Experiment in Terror 06 Into the Hollow (21 page)

It was Mitch. Dex grabbed my hand and began running toward the cabin. I kept the camera on though it was capturing nothing but our legs as we scampered through billows of soft snow.

When we came around the corner and were able to see a bit from the firelight of the cabin windows, we saw Mitch’s silhouette near the outhouse. The motion detector lights hadn’t come back on despite the commotion, which made me wonder if they were even working anymore.

“Mitch!” Dex yelled and we walked toward him cautiously. After all, he had just fired off a shotgun and we didn’t want to surprise him.

As we got closer we could see a tiny light bobbing up and down, then fix its focus on us, blinding us for a second.

“It’s us, lay off,” I said through a shaking breath. Mitch lowered the flashlight so it was illuminating the ground again.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he replied blankly.

As we got closer, the color red jumped into my vision. The ground near Mitch’s feet was smeared in it. My heartbeat intensified in my throat and I felt unsteady all over. Dex squeezed my hand again for comfort as we stopped just a couple of feet away.

At Mitch’s feet lay a pool of spreading blood, an ugly dark blot on the pristine whiteness. In the middle of that dark, bloody smudge was a llama’s head. One of them had been decapitated, and cleanly from the look of it.

Not that I was looking long. Upon the realization of what it was, and that this was all real, I turned away and buried my head into the crook of Dex’s arm. With stealth, he simultaneously hugged me and got the camera out of my hand.

“Twatwaffle?” Dex asked.

I felt a wad of disgust come up my throat. “His name was Apricot,” I sneered into his sleeve.

“Or Jackass,” Mitch offered, sounding faintly amused. “What a way to go.”

I still didn’t dare look, so I kept my head buried in Dex’s coat while they talked.

“How does…” Dex began. I felt his muscles tensing. “How does
this
happen?”

“I don’t know. I heard him scream, so I ran back out of the woods and saw something bending over him ripping him to shreds.”

I shuddered and Dex held me closer, though I knew he was trying to film at the same time.

“You were in the woods?”

“I heard something growling, I thought it was a black bear.”

“You keep saying bears, but don’t bears hibernate?”

“Not for as long as you’d think. Anyway, I didn’t get far before this sorry bastard started hollering. I saw the thing and I shot at it.”

“You didn’t get a better look at it?”

“I saw the thing and I shot at it,” Mitch repeated, his patience being tested. “I didn’t have time to figure out what it was.”

“Well, shit.”

A silence filled the air and I lifted my head up out of Dex’s arm to get fresh air. I kept my eyes facing toward the cabin. Besides, someone had to watch our backs.

“Where is the rest of the llama?” I asked. “What kind of animal decapitates another animal?”

“Beats me,” said Mitch. “Heads are usually eaten. There’s a trail though, all blood, leading right down the slope. I know where Rigby says it would go.”

“Into the hollow?” Dex asked.

“That’s right.”

“Is that what you believe?”

I heard Mitch grunt. “I believe something big and bad lives out there. I don’t believe it’s Rigby’s beast or Sasquatch but it’s something I want stuffed and mounted in my house.”

“Are we going to be safe tonight?” I questioned into the night air, my nerves still on fire.

“I scared the thing off, didn’t I?” Mitch challenged behind me.

“Technically you meant to shoot it, not scare it,” Dex pointed out. “And you missed by the likes of it.”

Oh God Dex, don’t piss off the man with the shotgun
, I thought.

“You try shooting in the dark, you punk,” was Mitch’s response. I felt him push past us and watched as he stormed his way back to the cabin.

I pulled away and looked up at Dex, who was now lapsed back into darkness. “Way to go, dumbass.”

He shrugged. “What? He was acting like he was doing us a favor.”

“Well he kinda fucking did. Dex, your llama’s head is on the ground.”

“I feel kind of bad for calling him Twatwaffle now.”

“You should feel bad,” I yelled. “For all we know, Twatwaffle saved our lives and maybe Mitch did too. There’s obviously something out here. Who the fuck decapitates a llama?”

“I’m sure this particular llama was on many a hit list.”

I jabbed him sharply with my elbow, so much so that he almost stumbled back onto the bloody area near the head.

“Whoa easy, kiddo,” he said. “I’m just joking.”

