“You heard him,” Mason shouted, losing patience. “Get the fuck out of here.” He raised his arm and pulled the trigger. The Glock exploded, and I screamed, the boom echoing throughout the woods, night birds scattering into the sky. I’d ducked for cover, holding tight to Lucas’s arm, but I was falling. I landed heavily on the ground beside the man I loved. My hand was covered in blood, but it wasn’t me who was hurt. Blood oozed from Lucas’s shoulder as he struggled to his feet.
“Jesus, Mason,” I raged through tears while steadying Lucas. “This is your fucking brother.”
“The same brother who would sooner feed me to the wolves just for a fuck.”
I faced him head-on. “It’s not like that. I kept my end of the promise.”
“Until you didn’t.”
I swiped angrily at the tears with the back of my blood-stained hand. “I kept my word until you began your witch-hunt. You messed with my life. You hurt people, Mason.”
“And just maybe…” he stepped forward wearing his smile, “… I enjoyed every fucking part of it.”
“Go, Gemma!” Lucas begged, wincing with pain. “Please just—”
“You want me to shoot him again?” Mason shouted like a lunatic, waving the Glock toward Lucas. “Will you be satisfied when he’s bled out?”
I raised my hands in surrender and reluctantly stepped away from Lucas. “I’m leaving, but please just stop the hurting.”
Ever unpredictable and going from one extreme to the next, Mason chuckled cruelly. “When I find you, I’ll tell you all about it. Now go…” He fired the Glock once more but this time in the air. I staggered back, tripping on the blanket and worried it would be the last time I’d see Lucas alive.
I was almost at the top of the stairs silently pleading when he smiled once more, aiming the Glock at Lucas’s head. “Go,” he warned for the last time. Sobbing, I ran inside searching for my handbag. My clothes were still outside by the bath, and my duffle was still in the trunk of the car.
I didn’t care. I’d run naked through the sheriff’s station if I had to. It was only when I started running to the car did I wonder what had happened to B.
Could he not hear the gunshots?
The pine needles and stones stabbed into the soles of my feet, but nothing hurt more than the incessant pounding in my head and heart.
Was I really leaving Lucas?
I fumbled for the keys and twice dropped them back into the dark abyss of my handbag.
“Come on,” I spat angrily, struggling to get my trembling hands under control. I pressed unlock, the orange lights on each corner momentarily flashing the blackened woods. Throwing the handbag on the passenger side, I started the ignition, switched on the lights and hit the pedal hard. The tires ripped up the earth beneath them, and I struggled to grip the steering wheel as it jerked from my hands down the driveway.
“Jesus,” I pleaded. “This isn’t happening. This can’t be how it ends.”
There was sudden movement ahead between the trees. There one second, gone the next.
“Lucas?” I yelled, but he wouldn’t have heard. With my heart in my throat, I stared ahead, blinking rapidly until it reappeared. I searched the sides of the drive. Nothing. When I returned to the front, I slammed on the brakes, the car skidding to a halt a mere yard away from collision. Headlights illuminated Mason like he was the Messiah, but smiling like he was the anti-Christ. Blood stained his white shirt, but it wasn’t his. He pointed the Glock at me, finger poised on the trigger.
“Get out of the car, Gemma,” he instructed in an eerily calm and collected voice. “Now.”
Putting the car in park, I opened the door. Gripping the blanket tightly around me, I stepped out of the car using the door for partial protection.
“That’s a girl. Now come all the way around.” He gestured with the Glock. Trembling, I did as he said until I was silhouetted by the headlights.
A silent standoff ensued until he gave his next instruction. “Drop it,” he said referring to the blanket. I gripped it tight not wanting to be without. “Don’t test me, Gemma. Drop. It.”
Sobbing, I let go, the blanket pooling at my feet. I stood naked, fully exposed to him.
“Mm-mmm,” Mason sounded through pursed lips while drinking me in.
“Where’s Lucas? What did you do to him?”
“You sure you wanna know?”
I stopped breathing for what felt like an eternity.
I’d left Lucas to die.
I ran, and Mason killed him anyway.
“Why are you doing this? How could you hurt your own brother?”
“Because he was going to hurt me for you,” he spat angrily, holding the gun to my forehead. I staggered back until the car touched my legs. “So, I’ve revised the game.” Mason gripped my throat, his fingers digging deep. “I’ll give you a ten-second head start. But after that ten seconds, I’m coming for you. And no rules apply. I’ll do with you what I wish. Understand?”
“This isn’t a game,” I seethed
“Oh, it is to me.”
I shuddered under his glare.
“Understand?”
“Yes!” I spat, bitterly.
Mason jerked my head before releasing his grip. He took two steps back giving me space. “Go on then, your time starts… now.”
I panicked, my legs struggling to move
“One. Two. Thr—”
I turned to the right, taking to the darkened woods. I navigated through the obstacles, my heart pounding, my breath the only thing I could hear. Until somewhere between it all, I heard Mason’s maniacal laugh. Low hanging branches tore through my flesh, but I barely felt it in my desperation.
I turned, facing where I’d come from. The dark silhouettes of the trees gnarled as if they were coming to life to personally taunt me. Worse still, Mason was nowhere to be seen. Spinning on my heel, I resumed my journey, the soles of my feet tearing against the rocks and stabbed by the fallen pine needles. Four steps further and I met a punishing blow from behind, the force knocking me to the ground. I fell awkwardly, my outstretched hands desperately seeking anything to break my fall.
There was nothing.
With a sickening thud, my head thumped against a rock or tree stump. My cheek burned, the debris having torn it up. Groaning, I tentatively touched the side of my head and winced against the pain. My fingers were coated in a sticky blood, the fresh night air stinging the open wound. I was light-headed and dizzy, the woods spinning around me.
Mason laughed.
I couldn’t see him, but he could see me.
He relished my vulnerable and now weakened state.
“Where…” I started, but the need to vomit stopped me. Boots crunched the earth, circling me. Everything was a blur, but that didn’t stop the need to escape. Dazed, I crawled on all fours, my knees and palms screaming in pain. Like a moth to a flame, I gravitated to the light, back on the dirt road.
Mason was still in earshot.
He was laughing, heckling as if he had bets on my survival. I was concussed, blood now dripping from my forehead and down my right arm.
Emerging from the woods, the stones on the road cut into my flesh. I stopped, disorientated and unable to find my surroundings. My eyes flittered, barely holding consciousness. The world continued to spin until I could no longer stand. I fell on all fours, waiting for my stomach to lurch. I glanced ahead, wishing for the sanctuary of my rental car.
A leg stepped over either side of me, boots crunching the gravel.
He was here.
This time, I couldn’t escape him. This time, I had to face whatever Mason Carter wanted to dish out on me. Even if that meant I wouldn’t make it out alive. Mason wrapped my long, loose hair around his hand and yanked my head back. I groaned against the pain, my scalp burning. His face loomed above, donned with a sinister smile.
“And here we are just over ten years later,” he said joyfully. “In the same position, except…” he considered our respective positions. Unsatisfied, his knee smashed mercilessly into my ribs leaving me sprawled on the ground, winded and gasping for air.
“Ahh,” he said, now pleased. “That’s more like it.” Mason lowered himself on top, pinning my hands above my head just like he had a decade ago at Little Wren. It was in that movement, I noticed the leather bands around his wrist. The same leather cuff B wears. My heart sank further than I ever knew possible.