It was past midnight. I had been in bed for a few hours now as I watched the clouds pass over the trees. Though I was beyond tired, my excitement about tomorrow kept me up.

We had spent the weekend down in the great room after the glass was cleaned watching silly movies and eating until we were stuffed. It was a lot of fun, though Frank was on high alert more than usual. Ray and I had escorts everywhere we went which left us no opportunity to try and see if sex would be a success a second time around.

The door was to be fixed tomorrow so Anita convinced Frank to let us go to school so we wouldn’t be in the way. Frank only agreed because he didn’t want us alone upstairs all day.

That was fine by me.

I was finally going to know why this had happened. Why Matty and Samuel were killed. I needed to make sense of this, and I hoped I would find something in the Killer’s lair.

I rolled over to try and get my mind to shut off. Maybe then I could try and get some sleep before the sun peeked back over the forest.

Nothing.

Fuck.

Then the smell of the creature wafted from over the foot of the bed and I knew I was in for a long night.

Last night had been the worst by far. I’d gone to bed early because I was tired from my low-key party with the Vena’s and it’d fed long enough to gain two teeth. My ear had been in pain all day today from its violent feeding.

It said something about ‘making up for lost time’, and I knew it was pissed I’d had Ray’s company the night before.

Tonight, I prayed it would be quick. I needed all the rest I could get for tomorrow.

It stepped out of the shadow in the corner of the room and wobbled its way over to me. Four of the six teeth matched perfectly with the killer’s drawing. The scars were in the correct places, too. It made me wonder how he knew my monster better than I did.

If the killer had one of these things, maybe the creatures found each other somehow? Like some sort of creepy ass meet-up in the woods.

I shuddered at the thought of a group of these things together, bobbing their bulbous heads as they mind-spoke about how to torture their human counterparts.

I laid there as it neared. I hoped it would be quick so I could cry myself to sleep and be up and ready for tomorrow.

Don’t go.

Why not?

Cannot protect.

Like you protect me anyway.

Slowed them down in woods. Would have caught you.

Right. Whatever.

Other me is stronger. Cannot fight it long.

‘Other you’. Okay, you mean the one with more teeth.

Had years, decades to feed. Makes it stronger.

They’re at the school, aren’t they?

Not telling.

That’s a ‘yes’ in my book.

Don’t go.

I don’t have to listen to you.

It was right up in my face at this point, its rancid breath blasted me as its mouth erratically opened and closed as it chomped on the air between us. It tried to scare me into going along with its wants, but that wasn’t going to happen. My mind was set. The only wild card was Kerrie at this point as far as I was concerned.

The thing that bothered me most about this encounter was that I was more terrified of the man in the woods than I was about the eyeless creature before me. Right now, I was just annoyed. Knowing it needed me, knowing I kept it alive seemed to neuter any fear I had for the creature.

Just get it over with. I’m tired.

As you wish.

“Wake up, my loves! School today!” Anita sang from the hall.

I groaned and rolled over. It was six-thirty in the morning if the clock was to be believed, and I wasn’t prepared.

School wasn’t in the cards for us today. We were going to get dropped off, then split and head to where I was sure the killer was hidden. Ray already had Betty in his backpack hidden between binders to keep her from being obvious, and Kerrie was still unsure about the entire thing.

Her bid to go to the Sheriff with my idea fell on deaf ears. There was no way I was letting her ruin, or worse—spill my plan and then have her do nothing with it. I had no proof—just a hunch and a strand of netting.

I scrambled out of bed to get my clothes on. The smell of breakfast was faint—but it was there. Frank decided last night he was going to make biscuits and gravy for our first day back. Something about ‘brain food’. Either way the smell of the gravy made my stomach growl.

I shut my door and grabbed some jeans and my white tank top from the other day. Something about today made me want to show off a bit. I still brought a flannel to wear over it, but I like the idea of form fitting clothes now that I felt less ashamed of my attributes.

After I ran my fingers through my hair, I caught Ray in the bathroom as he brushed his teeth. He smiled at me with a mouth full of foam.

“Morning, babe,” I nudged him with my hip and grabbed my own tooth brush.

“Morning,” his answer was obscured by his mouth of suds. He spit into the sink and washed out his mouth. “Ready for today?”

“Yes and no,” I answered.

“Same here. I got my part ready,” he rubbed the small of my back and left after he said he’d see me downstairs.

