Page 27 of Marked By Shadows
“Unlikely,” Jonah said. “Byrony’s attitude would have made a kidnapper return her by now. Or kill her.”
“Not funny,” Melissa snapped.
“They could be taken like Micah was taken,” Nicole said in a quiet voice, her gaze falling on me.
An edge of tension and silence fell over the table. I could almost hear Alex’s heartbeat in my ears, his anxiety rising like a cloud of emotion to cover us both. They all knew of my incident, having met them all long before it happened, but I didn’t think any of them had actually been involved. None had helped in the search, not even Freya who lived the closest. I didn’t blame any of them for that. Though the dynamics of our group had changed a little since then. Their hesitation to reconnect with me afterward had been clear, taking each of them several days and sometimes weeks to respond when I reached out. It was a normal response. Human even. The fear of loss and pain keeping them from compassion. I didn’t blame them. Or at least I tried not to.
“This land isn’t part of the state park,” I reminded them all. There were a handful of similarities of those who went missing like I had. And a few that even I hadn’t fit, since I’d survived, and some still questioned if I should have been grouped with the rest at all. “They are probably lost. It’s a big forest area, and the cell reception out here is questionable. Technically if they walk in a particular direction long enough, they will end up in the state park.” Though that was a couple miles of a zigzag type trek.
I pushed my plate aside, not hungry anyway as fear gnawed at my gut. The sun had already mostly set, leaving that final edge of purple-blue sky with a tiny hint of starlight until the moon completely rose. When I got up out of the chair Alex grabbed my arm.
“No,” he said.
“I have flashlights in the car. Flares. Walkie talkies. Even a survival pack with first aid gear and thermal blankets.” I felt heat flush over my face in embarrassment. “Your brother insisted I take them.”
Alex did not look happy, but began to get up from his chair.
“No. You stay and eat. I’ll go with Melissa to look.”
“Not a chance in hell,” Alex said. He pushed his plate aside. “I’ll go help look. You stay here.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. His protective side, while cute for stories, annoyed the fuck out of me. The idea of going into the woods at night scared the crap out of me, but I would not be left behind like some damsel in distress while Alex put himself in danger. “If you go, I go,” I told him.
“We all go,” Chad said, getting up from his chair too.
“Girl, I know you didn’t volunteer us all to tromp around the woods in the dark,” Jonah said.
“I’ll help!” Nicole said.
“Me too,” Added Julie.
“If we all look, we can cover more ground. Find them faster,” Chad said rationally.
Jonah sighed. “Fuck. Not a single one of us is the outdoorsy type.” He pointed to himself. “Nerd.” He fluttered his hands around the room. “We are in a group of nerds. It’s required for cosplay.”
“I’m a nerd,” Alex agreed. “But also, an ex-Army Ranger. Which is why I should go. Everyone else can stay here. I just need Melissa to tell me where she last saw them.”
How many times had he told me in the past few days not to go into the woods without him? And he thought I’d let him go racing into the woods alone? I crossed my arms across my chest and met Alex’s eyes with mine.
“Fuck,” he sighed.
And that was how we found ourselves in the woods after dark.
Chapter 10
The trail itself was a wide swath of path that curved and swung around in a broad arch. Even with only the handful of flashlights illuminating the woods I could tell it was something people in the area used regularly for hikes, perhaps runs, or even peaceful walks.
All in all, the woods felt like normal woods. The trees large, but not that epic stretch that could be found in some of the national forests. Distantly the sound of cars echoed, mostly blocked by the trees, but occasionally finding its way through the darkness. The path from the house extended a couple dozen meters before turning into something that might originally have been a game trail reclaimed and widened by humans.
I had expected the area Melissa talked about leaving the path to be a sort of dead end. We walked over a kilometer from the house, fifteen or twenty minutes thereabouts, before finding the sharp turn that cut off the trail. It wasn’t a dead end, so much as a tiny dirt line snaking off the path and into heavy brush. Alex gripped my hand hard enough to hurt, but I didn’t pull away. We both had lights. Everyone had a torch or flashlight of some kind. The group was broken into pairs, a walkie talkie for each, plus our cell phones. Alex was not taking any chances.
“I don’t feel anything,” I whispered to Alex. No bugs or fire on my skin, only a slight chill from the evening breeze. “Do you see anything?”
He shook his head. “Stay close to me.”
“Byrony?” Chad shouted. We’d been taking turns calling for them every few feet. “Joe?” We would stop and listen. It became a sort of stuttering dance of movement and stillness. Nothing but birds and bugs responded. I heard a squirrel a few times, watched them scamper away in a dark race of fluffy tails. Normal forest noise. The kind of silence that was easy to tune out.
“Is there another house nearby?” Alex asked Freya. “A neighbor you can call to see if they might have heard someone out here?”