“You’re not taking this seriously enough!”

He came up to me, lowering his head until his face was inches from mine. I could barely make out the gleam of the cabin light in his eyes. “I told you we’d look at this rationally first, before we start freaking out.”

“Your idea of rational is thinking Christina and Rigby are behind this,” I whispered harshly. “And if you think it’s not even remotely frightening that they’d go so far as to rip the head of their own precious llama, then you’ve got a screw loose.”

“I have no screws loose,” he shot back in anger. I could feel him tense up, on the defensive.

“Oh we both have screws loose. Just fucking look at us, Dex! We’re in the mountains trying to find Sasquatch and we’re arguing over the llama formally known as Twatwaffle.”

He sucked in his breath and looked down at the grainy shape that was the llama’s head in the darkness. “All right, all right. So I don’t have a fucking clue what’s going on.”

I coiled my gloved fingers around his coat sleeve and pulled him toward me. “Neither do I. So then what do we do?”

He looked back at me and in the thin light I saw the look of defeat on his brow. “Wait until morning I guess.”

I sighed and turned around, heading back to the cabin. He was right as he often was. There wasn’t much we could do until morning. There was no way we were going to make our way back to Rigby’s at night, which meant we were shit out of luck.

Once we were back inside, Mitch went to make sure the remaining llamas were OK. Luckily they were fine, though thoroughly spooked and uneasy about the whole event. We still didn’t know what happened, whether Twat– I mean, Apricot got loose and then was attacked or whether he was taken from the pen. I wanted to think it was the former, because if it was the later, then it meant that we could be taken from the cabin. That’s if there was a beast, and you know what, I was starting to think there was. Why on earth would Rigby and Christina decapitate their own llama – something that would have cost a pretty penny – in order to prove a point? There were better ways to do it, however from the furrow on Dex’s brow as he sat near the fire, I could tell he was still thinking it over. I knew he had a darker view of humanity than I had and would be quicker to place the blame on a fame-hungry business.

Even with all the doors locked and Mitch taking watch for most of the night, his eyes bug-eyed and creepy as hell, shotgun in his lap, I barely slept. In fact, because I couldn’t sleep by our feeble bedroom window, Dex and I ended up bringing all of bedding out into the living area and sleeping in front of the fire. I felt a hell of a lot safer this way, even though trigger-happy Mitch was in the room with me. And unlike my fantasies, this was no time for sex with Dex on the rug.

When I finally did drift off though, I found no respite. I dreamed of teeth, blood and claws.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The next morning I felt like my mouth and head were shoved full of cotton balls. The lack of sleep wasn’t taking it easy on me and I slogged around the cabin in a half-asleep state. I wish I could say this meant I was more relaxed and chill but though it felt like the world was passing by me like mud, I was still nervy from the night before.

And I was also getting a little cabin crazy, which is probably why, when Mitch suggested we go camping, I didn’t protest as much as I thought I would.

I still protested, though.

We were outside surveying the remains of Apricot in the sunshine. It was a piercing blue sky that soared high above the trees and the world around me glistened like a Christmas card. It was warmer, too, and I found myself sweating underneath my gloves and hat, which still didn’t counteract the chills I got whenever I caught a glimpse of blood out of the corner of my eye, the slaughter even redder now in the broad daylight.

I was keeping the camera focused on Mitch and Dex as they argued over what to do.

“We really need to get back to Rigby,” I told them, Mitch especially.

“Rigby is too far away,” he answered, not looking at me. He shoved the sleeves of his army-issued jacket up his arms in a huff. “And the walkie talkies are useless.”

That they were. We had been trying all morning, but neither of them could pick up any signal. It was like broadcasting into thin air.

“He’s not too far away,” I countered. “That was an easy walk, just over an hour. We could be there and back before lunch time.”

“Then you guys go ahead,” Mitch said with hard eyes. “I’m finding out what happened to the llama before it gets picked up by the raptors.”

Oh shit. “Raptors?” I questioned with shaking lips.

“Birds of prey,” Mitch said, like I was an idiot. “They’ll come and pick off whatever is left behind. I thought you celebrities were all about finding the proof. Well here is your proof, if you want it. If you don’t, tough tits, but I’m going and I’m taking a llama with me.”

