Page 21 of The Executioners Three

Theo Porter wasn’t in the mood to watch his fellow students get drunk again. Yet here he was on the lakeshore, sitting on a piece of driftwood, freezing off his ass, and wishing he hadn’t come.

Every one of these people—Davis, Kelly, Mark, Tiana, and all the rest—had gotten arrested last week. Yet not a one of them seemed to care, because their rich parents could wipe their records clean with a bit of cash.

Theo didn’t have cash. In fact, the school was currently reviewing his scholarship, and any day now, he was going to find himself back in Chicago. Back in his dad’s crappy apartment with the weight of the mysterious favors his dad had called in to get Theo a full ride at Allard Fortin.

It would all have been for nothing.

And that was just one more crappy thing: if Theo moved back home, then it would be the final proof that he was a screwup. Ever since Mom had died, he and Dad had both been stuck on this one-way train to ever-expanding failure. This would be that final shred of proof.

Because no way in hell was Theo going to get a full ride to the Northwestern journalism program now—not with this arrest record to haunt him.

Madison joined Theo on the log. The wind off the lake pulled at her thick corkscrew curls.

Her skin, almost as dark as the sky overhead, gleamed beneath the moon.

She had the tolerance of someone twice her size, and the one bottle of grain alcohol that Garrett had brought was, apparently, not doing the trick.

She looked as pissed as Theo was about being here.

“Cigarette?” she offered, holding out a box of cloves.

“Sure.” Theo didn’t like smoking, but sometimes, you just needed something that killed you a little.

She lit it for him, and together, they sucked their lives away. It burned Theo’s throat. Clove-flavored death.

“Not drinking tonight?” Madison asked, eying the ruckus twenty feet away. Davis had insisted on a small bonfire, even though Theo had told him it was a mistake.

“No.” Smoke twined between his teeth as he spoke. “Not tonight.”

“Not feeling it?”

“No,” he said, even if that wasn’t true. He’d worked hard to cultivate an image. He was one of them; he belonged here; he too lived a life free from consequence.

Madison flicked ash onto the beach. “I heard you made out with that Berm High chick.” She grinned sideways. “Trying to break her heart?”

Theo didn’t answer that question. He just drew in another long drag and held it there. Smoke poisoning his lungs and shredding his tonsils.

The truth was, he had no idea what had happened between him and Freddie Gellar on that stage. And he had no idea what had happened between him and Freddie Gellar at the water mill either. He knew absolutely nothing about her, yet he’d barely thought of anything else for the past three hours.

Which wasn’t right. She was the enemy. She had gotten him arrested. She was the reason his entire future had dried up in a single night.

He was supposed to hate her for that. It made no sense to him that he didn’t.

Theo exhaled, a haze to hide the dark waves and darker sky. Beside him, Madison fell into silence. He appreciated that, and they reached the ends of their cigarettes without conversation.

“Give me your cig,” Madison said, after rubbing hers out in the cold sand.

“Why?” Theo snuffed his out. “What’re you going to do with it?”

“There’s a trash can by the cars.” She smiled slightly. “Don’t wanna litter and all that.”

“I’ll take it, then.” Theo plucked her cigarette from her hand and pushed to his feet. “I want a walk anyway.”

“Thanks,” she called after him. He didn’t respond. Tonight, words just weren’t worth the effort.

Theo aimed for the dark trail that led to a nearby abandoned logging road. Here, the park’s trees hugged close to the shore, and soon pines crossed over him.

He didn’t know how Davis had found this particular spot. He also didn’t know how Garrett had gotten the grain alcohol. Two months ago, when he’d still been new here, Theo would have panicked at that. He couldn’t stay on top if the popular kids found other sources for their booze. But now…

Now, none of it mattered.

Theo tromped over pine needles. The full moon leeched the woods of color and depth, but he had no trouble seeing the way. He wondered what Freddie was doing right now.

Theo reached the logging road and the cars, his own dented Silver Sweetheart (still running, but not worth fixing) and Tyson’s brand-new Wrangler. Beyond them, Theo found the trash can. It stank like death. Like someone had left a carcass in there to slowly decompose.

Except when he actually lifted the lid to drop in the butts, he found the metal canister was empty.

Cold snaked down Theo’s spine. He thought back to Wednesday night. To the baby raccoons and the figure he’d seen by the road.

There were noises in these woods now too. Hard to distinguish against the ceaseless wind, but there all the same. Rhythmic. Steady. Someone was walking this way.

A scream split the forest. Theo jerked toward the sound—it was so loud, so bloodcurdling and close. A woman’s vocal cords stretched to their ends. And deep, deep in the back of Theo’s brain, a single word unfurled: Come. So without thought, Theo went.

