Page 28

Chance

I snuck out the back door so Ashe and Gloria wouldn’t see me leave with one last final glance back at my friends, both old and new, as I potentially walked right into my grave.

The shadows pooled in dark puddles when I entered the woods, pulsing with a freezing cold energy when I was forced to brush by them. And I meant it when I said forced. They followed me, pushing me in one particular direction. Or herding me, more like. I couldn’t tell if they were trying to push me towards the neighbouring property or away, but I did my best to ignore them and the shivering they caused.

It didn’t take long to make it to the other side of the woods, though I kept just inside the treeline to get a lay of the land before I went ahead and trespassed. It wouldn’t be worth it if it wasn’t Blake, because then I’d have lost my chance to find justice for Kali’s death.

The property was sprawling, with chunks of the lawn either missing or showing signs of new growth. Graves, perhaps? Fuck, was Kali buried back here somewhere? The thought made me physically ill, and I had to swallow down the bile as it rose up my throat. I couldn’t throw up here. The sounds of my retching would give me away before I could get the information I needed.

A small log cabin was perched in the centre. It looked cosy, like a romantic getaway spot or something. It was utterly innocent in its looks, with no signs of anything evil happening within its walls. In fact, the entire property was beautiful. The front lawn, or at least what I could see of it from my vantage point, was well manicured and functional, but there were no flowers or plants to give it a lived-in feel. It was plain and functional.

Behind the cabin, the trees were sparse at the edge of the land, leading towards a winding section of the Little Deschutes River as it ran through the property. The trickle of water was a deceptively soothing backdrop to what I feared was an incredibly macabre site. But nature didn’t care about death or grief. It didn’t care how gruesome the manner in which a person was killed. It just absorbed the death into itself and continued on like nothing had happened.

When there was no sign of life, no movement, for so long that I began to worry that no one was home. The only thing that kept me in place was the black SUV sitting out front. I suspected someone was inside, and I just couldn’t see them.

But any hope I had that my brother wasn’t responsible for his own wife’s death, that all signs didn’t point to him being a serial killer, was doused when he walked out of the cabin toward the SUV. Worse was when he opened the trunk. I couldn’t see from here, but when he closed the door and walked back into view, something large and long and very human-shaped was slung over his shoulder.

Jesus fuck. No. No, no, no. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it. But the evidence was right there in front of my eyes. Blake wasn’t fishing like his note had claimed. He was bringing a victim into a cabin he owned in secret.

I felt faint.

Oh, Kali…

Deep breaths, in through my nose and slowly out through my mouth, were the only thing that kept me from completely falling apart. My grief over losing Kali merged with the lies and betrayal of my own fucking brother being something so sick, so evil, and the anger rose, quick and sharp and burning . It seared through me like a wildfire, singing me from the inside out. I felt like smoke was seeping through my nose as my breath turned into heavy heaves.

I acted without thinking, all rationality gone as my emotions took over.

‘Blake!’ I bellowed, stepping out from the trees. My hands were shaking in tight fists at my sides as I stalked to where he was frozen still, like a deer caught in headlights.

‘Chance? What…?’

‘You killed her. You killed Kali, you sick bastard. How could you?’

‘What the fuck…?’

‘How many?’

‘Chance, stop.’

‘No! How many people have you killed, Blake? Are they all buried here?’

‘Shut up!’ he bellowed, shocking me into silence not with his words, but with the malignant sneer on his face. It was so unlike him, it just added to the surreality of the moment. Dumping the woman that was over his shoulder to the floor, he rounded on me, violence burning in his eyes in a way I had never seen on anyone before, living or dead.

‘You fucking nosy bastard. You couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you? You just had to dig, and dig, and fucking dig . You’re just like her, a self-righteous pig!’

I took a step back involuntarily, fear unlike anything I had ever known momentarily replacing my fury, but all it took was one flicker of my eyes to the motionless form, bound in ropes and zip-ties with blood seeping from the side of her head, and suddenly it wasn’t some random woman I had never met. Her blonde hair lightened a few shades until it was almost white. Her nose narrowed and tilted up at the end in that way that had almost made me want to kiss it. Her eyes opened to reveal icy blue orbs that stared at me with such betrayal, like I had let him do this to her.

It wasn’t a stranger on the floor, but Kali.

And the rage came back tenfold.

