It had been a mistake. She’d known it the moment Tom and Anna accepted the tow from the stranger. Stranded in the middle of nowhere, mountains and forestry as far as the eye could see, they’d had no other choice.
There’s always another choice.
Now as she lay on the cold concrete floor, a dirty rag stuffed between her teeth and her wrists bound behind her back, Elivia was certain; she would have rather died shivering in their car on the roadside than here, trapped in an outbuilding where the ice cracked across the windows. Shuddering and breathing the best she could through her broken nose, Elivia twisted onto her bruised shoulder. She hadn’t put up a fight like Anna and Tom. Her friends had always been far braver than her.
What had become of them? What had the stranger done with her friends?
Squeezing back the tears which fell like icy pin drops on her swollen cheeks, Elivia eased her knees beneath her with great difficulty. The old Elivia would have stayed lying on that floor waiting for the cold to take her in her sleep, for with every breath came a thick cloud of mist through the oily rag. The taste made her retch but it was the least of her worries then as she winced, her knees grazing across the coarse ground beneath her. In just her underwear, sodden and grimy from however long she’d been held captive in this dank, nightmarish place, Elivia could hardly feel her fingers and toes. She wiggled them and felt only a distant, alien sensation as if they didn’t belong to her at all. Biting back the urge to give up again, this new Elivia pressed her slim shoulder against the wall and with her unsteady feet beneath her, hauled herself upwards into a standing position.
She didn’t congratulate herself too soon.
From this position, she was able to see through the single window. It was night, just an eerie silver light illuminating what appeared to be a yard. Their car, that ridiculous yellow Vauxhall Corsa was up on bricks; the bonnet open and the engine gone.
Bang goes that plan.
Edging closer, staying within the shadows, she desperately searched for any sign of life. Surrounding the yard were several more outbuildings and corrugated iron lean-tos. She couldn’t imagine anyone living here, especially not in these temperatures. She hardly felt the cold now or the tears running down her face as she caught sight of one of the outbuilding doors opening.
With it came a muffled scream. It shook Elivia. She stumbled back from the window but held strong, peering into the gloom of the yard to where a man, the hulking figure of the stranger in his thick coats and deer-trapped hat, stomped out into the light dragging something behind him. Crunching across the snow in those boots – the last things Elivia had seen before she’d fallen unconscious – the stranger hauled what appeared to be a piece of meat.
But no, this wasn’t meat – this was Anna.
Her golden hair was matted and dirty; blood streaked her bare skin, her face almost unrecognisable as she bellowed and screamed, fighting every step of the way as the stranger struggled to drag her. At one point, he turned around, grasping Anna by her bound wrists, to lay the toe of his boot into her torso. While she groaned in agony, it didn’t stop Elivia’s friend from fighting.
Anna Clearwater wouldn’t be taken down that easily.
The sight of Anna’s bravery and strength encouraged Elivia and after watching the stranger drag Anna into another outhouse, closing the door behind him – though it did nothing to muffle Anna’s piercing screams and shouts – Elivia realised what she needed to do.
She didn’t know what this stranger had planned for them and she had no idea where Tom was but she couldn’t wait around to find out. She had to help. She had to get free.
Searching the outhouse, a heat burning through her with the last of her energy, Elivia quickly came across an old table. It looked heavy, its corners protruding out from beneath a piece of tarpaulin. Turning around, heart thundering in her chest, she rubbed the binds back and forth across the corner. It would take a while but she had no other option. With Anna’s wails growing quieter and more helpless in the background, Elivia knew she didn’t have much time. She had to get free. She had to help Anna and find Tom. She had to be brave for once in her life. After the year she’d had, this was something Elivia was capable of.
Teeth chattering, she worked with every ounce of the adrenaline pumping through her veins. While the temperatures were still chilling to the bone, feeling was returning to her fingers and the harder she worked, the warmer she felt. Life seemed to be returning to her. The urge to fight. To not die here.
I was left to die in the cold once before – but not again. Never again!
The ropes snapped free, falling to the ground with a soft clatter. Breathless and unable to believe her chance, she went to make a move for the door when she noticed that Anna’s cries had stopped.
All was silent in the yard and outhouses. She heard only her own thunderous heartbeat and quick pants for breath as a door creaked open in the distance. Peering through the window, she saw the stranger emerging.
He was doused in blood from head to toe. A butcher’s apron was slung over his neck and there was an exultant smile on his face. Tilting his head up to the moon, he gave a long content moan like a proud animal after a kill. It was then Elivia realised why she could no longer hear Anna.
Covering her mouth with her hands, she stumbled away from the window, her unstable body smacking straight into the table behind her and the rest of the junk stored in this outhouse. The noise echoed across the yard, made even louder by the silent night. With a grasp, Elivia steadied herself and peered once again through the window to see the stranger already on his way.
