Ava

AVA

We take my Bronco as close to the trailer’s access point as we can without being noticed and drop it off. From here on, we’re on foot.

And that’s not easy. I know Tal does this all the time, but I don’t. Even with all my training, this is treacherous, and I realize now why he said it wasn’t safe at night. No matter what we do, something is clinging to our legs, threatening to trip us, or sticking out of the ground. It’s slow going. Just as I think I hear something, he turns to me and presses a finger to his lips, warning me to be quiet. It takes a minute for my eyes to spot them—there are a few cars parked in front of a nasty-looking old mobile home, but I can’t tell anything about them in the darkness. We’re sitting there, still and quiet, watching, when a car pulls up, stops, and two people get out. Even as dark as it is, I can see something that chills me.

It's a boy. And he’s got brilliant red hair.

I think Tal senses something because he turns and points at my head, then toward the boy, and I nod. Yes, I know him. He points at my chest again and down at the ground, then to the trailer, himself, and makes a spinning motion with his finger pointed upward. I shake my head, but he nods, and in a second, he’s gone. He’s going around the back of the trailer, and that’s an extremely dangerous move. I’m terrified. If he doesn’t come back, I’m stuck here until morning. There’s no way I can get out of here to safety without him, much less find a way to help him.

He seems to be gone forever, and by forever, I mean forever. I’m trying to see the license plates of the cars in the drive, but it’s just too dark. There’s loud music coming from inside the thin walls, and from time to time I can hear somebody cry out. The longer I sit there, the more afraid I become.

Then I see a door open, and a shaft of light shoots out into the darkness, filled by a large figure with something over its shoulder. The door closes, and in what’s left of the dim light coming through the windows, I can see the figure disappear somewhere behind the trailer, then reappear without whatever it was carrying and reenter the trailer. What was that? Please, don’t let that have been Tal , I think, and then realize that even a man that size couldn’t have lifted somebody as big as Tal. He’s massive.

I’ve pretty much given up and I’m sitting there, regretting virtually all of my life choices, when I hear a sound behind me—“ Psssst .” Just as I turn, a hand clamps over my mouth, and I look up into his big brown eyes. “Oh, god,” I whisper as he turns loose of me. “I was scared for you.”

“I’m okay, but they’re not. We’ve got to get out of here. Come on. Back the way we came.”

We pick through the brush and vines, watching for stumps and rocks, and it takes forever before we finally reach the little trail and take it down to my Bronco. As I prepare to start it, he grabs my hand. “No headlights until we get around that bend down there.”

“I can barely see!”

“I know, but no headlights. We can’t take that chance.”

I crank the engine, put it in gear, and let it idle down and around the bend. As soon as we clear it, Tal says, “Throw on the headlights and head to the sheriff’s office. Hurry.”

“What did you see?”

“I don’t want to talk about it. Just go!”

I blast down the roads and into town, then skid to a stop in front of the sheriff’s office. Tal orders, “Call Lee before we go in. Find out where he is and get him down here.”

The phone only rings once on my end. “McCreary.”

“Lee, this is AvaMorrow. Where are you?”

“Well, I was asleep.”

“Come down to your office. We need to talk to you right now.”

“We? Who’s we?”

Tal snatches the phone out of my hand. “Is this McCreary?”

“Yeah. Who’s this.”

“This is TalmadgeRand, and we have a huge problem. You need to call everybody in and get the state police in here. Now.”

“This has something to do with those kids, doesn’t it?” Lee asks.

“Yes. And it’s really bad. Just do it, McCreary. And hurry.” Tal ends the call and sits there, stone-faced.

“Tell me what you saw,” I insist.

“No.”

“Yes. Tell me what you saw. I can handle it.”

“No. I won’t.”

“Tal, how bad was it?”

“It was bad. Two teenage boys and a teenage girl. Cameras. Grown men. Do I need to spell it out for you?”

“No. That’s enough. But somebody came out with something over their shoulder and?—”

“Yeah. A kid who’d passed out from too many… I can’t say it. They took him to a semitrailer out there.”

“Was he dead?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. But I think there are probably other kids out there in that semitrailer. Fuck, Ava. I fucking hate people. I. Fucking. Hate. People,” Tal mutters and slams his hands on the dash, then buries his face in them. I don’t think he’s crying, but I do think he’s trying to keep from crying. And that’s plenty bad enough.