My phone buzzed in my pocket as I scrubbed. I took out the navy blue brick and checked the screen:

New Message from: Kerrie

I hate this. But fine. Can’t let you do this alone. See you at school.

Yes.

I felt better now that I knew Kerrie was in, though I was pretty sure her decision was made as she pictured herself alone all day at school.

I washed out my mouth and went downstairs. I could hear Frank, Anita and Ray as they laughed in the kitchen. It was my favorite sound to hear—and as much as I loved being a guest here, the fact that this wasn’t permanent tore at my heart a bit.

“Sophia! Finally,” Frank grinned from the stove top and passed me a steaming plate of biscuits and gravy.

“Hey, it takes effort to look this disheveled,” I responded and moved past him to the table where Ray and Anita sat, already halfway through their plates.

“Well, you do a fine job.” I sat and shook my head. It was great to see Frank in a good mood after the brick and door incident. I felt bad I was going to ruin it by taking Ray off to almost certain danger.

“She looks great, doesn’t she, Ray?” Anita gestured to my shirt with her fork. “She’s wearing actual clothes and not cotton sacks.”

“Say the woman who lives in maxi-dresses and full skirts,” I snorted.

Anita laughed and shrugged. She knew I wasn’t wrong in my summation of her attire.

“I like to be comfortable.”

“Me, too.” I took a large bite of my breakfast and melted back into the chair. It was just as delicious as it smelled, and I was grateful Frank loved to cook in the mornings. This would keep me going for a good chunk of the day.

“So, you kids are picking up homework today, right?” Anita looked between the two of us and Ray froze. He hated lying to his mom, and I knew it was at full speed as he tried to figure out how to avoid it.

“If it’s ready. We haven’t told anyone we’d be back today,” I supplied after I swallowed. “Sometimes teachers can be kind of scatter brained, you know?”

“Dealing with you apes, its no wonder,” Frank griped. “High School kids can be the worst.”

“Hey!” Ray glared.

“What? I was one…once,” Frank shrugged and cut into his own plate, making the food into chunks to consume it faster.

“Hey, Frank, if you find your stone tablets, can I borrow some notes on chemistry?” I smiled.

“Fuck off.”

“You’re right, it’s about that time,” Anita’s gaze was on the clock over the stove.

“Fuck; I just sat down,” Frank grumbled and began to inhale his food at an inhuman pace. It was a miraculous and horrifying thing to see.

“You kiss that?” Ray sounded astonished as we got up from out seats to go get shoes and backpacks.

“Every day,” Anita’s dreamy voice followed us out into the great room and down the hall.

“Your parents are disgustingly cute,” I grinned and used a hand to brace myself as I stepped into my boots.

“Get used to it. That’ll be us one day,” came Ray’s off-handed reply.

My eyes widened. It wasn’t a proposal, and maybe he wasn’t serious seeing as how the entire tone for the morning had been light, but his comment sent butterflies through my stomach. His parents were what I saw as relationship goals, and Ray knew it, so I couldn’t help but feel what he said was a bit more pointed than it sounded.

“That’s us, now.”

“Fair enough,” he grinned. “But I’ll be all jacked from the Marines, and we’ll have all the kids.” His tone got husky as he spoke and I felt his presence loom behind me as I struggled with my second boot.

Ray’s strong arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me back into his body. His other hand moved my hair aside to plant a kiss on my neck.

“Babe—stop, Frank’s gunna see!”

“Too late!” We both jumped and turned to see Frank with his eyes covered by a hand. “That’s it, you’ve blinded me.”

“Oh, come off it,” Ray grumbled.

“You know I’m kidding.”

“So! School?” I grabbed my backpack, double checked that my phone was in my pocked and opened the door. I didn’t want this conversation to continue any longer than it already had.

I started to feel nervous about what we were about to do as we sped down the main drive for the school. Kerrie was right. This was a bad idea, but this was the only plan we had. I was tired of the blood, and loss.

The Sheriff had failed Matty before he died, and I wasn’t over that. I didn’t trust her or her mob of goons to listen if I told them my suspicion. They’d just watch us closer, keep us from going to the old school, and then any one of us could be next.

No. This had to be done my way.

The truck slowed, and I caught sight of Kerrie as she waited at the top of one of the sloped sidewalks to the school. Ray hopped out so I could open my door.

