The Beast on the Tracks Read online

  “You do?”

  “Remember when I asked you if you wanted to come with me? At the party?”

  “Sure,” he replies, “and I said -”

  “It doesn't matter what you said,” I say firmly. “That's the whole point. Whether you said yes or no, whatever, we still would have ended up right here, at this moment.” I pause, wondering whether it's too soon to say the next thing that's in my mind, but Richard seems like the kind of guy who takes suggestions well. “I think it's destiny that we ended up here together,” I add finally.

  I wait, but he seems a little uncertain.

  “I've been waiting for something like this,” I continue. “All my life, or at least for the past five years. I thought I'd found a god in the forest and -”

  “Me too!” he blurts out.

  “Exactly!” I reach over and squeeze his left hand tight. “We had a pretty weird way of meeting tonight. I mean, I'm sorry I kidnapped you and held you in my bunker but -”

  “That's not how we met,” he replies, cutting me off. “I kidnapped you, remember? I tied you to the railroad tracks in the cemetery.”

  Staring at him, I feel a burst of joy in my heart as I realize that I was right all along. We were destined to meet tonight, and to end up here like this, even if we faced different – and contradictory – journeys. I was right all along about the strange stars, and for the first time in my life I feel as if I belong somewhere. And with someone. The whole future seems to be open.

  I squeeze Richard's hand again.

  “The universe gave us a helping hand,” I tell him, “and now we have to take it from here. Maybe the stars will turn strange again in five years, maybe we'll get nudged again, but for now we have to make a choice. The point is, something has reached out from an unknowable place and offered us a helping hand. I don't know why or how, but I know better than to look a gift horse in the mouth. So we need to run with this.”

  I wait, still hoping against hope that he's going to come around and see things from my point of view.

  “You asked me to go with you tonight,” he says finally, as if he's choosing each and every word with great care, “and I said no.”

  “You said yes.”

  “No, I really didn't.”

  “You did from my point of view.”

  He sighs.

  “So maybe we each got to experience our own version of how events transpired tonight,” I continue, “but the fact that we ended up in the same place regardless just shows that this destiny thing is real. Something really wants us to be together.”

  He shakes his head.

  “Life feels so chaotic and uncontrollable,” I point out, “and now, for the first time, I feel as if there's a point to it all. I feel as if there's a direction. So even if you're not entirely convinced, can you at least give it a try?”

  “Give what a try?” he asks cautiously.

  “I know you're the same as me,” I continue, allowing myself a faint smile. “I can see it in your eyes. We just have to seal the deal by working on something together. A project, if you will.”

  “What kind of project?” he asks.

  “Go to Hell, Luke!” a familiar voice shouts outside, and we both turn to see Debs storming away from Luke's car, heading toward the road.

  “Do you know her?” Richard asks.

  “I do.”

  “Is she... going to walk home alone?”

  “I think so.”

  We turn to one another.

  “We can't just sit here,” I tell him. “We have to go and make it official. In blood.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Milly

  “Debs! Hey, Debs, wait up!”

  Hurrying along the road, I see Debs stop and turn to me. Her make-up is all a mess, with tears having run dark lines of mascara down her cheeks.

  “I don't wanna talk to anyone,” she says, sounding exhausted. “I've spent the whole night trying to make Luke not act like an asshole, and I'm just tired. I want to go home and sleep until everyone else in the world starts acting nice again.”

  “It's been a pretty weird night for a lot of us,” I tell her. “Have you noticed how bright the stars are tonight?”

  She looks up, and when I follow her gaze I'm once again astonished by the sheer number of stars in the sky. I swear I can see whole other galaxies up there, as if some kind of blindfold has been removed and I'm able to look out across the universe.

  “Looks normal to me,” Debs mutters.

  I turn to her, and I realize that maybe not everyone can see the change. A moment later I hear footsteps coming up behind me, and I watch as Debs peers back along the road.

  “Who's that?” she asks.