In a blind panic, she crawled beneath the table, all the way to the back where the shadows and tarpaulin would hopefully obscure her from view. Tucking her knees to her chest, arms tight around her legs, Elivia covered her mouth to stifle her pants and gasps. Her heart felt as though it was about to explode out of her chest, pounding in her ears, her head throbbing with each beat as she waited. As she held her breath and waited for the inevitable. Closing her eyes, not wishing to see her demise, Elivia listened.
The door to the outhouse opened. No lock pulled back. It simply swung open on its hinges.
He didn’t even lock it.
His confidence was apparent in his movements also. He didn’t bother to be quiet. No one would hear their screams all the way out here. The stranger could do whatever he wanted with the three teenage backpackers and never be caught. She would die here. A slow, agonising death at the hands of this maniac who had already taken Anna from her. But what about Tom? Her best friend. Was he dead too?
Was she, in fact, all alone?
Why keep fighting it?
She listened to his footsteps moving about the outhouse. He muttered to himself, growing angrier and angrier. Elivia’s legs shook, her feet almost slipping out and giving away her position in amongst all the junk. She was small; smaller than the stranger probably realised. She could fit into the smallest of crevices. And yet, she was about to give up. Throw it all in out of weakness and fear.
But she wasn’t that girl anymore. Too many times people had tried to break her. And each time, she’d been beaten, she’d fought back. And each time, she’d grown. Now was the real test. Now was the time to prove herself.
Clutching her knees higher, she held her breath, chewing down on the insides of her cheeks to steam her breaths and the groan of agony. The stranger suddenly cursed, kicking his foot into the door of the outhouse again and again before pacing out into the snow. The chill of the wind swept into the tiny room but there, under the tarpaulin, Elivia felt warm, sweating in her fear as she waited, listening to him kicking open more doors and soon starting up an engine. It sounded like a quad bike; the one she’d seen on the way in when they’d first arrived. When she’d first understood the gravity of their mistake. The meat hooks, the burn barrels and the array of hunting guns and dangerous looking knives displayed in his cabin.
They’d made a huge mistake.
Looking down beside her, Elivia frowned at the sight of several backpacks stuffed into this small space. Listening momentarily, all was silent outside the outhouse, the rumbling engine of the quad bike far away. Shifting around, she fumbled in the darkness and quickly realised that these were their backpacks.
And they weren’t the only ones.
As she rummaged through, she found more and more; photos of cheery youthful backpackers, dead mobiles, wallets full of money and IDs of people long gone.
All dead.
He killed them.
He killed them all.
Just as he’ll kill us.
Just as he’ll kill me.
If she didn’t get out of there, she would end up just another missing backpacker. And as she considered the monumental task ahead of her, the question of how on earth she would escape this nightmare, she found her own backpack. Inside her purse was the last photo Tom had printed from his Polaroid camera. A photo of herself, Tom, Anna and all the rest of their friends stood by a waterfall in Glencoe. It had been taken just before they’d split up from the others to continue into the mountains and wilderness. Clenching back her tears, Elivia thought of them all then. Would she ever see them again? This choice to see more of the beautiful Scottish countryside had cost them their lives.
Staring down into the faces of her friends, Elivia made a decision.
Gritting her teeth, she tucked the photo into her bra and, after retrieving a jumper, leggings and boots from her backpack and leaving the rest, she climbed out of her hiding space. Hands and knees trembling in fear and the bitter temperature, Elivia moved cautiously, listening every step of the way for that engine. But all was still silent, giving her enough courage to head out of the outhouse.
Her boots crunched on the fresh covering of snow. Her teeth chattered uncontrollably, her jaw aching as she hugged herself tight and surveyed the yard. She looked first to the large outhouse the stranger had taken Anna to. She gulped, viewing the bright yellow light seeping through the cracks in the steel door. There was still no sound. Elivia wasn’t sure what she would find in there and part of her wasn’t ready to find out yet. No, she needed to find Tom.
Yet as she made to move toward the other outhouse in which the stranger had emerged from dragging Anna, she heard a soft whimper. It could have been an animal; a sick, dying animal calling out for help. But Elivia knew better. The tears froze on her cheeks as she took a deep shuddering breath and changed course for the other lean-to.
Every slight noise, crack of a branch or whistle of a bat sent Elivia reeling. She willed herself to be strong. To be fierce like Anna. To be courageous like Tom. But as her knees buckled and the cold oozed across every inch of her exposed skin like a frozen tide consuming her, Elivia wondered if she had what it took to survive this. With every step, she was brought closer to the outhouse; to the door and finally the window in which she peered through.
But just as she moved up to her tiptoes to see better through the blurry glass, a hand clamped down on her shoulder.
Elivia gave a yelp of horror and shock, her heart soaring out of her chest and into her throat. Spinning around, she came face to face with Tom.
