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The blood had begun to dry on our bodies, and the thrill of it all had begun to fade as I lay there beneath Drake, catching my breath.
I patted Drake’s shoulder. "Come on, let’s get cleaned up."
Taking his hand, I led him outside, the breeze of the night cool on our sweaty and blood stained skin.
"Where are we going?" Drake whispered. "We need to head back."
"In a minute. There’s a creek about fifty yards this way. I want to wash off before I get dressed again. Also," I stopped and turned to look at him, "how the fuck did you find me out here? You said you hadn’t seen the chapel."
Drake smiled and tilted his head to his right. Glancing over, I understood what he pointed at, the light of the moon easily revealed the trampled path. Smashed flowers, broken saplings, and footprints in the soft moss of the forest floor. I stared at it dumbly for a few seconds and then pursed my lips. "Oh."
"I saw some other paths. Probably from when the others went out. I took one of those first, but it didn’t really lead anywhere. Instead of continuing on, I worked my way back and tried this one."
We came to the creek a few moments later, kneeling down, and I began to splash water on myself. I gasped at the coolness of it. My nipples hardened and goose flesh ran up my arms as I scrubbed myself clean. Drake did the same beside me. We worked in silence for several minutes and then took turns washing the blood off each other’s backs.
While Drake ran his wet fingers across my skin, he leaned forward and spoke. "Did you get a look at the fence this time?"
I shook my head. "Not close. I was too concerned with finding, uh, the guy in there." I gestured toward the chapel.
A sigh escaped my mouth, unbidden, as Drake ran his wet hands down my back and cupped my ass, washing away the gore that coated me. The next thing he said surprised me. "Do you want to go look for it? Right now?"
"What?" I turned to look at him so fast my neck popped. "Tonight?"
"I think we could give it a shot," Drake agreed.
"What about Sam?" I asked, lifting my bracelet. "He’ll probably tell us to go back to the house soon. Any minute maybe."
Drake glanced over his shoulder toward the direction of the mansion and then back at me. "Have you been noticing anything strange with how he’s been acting lately? Almost like he’s, I don’t know, distracted or pulled thin?"
Freezing in place, it was like my own thoughts and suspicions had been brought to the surface. I’d almost made myself believe I’d imagined it, but if Drake saw it too, then maybe there was something to it. Slowly, I nodded. "I have, yeah."
Drake’s lips curved into a humorless grin. "Something is going on. I’ve noticed that we’ve been getting shocked a little less, like he can’t keep up with watching everything. Like earlier at dinner, when I touched your leg? A week or two ago, he’d have buzzed me for that. It all sort of started after we tried to escape. Maybe that’s why he’s sending us out here to hunt people. One less person to keep track of inside the house."
Finally clean, but soaking wet, I shivered as we stood and headed back to the chapel. I spoke as we walked, still keeping an eye out for any other victims who might be nearby. Though Cartwright’s screams of terror and agony had probably done enough to make anyone out here run and hide.
"Do you think he had help?" I asked. "Assistants or," I frowned, trying to think of the best word, "or minions or something? Maybe they aren’t helping him as much anymore?"
A humorless grin spread across Drake’s face. "Probably. I mean, how else is he kidnapping all these people? There’s no way he could do that, watch us, control everything, and stay sane. Hell, who’s buying the food and cleaning our rooms? There’s no way to know for sure, though. Could be he kidnapped dozens of people and has been holding them for months and pulls them out when needed."
My stomach dropped sickly when I remembered Clint’s screams in the dark. "No. Some of them were taken recently. I think we try to see exactly what kind of control he still has. You're right, let’s go look for the fence. The worst that can happen is he shocks us and tells us to go back."
Back in the chapel, the smell of blood, piss, and bile almost made me gag. Thankfully, we’d tossed our clothes away from the gore, and when I put on my pants and sports bra, they were only covered with a few splashes and smears of blood. Once dressed, Drake led me back out to the forest. I gave the body one last look before leaving it behind.
The two of us trudged through the forest, heading in a random direction until the fence became visible through the tree branches. I spotted it first and pointed. "There. See it?"
The chain links glowed milky in the moonlight. The top of the fence was ringed in either barbed wire or razor wire, there was no way to tell for sure in the dark, though knowing Sam, I’d think it was probably the latter.
"I see it," Drake said. He pointed to my watch. "How is that working? Still the same?"
"Huh?" I lifted my device to look at it. The screen was still bright. Currently the compass app was still up and running. "Yeah. Why?"
"I wondered if it somehow got weaker the further from the house we got. Like maybe there were some proximity limits on it or something."
"Not that I’ve seen," I said. "I never really even thought about that, if I’m honest."
Drake picked up a stick and began moving closer to the fence.
"What are you doing?" I asked, hurrying to keep up with him.