  “This is my friend Richard,” I tell her, as Richard stops next to me. “I met him tonight. It's a long story, but don't worry, he's cool.”

  “Hey,” she says, and now she seems a little shy. She always gets like that when she thinks a guy is hot.

  “Hey,” Richard mumbles.

  “So which way are you walking home?” I ask Deb, keen to get us moving again. “You're not gonna take the really long way all around the edge of the forest again, are you?”

  “I don't have much choice,” she grumbles. “I don't have money for a cab.”

  “But you have us,” I point out. “Seriously, Debs, I've told you a million times that I know a short-cut that goes straight through the forest. It'll take at least an hour off your walk.”

  “Thanks, but I'm not really into the forest. It's creepy out there.”

  “Maybe if you were by yourself, but you'll be with us,” I tell her. “I know the forest really well, there's no way I'd ever let us get lost. And it's cold, Debs, and you're wearing a dress that's designed to attract guys' eyes, not one that'll keep you warm. You don't even have a jacket.”

  “I'll be fine,” she says uncertainly, but I can hear from her tone of voice that I'm already winning her around. “I'll warm up once I get moving.”

  “There's nothing wrong with going through the forest,” I say, as I turn and look at the dark trees that run along the side of the road. “Everyone in this whole town is always avoiding the forest, it's like Sobolton is basically more of a ring than an actual town. I mean, what do you think's gonna be out there, some kind of fairytale monster? A wolf dressed up as your grandma?” I turn back to her. “Come on, let's just walk through the forest, it'll be way quicker.”

  She's not quite convinced yet, but she's getting close.

  “Or are you just boring?” I add, keen to quit wasting time. “Are you scared?”

  “I'm not scared of anything!” she snaps. “I don't even care if my feet get all scratched up. That's how not scared I am!”

  “Great,” I reply, “then -”

  “Let's get going!” she says firmly, turning and stomping off the road, heading for the trees. She's still wearing high heels, which means that she's tottering slightly and generally looking quite unstable.

  “She was pretty easy to convince,” Richard says, keeping his voice low.

  “Accusing her of being scared is always the best approach,” I reply. “I swear, you could get her to jump off a cliff if you suggested she wasn't brave enough.”

  “Are you coming, or what?” she calls back to us. “Let's get a move on!”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Milly

  “Are you sure this is the right way?” Debs asks a short while later, as the three of us make our way between the trees. “I feel like we've been walking for a while now.”

  “Don't be so impatient,” I reply, as I reach into my jacket pocket. “I said it's a short-cut, not a wormhole. We still have to actually cover some ground.”

  I slip a pen-knife from my pocket and, while remaining behind Debs, I hold the knife up for Richard to see. He stares at the blade for a moment, and then he looks at me, and I offer him a faint smile.

  “I swear I'll kill you if you get us lost out here,” Debs complains, before following up with a lou
d, laborious sigh. “There's a reason most people don't come this way, Milly, and that reason -”

  Before she can finish, I slash the knife at the back of her bare left arm. She lets out a gasp and turns around, and I just manage to hide the knife behind my hand.

  “What was that?” she asks.

  “What was what?” I reply.

  “Something cut me!”

  She examines her arm, and in the moonlight I'm just able to make out a thin, satisfying line of blood just above the back of her elbow.

  “Must have been a branch,” I suggest, before turning to Richard. “Don't you think? She must have caught her arm on a branch.”

  “Totally,” he replies, and he actually manages to sound impressively convincing. “There are a lot of branches out here.”

  “I'm bleeding!” she grumbles.

  “It doesn't look that bad,” I tell her. “It's just a scratch.”

  “I don't like getting scratched!” she says, and then she sighs before turning and setting off again. “Are you really sure that we're not lost?”

  “I'm really sure,” I reply, as I nudge Richard and hand him the knife.