“You’re camping?” Dex asked.

“Couldn’t pick a better day to do it, could I?” Mitch growled back, raising his arms to the saturated sky. “You’re both welcome to join me still. I can take you to the places on the map, just like Rigby wanted.”

I remembered the map that Christina had given me, then decided it was best to keep it a secret for now. I looked to Dex. He had his newsboy cap pulled low on his head, his eyebrow ring glinting in the sunlight. He was thinking and thinking hard and I knew that the decision would come to me. It usually did.

As I thought, when his brows couldn’t knit together enough, he raised his head and looked at me with wondering eyes. “Well, kiddo, what do you think?”

What did I think? If Dex and I left for Rigby’s, we’d be on our own without a guide. It didn’t seem like a tough trail to follow but it was one we were unfamiliar with. With luck it would take us a short while to get there. Without luck, we could veer way off course with minimal food, no protection and walkie talkies that didn’t work. It didn’t seem like a very good plan.

“Will my llama lead us back?” I asked hopefully.

“Your llama will lead you to my llama,” Mitch answered confidently. “And I’m the one with the food.”

I wiggled my lips back and forth. “What about if we stay behind in the cabin and wait for you to return?”

Mitch shrugged. “If you want to do that, be my guest. Just know that I’m taking the gun and according to Rigby, that thing can open doors.”

“Perry,” Dex said gently, coming over to me and guiding me away from Mitch with his arm. He lowered his voice and spoke into my ear. “This is totally up to you. Whatever you decide, that’s what we’ll do.”

“That’s putting an awful lot of pressure on me,” I whispered back. “What do you want to do?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

I studied his eyes. They were conflicted as anything but I caught a hint of resolve somewhere inside. He knew. He usually did.

“You want to go with Mitch,” I supplied.

“I want what you want.”

“Are you going to resent me if I make us stay behind?”

I expected a roll of his eyes or some kind of rebuttal. Instead he took both his hands and cupped my face in them. My skin tingled under the warmth of his touch.

“Baby,” he said, his tone gruff yet solemn, “there’s nothing you could ever do to make me resent you. You’re my light, remember that.”

My lungs constricted and a flush of warmth filled my lips and I waited, anxiously, for him to do something like kiss me. Something to distract me from the sincerity of his words. But he didn’t do anything except hold my face close to his and stare at me like he was trying to read my soul. 

When I realized I wasn’t going to get a straight answer out of him other than the one he was giving me, I knew I had to make the decision all on my own. He did not want to be held accountable for anything that happened and I couldn’t blame him for that.

Still, I had to remind him, “You don’t want to put me in danger…”

He shook his head gently. “No. I don’t. And if I thought one choice was less dangerous than the other, then that’s the choice I’d be making. And there would be nothing you could say about it.”

My swallow felt thick in my throat and I wanted him to keep holding onto me a few minutes longer. But eventually his hands dropped away and my skin was met with sparks of cold from the mountain breeze.

The fact was, Mitch was going. I needed to know where exactly and for how long. I wanted to get some footage – that is the reason we came – but I didn’t want to go on a wild goose chase down a mountain. I trusted Dex with my life and I knew he’d do anything to protect me, whether that meant getting me back to Rigby’s or guarding me at the cabin. But when it came down to the place we were, the wilderness around us, I had to rely on Mitch. He was a creep who made my skin crawl and I wasn’t sure if I could totally trust him, but I felt he was the safest person to be around. He had nothing to gain from the expedition except a hunting trophy of some sort. He wasn’t afraid. Maybe we shouldn’t have been either.

I cleared my throat and looked around Dex’s shoulder to him. He was chewing tobacco and watching us with feigned interest.

“Aren’t you scared?” I asked him.

“Of what?” was Mitch’s response.

“Of what’s out there?”

He chuckled to himself, totally humorless. “No, girly. I ain’t scared. Cuz I don’t know what’s out there. I want to find out though.”

“You don’t think it can kill us?”

“Hell, maybe it can. Lots of things out there can kill you. You just have to be prepared. If you think I’m some redneck moron who’s just going to take off into the bush after something without arming himself to the teeth, you’ve got another thing coming. I’m a hunter. I hunt things. It’s not the other way around.”