With a roar of pure despair, I launched myself at the man I no longer recognised, hands raised to wrap around his throat, but he dodged at the last second. I stumbled past, and he took the opportunity to kick out my knees, so I crumbled to the floor in a heap beside his latest victim. The impact knocked the rest of my anger from me, and I stayed where I was, no longer having the energy to fight my own brother, murderer or not. Tears sprang to my eyes, unbidden and unwelcome, but persistent, nonetheless.

But I was closer to the woman now, and the new perspective showed me something I hadn’t noticed before. Something I just knew would be his downfall. A police badge poked out from the top of her shirt, the bronze identifier on a cord around her neck as it glinted in the high noon sun.

He’d kidnapped a fucking cop.

As he loomed menacingly over me, I saw him in a completely new light. No, that was the wrong term. There was only darkness as he glared down at me, and I couldn’t help but wonder how I’d never seen it before. How much of it was a lie? What the brother I had loved all these years ever even existed, or was it just a carefully curated mask to hide the monster beneath?

Memories of our childhood flashed through my mind, of the kind young boy who had followed me around, copying everything I did because he’d looked up to me. Of the sweet adolescent that had charmed the girl I loved right out from under me, and I hadn’t even been mad about it because he was such a genuinely kind guy. Of the successful surgeon so eager to save lives.

‘Was any of it fucking real?’ I asked out loud, though I wasn’t sure if it was just to speak it into existence or to actually seek an answer.

‘You’re so fucking pathetic, Chance. You always have been. Your emotions have always gotten the best of you. But now you know too much. How?’

I smirked at his question, ready for his reaction. He had never truly believed in the paranormal. His interest was in the morbid side of things, like the history of how people died. Fuck, I should have known. I should have seen it. How hadn’t I?

‘Kali.’

‘Kali’s dead. I killed her, Chance. She’s buried right over there,’ he pointed, mocking me with his words. I inhaled sharply at the admission, my emotions warring inside me so painfully that my brain shut it all down to escape the torment.

‘I know she’s dead,’ I said numbly, but then a trickle of smugness pushed through, and I laughed. It was weak, sad, and utterly painful, but it irked him further, so I took it as a win. ‘She’s been sending messages. Little things here and there. The note you wrote to Dakota? She scratched out your name right in front of her.’

His nostrils flared as he processed what I was saying, a wildness in his eyes that wasn’t there before. No matter how hard he tried to hide it, he was unravelling, wasn’t he?

‘How much does she know?’

I hesitated, suddenly realising how much I’d fucked up. He was going to hurt her, too, I could see it in his eyes. I’d just endangered everyone I was close to.

Fuck.

But she didn’t know anything, did she? Maybe I could salvage this and save her. ‘She doesn’t know anything, Blake. She thinks Kali’s upset because you remarried.’

‘She’s seen her?’

I kept silent. He didn’t deserve an explanation. He deserved to burn in hell for all eternity for what he’d done.

‘Fine. Keep your silence. It won’t matter, anyway.’

The last thing I saw before he brought his boot down on my face was the crazed look in his eyes that gleamed with violent delight.

∞∞∞

‘Wakey, wakey, big brother,’ a familiar yet unfamiliar voice dragged me from my sleep, and I roused, confusion making my head swim.

Or perhaps that was the headache pounding through my skull. Jesus, how much had I had to drink last night?

An odd, sharp sensation dragged across my skin, and I groaned as I tried to move away, but I couldn’t move. I tried to lift my hand up to swat at whatever it was, but it was like I was bound or something as my movement was blocked. Something cool and hard tugged on my wrist, scraping over it uncomfortably.

‘That’s it, Chance. Wake the fuck up.’

Blake? It sounded like him, but not at the same time. Like someone had possessed him and was speaking with his voice, but it was so clearly not my brother.

My eyes cracked open, but they didn’t open very far. It was enough to get a blurry vision of my little brother standing before me, a knife glinting in his hand.

A knife…?

I realised then that my eyes wouldn’t open because they were swollen shut, and with a great effort, I was able to shift my head down to look at my wrists. They were cuffed and connected to a chain that was drilled into the wall.

The memories slammed into me like I was being buried beneath a rockslide. Boulder upon boulder of crushing weight dragged me down until I felt like I was going to sink right through to the centre of the earth to burn in the fiery pits of hell.

Blake killed Kali.

And not just her.

