Page 19

“Hold on, man,” Jackson tells Evan before lifting one end of the table. Thomas lifts the other, and they shove it back from the door, allowing Ashley to slip in front of it.

Evan’s breath fogs the glass as he nervously glances back at the parking lot. “Look, we have to hurry. You hurt it pretty bad, but we should leave now before it comes back,” he tells them in a rush.

Jane’s eyes widen as she takes in the amount of blood seeping from his chest. Only pure adrenaline could be allowing him to be up and talking with them in such a state; she’s painfully familiar with it and knows it likely won’t last very long at all.

“You think it’s clear to leave?” Thomas asks while dropping his end of the table and turning back toward the entrance.

“Now’s our best chance,” Evan replies, gulping as he looks back over his shoulder again. “But you’ve gotta open the door now. We’ve gotta move.”

Evan’s eyes seem darker than Jane remembers. In fact, something seems altogether slightly different about the man, though perhaps it is simply the shock and weakness from his injuries. Jane steps closer without thinking, glancing over his pale face, then down again at the deep gouge marks across his chest that make him look more like a pincushion than a person.

When she looks back up at his eyes, she finds his gaze is already locked on hers.

She recognizes the feeling that fills her gut; it is the same one that coated her like ice when she and Thomas were standing in the road earlier that evening, staring at the freshly slaughtered deer—like someone was staring directly through her, counting each of her breaths.

The color leaches from Kimi’s face. “Rattle, rattle in the dark,” she mutters before letting out a sharp gasp.

Jim tightens his hold on the shotgun, remaining close to her side, as Jackson reaches for the door handle.

“We should get ready to run,” he says, glancing back at the others. “We probably don’t have much time, right?” he adds, while looking back out at Evan.

The man nods quickly, pressing up closer to the crack of the door, as Winnie rushes forward at Jackson. She jumps up at his side, digging her paws into his stomach. When she drops back down to the door, she turns, growling something low and ugly as she bares her teeth at Evan on the other side.

Jane looks from the dog’s raised fur to Jackson, where he lowers his hand from the lock. Outside, Evan tracks his every movement with an unnerving stillness.

“What are you doing?” Evan asks as blood drips down into a puddle at his feet. “We have to go! Before it comes back for us! Hey!” he shouts, banging a hand against the glass.

“Put the table back in place,” says Kimi from where she maintains several feet of distance. “That’s not Evan.”

“What?” Evan says from the other side of the doors. “What the hell are you talking about? Guys, come on, let me in. This really isn’t funny.”

Jackson steps back from the door, glancing sideways to where Thomas looks ready for the wind to blow him far away up into the treetops. They silently nod at each other before grabbing either end of the table once more.

“What are you doing?” Ashley asks them, watching as they start to slide the table back toward the glass. “Hey, stop it.” She wedges her body between the door and the table, turning to face her husband.

“Sweetheart, please open the door. I’m in real bad shape,” Evan says, not breaking eye contact with her. “Please, you’ve gotta help me,” he repeats, raising his hands and resting them flat against the glass.

“I’m coming, baby,” she says, grabbing the door handle.

That is when Jane, perhaps at the same time as Ashley, notices Evan is no longer wearing his wedding ring.

Ashley pauses, staring at the pale skin of Evan’s left hand.

He begins to cry. “Please,” he whimpers. “That thing could come back any second. It’s going to kill me if I stay out here, Ashley, please.”

Ashley stares at him a moment longer before nodding. She grips the lock, though this time Kimi lurches forward, clamping a hand down over her own.

“Don’t,” the cashier hisses, squeezing the woman’s fingers tightly enough that they go bright white.

Ashley digs her nails into Kimi’s arms, facing her. “That’s my husband out there,” she cries out, though the words are hollow now, more desperate than sure.

Kimi forces the woman’s hands away from the door, willing their eyes to meet. “I don’t think it is,” she says, trying again to pull her back.

Ashley yanks away, smacking off the cashier’s hands. “What is wrong with you?” she says before reaching for the door handle.

Jane’s heart pounds faster as she watches Jim give a wide berth to the doors, raising the gun up so it’s pointed at the entrance.

Ashley pinches the lock between her bloated fingers, while Kimi begs and Winnie barks and thrashes harder against Jackson’s slipping grip. Thomas moves closer in a breath, angling in front of Jane with glassy, faraway eyes until she can practically taste their end, rotting and red like Billy’s corpse covered up behind them.