He strode into the forest, moving toward the scream. Moving toward the strange word that had fired from neurons at the base of his skull. It coiled around his muscles and commanded them.

His feet thrashed over unseen roots and saplings. His ankles rolled. Branches sliced at his cheeks, and the screams grew louder with each step. Until finally he ran into Felicia, sprinting through the pine trees toward him. At the sight of Theo, she screamed again.

“Body!” she shrieked. “There’s a body in the woods!”

“No head,” Tyson stammered, stumbling up behind her. His enormous eyes gawped at Theo. “He’s got no fucking head. ”

Of course not, said the voice in Theo’s mind. “Go,” Theo told the others. “Go back to the car.”

Felicia and Tyson needed no urging, and though the front of Theo’s brain told him he ought to chase after them, the back of Theo’s brain thought otherwise.

Those neurons would not let his body comply, and his feet just kept on carrying him into the trees.

Over more unseen roots and saplings, through more razor-sharp branches.

Until at last, Theo stumbled from the trees and into a moonlit clearing, where a massacre met his eyes. Blood everywhere, sprayed on tree trunks, splattered across the fallen leaves. And at the center: a rigid body leaning against a fallen pine.

A body without a head and a bloodied axe several feet away.

Just like that, Theo’s cool detachment fled. The impulse that had commanded him released, and the reality of what waited right there rammed in.

He staggered backward, unable to control his stomach. His vision blurred. He shouldn’t have come—why had he come? And now other people were running this way. He could hear them approaching. They shouldn’t see this. No one should see this.

“Stay where you are!” His voice cracked. He tried again, louder. As forceful as he could make it. “Don’t come this way! Go back to the cars.”

Then he saw Madison through the trees, and beside her was Davis—a hulking linebacker whose pale face glowed like the moon.

“Go back!” Theo shouted again, and this time he hurried toward them. “It’s not safe!” He reached Madison, who was asking, “What is it? What happened, Theo?”

Theo shook his head, pulling his phone from his pocket. He should have done this from the start. He never should have followed those screams.

“Nine-one-one. What’s your emergency?”

“There’s a body,” Theo said, and Madison clapped a hand to her mouth. “It’s by the lakeshore in the county park—”

Theo didn’t get to finish. Davis slammed into him, so hard Theo crashed to the ground. The phone went flying through the woods.

“What are you doing?” Davis roared. He climbed onto Theo, drunk and wild-eyed. “You can’t call the cops!”

“There’s a body in the woods!” Theo tried to shove off Davis, but Davis was twice his size. He just buried his knee in Theo’s chest.

“We’re out here drinking!” Davis shoved harder. “D’you wanna get us all arrested again?”

Of course Theo didn’t want to get arrested again. But there was a body in the woods. Before he could bellow this at Davis, red brake lights flooded the forest.

Which meant Tyson must be fleeing.

Theo used the moment—the brief surprise on Davis’s face—to swing. A hard hook to the jaw, then a bucking of his hips. Davis tipped sideways, enough for Theo to flip him onto his back.

“Call nine-one-one,” he told Madison in the brief moment he had before Davis swung. Before Davis’s fist connected with Theo’s nose, and suddenly Theo was punching back too.

He and Davis rolled. They writhed. They clawed and wailed and Theo lost all concept of how many hits he landed—or how many hits he took. It wasn’t until a shrieking Madison shoved between him and Davis, and then Garrett thundered in too, that Theo finally managed to break free.

He dragged himself away, limping and panting. Everything was on fire. His face, his ribs, and above all, his brain.

There was a body in the woods. A hundred yards behind them—a fucking body with no fucking head. And something still sparkled at the nape of Theo’s neck.

“The cops are coming.” Madison pitched her voice over Davis’s swears. “ I called them,” she added, “and we need to leave before they get here. But your car is the only one left, Theo. Are you good to drive?”

“Yeah,” he muttered, even though he wanted to leave Davis here. Even though he wanted to see that rich asshole get arrested all over again and deal with some fucking consequences for once in his life.

But Theo knew that would only make his own life hell, so after wiping blood off his face and knuckles, Theo shambled to his beat-up Civic and drove everyone—including Davis—back to campus.

Not directly, though, because he was terrified someone might notice them. Or worse, someone might follow.

Someone willing to use an axe on another person. Someone who maybe had seen that Theo and the others had been there.

Only when Theo knew there were no cars behind them, no cars ahead, no cars anywhere, did he drive everyone to Allard Fortin Preparatory School.

He didn’t sleep that night.