The Remedy (20 page)

The volume of Jake’s voice increased with every word. Fright and confusion was quickly being replaced by the anger of betrayal. Phil remained silent as he finished tying Jake’s hands.

“There,” Phil said, ensuring the rope was tight with a final, hard pull. He came back around and placed a second chair in front of Jake. He took a seat and the two now faced each other. Removing his hat and resting the rifle across his lap, Phil leaned forward to his immobilized coworker.

“Now—” Phil’s tone returned to his normal, day-to-day friendly pitch. The cold, demanding voice that had been directing Jake at gunpoint instantly vanished the moment the other man took his seat. With the same warm smile that greeted Jake at the start of every workday, Phil simply said, “Let’s talk.”

It wasn’t easy following Rob through the thick forest without the use of a flashlight. But despite stumbling whenever a rock or tree root snagged their feet, the two continued in darkness and resisted the urge to click it on. A beam of light would have given away their position, and as long as they could see Rob’s torch ahead, they wouldn’t lose their way.

Leigh wished she could shout loud enough for Rob to hear without alerting his prey. The sole of her foot slipped off another rock jutting from the earth, once again twisting her ankle. Had it not been for Sam walking mere inches in front of her, Leigh would’ve certainly suffered a debilitating sprain by now. But reaching out and grabbing Sam’s shoulder saved her yet again, providing just enough support to prevent all of her weight from coming down on her angled foot.

“You okay?” Sam whispered, halting for a moment.

Leigh nodded. “Yeah,” she whispered back. “Just hit another damn rock. I can’t see a thing.”

“Me neither.”

Leigh felt a jolt when Sam’s cool hand found her fingers and grasped them.

“Hold on,” he said. His lips were centimeters from Leigh’s ear. “I’ll help you up this knoll.”

The killer in the bear mask had almost reached the top of a rising hill and was about to vanish over its crest. They would have to hurry if they didn’t want to lose him and Rob. Leigh supposed they could always retreat to the cabin if that were to happen, but would they be capable of finding their way back at this point? Leigh wondered how Rob was keeping up his pursuit so well, blind as they were to the unstable ground.

“We’re almost there,” Sam said, hoisting her up over a slippery, moss-covered mound. “Just dig your feet in and don’t let go.”

Leigh did as Sam suggested, jamming her toes into the moist ground. It wasn’t easy to maintain her balance with one hand gripping Sam and the other holding the tranquilizer gun, but he was able to pull her up with one strong tug.

“Thanks,” she whispered. She could just barely see his eyes reflecting the dim moonlight above.

Sam returned her gaze, seemingly hypnotized. But just as she started to feel a spark of
something
again, Sam jerked his head to the left.

“Look!” he said, pointing downhill.

A cabin, far more dilapidated than the one they had come from, sat at the bottom of the knoll. Its roof was missing shingles, and its walls were blackened from wood rot. Though the structure looked like it would collapse at any second, the warm, orange light coming from the dirty windows proved it was still inhabited.

Leigh spotted the cabin just in time to see the man in the bear mask enter the front door, and a moment later, Rob emerge from behind a tree. He sprinted forward and disappeared behind a corner of the house.

“Did you see him?” Leigh whispered, pointing in Rob’s direction. “He’s getting way too close to that place. He’s going to get caught for sure.”

Sam squinted, peering between the trunks of the pair of ash trees that concealed them. “Yeah,” he said tensely. “All right, I’ll go get Rob. You wait here.”

Leigh flinched with surprise. “Wait, what?”

“Don’t worry,” Sam reassured. “I’ll keep my distance from the windows.”

“But Rob might not listen to you!” Leigh strained to keep her voice quiet.

Sam brushed away her hand. “I’ll make him listen, okay? I’m not sending you near that house. So don’t move!”

Before Leigh could argue, Sam was gone, heading down the knoll to the cabin. “Shit!” she whispered as she watched Sam scurry around the side of the house like a secret agent. Unfortunately, he’d forgotten their only weapon: the tranquilizer gun.

Jesus, is all this really happening?

Leigh pressed her hand against the trunk of a tree to support herself as the world began to spin. Fighting back nausea, she took a long, slow breath and closed her eyes.