“Remember—we’re picking you up today,” Frank called out.

“Yes, sir,” I stepped out onto the asphalt and looked around. It was a repeat of last week. The stares, the whispers.

Ray took my hand and lead me up to Kerrie who looked me over and smirked before she waved to Frank.

“So, lovebirds, we still going to be stupid today?” Kerrie folded her arms, immediately unamused.

I looked to Ray’s backpack with Bettie packed within and nodded back to her. Ray backed me up with a confirmation head-bob.

“Out the back we go, then,” I took a deep breath and stepped to the breezeway to the fields behind the school. There were several paths that lead through the neighborhoods on either side of the property so the students that lived nearby had a shorter walk and could avoid the highway.

The school was short staffed enough that the only real deterrent for skipping was a phone call home, so I didn’t foresee an issue if we were back for Frank to pick us up.

Kerrie grumbled the entire way, arms still folded as we squeezed through throngs of students and out to the fields. Ray just had this unsure smile on his face, like he wanted to be supportive of my idea but was focused on all the errors and holes in my plan.

We made it to the small path that connected to the neighborhood next to the school in no time. It was close to the bell, so there were minimal people for us to pass and look at us strangely as we left the institution.

The forested part of the path came up on us. the large maple trees on either side darkened the path, and caused a swell of panic to rise in my chest. I hadn’t been in the woods since Samuel’s death. Even though my plan deemed it necessary, I wasn’t totally ready for the woods.

I let out a long breath as the fence for the neighborhood came into sight. I hadn’t smelled the monsters, or heard anything in the woods, but I still felt relief to be somewhat back into civilization.

“Oh man, Dad’s going to kill me,” Ray mumbled as we stepped onto the paved sidewalk.

“Better him than, you know, the killer,” Kerrie hitched her bag higher onto her shoulders.

“Guys, we’ll be fine. We’ll wait and see if there’s anyone around—if not, we’ll look and gather evidence if there is any. If he’s there—we call the Sheriff. Simple as that.”

“Man did I never think I would hope to see that guy again,” Kerrie sighed.

“We’ll be fine.”

“We better be,” she looked down at me with a frown.

It took us an hour and a half to get to the old path to the burned-out high school since we had to avoid the main thoroughfare as much as possible. Along the way things had lightened up somewhat and I even got Kerrie to laugh and joke a bit.

That all changed when we were back on that cursed patch of land. All of us quieted down. It seemed wrong to joke where two of our friends had died.

We stepped through the woods as silently as we could. Ray and I no longer held hands, so we could move bushes out of the way of the other two as we changed who was in front constantly.

As soon as one of us got overwhelmed with potentially being the first to encounter an otherworldly being, or the killer, we would trade.

Betty made her appearance from Ray’s backpack as soon as we had made it across the highway and into the woods. She gleamed in the small beams of light that made it through the forest canopy. Though Ray was silent and serious, I did catch a small smile or two whenever he would bring Betty up to check her out.

I was in front when we made it to the fence around the parking lot of the old school. This would be the scariest part—there was a lot of open area between us and the trees that would shield us from view. The entire school and the shed we were on the hunt for was inside the fence. Our only option was the parking lot.

“At a run?” Ray asked as he peered across the slab of broken asphalt to the trees at the back of the school.

“No, let’s take a leisurely stroll,” Kerrie stuck her head over his shoulder to see what he saw. “Of course, we run.”

“Don’t be a bitch about it, I was just making sure,” he nudged her off with his shoulder and turned to me.

“Last chance to back out.”

“We need to do this. We need to know what’s going on.”

“’We?’” Kerrie balked.

“Don’t you want to know why Samuel died?” I asked.

Kerrie shut her mouth and looked at the dirt.

“Fine,” Ray let out a deep breath and we all slipped sideways through the opening in the fence.

“Let’s do this,” I put my hands on the straps of my bag to keep them from sliding down as we took off and ran across the lot. I could hear the soft soles of my boots as they slapped against the black top, and two nearly identical sets of harder shoes as Ray and Kerrie followed behind me.

The school came up fast, and my memory of our night in the walk-in flashed through my mind. I never want to go back in there, or in that kitchen if I could help it. though, last resort, we still had a good hide out if it came down to it.

