Into the Dark

64

Big Bear Lake, California

Claire’s eyes opened to a watery haze.

What…where…

The swollen side of her head throbbed, making her woozy. Her blood pumped hard as she tried to see, tried to…

What happened?

Swimming through disorientation, she smelled the cabin and recalled the fragrance of flowers as she focused in the dim light. She was facing the fireplace. Yes, she was in the cabin.

Crickets.

Evening.

Inside, the cabin was lit only by candles flickering from various shelves and tables. The air was silent but for the crickets.

And the roar of remembering.

Amber.

Claire’s head was pounding and she tried to think. Okay, she was sitting in a hard-back chair but it felt so strange, so weird.

In the dull stillness, large shapeless shadows danced along the walls.

Okay, I have to get Amber out of the box, get her to a hospital but- No. It was a dream. No. Robert was cheating here with Cynthia? No, it was a dream. I must’ve fallen, got a concussion or… I have to get up and call an ambulance. Get up now!

Claire’s effort to stand was halted.

Her legs were bound at the ankles to a wooden kitchen chair. Her wrists were bound to the armrests. With plastic handcuffs.

“Help! Somebody help me!”

Breathing hard in the quiet, she struggled in vain until she cried out in frustration. Squirming in her chair, she strained her neck to turn to the kitchen. On the floor she saw…Robert!

First she saw his travel bag. Then she saw him in the kitchen, his back to her, standing at the table, in jeans and a T-shirt, casually flipping through newspapers by candlelight.

“Robert! Help me!”

Nothing.

“Robert, please help me!”

He didn’t react.

It was as if she didn’t exist.

This isn’t real. I’m having a nightmare. So wake up, wake up!

She strained against the handcuffs and felt pain.

They’re real.

Claire went numb, time raced with her fear rising as she struggled to comprehend what had befallen her. It was incomprehensible. She had to think. She must get through to him; convince him to release her.

What are the levers, the triggers?

She swallowed hard and tried to keep the fear out of her tone-tried to talk to him as his wife.

“Robert, I love you with all my heart. We’ve both been through so much lately. We can help each other. Whatever you’re going through, we can help each other. I love you. I want to help you, let me help you.”

He didn’t respond.

“Robert, I understand it can be painful to talk about these things.”

He continued ignoring her. She tried a direct approach.

“Robert, what have you done with Amber? Show me where she is. We need to help her.”

Like a tradesman whose break was over, Robert took his bag and left the kitchen for the hall to the bedrooms. Then she heard the shower running. Alone in the living room, she struggled against the plastic handcuffs until her wrists bled.

It was futile.

She began writhing in her chair. If she could tilt it so she could stand maybe she could crab-walk to the kitchen and a knife. It was not easy. Her position afforded her little strength, but after several attempts she succeeded.

She was on her feet in a spine-breaking posture. The chair was heavy. Its weight threatened to pull her back down.

She had moved about a foot when the shower stopped.

Startled, Claire lost her balance and slid back into a sitting position, a prisoner again. Then she heard humming.

What was he doing?

She listened.

Forgetting how long it had been since the shower stopped, she prepared to try again when there was movement in the hall.

“Robert, please, I’m begging you!”

He emerged from the darkness like a ghost.

“Robert is gone, Claire.”

She gasped.

He stood before her, naked.

In the near dark of the candlelight his face glowed white but Robert’s features had vanished in the brilliant makeup, the streak of bright red smeared across his upturned mouth, his cheeks, a fury of cuts, his eyes burned from huge black smudge pools with fierce streaks for eyebrows, amplifying his rage.

“You know who I am.”

Claire’s heart hammered against her rib cage as she nodded weakly.

“Say it.”

Claire was speechless.

“Say it!”

“What have you done with Amber?”

“Tell me who I am and I will show you wonders.”

“Please, let me help you, Robert.”

“Robert is gone.” Suddenly he thrust his face within inches of hers. “Tell me who I am. Say it.”

“You’re the killer in the news.” She choked back her sobs. “The Dark Wind Killer.”

He stood up and thrust out his chest.

“I am a deity, spawned in hell. I control life and death.”

“Please.”

In a heartbeat he moved behind her chair, with his superior strength he tilted her back as if she weighed nothing and dragged her into the bedroom, which was lit by candles.

He turned her to the bed.

“A masterwork in progress, don’t you think?”

Claire’s breathing stopped, her skin prickled with gooseflesh.

Amber was naked, spread-eagled on the bed, each wrist and ankle restrained by plastic handcuffs. Her thinned, weakened body was muddied and bloodied. Her face laced in blood and bruises. Barely conscious, she sensed Claire’s presence and groaned.

Claire’s chair tilted as he dragged her into the second candlelit bedroom where a naked woman was bound on the bed in the same way as Amber. Her face was bloodied, but when Claire recognized her, she cried out, “Julie! Oh, God, Julie!”

“She meddled and now she’s a very special project.”

He dragged Claire back out to the living room.

“You lied, Claire. You were supposed to go to Las Vegas. No matter. I can adapt. Your time was coming. You’re just like Cindy. You and Julie interfered but you failed. Just like Cindy did.”

Claire sobbed.

“When I’m done tonight, I’ll move on. The world’s a big canvas and my fan base is growing. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to resume my work. It’s going to be a long, glorious night.”

He drew his hideous, horrifying face to hers, opened his mouth wide and extended his tongue, and when she averted her face in disgust, he gave her a long, reptilian lick from her neck to the top of her head.

Then as if in a cobra strike, he seized her throat.

“I’m saving you for last.”

Left alone in the living room, restrained to her chair, the only sounds Claire heard were crickets and the hammering of her heart, then the screams from the bedrooms. The pain and outrage hit Claire again and again.

He’s going to kill us all.

Every vein in her body stood out as again, Claire battled to stand. Breathing hard and straining like a power lifter, she got to her feet. Slowly, steadily and by sheer will, she progressed to the kitchen for a knife. But Claire’s chair leg clipped the kitchen table, toppling the candle onto the newspaper, igniting a fire.

The newspaper burned in seconds, the flames spread to the wooden table, smoke rising. Thinking fast, Claire turned her chair to the flames and moved her plastic-cuffed wrist into them. The heat was excruciating, and she fought through her tears as her skin cooked, pulling against the restraint until it gave way.

As her burned flesh throbbed, she hobbled to the drawer, got a serrated knife and cut herself free as fire spread.

The flames now reached from the kitchen to the living room.

Claire seized the fire poker and ran into the bedroom where Robert was on top of Amber. Raising the steel poker like a club, her two-handed swing knifed through the air as she brought it down, striking him repeatedly. As he turned to defend himself, she continued beating him until he fell to the floor-then she stabbed him, forcing the poker’s point into his stomach.

Claire cut Amber free and began pulling her to safety out the rear door. By the time she’d returned for Julie, the fire had spread to the hallway. The smoke was choking, the heat was intense.

Claire had to get down on her hands and knees.

She cut Julie free. They started for the rear door, hindered by the flames, heat and smoke. Using all of her strength, she got Julie through the door, but Claire couldn’t get out.

Something had locked on to her lower leg.

She turned. In the churning inferno of smoke and flames, Robert had crawled on his stomach, bleeding and dying, to seize Claire in a death grip. His grotesque face contorted as he growled.

“I’m taking you to hell with me!”