Page 52 of Backwoods
“He was the one who put the chains on me the first time,” she said. “If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be stuck here.”
34
They agreed to leave the helper’s body where he’d fallen. It bothered Nick, though Raven assured him that the abundant scavengers in the forest would consume the corpse in due time. Nick knew all those things, of course, but the barbarity of it all disturbed him.
He hadn’t been in a physical altercation, of any kind, since third grade. He didn’t grow up on the streets, battling it out with local hoods and packing guns whenever he walked out his front door. He was raised in the suburbs, went to private school, and lived a sheltered, meticulously planned life.
But out here in the woods, it was survival of the fittest, and he had barely survived his first true test. Raven was only a teenager, but she was better acclimated to this place than he was, and he was fortunate to have her help.
She left the shotgun with Nick, while she took the rifle that was strapped to the helper’s dead body.
“That’s my granddad’s rifle,” Nick said. “I was going to tell you, I talked to him.”
“I was about to ask why you didn’t bring back help,” she said. “That’s what you left for, wasn’t it?”
“It’s not that straightforward,” Nick said. “If I brought the cops in here and they tried to take all of you away, the mark on you?—”
“We’d all die,” Raven finished for him. “Up in smoke.”
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “Grandpa Lee says there’s only one way to free everyone. We have to kill the Overseer.”
“Well, there’s a plan that no one ever thought of.” Strapping the rifle over her slight frame, she marched through the woods. “Kill the Overseer—why didn’t anyone else ever think of that?”
“Hey.” Nick caught up to her, pain stitching his gut as he ran. That punch he’d taken to his stomach was going to hurt like hell for days. “I get the sarcasm, all right? But that’s what he told me, and I know it’s the truth. So do you. The Overseer, whoever he is, is the one driving Westbrook. He brought down the curse on this place—he’s like the living embodiment of the curse.”
“You couldn’t kill that man back there on your own,” Raven said. Her lips curled in derision. “You haven’t seen the Overseer before. You have no idea what you’re talking about doing.”
“Maybe not,” he said. “But that’s what we’ve got to do. I want to get my girlfriend out of the mansion and then kill the Overseer.”
“Stupid plan.” Raven knocked back a branch with the rifle. “We can try to get her out—I’ll help you with that. But I’m not messing with the Overseer.”
“If you were going to kill the Overseer, how would you do it?” he asked.
“It’s a waste of time talking about it,” she said.
“Please, indulge me.”
She stopped walking. She checked the sky, and looked at him.
“I’d set him on fire—and make him burn until he was nothing but ash.” She brushed her fingers against the mark on herforehead. “It’s exactly what he deserves for what he’s done to us.”
35
After Amiya finished her bath, Miss Lula took her to a musty bedroom and ordered her to get dressed.
The woman was civil toward her again. It was as if the violent incident at the bathtub was forgotten. But Amiya had learned her lesson and was keen to avoid doing anything that would provoke Miss Lula’s anger. She would behave submissively, follow the woman’s instructions to the letter, and stay on the alert for an opportunity to further her objective.
The bedroom was a wreck. Cobwebs wreathed the walls like curtains, and the two windows were boarded up. Old, sagging furniture—a chair, a dresser with a mirror—stood inside. A king-size, four-poster bed occupied the middle of the room.
The bed had been outfitted with fresh sheets. Amiya was tempted to lie down, but Miss Lula had other plans in store for her.
“You’ll put on that dress.” Miss Lula indicated a flowing, satiny red gown that hung on a hook next to the mirror. “The shoes, too.”
Amiya noticed a pair of black pumps standing on the floor, beside where the dress hung, and she wanted to groan. If those shoes didn’t fit, her misery quotient was going to skyrocket.
“Are those my size?” Amiya asked.
“They’re close enough,” Miss Lula said. Miss Lula opened one of the drawers—it opened with a harsh squeak—and removed a girdle and undergarments. “You’re close in size to the master’s last mistress.”