“Tom!” she squeaked, falling into her best friend’s arms. “Oh, Tom! I thought – I thought – I thought –.” It was too cold to speak. The icy air gripped at her lungs and throat. Tugging Tom close, she buried her cold face into the crook of his sweaty neck.
Pulling back, she suddenly recognised the state of him. She gave a small gasp of terror as she took in the sight of his blood-stained clothes, his swollen face and slowly down to where his hands were bleeding and his feet bare; bloody footprints left behind in the snow.
“What did he do to you?” Elivia gasped, clutching Tom’s face as he swallowed stiffly and shook his head.
“I’m fine,” he stuttered, weaker than she’d noticed before. He leant against her for support. Wrapping an arm around him, she held him steady and inspected one of his hands where there was a nasty gash straight through to the other side. Around his wrists, barbed wire remained from where he must have been bound. Elivia had no idea how Tom had managed to get free but was grateful nonetheless.
She couldn’t do this alone.
With her arm still around his waist, she turned to the door.
“We need to get Anna –.”
“No, Lil,” Tom said thickly. With emotion or in pain, she couldn’t be sure.
“We have to –.” Elivia reached for the door when he pulled her away.
“No, Elivia!” he shouted, seemingly with the last of his strength. “She’s gone, Lil.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s –.”
“We can’t just leave her here!”
“We’ll come back, I promise,” Tom choked on his words as he pressed a bloody hand to Elivia’s cheek. “Just don’t go in there.”
“No,” Elivia hiccupped “I won’t leave her here for him! I won’t do it, Tom! No! Anna deserves more!”
“Okay!” Tom interjected, soothing her as he nodded slowly. “Okay, but let me go first, yeah?”
“Why?” Elivia questioned, sniffling back her tears.
“Just – just promise me you won’t come in until I say, yeah?” Clutching her face, his blood warming her skin, she stared back into his weary eyes and understood.
This did nothing to soothe her. The tears fell faster as she gasped for breath and composure. Meanwhile, Tom disappeared inside the outhouse, closing the door behind him. Crouching down, Elivia hung her head low and hugged her arms around her bony knees as she sobbed. Great hiccups of tears as the realisation hit her all over again. This wasn’t a nightmare. This was real. And Anna? Covering her lips to muffle the noise, Elivia closed her eyes tight to the reality before her and prayed for a miracle.
It was around the same time she noticed the sound of the quad bike.
Heart beating in her ears, Elivia scrambled inside the building. Tom shouted at her to stop but she ignored him, closing the door behind her and dipping down into a crouch.
“He’s coming back!” she hissed.
Casting her gaze away from the door, she was struck once again by an overwhelming sickness at the sight of the room before her. It was a torture chamber. A meat locker of all his victims. Doubling over, Elivia vomited onto the concrete floor; heaving and retching as she choked on the stench of death. She couldn’t breathe for every breath brought on a new wave of nausea. Grasping her stomach, she dared a glance in Tom’s direction. He too was crouching down and making his way over to her. It was then, Elivia spotted Anna.
But only her golden hair.
Tom had thankfully covered her body in a large dirty white cloth. It wasn’t right. None of this was. Anna deserved more than this but Tom was right –
“We have to move,” he said, pulling her away from the door and toward the back of the outhouse.
Around Anna’s motionless figure, past the decomposing torsos hanging from meat hooks on the ceiling and the vicious tray of dirty instruments laid out on a nearby table, and over to what appeared to be the stranger’s wall of weapons. Every weapon Elivia could ever fathom was here, mounted like a display of his power.
“Get down!” Tom said, yanking her down and into a small alcove.
“But Anna,” Elivia said.
She didn’t get a chance to say anymore when the door to the outhouse opened.
Tucked into this small space, trapped like mice, the two clung to one another as they held their breaths. They were totally defenceless. Armed, this stranger was also twice their size. Even with two of them, they stood no chance. In some ways, Elivia had already accepted her demise as she crouched in her best friend’s arms, listening as the stranger made his way deeper into the room. But in other ways, she was adamant. She would not die here. She had had enough of being chased and hunted like prey.
It was time someone feared her once.
“I see your little friends have decided to come out and play with us,” the stranger spoke, to who, Elivia could only assume it was Anna’s corpse. “How unfortunate for them but fortunate for us, eh? I get to add to my collection and you’ll no longer be alone. Would you like that, pretty girl?”
Gritting her teeth, the anger surging through her, Elivia tore out of Tom’s clutches and leapt to her feet.
The stranger spotted her instantly. There was a grin on his wrinkled face, his dark eyes positively shining with joy at the sight of her.
Elivia stood motionless staring back at him. She would not let Anna’s death go unpunished. She would not allow this stranger to take anything else that didn’t belong to him. Not her, and not Tom.
