Page 2 of False Idols

I forget about my journal and Bible. My hands go to my flashlight and I hold onto it so tight the plastic flexes under my fingers. What is he doing here with her? She’s the reason he wasn’t at youth night, I know it. She’s pretty, blonde and perfect looking. She can’t be in high school, she’s too polished and put together, even for a girl that just got out of a jeep half naked a minute before. She’s elegant and grown up. This girl is in college, she has to be.

Of course, she’s the kind of girl Beau would want to be with. He wasn’t upset about the murder at all, he was with the college girl in his jeep. I know what that means at Bloom Hill. All thoughts of courtship, proper behavior and smiling so hard my cheeks hurt, seems stupid now. I drop the flashlight with a thud onto the rock and I look down at the journal and the Bible I placed beside it. I take in a deep breath and then another, even though my heart is pounding in my ears at what I now know, and smooth my fingers over the worn leather of my Bible. I came here to think, but I can’t do it now. Beau’s laugh sounds behind me and this time there’s another one with it. The girl’s. It’s bright and happy. I want to throw up hearing them together. I grab my things and slide off the rock to head back towards the path that will take me back to my trailer park.

I pick up the pace and jog across the clearing and towards the path so no one sees me, but the second I make it past the tree line, my steps slow. Beau was with a girl at Bloom Hill. A perfect, beautiful, college girl. It doesn’t matter that I couldn’t see her clearly from my spot, I know she has to be beautiful if she’s with Beau Du Pont. I take in a deep breath and then another. I fix my mind on being numb, on nothing but the circle of light from my flashlight bouncing on the path in front of me. I’m so focused on thinking of nothing that I don’t notice the sound of rustling leaves and cracking limbs straight away. It’s only when the bushes to the right of me move and shake that I freeze. There’s heavy footfall and a branch snaps. There’s someone there, I know it. I swing my flashlight towards the sound but can’t see too much from where I’m standing, so I take a step closer to where I think I heard the noise come from. I sweep my light over the area and squint as I take another step forward.

“Hello?” Fear spikes through me like an icy blade. I want to run, but I can’t. My feet carry me forward another step, because I have to see what’s making the noise. I don’t know why, but I do. All the while I can hear my mother’s voice screaming at me to run. That there’s a sicko cutting up girls in their beds. Why oh, why didn’t I listen when my mom warned me about this sort of thing? I shuffle forward and the light shakes in my hand. My palms are sweaty now and I have to squeeze the flashlight harder to keep hold of it. I take another step forward. I’m right on the edge of the path and pebbles fall over the side of it when I move. Whatever is there, I have to be above it, because there’s a drop down the hill from the path. It’s the reason I started carrying my flashlight in the first place, even if it alerts people I’m up here.

The trees shake again and I jump. “H-hello? Who’s there?” My voice shakes just as much as the flashlight I’m holding. Everything around me falls silent. Even the crickets stop chirping and I swear the wind stops blowing. I swallow hard and start to run through my daily prayers. I would try to say them out loud but I can’t speak, I’m too scared. Why didn’t I listen? Why did I come out here and not tell anyone?

What is my mom going to think when they find me cut to pieces?

“W-ho’s there?” I say again, but this time it’s barely a whisper. Nothing stirs and I can feel my heart hammering in my chest. It’s so loud that I start to wonder if I imagined hearing anything at all. Maybe it was just my heart. My wild imagination and not-

The leaves wiggle, but there’s no wind to move them. If I wasn’t so close to the leaves, I might not have even noticed that they moved at all. It’s all the warning I get, because I was right. I’m not alone. The tree limbs jerk and leaves explode forward when a body leaps out of the trees at me.

“Oh god!” I scream. Everything slows down when I try to move out of the way. I twist and start to fall to the side, but my light shines bright on a snorting deer that leaps away from me with an agitated flick of its tail. A deer. It was a deer that I heard.

Sweet relief sweeps over me, because it’s not the monster cutting girls up, it’s just a deer.

I’m safe.

A sob rises up in me in relief, but that’s when time moves again and my sob turns to a scream as I fall head first over the path’s edge and tumble down the hill.

2

NEVAEH

I don’t fall for long, maybe five feet or so, before I slam onto a dirt ledge and the air gets knocked out of my lungs. I hit my head and my ears ring from the fall. I feel like I’m deaf. I can’t hear anything as I cough and try to push myself up. It’s rough going, so I lay there for a bit. I don’t know how long passes, but when I finally manage to move, I’m relieved that I kept my grip on my flashlight. It’s right beside me when I put my hand out to roll over. I cough and try to take a breath, but it’s difficult. The air has been knocked out of me and all I can do is wheeze and roll from my side to my back while my lungs ache. It feels like an eternity passes while I choke for air, but finally I’m able to breathe. That’s when I hear it.

A scream.

