Chapter 10
Lucy
“What have you done?”
Jeff flew forward, panicked. He was breathless, appearing on the verge of some sort of episode. Wide eyes searched Boston’s face, a sad face, and my heart dropped as my brother began to pull at his short hair.
“You covered your ass there too, didn’t you? I’m not crazy. I’m not crazy!”
My hand reached forward, but Boston’s arm stayed wrapped around my stomach. I wasn’t sure what to do or how to help. I didn’t owe him anything after what he’d done to me growing up, but he was still my brother. Seeing him so distraught didn’t sit well.
“You’re upsetting Lucy. I think it’s time for you to go. I hate to have to do this with you being family and all, but I’m going to have to ask you not to come back until you can learn to control your…delusions.”
I elbowed Boston’s side, and he sighed. “Okay, mistaken truths.”
“You’re a piece of work. I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I don’t see any other way. I don’t, and I guess it doesn’t matter.”
“What do you mean?”
Green eyes lowered to me, but he went back to Boston.
“I’m going to tell them. I’m going to turn myself in. Jail isn’t worth losing my sister. And if I’m locked away, you will be too. You can’t have her then, can you?”
Boston shrugged. There wasn’t any guilt or fear I could detect coming from him at the threat. “Do what you have to, but don’t be surprised if they lock you up in a mental institution. Come on, baby. It’s getting late. You need to get ready.”
“Lucy…? Please, I’m begging you. I’m begging you with everything I have.”
The heartbreaking plea had my feet planting into the ground. I sighed, and a mix of uncertainty came with what I knew I had to do.
“I’ll go see this cabin on one condition.”
“Lucy,” Boston growled, but I jerked myself free of his hold.
“Don’t ‘Lucy’, me. If my brother wants to show me something that could help him, I’m going.”
Boston’s face turned to stone. For a good minute, he didn’t speak. “Fine. But I’m coming.”
“No, you’re not,” I countered. Surprise melted his mask until his eyes searched mine. Stepping forward, I placed a kiss on his cheek. “Jeff needs this. What he doesn’t need is you making it harder on him. Stay. When he sees there’s nothing to worry about, I’ll have him bring me back. He’ll have no excuse not to.”
“Bullshit. He’ll invent an excuse. He’ll say I cleaned up the scene like he did before. I’m coming.”
“Boston. I. Said. No.”
The stunned disbelief that registered was as if I had slapped him. The pacing began—which I noticed he did when he didn’t have control. Just like in the front yard at my mom’s when I watched him from my window. Or at the theater last week, when he paced outside his car while he waited for me to get off work. I saw his overwhelming need not to be parted. And here it was again. Once he thought of me being out of the picture, he couldn’t cope.
“Kiss me and tell me you’ll see me soon,” I said, calmer. “Have some trust in me.”
“It’s not you I don’t trust.” Anger dripped from each word, but he pulled me in, kissing me as his eyes cut up to my brother. They never closed, and neither did mine. When he finally pulled back, he was barely able to look at me at all. “I’ll see you soon.”
My hand rose, gripping firmly to the back of his neck and pulling him down so he’d face me. “Say it again. Believe it.”
“Dammit, Lucy.” Hesitation. “I’ll see you soon. I love you.”
The kiss was softer, and when he closed his eyes, so did I. Hands locked to my hips, gripping as if he were terrified to let me go. Finally, they dropped, freeing me. To wait would have been a mistake. I needed him to accept that I wasn’t always going to be here. I couldn’t live like that.
I turned, and Jeff headed to the driver’s side while I got in the truck. When I waved and we took off, Boston stepped forward. The angles of his face were sharp, but something almost accepting softened them as he reluctantly waved back.
“You’re doing the right thing, Lucy. When you see the cabin, you’re never going to want to come back.”
“What if there’s nothing there?”
Jeff turned onto the main road, giving a fierce shake. “There has to be.”
“You’re bringing me back if there’s not.”
Repeatedly, his jaw flexed. “There will be. I know what happened.”
The loud roar of the truck was the only sound between us. Jeff and I grew quiet while he drove deeper into the woods. It would be dark soon. I didn’t like the idea of being in the wilderness so late. It was dangerous, and the expanse was vast. People died when they got lost, and some were experienced hikers. A few miles later, Jeff turned onto a dirt road where we proceeded to go even farther into trees.
“I’m sure this is it. I’ve only been back once…to look for the body,” he said, glancing over. “It shouldn’t be that much longer.”
The truck rocked through the ruts, and I held to the door as I bounced in the seat. Jeff turned on his headlights, and just when I was sure he was lost, he turned, bringing an overgrown trail into view. Overgrown…but there.
My heart thumped hard in my chest and fear crept in as I gazed at my brother.
“This isn’t going to be pretty. I know I’ve done some bad things in my life, but I really am sorry you’re going to have to see this. It was a massacre.”
My denial didn’t erase the fact that, somewhere inside, I almost believed him.
Grabbing a flashlight, Jeff clicked it on. The beam lit up the floorboard, the light trembling just like we both were. When he opened the door, my hands almost felt like they were made of lead. Somehow, I forced it open. Creaking from the old hinges broke through the eerie silence and I moved in close, holding his arm as we entered the thick foliage.