  I nod toward Debs, and he seems to get the message. He looks at her for a moment as we all walk on, and then he reaches out and positions the blade next to her right elbow. Then, as if he thought better of that spot, he raises the knife toward the back of her neck.

  I wait, desperately hoping that he'll go through with this.

  He slices the knife against her. She cries out and stumbles forward, and then she clutches her neck as she turns to us. Richard has already hidden the knife in the sleeve of his jacket, and a moment later Debs looks at her hand and sees more blood.

  “Another scratch from a branch?” I ask.

  “That was not a scratch from a branch!” she yells. “What was it?”

  “A branch,” I reply, trying to sound pretty relaxed. “What else could it have been?”

  “There aren't even any branches that close right now,” she points out, not unreasonably. “And how come you two haven't been hurt?”

  “Just lucky, I guess,” I suggest.

  “Are you sure it's not bats?” she asks.

  “Why would it be bats?” I reply.

  “I don't know, but it really hurt!” She steps closer and then turns her back to me. “How bad is it?”

  Peering at the wound, I see that it's only a couple of inches long. Honestly, she's being a little bit of a cry-baby.

  “It's nothing,” I tell her.

  “Are you sure there aren't any, like, bite wounds?”

  “Bite wounds?”

  “From bats!”

  “There are no bite wounds,” I say with a faint smile. “Richard, what do you think? Has Debs been bitten by a bat?”

  “Looks like scratches from a branch to me,” he replies.

  “Exactly.”

  Debs turns to me, and she looks like she's on the verge of tears.

  “I wouldn't have brought you out here if I thought you'd get this freaked out,” I tell her. “Seriously, this is just a forest, there's no reason to be afraid.”

  “I didn't say I was afraid!” she snaps. “I'm just cold and I don't like getting hurt! I mean, why is it just me? Why haven't you got scratches all over you?”

  “I'm sure I will soon,” I tell her. “Let's just keep going, Debs, and before you know it you'll be back at home and tucked up safely in your bed.”

  “I'm going to look hideous,” she replies as we set off walking again, and as I carefully take the knife from Richard's hand. “I'll have to find some way to cover the scratches up. I guess I can wear long sleeves and a scarf, but those aren't exactly my preferred fashion choices. Honestly, by the end of this trek I'm going to look like some kind of monster!”

  I reach the knife down toward the back of her left leg.

  “I'm not a nature person,” she continues, “I've never -”

  I slice her leg and pull back. She gasps and turns, and I see a horrified look on her face. For a moment, I wonder whether maybe she's realized that we're playing a trick on her, that we've effectively begun the slow process of stabbing her to death, that these little cuts are signs of what's yet to come. I watch as she reaches down and touches her leg.

  “Did it happen again?” I ask, playing dumb.

  “I'm sure it was just another branch,” Richard adds. “If you're worried about snakes or anything like that, there's no need. I don't think there are too many of those out here.”

  “You're just being really unlucky,” I tell her. “Plus, with all that uncovered -”

  Stopping, I realize that I can hear Debs sobbing. She's still leaning down and feeling the wound on her leg, but after a few seconds she looks at me and I see that she's in tears. Her bottom lip is trembling and she looks like she's going to start wailing at any moment. The sight is so shocking, for a moment I genuinely don't know how to react.

  “Hey,” I say finally, “it's okay, we're just -”

  “It's not okay!” she shouts, barely able to get the words out as tears stream down her face. “I'm cold and I'm miserable and I keep getting hurt and I want to go home!”

  I glance at Richard, and he looks stunned by this latest development.

  “I wanted a nice night out!” Debs continues, as if she's properly breaking down now. “I wanted to hang out with friends and get drunk! Instead I got bitten on the nose by a ferret, and I had about a hundred arguments with Luke, and now I'm out in the middle of a forest and I'm freezing my tits off and I'm bleeding and everything's just going wrong!”

  With that, she turns and slams a fist against the nearest tree, while letting out an angry grunt.

