“What about her truck?” Jose said as he hitched a thumb at Stella.

“We’ll burn that too,” Cole said.

The others nodded.

“Okay,” Cole said. “We’ll sleep in watches again tonight.”

Hours later Stella and David slept on the couch. David had his notebook tucked protectively under his arm.

Jose had tried the TV and radio over and over again, trying to get some kind of station or signal, hoping to get some kind of news about the bank robbery. But none of the stations would come in – nothing but complete static. Finally, Jose gave up. He sipped from the bottle of whiskey, but not too much. He wanted to stay sober and ready for whoever was out there waiting for them in the darkness.

Trevor sat at the table for hours and played hand after hand of solitaire with a deck of playing cards that he’d found.

Needles curled up in his recliner and massaged the crucifix around his neck as he muttered silent prayers with his eyes closed. Soon he drifted off into a fitful sleep.

Cole took the first watch as the rest of them slept. He planned on waiting until three o’clock in the morning and then waking Trevor up. They would need to take turns on watch if they had to stay here one or two more nights – even Needles would have to take a watch.

Cole’s thoughts melted together, and his eyes slowly closed, and he drifted off to sleep without even realizing it.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Stella woke up in the middle of the night and she began to scream.

Cole snapped awake in the pitch black darkness of the cabin. For a split second he forgot where he was. It was like he was coming out of some kind of a dream, except he didn’t remember any of it; it was more like he was clawing his way out of a cocoon of darkness. But now he was awake and trapped in a real cocoon of darkness.

Cole felt around in the darkness, his hands groped at his blanket and pillows looking for his gun. Then he remembered that he had stuck his gun in the front of his pants. His fingers felt along the front of his pants and they touched the reassuring feel of the steel of his pistol.

He didn’t even remember lying down on his bedroll. He remembered sitting at the dining room table with a cup of coffee. He was going to wake Trevor up for the next watch. Had he woken Trevor up and then went to bed and couldn’t remember it? He wasn’t sure, and he didn’t have time to think about it right now because Stella was still screaming.

Cole remained motionless for a moment, his fingers still touching the handle of his gun.

“Cole!” Trevor called out. “Where are you?”

“I’m here,” Cole called back.

“Stella!” Cole yelled. “What happened?”

Stella’s screams stopped, and for a split second the cabin was silent; there wasn’t even the sound of the snowstorm outside.

“Are you hurt, Stella?” Cole asked her.

Stella didn’t answer. Something about her silence in the pitch black darkness scared Cole even more than her screams. It was like she suddenly realized that there was something in there with them and she didn’t want to make a sound and give her position away.

“What the hell’s wrong with her?” Jose snapped. “Where’s everyone else?”

“I’m on my sleeping bag,” Trevor called out.

“I’m on my blankets,” Cole said.

“What happened to the lights?” Needles asked with a tremor in his voice. “Who turned out the fucking lights?”

“Where are you, Needles?” Cole asked, trying to keep his voice calm as he tried to mentally picture where everyone was in the cabin.

“In the recliner,” Needles answered.

That only left Stella and David. “Stella,” Cole said. “Where are you? Where’s David?”

“David’s gone,” Stella whispered.

Cole’s blood ran cold. “What do you mean?” Cole finally asked even though his words sounded stupid to his own ears. Gone meant gone.

“He’s gone,” she whispered again and there was a movement in the darkness, a rustling of clothing.

“Who’s moving?” Jose called out.

“Nobody shoot!” Cole shouted. “Does everyone understand me? Nobody shoots. We can’t see anything.”

Someone was on their feet and running across the wooden floor of the cabin. Shoes pounded the wood. So loud in the darkness. Someone was running for the front door.

Cole turned to the door and saw the barest outline of the door, a dark blue line that outlined the door. It took him a second to realize that this meant that the door was open just a crack. But before he could say anything, the door swung open wide and he could make out Stella’s silhouette in the doorway.

“He’s out there!” Stella yelled. “David’s outside!”

“Stella, wait!” Cole yelled at her as he jumped to his feet.

But Stella didn’t wait, she ran outside.

Cole ran towards the dark blue rectangle of the doorway and followed Stella out onto the front porch, his gun in his hand already. He didn’t have his coat or boots on and the freezing air bit at him right away, sinking through his flesh and into his bones. He looked out at the snowy field in front of the cabin and he saw Stella running through the snow to David.

The recent snowstorm had passed and there were cloudless patches in the night sky that allowed some starlight and moonlight to filter down which cast a bluish light on the snow, and Cole could see the dark shape of Stella running towards David.

David was just standing in the deep snow, his back to the cabin as he stared at the dark woods.

Stella ran through the snow. The cold bit at her as the snow saturated her pants legs, but she didn’t care. Her only thought was getting to David. He was out here with this … this thing.

She reached David and she dropped down to one knee next to him and grabbed on to him. Tears spilled from her eyes, but she barely noticed. “David,” she said, but his name came out in a strangled sob. “What are you doing out here?”

David didn’t answer her. He didn’t even look at her for a moment. He just stared at the dark trees in the distance. They looked like a black mass of the purest darkness, only the outlines of the tops of the trees to tell what they were.

“David,” Stella said as she touched his arm, trying to make contact with him, trying to bring him out of his trance. “You can’t be out here. You know that.”

David finally looked at her; his dark eyes reflected the moonlight back to her. His expression was calm. “He called me out here,” he finally told her. “Didn’t you hear him?”

“No, I didn’t,” she told him. “But you can’t be out here,” she said in a soft voice, her teeth beginning to chatter, her body trembling from the cold. “It’s not safe out here.”

David took her hand and held it. It was like his way of apologizing.

Stella smiled and held on to his hand as she stood up. She could feel the snow saturating her pants legs even more. “We need to get back inside. Okay?”

“Okay,” David answered.

They turned and walked back to the cabin through the snow, hand in hand.

Jose, Trevor, and Needles funneled out of the doorway of the cabin and gathered on the porch next to Cole. They all had their guns in their hands, ready to shoot, ready to kill.

Jose looked out at the field where Cole was looking. “What the hell’s going on?”

Cole couldn’t take his eyes off of Stella and David as they walked back towards the cabin. At some point in the night David had walked outside into the snow. Just like Frank. Did he see something in the woods? Did he hear something?

“What the fuck’s going on?” Jose said, his voice getting louder and louder. “What are they doing out here?”

“I don’t know,” Cole finally answered. “David must’ve walked outside.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” Cole said.

“Something’s not right about this,” Jose grumbled.

Cole didn’t respond.