Cole turned and looked out at the snowy field. “We left you a bonus!!” he screamed out at the woods. Then he turned to walk to the front door and Jose’s hand grabbed Cole’s pants leg, stopping him for a second.

Jose stared up at Cole with wide, terrified eyes. “Please, Cole. Don’t leave me out here for that thing.”

Cole stared down at Jose for a moment, and then he ripped his pants leg out of Jose’s grasp and he walked to the front door of the cabin. He twisted the door handle but it wouldn’t open – it was locked.

He beat on the door. “Let me in!” He screamed at the door. “Stella, it’s me, Cole! Jose is shot! He’s not coming inside with me!”

No answer from inside.

Cole could hear Jose chuckling from the darkness. That chuckle turned into a laugh. “Now who’s been double crossed?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Cole said.

“We’ll just both have to wait out here now,” Jose said. “We’ll both have to see what comes for us out of the darkness.”

There was a sound from the dark woods at the edge of the snowy field, a loud sound, like something very big was crashing through the trees. Cole turned and stared at the darkness, nearly all the light from the setting sun was gone now, and the world around them was blanketed in almost pure darkness. And there was something in the woods, coming closer.

Cole turned back to the door and pounded on it. “Let me in! There’s something in the woods, I can hear it!”

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Stella and David stared at the front door. They could hear Cole beating on the door and demanding to be let in. Cole said it was only him and that Jose had been shot. But could she believe him?

David touched Stella’s hand. He nodded his head yes.

Stella nodded back at David, and she took a deep breath. She moved close to the door and talked through it. “It’s only you, Cole?” she asked.

“Yes,” Cole answered, and there was panic in his voice. “You have to hurry. I can hear something out in the trees. It’s something big.”

Stella looked back at David one more time, making sure. Then she opened the door and Cole rushed inside.

Stella closed and locked the door. She twisted the knob for the deadbolt. Then she backed away from the door and stared at Cole.

Cole stood only a few feet away from Stella, closer to the kitchen. He looked very cold even though he was only outside for a few minutes, but he didn’t have his coat, hat, or gloves. He stood very still and stared at her.

Stella began to wonder if she’d made the wrong decision letting him in.

“You were going to leave me out there?” Cole asked Stella in a strangely calm voice. “Leave me out there in the cold? Out there with that thing?”

“I … I had to be sure,” she told him.

“I just killed another friend of mine to save you and David. How is that not enough?”

“You’ve seen now what that thing can do,” Stella answered quickly, a sudden anger in her voice. “I had to be sure it was really you.”

Cole walked away from Stella and let out a long breath. He inhaled deeply, trying to calm himself down, trying to think rationally. But he’d been through so much in the last few days, seen things he never thought were possible, hadn’t had much sleep or food, and now thinking rationally was a little more difficult than it used to be.

He grabbed the bottle of whiskey and took a sip, letting the fiery liquid relax him a little. He turned and looked at Stella who stood in the same spot in the living room, staring at him. He had frightened her, but at least she was trying to trust him.

She had trusted him enough to let him back inside, and he needed to trust her. “This is what it’s been leading up to the whole time, isn’t it?” he asked Stella.

She nodded yes.

“This is the same thing that it led up to at the dig site, isn’t it?”

Stella glanced at David, and then she looked back at Cole. She sighed heavily and nodded. “Yes.”

“Why does it want us to kill David? He’s just a kid. Why doesn’t it just come in here and do it?”

Stella hesitated for a moment, staring at Cole. “I don’t think it can,” she finally answered him. “I think it’s afraid of David for some reason. I don’t think it’s able to kill David so it needs others to do it. It tries to scare others so badly that they will do anything it wants – even kill a little boy.”

There was a pounding on the front door.

They all jumped.

From the other side of the door, they heard Jose’s voice. “Cole, let me in! I’m not dead yet!”

They all stood very still and stared at the door.

“I need help,” Jose continued from out on the porch. He beat on the door again. “Please, I’m bleeding bad, man. Please don’t leave me out here!” They could hear that Jose was beginning to cry. “Please don’t leave me out here with this thing!”

Cole took a step towards the door; he rested his hand on top of the butt of his gun that stuck up from the waistband of his pants.

“I won’t hurt David,” Jose said from behind the door. “I promise. Just let me in.”

Cole took another step closer to the door, he stared at it. It couldn’t be Jose, Cole thought to himself. Jose had to be dead by now. Or taken by that thing out there.

“We’ll think of another way,” Jose said from the other side of the door. “Like you said, we’ll think of something else. We won’t kill David.”

As Cole stared at the door, he took another step towards it. David jumped off the couch and ran across the floor to Cole. He grabbed Cole’s hand and took it in his own hand, like a son would grab his father’s hand. Cole looked down at David who stared up at him.

“It’s not him anymore,” David told Cole in a soft voice.

Cole nodded down at David. “I know,” he told him.

There was a sudden flurry of poundings on the door. Jose screamed at them from the other side of the door, and his voice was no longer pleading; now it was angry. “You’re going to be very sorry, Cole! It will get you just like it got me! It won’t let you die. You just go on and on. Just like Frank! Just like Trevor!”

Jose’s voice turned deeper as he continued shouting, his voice became more guttural, more demonic. “Kill the boy, or it’s going to be bad. So bad. Worse than you can possibly imagine!”

There was a rush of wind from outside and the door shook and rattled in its frame.

And then everything was deathly quiet.

Cole looked down at David who still held his hand and stared up at him with his dark eyes.

Cole knelt down and got on the same eye level as David. “Don’t worry, David. We’re not going to hurt you. We’re not going to give you to that thing outside. We’ll find a way out of here. I promise.”

David stared at Cole for a moment, then he jumped at Cole and hugged him, squeezing him tightly, his eyes shut, a few tears slipping out of his eyes.

Cole was a little shocked by David’s sudden hug. He glanced over at Stella who watched them. She wiped away a stray tear from her eye.

David let Cole go and he ran back to the couch.

Cole got back up to his feet and he looked at Stella. “We have to try and run,” he told her.

Stella just stared at him.

“But we can’t run at night,” Cole went on. “We need to get through this night and leave in the morning.” Cole pulled Jose’s gun out of the waistband of his pants from under the back of his shirt. He held it by the barrel and walked over to Stella. He handed it to her.

Stella took Jose’s gun.

“Do you know how to use one of these?” Cole asked her.

Stella looked down at the gun in her hand, and then in a blur of motion, she expertly checked the clip for bullets, then popped the clip back in. She racked a bullet into the chamber, and then checked to make sure the safety was on.

Cole stared at her in amazement.

Stella gave Cole a small smile. “I taught myself how to use guns a few years ago. A girl by herself at remote dig sites can be a little unnerving.”