Ray and Kerrie with their longer legs both passed me right as we were about ten yards from the trees we were headed for. I kept my eye along the side of the school and hoped to not see eyes among the trees. Thankfully I made it to the fenced off portion of the woods without seeing anything and hopped my way through the opening in the bushes that was made by Ray and Kerrie.

“Hard part done,” I whispered and got a thumbs up from Ray and a roll of the eyes from Kerrie. I moved between them to the West where the old fields were. I knew it was behind the soccer field, and that was one of the first fields we would come across.

There was a noticeable lack of normal forest sounds as we went, like we were the only living beings within ear sot. That both creeped me out and calmed me. If nothing else moved, that meant he wasn’t nearby.

Or he was sleeping.

Either way was fine with me, it just changed how the rest of the afternoon went.

The soccer field was overgrown and full of wild grass and weeds, but it was easier to move through thanks to Betty’s sharp blade. Ray seemed to have fun as he cut us a path through the center of the pitch.

Kerrie looked increasingly agitated the closer we got to the shed. Her brows were knit together in the center, and the corners of her full lips were turned down. She picked at her cuticles the entire way across the field and I wondered if I should let her continue, or if I should emulate Birdie and try to stop her.

The small path off the far side of the soccer field was cleared out. the dark upturned earth showed it was used recently. I got excited when I saw the prints seemed to be moving away rather than in our direction.

“Hurry,” I quickened my pace to a brisk walk and hitched up my bag as we moved closer to the laundry shed. As I neared, I began to see more detail than just the wooden slats that made up the outside of the building.

The door was a faded and chipped blue, and the trip had little to no remnants of the gold paint that had been their last time we visited. The windows on either side of the door were cracked, but not broken. They were dark.

Hopefully no one’s home.

I stepped on some vegetation as I went to the left window and cupped my hands around my eyes. I pressed my face to the glass. It was as I remembered—a long row of now defunct washers and dryers in the back along with a secondary door, bags of old sporting equipment strewn about and something new:

Behind one of the bags of balls, I could see the corner of a blanket. It was old and looked to have holes in the duvet cover. I couldn’t think of a reason why a comforter would be in here unless the killer had gotten a hold of it while he looked for a way to make his lair more comfortable.

“I see a blanket. This is where he sleeps.”

“Are you sure? Maybe it’s just something left over from the fire?” Kerrie sounded hopeful.

“No, but this has to be where he’s hiding. I don’t see anyone so we’ll be fine. Just be quiet.”

“Get in, get evidence, get out,” Ray added.

“Right,” Kerrie muttered and repeated Ray’s statement like a mantra, like she didn’t want to forget it.

“Let’s do this,” I swallowed and crept to the door and turned the rusty knob. It creaked loudly and blew whatever cover we might have had, but I still didn’t smell anything or see any movement from the shed.

“He’s not here,” I said after I had held my breath and counted to ten to give the killer time to make a move.

Nothing.

We entered and fanned out. Kerrie went to the back, I went to the blanket, and Ray stayed near the door to check through various bags and piles of stuff there.

“Don’t forget to check in,” Ray whispered loudly. Kerrie shot him a thumbs up in return and I did the same.

The shed was a mess of grungy fast food wrappers, containers from takeout, and other things that looked like they’d been found in the garbage.

As I neared the comforter, I saw it was set up over some old gym mats. The killer had made himself a little nest in the middle of the trash heap.

The blanket was turned down at the top as if it were on a real bed and laid out smooth. The corners were boxed as best they could atop the pile of mats, and there were a couple old laundry bags at the head of the bed for pillows.

Surround the bed were piles of recreational ball bags set up to nestle around three sides of the mats. On top of those, and wedged within the crevices were sheets of old paper with scrawling on them:

It’s here. Always here.

Why does it want me to kill?

It says if I do it will leave.

I don’t want to do this.

It never stops talking.

I need quiet.

Among what looked to be broken bits of terrifying poetry were quick sketches of the monster I had come to know so well—this one, however, in every picture had a wide-open mouth and rows of teeth going back into its throat.

My eyes widened as I kept looking through papers. Some of them were more journal like pages. More coherent. They detailed the murders of Alys, Matty and Samuel.

I winced as I read through what he’d done and how it was all in search to stop the constant voice in his mind.

At that moment I felt lucky. My monster, though it sapped my energy with nightly feedings seemed to stay quiet most of the time.

Why was mine so quiet and his so loud?

