blake's arm and buried my face in his side, trying my damnedest not to start crying. I wasn't a crier. I never had been. But this Acadia Killer stuff was putting my stress level on red, and I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold back the floodgates.
"If you hadn't been there," I murmured against Blake's shirt. "I think I would have been the next victim."
I felt Blake nod, but he didn't say anything. I knew he was thinking about the situation as a whole and trying to figure out what to do to put a stop to it. We both knew after discussing it that we couldn't just go to the police and say that Blake's father was acting suspicious and that we suspected him of being the killer. We had to have some kind of concrete evidence, which we had yet to get ahold of. I was beginning to think we would never find the evidence we needed. I couldn't comprehend how he was killing people and managing to not leave any D.N.A. or anything behind. But Blake kept assuring me that everyone slips up at some point. I wanted to believe that, but a gut feeling had me thinking this guy was just too damn good at his craft.
"Let's try to get some more rest, okay?" Blake suggested, gently prying me out of the hole I'd pretty much buried myself into. "You need to sleep, Kenz. You're exhausted."
I shook my head. "I don't want to have another nightmare. I may as well just get up and make coffee and go work on my article."
"If you do that on three hours of sleep, you and I both know your work won't be any good and you'll have to redo it," he told me. "Don't do that to yourself. Just get some more sleep and you can work on the article in the morning when normal people do their jobs."
I giggled a little bit at that and smiled up at him. He was sitting up in bed looking down at me with a goofy smile on his lips. He leaned down to kiss me softly and brushed my hair out of my face, lying back down beside me.
"Let's get some sleep, okay?" he suggested, his eyes doing that adorable twinkly thing in the dim lighting.
"Okay," I sighed, giving up the argument.
I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere with that, but for a moment, I'd thought it was a good idea to go ahead and get up. Realistically, I didn't want to get up yet. I just wanted to avoid any additional nightmares. I was beyond sick of being chased by that figure in black. It was horrifying, no matter how many times I'd dreamt it.
"Goodnight, Blake," I breathed, rolling over to face the window again.
"Goodnight, Kenz," he whispered back, wrapping an arm around my waist again and tugging me close to him.
Finally, after lying there thinking about the nightmare over and over, I eventually got tired enough to fall back asleep. Thankfully, the nightmare didn't plague my dreams again. Instead, I had a nice, peaceful dream about sitting on the patio with Blake, just watching the waves hit the shore.
When I awakened around six, Blake was already gone. He'd left a sweet note saying he didn't want to wake me up and that he had to be at the ranger station by five-thirty. I assumed he'd left around five since it wasn't far to the station.
Forcing my tired body to climb out of bed, I padded to the bathroom, did my morning wake up routine, and headed down the stairs to make coffee. When I reached the kitchen, there was another note on the counter for me. Blake said he'd made the coffee for me and that he'd grabbed the spare key set to lock the door behind him. I was thankful he'd thought to do that last part. It made me feel much safer. Still, being the concerned person I was, I went to double check the door anyway and it was definitely locked.
Padding back into the kitchen, I poured myself a cup of coffee, stirred in some caramel creamer, and hunted through the freezer until I found a frozen breakfast croissant. It was supposed to be a bright, sunny day, and I was ready to get some work accomplished.
I heated my food in the microwave and then grabbed my laptop and headed to the kitchen table where I could check my emails while I ate my breakfast.
Scanning through my inbox, there were requests from followers wanting to know where I'd taken certain photographs because I hadn't geotagged them. There were a handful of messages regarding influencer collaborations which I was definitely going to look at when I got back from doing some photography. What I really wanted to see was if I had any new emails from Krista Hall, but there weren't any. After reading her last email, I'd sent a quick response agreeing to her terms of the articles. She hadn't said anything back so I assumed I wouldn't hear from her again until I sent the next article.
Closing my laptop, I wandered back up the stairs to take a quick shower and locate my hiking gear. I normally left my backpack packed, but I'd occasionally remove items to clean or if I wanted to switch out gear. I was always prepared to stay overnight and planned all my day trips like a backpacking trip, bringing along a tent, sleeping bag, and everything else I needed in case my hikes lasted way too long or I got lost. As a result, I had a pretty heavy backpack, but I chose to ignore the backaches and trudge on. I was dedicated to the perfect shot.
Grabbing my trekking poles, I headed out the door to do some photography around the outer parameters of the national park, right outside the closed areas. There were also a couple state parks I was considering visiting if I had enough time. I sent a quick text to Blake about where I was going to be for the day and went on my way, refusing to let the fear of the Acadia Killer interrupt my ability to do my job.