  “Sorry,” I say, not really knowing how else to respond. “Maybe you're right, maybe coming through the forest wasn't right for you.”

  “Duh, do you think so?” she sneers. “This is the worst night of my entire life!”

  “There's really not much further to go,” I tell her. “If we keep walking, I'm sure we'll be all done in a minute or two. Isn't that right, Richard?”

  I glance at him, but he doesn't immediately reply.

  “Oh, sure,” he says finally. “Definitely.”

  “I just want to go home,” Debs continues, “and not be out in this stupid forest!”

  She turns to start walking again, but at that moment her right heel catches in the ground and she almost falls. Screaming with frustration, she reaches down and pull her shoe off, and then she throws it into the distance before doing the same with the second. One of the shoes disappears into the night, while the other hits a tree and bounces away harmlessly.

  “Now my feet are gonna get cut too!” she snaps, stomping forward. “Are you both happy? I probably won't even have any toes left by the end of the night, 'cause they'll probably get all torn to ribbons! Knowing my luck, there'll probably be discarded needles out here too and I'll get some kind of horrible disease!”

  “I'm sure it won't come to that,” I reply as I get the knife ready and hurry up behind her. “Don't worry, Debs, your discomfort isn't gonna last much longer. In fact -”

  “What's that?” she asks, stopping and pointing ahead.

  I bump into her, almost driving the knife straight into her waist. I instinctively pull the blade back and hide it behind my hand, and then I realize that there's a faint light in the forest, visible from behind several trees. I squint, trying to figure out exactly what I'm seeing, and then to my astonishment I realize that we seem to have stumbled upon some kind of cabin.

  “This is impossible,” I whisper. “I know this forest, I know every part of it and there's no cabin here.”

  “Well, I think reality would disagree with you,” Debs replies contemptuously, “and if you don't mind, I'm going to go and see if anyone there has a map.”

  “Wait,” I say, grabbing her arm as she steps forward, “it might be -”

  “A mass murdering serial killer waiting for his next victim?” she snaps, pulling fre
e and then storming in the direction of the cabin. “Yeah, thanks for the concern but I think right now I'll take my chances. Anyway, he can't kill all three of us, so come on. Hurry up!”

  “I didn't know there was a cabin out here,” Richard says cautiously.

  “There isn't,” I reply, as I feel a tightening knot of dread in my chest. “I mean, there wasn't. I mean... this doesn't make any sense.”

  “Who do you think lives there?” Richard asks.

  “I have no idea,” I tell him as I watch Debs making her way closer and closer to the cabin's front door, “but I think we're about to find out.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Milly

  “Hello?” Debs shouts again, as she continues to hammer her right fist against the door. “Is anyone home? We're lost and we need help!”

  “There's some kind of lantern in there,” I say as I spot what seems to be an old-fashioned gas lamp on the other side of the window. I lean closer, but the light from the lantern makes it impossible for me to see too much of the cabin's interior. “I don't know how long these things last, exactly, but I'm pretty sure that someone must either be here right now, or they're close.”

  “Hello?” Debs bangs on the door again, before letting out a frustrated grunt. “Well, either they're not here or they're being incredibly rude.”

  “Should we be here at all?” Richard asks cautiously. “I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting a really weird vibe from this place.”

  “A cabin in the middle of the forest, that wasn't here before,” I whisper, as I take a step back and try to make sense of this mess. “Or at least, one that I didn't see before, like it was being hidden.” Looking up at the cabin's roof, I see a chimney poking out at one end, and after a few seconds I begin to realize that maybe I was wrong to describe this place as a cabin at all. “It's more like a cottage.”

  “The door opens,” Debs says.

  I turn just as she pulls the door wide open and steps inside.

  “Hey!” I call out. “Maybe you shouldn't do that!”

  “Why not?” She turns to me. “This is an emergency, right? If I had a shitty little house in the forest and someone needed it while I was away, I wouldn't mind. I've got no signal on my phone out here. Maybe these people have a landline.”