Was it how long he had his monster around? Do they become louder as time goes on?

I feared my monster would one day put me in the same place as this man. Alone and on the run, constantly searching for silence by way of a knife.

I learned a lot about the killer—how he had killed his sister when he was a teen because his monster promised him a normal life. How he went to a psychiatric facility for the second time in his life because he was insistent that his monster was real.

Was this a look into my future? Mine asked me to kill, but it backed down and just fed off me when I said no. Maybe it agreed that I didn’t have it in me to kill. But by the more coherent pieces of journaling I found, had the rest been absent, I would have think the same for the killer.

I was still looking through his things ten minutes later. We had checked in every two minutes. Each time, Ray would whisper loudly to ask for us and we’d say ‘here’ as a response like it was a morbid roll call.

Occasionally Kerrie would make a noise in the back as she looked through the debris scattered about. I was guilty of rustling papers, but Ray was the only silent one. Whenever I would look his direction, he was always slow and deliberate in his movements.

The only thing we couldn’t control was the broken latch on the back door by Kerrie. The wind that whipped through the forest made it open and slam shut every now and again.

There wasn’t much in the way outside the shed either. there weren’t any normal forest sounds—it was like someone hit the mute button on the world. No birds or murderous squirrels.

That’s what made it so hard that we didn’t hear anything. Everything was in our favor. We’d ticked all the boxes, but still, somehow, he got in.

“You invaded my home,” a foreign voice said from Ray’s direction.

I whirled and stood, crumpled papers still in my hands as I saw the killer. He was still in the same clothing from the video with a hunting knife, that rivaled Betty, to Ray’s neck.

The blade rested right above his Adam’s apple and every time Ray breathed too deep, I could see the edge press further into his skin.

“Oh shit,” Kerrie breathed from behind me. the wind had picked up and I heard the door creak open and bang against the back of the shed.

The squeak of sneaker on concrete floated to my ears, and the killer’s eyes widened as his mouth formed a near perfect ‘O’.

His knife arm whipped back as he lunged after Kerrie out the front door of the shed. I watched as Ray wobbled, a thick red line across his neck and then dropped to his knees.

“Ray!” I screamed and dropped everything I had for evidence in my possession and ran to his side. the line was now generously oozing and there was a gurgle whenever he took a shuddering breath.

Ray’s hands circled his neck to put pressure there, as he looked at me wide eyed. The blood came thick and fast through his fingers and down his front.

The only thing I could think to do other than call the cops was rip off my flannel and press it to the wound over his hands, all the while I begged for him to let go for just a second so the fabric could do its job.

“Baby, please I need to call the cops and I can’t do both,” I pleaded. I ended up having to forcibly remove his hands from his neck and re-place them on top of the flannel.

My hands now covered in Ray’s blood were nearly too slick to keep ahold of my phone due to the curves of it. it took precious seconds for me to turn the screen on and dial the number for the Sheriff.

I got up and stepped around Ray to the front door of the shed and shut it. there was no lock so as I waited for Linda, or someone at the office to pick up, I tried to drag the bench next to the door in front to keep it closed.

“Hello? Green Glen Sheriff’s Depart—”

“Hello? Hello! This is Sophia McLellan. I need the Sheriff and an ambulance, now. Ray Vena is hurt!”

The bench’s metal legs screeched against the concrete floor as I drug it one handed the few inches that would make all the difference for Ray and I’s survival.

“What? Sophia—”

“We’re at the sport’s shed for the old high school—send them, now! The killer might have Kerrie Jeffers—”

“Sophia, I need you to calm down—” Linda was trying to be her usual calm self, like how she had been when the killer had broken Ray’s Arcadia door, but I could hear an edge of panic in her voice and the sound of her furiously scribbling something.

“Calm down? No—the fucking guy slit Ray’s throat! He’s dying—get someone out here, now!” I yelled into the brick phone as I zoomed past Ray to the back door that was still open and stuck to the side of the building due to the wind.

How the hell was I going to keep that closed?

Betty.

She wasn’t going to help with the door, but I would find it in me, and dig deep to kill to keep Ray and I alive. I turned on a dime and went back to where Betty was discarded on the floor and stooped to grab her. I gripped her tight in my off hand before I headed to the center of the room and began to pace. If the killer was going to come back to finish the job, he’d have to get through me.