Just then, the man in the bear mask came sprinting out the door, tripping on his own two feet. Terror gripped Leigh’s heart.

He’s heading right for me!

But then, a much smaller man came bursting out the cabin, yelling at the top of his lungs.

“Who said you could touch this!?” He screamed at the bear man, who cowered at his feet.

The smaller man gripped a pink backpack. Even from a distance, Leigh could make out the fuzzy-haired troll keychain dangling from the pack’s front pouch zipper.

Her bones turned to ice.

That’s Alex’s
.

“What’d I tell you before?” The smaller man shook the backpack as he shouted. “The one in the cellar is mine! You hear?”

The bear mask frantically nodded.

“Good.” The man holding the pack spat a mouthful of saliva behind him. “Now go inside and help Ma make supper.”

The bear man crawled timidly to his feet and shuffled by his partner, who kicked him as he passed and then followed him inside. Leigh had a new piece of horrifying knowledge to keep her company.

These maniacs had captured Alex and were keeping her in the cellar. Even if Sam returned this instant with Rob in tow, they couldn’t just walk away. Where was Sam, anyway?

Maybe he and Rob were just hiding out, waiting for the right moment to escape undetected. While that seemed likely, it still didn’t help Alex any. But maybe they were already sneaking Alex out of the basement. Maybe they’d already freed her from her restraints and were about to reunite with Leigh and get away.

Leigh’s surge of optimism collapsed when she noticed the storm shelter doors at the side of the cabin. They were shut. From this vantage point, she could see both the front door and the large cellar doors, and neither were open. Wherever Sam and Rob were, they certainly weren’t helping Alex.

And I’m just standing here
.

Without letting another doubt enter her consciousness, Leigh began to carefully tread down the knoll toward the cabin. The voices inside Leigh’s mind screamed at her,
What are you doing? Go back! Go back!
But she ignored them. Adrenaline was her only copilot now, pumping through her bloodstream and pushing her forward, one determined step at a time.

If they see me, I’ll run. I’ll run and lead them away so my friends can make a break for it. Rob and Sam will follow. They’ll help me. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this
.

Leigh reached the doors and lifted the latch to the cellar as quietly as she could. Thankfully, the rust-caked hinges didn’t squeak when she opened the wooden door and rested it on the ground. She glanced up at the four-panel window above her, but the grime covering the glass made it impossible to see anything inside. However, that also meant that the men inside couldn’t see her, either. Reassured, Leigh descended the stone stairs into the basement.

A single flickering lantern hung from a wooden beam on the ceiling. The psychopaths clearly came and went from the basement frequently enough to not bother extinguishing the light. Leigh would have to hurry if she wanted to make it out undetected.

Easier said than done
.

The clutter in the cellar was that of a hoarder. Miscellaneous items were scattered in every nook and cranny, and the only items that seemed to have a designated place were the hunting tools hanging on the walls, and the various cutting instruments arranged neatly on a nearby table. Leigh looked around at the other stuff in the room.

A crate of wallets.

A box of cell phones.

A mason jar of rings and earrings.

Shoes. Sunglasses. Hats.

It was like a thrift store run by the local butcher.

But Alex was nowhere in sight.

The floorboards squeaked as feet shuffled overhead, accompanied by the muffled voices of the cabin’s inhabitants. Leigh mustered just enough courage to whisper a shaky, barely audible call.

“Alex? Are you in here?” There was no reply. Leigh could feel the weight of tears collecting in the corner of her eyes. “C’mon girl, answer me.”

Something wet and slick brought Leigh’s foot shooting out in front of her. She clenched her teeth and her arms shot out to the sides, desperately trying to maintain her balance. In her desperate maneuver to stay upright, Leigh’s hand collided loudly with the swinging, squeaky lantern.

Leigh reached to still the swinging lantern and held her breath as she listened to the men above her. When their voices didn’t rise or stop in mid-sentence, Leigh slowly released the air she was holding and lowered her gaze from the ceiling.

In front of her was Marshall’s mutilated body sprawled across a table, his blood darkening the wood surface.

Leigh slammed a hand to her mouth in order to conceal the scream threatening to breach her lips.

