Page 47 of The Executioners Three
“Stay where you are!” His voice cracked. He tried again, louder. As forceful as he could make it.“Don’t come this way! Go back to the cars.”
Then he saw Madison through the trees, and beside her was Davis—a hulking linebacker whose pale face glowed like the moon.
“Go back!” Theo shouted again, and this time he hurried toward them. “It’s not safe!” He reached Madison, who was asking, “What is it? What happened, Theo?”
Theo shook his head, pulling his phone from his pocket. He should have done this from the start. He never should have followed those screams.
“Nine-one-one. What’s your emergency?”
“There’s a body,” Theo said, and Madison clapped a hand to her mouth. “It’s by the lakeshore in the county park—”
Theo didn’t get to finish. Davis slammed into him, so hard Theo crashed to the ground. The phone went flying through the woods.
“What are you doing?” Davis roared. He climbed onto Theo, drunk and wild-eyed. “You can’t call the cops!”
“There’s a body in the woods!” Theo tried to shove off Davis, but Davis was twice his size. He just buried his knee in Theo’s chest.
“We’re out here drinking!” Davis shoved harder. “D’you wanna get us all arrested again?”
Of course Theo didn’t want to get arrested again. But there was abody in the woods.Before he could bellow this at Davis, red brake lights flooded the forest.
Which meant Tyson must be fleeing.
Theo used the moment—the brief surprise on Davis’s face—to swing. A hard hook to the jaw, then a bucking of his hips. Davis tipped sideways, enough for Theo to flip him onto his back.
“Call nine-one-one,” he told Madison in the brief moment he had before Davis swung. Before Davis’s fist connected with Theo’s nose, and suddenly Theo was punching back too.
He and Davis rolled. They writhed. They clawed and wailed and Theo lost all concept of how many hits he landed—or how many hits he took. It wasn’t until a shrieking Madison shoved between him and Davis, and then Garrett thundered in too, that Theo finally managed to break free.
He dragged himself away, limping and panting. Everything was on fire. His face, his ribs, and above all, his brain.
There was a body in the woods. A hundred yards behind them—a fucking body with no fucking head. And something still sparkled at the nape of Theo’s neck.
“The cops are coming.” Madison pitched her voice over Davis’s swears. “Icalled them,” she added, “and we need to leave before they get here. But your car is the only one left, Theo. Are you good to drive?”
“Yeah,” he muttered, even though he wanted to leave Davis here. Even though hewantedto see that rich asshole get arrested all over again and deal with some fucking consequences for once in his life.
But Theo knew that would only make his own life hell, so after wiping blood off his face and knuckles, Theo shambled to his beat-up Civic and drove everyone—including Davis—back to campus.
Not directly, though, because he was terrified someone might notice them. Or worse, someone might follow.
Someone willing to use an axe on another person. Someone who maybe had seen that Theo and the others had been there.
Only when Theo knew there were no cars behind them, no cars ahead, no carsanywhere,did he drive everyone to Allard Fortin Preparatory School.
He didn’t sleep that night.
11
Freddie dreamed of the Hangsman from the poem again, but this time, he was not alone. This time, he hunted with a companion. Through woods of darkness and starlight, the Hangsman held a rope of flames—and his partner held an axe gleaming with fire.
The Headsman was now hunting too.
Heat pulsed against Freddie. No matter how far ahead she seemed to run, she couldn’t escape it. Worse, she was also not alone. Mrs. Ferris stumbled alongside Freddie, and though Freddie tried to get the old woman to run, Mrs. Ferris would never move faster than a sluggish crawl.
“Please,” Freddie begged, over and over again, towing at the old woman’s bony elbow. “I didn’t mean to leave you behind, Mrs. Ferris. I didn’t know you would get hurt.Please,if you would just move faster, then we can get away.”
But Mrs. Ferris wouldn’t speed up.