“He—he did what?”

“Slit his fucking throat, now are they coming or not?”

“Is Ray breathing?”

I turned to look at Ray who had started to slump. The blood from the gash had turned my flannel a dark crimson and I could see he was fading from how much he’d lost.

“Yes, but he’s not doing well—just please, I could only block one door, I don’t know where he and Kerrie went—”

“You say Kerrie isn’t with you?”

“No! She ran and he chased her, I have no idea.” My chin began to tremble. My walls were breaking down. I wasn’t cool under pressure like Kerrie usually was. I couldn’t recount this without feeling overwhelming guilt.

If I’d just listened to Kerrie, Ray would be in Math right now.

“Sophia? The boys are on their way—just stay put and we’ll be with you, soon.”

“Please hurry! I don’t know when he’s coming back,” I sniveled.

“They’re coming as fast as they can. Just stay with me, keep checking in,” Linda soothed.

My feet kicked up the papers I’d dropped as I paced between the wall of the shed and the killer’s bed. I pulled the phone from my ear and listened hard for any sound. Nothing. It was just as quiet as it had been before the killer had shown up.

Not like the quiet meant safety anymore.

That’s when I heard the most glorious sound. Sirens. A pack of them. Help was on the way, and relief washed over me. Maybe there was a chance that Ray would make it out alive.

I hoped that since I could hear the sirens clear as day that the killer could and would abandon his hunt for Kerrie—if he hadn’t already caught her. it would be stupid for him to come back here knowing he’d been found, but I didn’t put too much stock in someone so far gone.

“You still with me, Sophia?” Linda asked.

“Yeah, I—”

The gurgling wheeze from Ray was becoming louder from behind me. I didn’t know exactly how much damage was done, but it was enough to get blood into his airway from the sound of it.

I backed up, not daring to look away from the wide-open back door until I felt Ray’s presence behind me.

“Ray—one tap on my leg for ‘yes’, two for ‘no’, okay?”

Tap.

“Can you breathe?”

Tap.

“Are you still putting pressure?”

Tap.

“Can you speak?”

Tap. Tap.

“Ray’s voice is gone,” I murmured. “They’re sending an ambulance, right?” I asked Linda.

My eyes watered. What if he couldn’t speak to me again. what if my stupid fucking plan had taken his voice from him. He wouldn’t be able to go into the Marines—I would have robbed him of his dreams.

“Yes, there’s one on the way,” Linda was even and calm. How she could do that was beyond me.

There was a loud bang, from the door in the back, and the sirens screamed in my ear. It made me jump and nearly step back onto Ray.

“Sorry,” I cried and moved forward, away from him, so I wouldn’t hut him anymore than I already had. I’d done enough. He was on his knees bleeding because of me, and Kerrie—who knew what happened to her?

The sirens reached a fever pitch as they rolled onto the field outside through the tall grass. The cruisers flattened the blades as they fanned out. Deputies hopped out from various cars, a few moved into the woods and several in my direction.

Thank Christ.

“Linda, they’re here.”

“Hang up, hon, they got you.”

I did as told, and put my bloody phone in my pocket.

“Betty,” Ray sputtered. I turned and watched him wipe blood from his lips.

Fuck.

I still had his favorite possession in my hand. She’d get taken for sure if I didn’t do something. I had to do this for him.

My bag was closest. I grabbed it and ripped the zipper open to jam Betty in between the binders. She fit diagonally, but just barely. As far as I could figure, our bags wouldn’t be checked so she was safe.

I had just zipped my bag up when the deputies pounded on the front door of the shed. I turned. It was deputy Gomez.

“Sophia! Open the door!”

Some other deputies moved around the side of the building, I could see them move from window to window, but Gomez was closer. Ray needed help, now.

The bench moved back into place easier with the help of two hands. The sound it made was horrible, though. I was nearly knocked over by Gomez as soon as the door was free to swing open. I stumbled back as he ran past to kneel at Ray’s side and check the wound.

There was a different siren, and I looked out to see the ambulance promised. The paramedics got out and grabbed their massive bags.

I ran out the door, tears of relief in my eyes as the stone-faced men came my direction.

“Here—he’s in here,” I began to ramble about how we put pressure on the wound, but it was still bleeding badly. I told them that he couldn’t talk but responded through taps.

