Page 105 of There Should Have Been Eight
And better for my concentration not to have the woman who might be Bea next to me.
With how high the Land Cruiser sat off the ground, it was hard to wrestle Darcie into the seat. In the end, I braced her back against the open edge of the door, then got into the vehicle and literally pulled her up into the seat. I took as much care as possible, but I was sure I still inadvertently hurt her in the effort. My own back gave several unhappy twinges.
After finally managing the task, my face hot and breath steaming, I slapped the seat belt across her limp form.
Inside the house, Grace was in the exact same position as when I’d left, so she had legitimately lost consciousness again. I had no trouble getting her out; she was the smallest person in the entire group. Her curls gleamed shiny and golden below me, and for a moment, it seemed impossible that someone like her could’ve stabbed another person.
I didn’t bother with extra duct tape once I had her belted into the back seat. She could hardly break out of the tape with nothing sharp in the vicinity, and with me keeping an eye on both her and Darcie.
My last passenger was lighter than she should’ve been; her bones needed more flesh, her skin lacking a familiar glow. It hurt me to see her in such a fragile state, but her lack of weight made it easier to get her into the vehicle. Right behind me.
I’d rather that than have Grace at my back. Because while this woman’s dress was covered in blood, Grace had been holding a butcher knife.
I should’ve left then, but I went back.
Kaea’s pulse was so faint as to be a whisper. “Just hold on a little longer,” I pleaded. “Please, Kaea.”
After pressing my lips to his pallid cheek, I moved to Vansi. Strong pulse, warm skin. “I’ll see you soon, V.” What I didn’t vocalize was that if I didn’t, I hoped she wouldn’t be left alone in a house full of corpses.
47
For a short while, I maintained my sense of direction by keeping track of the glowing kitchen windows using my rearview mirror. I didn’t have the night vision to make out the entire looming hulk of the estate but I could well imagine how the turrets speared against the storm sky, needles stabbing into nothingness.
Poor Clara. What must it have been like to be trapped here with a mad husband and a psychotic child? Perhaps not psychotic in the true sense, but from all I’d read, there’d been something very wrong with Lizzie. Normal older sisters might get irritated at baby siblings, but they didn’t burn their tiny palms.
Darcie had come from that bloodline.
So had Bea.
Gritting my teeth, I drove on. By the time the safety of the warmly lit kitchen vanished into the rain, which seemed to have intensified since our departure, I knew I was maybe a quarter of the way to the bridge. A long way left to travel across formless grassland, with my vision limited to the tiny area in front of the Land Cruiser’s dim headlights.
I swallowed, stopped, searched for any possible landmark.
The light was bad. I shouldn’t be driving. Truth was, I probably wouldn’t be able to renew my driver’s license when it expired. But all that meant nothing here. I searched again, looking for anything that’d anchor me.
A sharp shadow poking up out of the snow on the very edge of my field of vision.
“Old guardhouse!”
I knew where I was now, felt confident enough to go forward until I sensed an upward slope. Good. The day we’d arrived here, we’d climbed a gentle slope from the bridge, come down the other side. Now, I was doing it in reverse.
It still felt as if my bones were crunching against each other with the force of my grip as the Land Cruiser crawled through the snow.
“You can do it,” Bea whispered in my ear.
I jolted. “Bea?”
Nothing. Silence. And when I twisted in my seat to try and see my back seat passengers, all that met me was a thickness of shadows. No change in their breathing. No indication of consciousness. And yet I could swear I’d heard Bea’s voice.
It was a madness, no doubt, the stress crushing my brain, but I didn’t care.
I had missed Bea for nine long years. Half the photographs I’d taken of shadows disappearing behind corners had been attempts to look for her.
Turning back to face the front, I started forward again. A minute later, the Land Cruiser began to move downhill.
I brought the car to a halt, staring ahead in an effort to spot the bridge even though I knew I couldn’t fucking see in the dark!
Just go, Nae-nae. Take the leap.
I had no other choice. I rolled the Land Cruiser downhill.