If not for the shell necklace and clothes that still adorned what was left of his body, Leigh might’ve not even known this was her college friend; his head had been completely severed and removed. All that remained was a blood-covered torso, both arms and legs reduced to bleeding stumps. A red-stained cleaver wedged into the table’s side told Leigh the whole story.

Marshall had been sectioned and quartered like grade-A beef.

So which part is the brisket?

If not for her hand still clamped to her mouth, the cellar would’ve erupted with Leigh’s maniacal giggle. She realized she had to preserve her sanity. Just back away and pretend the chopped-up body isn’t really her friend, just a piece of uncooked meat. Just like one of those hanging hunks that Sylvester Stallone trained with in the
Rocky
movies.

Leigh had taken just four steps backward when she bumped into something that swayed with her collision.

The object kicked her in the back of the knee.

Turning on toes still slick with blood, Leigh spun around.

Alex hung from a meat hook suspended from the ceiling, and a rope connecting her wrists like handcuffs had been slung over the hook. A burlap sack had been placed over her head, but the long strings of blond hair peeking out from the bottom were a dead giveaway.

“Alex!” Leigh whispered as she grabbed the top of the bag and pulled. It was indeed her friend. Alex seemed barely conscious, her head hanging limply. A dirty rag had been jammed in her mouth. Her captors had removed her shirt and bra, leaving her topless.

As gently as she could, Leigh gripped the rag, pulling it from between her friend’s lips until it finally came out. “Alex? Can you hear me?” Leigh shook her shoulder. “Come on, wake up!”

Leigh held Alex’s chin and shook her head vigorously. Luckily, the motion proved enough to rouse her.

The instant Alex’s eyes fluttered open, Leigh spotted the muscles in her jaw widening, in preparation for an ear-piercing scream. Leigh slammed her hand over Alex’s mouth.

“
Shh
!” Leigh brought a finger of her other hand to her mouth. “Alex, it’s me. It’s Leigh. I’m going to take my hand from your mouth but you can’t scream. Okay?”

Tears leaked from the corners of Alex’s squeezed-shut eyes as she nodded. Leigh slowly moved her palm away from the other girl, who began taking in short gasps.

“Leigh…” Alex moaned, her eyes barely able to roll up and meet Leigh’s. Leigh grimaced at how weak her friend sounded and silently prayed she’d be able to walk out of here without too much help.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Leigh reassured her while trying to undo the knots that bound her to the hook. “It’s okay now. I’m gonna get you down and we’ll get out of here.”

The knots proved far too tight for Leigh’s trembling fingers to untie, so she instead braced Alex around the waist and raised her until the rope lifted from the hook. After carefully placing Alex on her feet and making sure she could support herself, Leigh reluctantly went back to the butcher’s block to retrieve the cleaver stuck in its side.

It’s just a piece of meat
.

It took some twisting and a hard pull, but Leigh was able to remove the cleaver without looking directly at her roommate’s mutilated boyfriend. She’d have to try to prevent Alex from seeing the mess lest a blood-curdling scream be the end of them both. Leigh turned the lantern away from the table and toward the shivering girl, leaving Marshall’s remains shrouded in shadow.

The sharp edge of the cleaver sliced cleanly through the rope and succeeded in freeing Alex’s wrists. Leigh grabbed a dirty old wool blanket.

“Here,” she said, throwing the blanket over Alex’s shoulders. “Now hold my hand and be as quiet as you can, okay? We’re not going to run. If we run they’ll hear us.”

Alex nodded. Leigh cradled her close, guarding her face from the gruesome remains of Marshall as they passed. Alex trembled in her arms, dangerously close to collapsing, but somehow managed to maintain her footing as they shuffled toward the exit. After a few shaky steps, Marshall was behind them and the hard part was over. All they had to do now was climb the four or five stairs to the cellar door, and they’d be free of this nightmarish place.

Something upstairs hit the floor with a loud
clang
, shaking the ceiling above them.

“Hold on,” Leigh whispered, stopping her friend from going any further.

“Dammit, Grizzly!” the man shouted. “Look at the mess you’ve made now!”

There was an indecipherable groaning noise in reply, but what the man said next froze the blood in Leigh’s veins.

“I don’t care. Just clean it up. I’m going to go downstairs to visit my special friend.”