They just nodded and gave me a placating ‘we got this’ and brushed past me to the shed. I was about to follow and had even turned to do so when I was stopped by a hard hand on my shoulder. I jumped and turned to see Sheriff Doonan. She stood there looking pissier than I’d ever seen her.

“McLellan,” she growled.

“Y-Yes?”

Then a swath of dirty blonde hair appeared from behind the Sheriff. I frowned and side stepped to see Kerrie as she stood there, makeup all over her face from crying.

“Oh my god! Kare! You’re okay,” I moved to hug her, but she slapped my hand away as violently as the night we found Matty.

“Don’t fucking touch me!” She spat and devolved into tears again.

“McLellan, Jeffers told us everything.”

Still in wide-eyed shock, I looked from Kerrie to the Sheriff. What all did she tell them?

“Jeffers, you stay here, McLellan—” the Sheriff reached out and gripped my upper arm and yanked me to her. “You’re coming with me.”

“I have to check on Ray,” I said, and leaned away from her grip as she walked me to her SUV.

“No, you’re not. If I so much as see you leave the side of my cruiser,” she growls and wheels me back to the front of the SUV. “Things are going to be much, much worse for you than they already are, you hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I mutter.

“I can’t,” Doonan looked utterly perplexed as I tried to look her in the eye. “Why, Sophia. I mean, you’re a smart kid, why on God’s green earth would you ever do this? And to involve Jeffers and Vena?”

I shrugged and looked at my feet. I wasn’t going to tell her that I didn’t believe in her or her men. That would just piss her off even more, and from the look she was giving me now that her short-lived confusion had worn off, she was already at her breaking point.

“The other day, the killer contacted me.”

“What are you talking about? That picture?”

“No…well, yes—”

“What did it mean?”

“We…he…those things on the paper…they’re real.” My eyes locked with Doonan’s. “He has one. It’s the reason he’s killing. The monster tells him to kill, and he does because his mind is so loud that he just wants peace—he wants a life.”

“And yours?” The hesitation in the Sheriff’s tone was only outweighed by her curiosity.

“It doesn’t tell me to kill or anything,” I lied. “It just kind of…my upset, this whole thing…it feeds on it. While it does, it talks to me.”

“Oh.”

“You can tell when its around, of when it’s been somewhere because of the smell—”

“So, these monsters smell?”

“Yeah, like death and trash and rot.”

“Wonderful. So, Sophia—I need to work this, and I’ll check up on Ray for you, but I need you to sit in my cruiser, okay?” Doonan spoke slowly and carefully like I’m some dumb ass five-year-old. I know it’s because I just pretty much could have started to babble and play in the dirt like I’d lost my mind for all she cared.

“Yeah, fine,” I run a hand through my hair and move over to the side door of the SUV and hop in the front passenger seat. No way I was going to get in the back—those doors lock on their own.

The Sheriff ran off to the laundry shed and I sink low in my seat. I fucked up.

I royally fucked up and there was nothing I could do to fix this. The tears are immediate and I sobbed hysterically in Doonan’s cruiser with the sirens and radio chatter for background noise.

By the time my throat was raw, and I could barely get out a croak, they still hadn’t found the killer—it seemed like he’d just disappeared. Even the dogs couldn’t pick up the scent. Ray, as far as I’d heard when they were loading him in, was still alive.

That just made me cry harder; relief this time.

I needed to see him. All the apologies in the world wouldn’t be enough, but I had to start to make up for what I’d done. He wouldn’t be on his way to the hospital if it weren’t for me.

I finally sat back up just in time for Doonan to open the door, her brow narrowed.

“Backseat, McLellan.”

“Why?”

“Because we need to get you checked out. I saw the papers in there—that guy’s sick and if you’re seeing the same shit, well—we need to get you some help.”

My jaw dropped and I shook my head.

“Don’t—don’t you need Janice’s permission?”

“Nope. Not with this. Plus, with those little boys in the house, I doubt getting you checked out would be a problem.”

“Fuck—Sheriff, I’m fine I swear. I really don’t need—”

“You purposefully put your friends in danger to go hunt a serial murderer because you both see the same monster. You’re not fine.”

“But—”

“No ‘but’s,” Doonan made the universal ‘zip it’ sign and then spoke into her radio on her shoulder: “please advise the hospital, I’m bringing in a fifty-five eighty-five. Sixteen-year-old female minor.”

Shit.