Page 56 of Vanished in the Mist
“You went missing almost a year ago, yes. Has he kept you here this whole time?”
She shook her head, no. “We move around. Go to cabins when it’s cold or he needs to stock up. Or when he says I stink too bad and need a shower.” She grimaced. “But I always end up back here.” She hung her head. “Others have been here too. I’m always happy to see them, because I’m so lonely. But then I feel guilty.” Her eyes brightened with unshed tears. “He’ll kill you too. Just like he’s done with all the others.”
Shanna stared at her in horror. “All the others? How many?”
Tanya ducked her head and shrugged, drawing her knees up and hugging them to her chest.
“Tanya?”
“Hm?”
“He’s not going to kill me. And he’s not going to kill you. We’re going to get out of here.”
Tanya sighed as if she’d heard that dozens of times and lifted her head. “Who—who are you? He made it sound like you’re someone else being bullied. You’re not one of the bullies?”
“I guess that’s all a matter of perspective. Everyone has probably treated someone else poorly at some time in their life. Does that make them a bully? In that moment, maybe. But good people sometimes do bad things. It doesn’t always mean they’rebad people. Don’t let that Phantom guy get into your mind, twist you to his way of thinking. Is that what he told you? That he’s, what, holding you captive for your own good? That he’s punishing those who hurt you?”
She shrugged. “You know about them? Peyton? Her friends?”
“Some, yes. I’m a private investigator, helping your parents find you.”
Her eyes widened. “My parents? They don’t think I’m dead?”
“They…haven’t given up hope of finding you.”
“I want to go home.” The sudden longing in her voice broke Shanna’s heart.
“Then let’s get you home. Have you tried working any of these bars loose? They’re rusty and corroded.”
“The night he took me, I tried them. And for days afterward. Maybe weeks. But I gave up a long time ago.”
“The night he took you? Was that at the bonfire, when the others found you watching them and got mad?”
She hung her head as if in shame. “I just thought Peyton and I could be friends if she’d give me a chance. I was watching but didn’t know they saw me. They were really upset, said terrible things.”
“And this man, the Phantom, he saw them?”
“He lives in the woods. He watches everyone, knows everything going on around here.”
“No he doesn’t.”
Tanya frowned.
Shanna gave her a sad smile. “He’s big and scary and I’m sure he tells you all kinds of stories to scare you, to control you. But in the end, he’s just a man. We can defeat him if we work together.”
Tanya shrugged noncommittally and looked away.
“Peyton told me they pushed you under the water and you never came back up. She and her friends thought they’d killed you.”
“They almost did. My hair caught on something in the lake. I couldn’t get away. The next thing I knew I woke up here. He—the man—he saved me from them. He got me free and brought me here to—to get justice for me, and for him, too.”
Shanna stared at her, dismayed at the words tumbling out of her mouth. She’d been brainwashed into believing the lies this Phantom told her, thinking he’d somehow saved her. But Shanna couldn’t set her straight right now. All she could do was keep her talking to see whether she knew anything that could help either of them get away. She turned her attention to the bars and began twisting and pulling at them. “You said for him too. What did you mean?”
“Those bars won’t come out,” she said. “I’ve tried all of them.”
“It’s not like we have books to read to pass the time, right? Might as well try the bars myself,” Shanna told her.
“Books.” The word was uttered in awe. “I miss books.”
