Page 13 of Fight Or Flight

She walked to the edge of the riverbank and watched the clear water crashing over the rocks at the bottom. It almost entranced her. It was so peaceful. She could see why Elizabeth had chosen this place to rest for all of eternity. You could certainly do much worse.

Natalie took the urn to the gnarled base of the tree’s trunk, removed the lid, and gently tipped the urn, dropping the ashes in a ring around the tree. She replaced the lid and stared at the circle.

It seemed too fast, and suddenly, everything felt so real.

The thought of leaving Elizabeth there all alone made her skin crawl. How many times had Elizabeth been alone over the years? How many birthdays and Christmases? She knew Chelsea would visit from time to time but doubted that Robert had cared enough to bother. She should have made more of an effort. Shouldn’t have griped so much about doing this for her.

It all became too much. Setting the urn down, she lay on the ground next to the tree and stared up at the sky through full eyes. The canopy of fluttering leaves shielded the blue sky like a green stained-glass window. She’d done this often as a teen, especially in the winter, when the trees were bare and the snow made a nice pillow.

She reached behind her, gathered some dried leaves, and pulled them under her head into a makeshift pillow, then stopped when she heard a strange, shaking noise. It was a noiseshe’d never heard before. Her heart rate sped up. God, was it another mouse?

She let out a shudder and slowly turned her head to the waterfall.

Nothing.

Then she turned to look at the overgrown path.

And came eye to eye with a snake. Only a few feet from her face.

She stared at it in disbelief for a moment, then shook her head, as if she could make some other creature appear instead. There weren’t any snakes living in this wood. Maybe she was seeing things?

She forced herself to blink. When she opened her eyes, the snake was still there. It reared up, slimy tongue slipping out of its mouth toward her. Behind it, its tail appeared in the air with a rattle shaking at the end.

Natalie jumped to her feet. She looked around, panicked. That was when she saw a million snakes covering the ground all around her. One slithered toward her, then over her leaf pillow.

She screamed.

four

Ethan placed his pencil and graph paper on the tailgate of his truck, then hopped off.

He’d drawn a map of the new pond and meticulously planned where to plant all fifty trees and countless shrubs to make the area natural and beautiful. Hopefully, whoever saw the pond would like it . . . and decide to keep it.

He eyed his design one more time while pulling his work gloves from his bag. It had taken about a billion edits to get the plan just right so that the tallest growing trees would be in the background, and the shorter bushes in the foreground. He grabbed his work gloves and put them on, cringing as the rough fabric grazed all the new cuts on his hands.

He’d just left Amy’s house after planting ninety-four greenish-blue succulents into tiny copper pots. Amy had been little help. She just sat across the table from him, wringing her hands and occasionally tossing a bit of moss on to cover the soil. She was worried about her wedding day, but at least she wasn’tquestioning getting married. She and Jaclyn were very much in love. It was all the other stuff that came along with it.

And especially his outspoken and, frankly, unstable ex-girlfriend inserting herself into his life.

Part of him wished his sister was more forceful and told Lindsay no. But it wasn’t her fault. He suspected there was a fair amount of bullying involved. Besides, if there was anyone to blame, it was himself. He knew from the beginning he shouldn’t have got involved with Lindsay.

He slid his shovel out of the bed along with a bag of compost, then walked to the first tree. As he walked through the grass, he noticed an unusual number of snakes out, so he had to be careful where he stepped and dropped the bag.

The first tree was in rough shape. It was a young birch, with wilted, spotted leaves. “I got you,” he said to it.

He’d just dug the tip of the blade into the ground when he heard a blood-curdling scream.

He started at the sound. It was so loud, the birds in the tree canopy took flight. He turned in the direction and squinted, but the distance was too great, and the forest too thick, to see anything.

After a few seconds and no additional screams, he rolled his eyes and began digging.

It had been a while since he’d noticed trespassers at the waterfall, but it wasn’t uncommon to find them there. When the snake population around the river increased, he’d fundraised for a fence to go around the property, along with No Trespassing signs. He also spread the word around town that there were rattlesnakes in the area. It worked well enough to deter the local kids from jumping the fence.

The problem now was the ridiculous TikTokers and Instagrammers from out of town who were willing to jump the fence and risk their life for a photo in the waterfall.

He stabbed his shovel into the ground and dug, but he only got a few shovelfuls deep when he saw another snake. Then another.

Then he started worrying about them. They had become an endangered species because people were afraid of them and killed them en masse. He didn’t want to stop his task, but he also couldn’t stand the thought of someone trespassing and killing the innocent animals.

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