Blonde hair and a police badge flashed through my mind, reminding me of what I’d stumbled upon in my search for the truth. Was the cop here, too? Was she even still alive?

‘Eyes on me, big brother,’ Blake ordered, and a feminine whimper drifted over to me from the other side of the room. I guessed that answered on question. The cop was alive, but not for much longer. Would she be forced to watch me die before he killed her, too? Or the other way around?

I couldn’t decide which option I hated more.

I obeyed him, not because he held any sort of power over me, I had already accepted I was going to die, but because I didn’t want him to turn his ire on the woman if I didn’t give him what he wanted.

There wasn’t anything he could take from me anymore. I had said my goodbyes, though I would regret not giving Ashe one more hug. I couldn’t have let her in on my plans, however, or else she would have done everything in her power to stop me, and I didn’t want that. It would have hurt more in the long run because it wouldn’t have changed anything. At least this way, she couldn’t blame herself for my actions.

‘Ah, there he is. Welcome back, big brother. You’re in for quite the show,’ he grinned, but there was no humour in it. Only malice.

‘Just get it over with,’ I told him, turning my head so I wouldn’t have to look at him.

‘What’s this? Giving up already? You’re more pathetic than I thought.’

‘I was already planning on dying, Blake. It makes no difference to me if it’s by my hand or yours,’ I admitted, and he was silent for so long that I wondered if he was even still there. My head lolled when I rolled it back to face him to check, but there he was, glaring at me with a… was he pouting?

‘Such a pity. It’s no fun when they don’t fight back. The least you could do is pretend to be scared.’

I tried to shrug my shoulders, but I didn’t think I was very successful, so I settled for staring at him with a deadpan expression.

He pursed his lips in annoyance, and heaved a sigh like I was the most frustratingly disappointing thing he had ever come across. Good. I wasn’t going to make my death fun for the sick fuck.

‘Why do you want to die so bad, anyway, Chance? Got nothing left to live for or something?’ he taunted with a slimy little smirk, but he wasn’t going to get a rise out of me.

‘Precisely.’

My easy agreement seemed to throw him a little, but he tried again. ‘It was easy, you know. Taking her from you. I could see the way you looked at each other, and I just knew, you know? She was the one. I got to hurt you and keep her for myself, and then I got to watch you pine for her like the fucking lovesick idiot you are. It was so much fun, flaunting it in front of you. I actually missed her after she was gone. I couldn’t play anymore.’

Nope. Don’t react, Chance. Don’t give him what he wants.

‘Ugh, why are you so boring? I should have fucking guessed you’d be no fun,’ he whined, and then brought the knife down into my stomach in a single swing. I didn’t feel the pain at first, but then the blood gurgled from my lips, and I struggled to breathe, and then it hurt. It started off slow, like a pinprick on my skin, but then it spread, the sting of rendered flesh mixing with the throbbing ache of a deep wound, and I wanted to cry. Not because I’d been stabbed, but because it wasn’t a killing blow.

He was going to drag this out, wasn’t he?

‘The last girl was much more fun,’ he kept talking, his tone conversational like he hadn’t just started gutting me. And I quickly realised that was exactly what he was doing. The knife carved the hole even wider, opening up my body for him to do with as he pleased. His eyes lit up with excitement when he examined my insides, like my organs were a toy for him to play with.

‘She screamed and she fought. It was much more exciting than this. I wonder if I can make you scream as loud as her.’

His hand replaced the knife, wriggled around inside my abdomen, and squeezed on something that I could only guess were my intestines.

I released a weak whimper, more than ready for this to end, and all it did was make him scowl and pout even harder. He removed his hand, examined the bloody mess, then licked a line through it. I heard a gagging sound from the cop I’d forgotten was there, and felt sorry for her. She had to watch before she had to endure this torture herself. It must have been torture in and of itself.

But I couldn’t let myself care about her. There was nothing I could do. No one was coming to save us, and I didn’t want to be saved.

‘Just… do… it,’ I wheezed.

He huffed like I was annoying him, and I supposed it was. But when he brought the knife to my throat and slid it through my neck, I smiled. I didn’t feel the pain. It was like my mind was guarding me from it in my last moments, and I was happy with this result.

Not my brother murdering me, that part sucked, but the release of the burdens this life had held. I had suffered for far too long, and I was finally going to see the woman I loved again.

I’m coming, Kali. I’ll see you soon.

To be continued...