“No!” A woman screams. “Get away from me!” She’s close by and getting closer. I don’t think I heard her before because of the ringing in my ears and my struggle to breathe. My coughing must have drowned it out when she was farther away. I struggle to sit up but my back aches and my head is sore from where I hit it, but I manage to get to my knees. I’m trying to stand up when a shriek rips through the air.

“No, stop! Please! Please!” She’s begging above me. Rocks slide over the edge and hit me where I’m kneeling. I look up and see the trees move. She has to be grabbing them, trying to get away from whoever is chasing her. I should tell her to drop down where I am, or try to pull her down, but I can’t. I’m too scared to move. I’m so scared that I turn my flashlight off. I can’t let whoever is after her find me.

I can’t. I can’t. I can’t.

“You can’t do this! You don’t have to do it! I won’t tell anyone. I promise! Stop! Ple-” I know she was about to say please. That she was going to promise anything to stay safe. To stay alive. But her please stops abruptly. It turns into a howl of pain, a sob. And I know the sound that accompanies it.

Even if you’ve never heard it before, there's no mistaking the sound of a knife cutting into a body. It’s a wet smack. It sounds like a fist making contact before it slices through muscle and fat. Before it hits bone. I clap my hands over my mouth to stop the scream that almost comes out of me and I keep my hands there to stop myself from getting sick as I hear the knife cut again and again. The girl screams and it’s frantic. She’s not getting away. I fall against the hillside and press myself flat. I shove my face against the dirt and shut my eyes like I can block out what’s happening. I don’t know what to do. I feel like a bomb is going off next to me and if I make one wrong move I’ll start screaming. I’ll lose it.

There’s a sicko cutting up girls in their beds.

I bite down on my hands and force the puke that’s burning my throat back down. It’s not just their beds. He’s here. The killer is here. If I make a sound, he’s going to kill me too. Dirt falls around me and gets in my nose from how hard I’m breathing, but I don’t move. I don’t dare lift my head to see what’s going on. What if they’re done with her and they know I’m here? No, I can’t look. I can hear her screaming still and somewhere in her begging, I lose the fight and puke down my shirt. It mingles with the dirt from the hillside I’m still pressed against, but I don’t move. I puke silently. I don’t know how I do it, but I manage to not make a sound. Vomit slides down my chin and tears blur my eyes, but it’s all darkness anyways. I stay exactly where I am.

The girl goes quiet and I hear the heavy footsteps of someone big moving. They come to the edge of the path and a rock falls and hits my shoulder. I shake where I’m kneeling and still I can’t lift my head to look up at them. If they see me, I won’t know. Maybe it will be better that way, if he does what he did to the girl to me. I start to pray, the words stuck on my vomit coated lips, but then there’s a shift and he moves away from the ledge. I know it because I can hear his footsteps. He walks heavy and he doesn’t care who hears him, at least it sounds that way from where I am. Second by second, his footsteps get fainter until I can’t hear them anymore, but it’s not quiet when he’s gone.

She’s crying.

It’s soft, just a moan really. The sound of someone trying to breathe but all they can do is gasp. Oh my god. She’s alive. I lift my head then and look up. It’s dark, but there’s enough moonlight to see the tops of the trees. I know where the edge of the path is and can see it if I concentrate. Another rattling gasp sounds and I start to move. I have to get to her. I have to help her. I shove the flashlight into my back pocket and get to my feet as fast as I can.

There’s a choking gasp, the sound hoarse and raw, I squeeze my eyes shut when she breathes again and the sound repeats. She’s not going to be able to last for much longer. I have to help. I lift my hands and feel along the side of the dirt wall in front of me. When I feel a tangle of tree roots, I grab with both hands and lift myself up. I can’t see much, but I keep trying. I reach up again and nearly slip when I miss the next root. I manage to hold on, but I’m not that strong and I won’t be able to hold on for much longer.

I grunt and grip the roots, but I’m slipping with each second that passes. “Please God, help me,” I whisper. I have to get to the top as fast as I can before I fall back down to the ledge. If that happens, she’ll die. I won’t have a chance at helping. Shame hits me hot and fast. I hid while someone hurt her. I’m a coward. I’m lower than low. I have to make this right.

“Give me the strength, Oh Lord.” Tears slide down my cheeks and mingle with the vomit and dirt I’m caked in. I don’t know what to do, but adrenaline hits me hard and fast when I hear the girl’s sick rattling breath. I’m going to make this right. I’ll save her. I dig my feet in to push up as hard as I can and I jump. I grunt when my chin clips the ledge, but I land high enough that I get a hand hold on solid ground. Using the roots as a base, I’m able to kick myself over the edge. I don’t stop when I roll onto my side. I can’t. Not when time feels like it’s running out. I only make a step before I hear her move. She must be trying to crawl away.

“I’m here,” I call to her and her shuffling stops. “I’m going to help you. Don’t move.” I tell her, but I don’t know where the girl is. When I was climbing, I thought she was just above me at the edge of the path, but the killer must have dragged her away from it.

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