“How far is the walk? It won’t be light much longer.”
“It’s not light in there now.”
Jeff led us inside at a powerwalk, and the darkness immediately closed in. With how thick the trees were, I couldn’t see a foot in front of me or to either side.
“You never said how far it was.”
“I’m not sure.” He paused. “I haven’t been able to find the cabin. I only found where I think Rhonda and I ended up before Boston found us.”
“You don’t know where it is?”
“I wasn’t paying attention when we first headed there. The girl…she was pretty. Then, we were drinking. I don’t even know how I made it home. It took me hours, Luce. Fucking forever.”
Openings appeared, spanning out throughout endless space that all looked the same. Trees. More trees. Thick spots of bushes and twisting vines. A twig broke behind us, and I jumped, holding Jeff tighter.
“I think it was this way. It was a pretty good distance.”
We took a right, winding through a path before Jeff stopped and turned us left, then right. We were zigzagging into oblivion, and my stomach knotted the deeper we traveled. A half-hour passed. Longer. A good hour or two more. Night, darker than black, swallowed us whole and more movement rustled not far away.
“We have to go back. We’re lost.”
“No. It’s here. Somewhere. We’ll find it. You have to see.”
What sounded like a growl had both of us spinning. The light shone through nothingness and a short, dark shadow blurred low and fast through the beam.
“Jeff, I want to leave.”
“Afterward, Lucy. We have to keep going.”
“We can come back in the morning!”
BOOM!
Thunder sounded like a cannon and I screamed, jumping in time for lightening to cast shadows around us.
“Jeff, please!”
“A little longer. Hurry.”
Even as he said it, he dragged me along. Branches tugged at my pants and scraped my face as the density thickened again.
BOOM!
FLASH.
Rain pelted against my hair. First randomly, then heavier as we went through space after space of clearing. Another sound, seemingly closer than the last. Trembling from the cold, I angled my face more toward Jeff as he interlaced us through even more nothingness.
“This isn’t right. We should have been there by now.”
“When? Hours ago? Jeff, face it, there is no cabin. There was no girl.”
Droplets pounded the ground as he broke away from me and spun in a circle. Each shrub, every hanging limb, looked the same as the last few hundred. Light highlighted the way we’d come, and I groaned at how much my legs ached. My entire body was screaming in pain. There was no telling how far we’d covered. Walking back was unthinkable.
“This way.”
“You can’t be serious.”
There was no anger as Jeff reached for me. He looked defeated—and it had nothing to do with the fact that we might be lost. If there was a cabin out here, he wasn’t leaving until we found it.
“Fine, but you’re buying me the biggest breakfast tomorrow morning. I’m talking eggs, bacon, pancakes—the works.”
He laughed, glancing over at me. The smile was one I hadn’t seen toward me in…maybe ever. He seemed to realize it to, his face turning stoic once more.
“After we find it, if you leave with me, I’ll buy you breakfast every morning. I haven’t been very nice to you. I’m sorry for that. It was wrong. It’s just…life, it’s hard, you know? I think I was a parent to you more than Mom or Dad ever were. I was young and Mom just kept dumping you on me. Not that it was her fault, she had to work. And Dad, he was shitty. He was never home. Then…well, that whole thing happened. You didn’t know what I did about him.”
“What do you mean?”
Jeff let out a long exhale. “Dad didn’t just cheat on Mom, Lucy. He had another family. A daughter—Hannah. She’s probably about twelve now.”
“What?”
Shaking my head, I stepped back. “You’re lying. Mom would have told me. Dad would have told me.”
“They didn’t even tell me,” he snapped. “I overhead them arguing one night. Apparently, Mom wouldn’t have even known if Cynthia hadn’t brought the girl to her work and dropped the bomb on her. That’s what caused their divorce. Dad was more than a cheating bastard. He’s complete scum. Who has two lives? Two homes. Two families? And you, turning your back on us saying you were going to live with him. It was too much. It destroyed Mom.”
“Then maybe someone should have told me. Why am I always guarded? You all treat me like I’m some innocent child, but what do you expect? I know nothing! Jesus. This stupid cabin thing—Dad. What the hell is next?”
“Boston. But you can’t tell me I didn’t warn you about that because I did.”
“Don’t start with me. Boston is the only one who’s been honest.”
“You’re wrong, Luce.”
Jeff hooked his arm in mine, leading me in a different direction, and I didn’t argue. I didn’t even speak. More snaps of wood sounded as time went on and on. Ignoring them was easy while I weighed Jeff’s newest confession. It took the prominent role and brought me back to my childhood. I let it play out, seeing my father—his smile, his appearance, his wandering eye. Even as young as I was, I didn’t miss the way he stared at other women.
“Shit. I don’t believe it. Lucy, look.”
His aghast tone brought my head up. The back of a small wooden cabin rested far ahead, barely visible in the beam. Its rundown appearance sent chills down my spine. Jeff tried to pull me forward, but my feet wouldn’t move. If this place really existed, what else about that day was true?