“Hello, gorgeous,” the stranger purred, “I forgot how little you are.”
“Shut up,” she spat.
He looked taken aback. But only for a moment. Holding a finger up to her, with his other hand he reached down to his belt to retrieve a large hunting knife. It was fierce in shape and sharp – that much Elivia understood from this far. But she wouldn’t let him come any closer.
Ripping down the first weapon she could grab from the wall behind her, Elivia found herself in the possession of a crossbow. The stranger still didn’t move, his grin unfaltering as he chuckled.
“What you think ya gonna do with that, little bird?”
“Little bird?” she hissed “Little bird? Do you know what happened to the last person who called me that?” She gritted her teeth, glancing down to the weapon in her hand and then to the wall where five bolts were mounted in their own little grip holds. She took the first and held it up.
“You don’t even know how to use that. Put it down before you hurt yourself. That’s my job,” he howled another bellowing maniacal laugh, which only sought to fuel Elivia’s fury and motivation.
Tom appeared at her side. “You’ve gotta load it, look at the lines!”
“Oh, there’s another one!” the stranger chortled, “Two birdies for me to catch.”
Elivia ignored the stranger and focused on the bolt; pressing it up into the slot and pushing back the string until it clicked into place. With the sound of that click, the stranger’s laughter stopped. She and Tom turned their gazes up to where Anna’s killer no longer looked amused. His dark eyes had become hard and fierce, and his grip around the knife tight; his knuckles almost white.
“Now, you think about what you wanna do next very carefully,” the stranger said, knife pointed at them.
“Do it, Lil!” Tom hollered, “Fucking kill him!”
With trembling arms, Elivia lifted the heavy weapon and pulled on the trigger without a second thought. In an instant, the bolt pierced the stranger through his shoulder, sending him back several paces. But she didn’t have time to curse her inaccuracy. This mere flesh wound wouldn’t stop the stranger – this killer. They were running out of time.
“Again! Lil, again!” Tom yelled, hanging behind her as she grabbed the next bolt and loaded it with trembling sweaty hands.
Raising the bow again, she watched as the stranger staggered toward them, knife out and ready. He was just metres from them now. Close enough to see the claw marks down his face. The ones Anna had no doubt left. The sight of her final struggle. And this evidence was what Elivia needed to see as she pulled the trigger once again, the bolt flying into the middle of the stranger’s chest this time.
But even so, he didn’t stop.
Waving the hunting knife outwards, he went for Tom first, who ducked out of the way, rolling onto his back in his exhausted, blood-drained state. Elivia gasped, her grip faltering on the weapon as the stranger pulled on Tom’s legs and raised that hunting knife.
Grabbing another bolt, Elivia loaded it as quickly as her numb fingers would work. But as she looked up, her grip around the bolt wavered and it went clattering to the floor.
“Lil! Just run!” Tom begged, on his back, the stranger straddling him as that hunting knife came flying down.
“Tom!” Elivia wailed, falling to her knees to reach for the bolt just as the stranger plunged the knife down.
In that last moment, Tom managed to wriggle away, the knife only catching him through the top of his arm instead of his heart. This small relief, this tiny slice of hope urged Elivia on as she loaded the bolt, pushed back the string and raised the weapon.
“Lil!” Tom gurgled, arms up to hold the stranger back as he raised his fist to plunge that knife down again. “Lil! Do it!”
She wanted to close her eyes as she pulled the trigger. She didn’t want to see her failure. She wanted this all to be over with. But she willed her eyes to stay open as she pulled the trigger and the bolt shot from the end of the crossbow, flew through the air and hit its target with a fleshy smack.
Lowering the crossbow, Elivia panted as the stranger toppled to the side, the bolt having pierced straight through his neck. Blood oozed wave after wave from the wound as the killer coughed and choked, hands reaching out for Tom as he shuffled away, grasping his own wound. Keeping the crossbow in her grip, Elivia rushed to Tom’s side, holding him as the two watched the stranger lying on his side, one fist still clenched around his knife and his dark eyes upon them. And that grin. That grin that would stay with Elivia for the rest of her life.
“Do it, Lil,” Tom mumbled, leaning against her, his face to her neck. “For Anna.”
Reaching behind her, Elivia pulled another bolt from the wall. Loading it, she and Tom listened as the stranger pleaded for mercy, blood spewing from his mouth with every cough and staining his beard and clothes. But Elivia didn’t have any mercy for him. He’d had no mercy for Anna or any of those backpackers for that matter. And none for them. Mercy had no place here as Elivia raised the crossbow and held it steady, wanting to get it right this time.
Pulling the trigger, the two watched as the bolt found home between the stranger’s eyes and finally, all was silent.
Hillside Academy: AUs Copyright © 2020 Jodie May Mullen