“Nooot really.” I picked up my handbag and also reached for the door handle.
“Climb out first, acting normal and natural, wait for my signal, and then run! Okay?”
“Okay!” I started pushing the door open, and Mienkie moved back. I kept my eyes glued on the knife she was wielding and, oh my God, there were red smears all over it. It was smeared red from top to bottom, as if she had just sawed through an arm.
“Where were you going?” Tiaan asked.
“Uh, we were just, we remembered that we actually had to be, uh, somewhere,” Noah stuttered. He was a terrible liar.
“Oh, that’s such a pity!” Mienkie said. “We were so looking forward to having guests. People seldom come round here.” She smiled at me and I nearly fainted at the sight of her red-smeared teeth.Like a fucking cannibal!It was bad enough that they peeled legs—did they also eat them?
“NOW!” Noah screamed, and I didn’t hesitate. My feet hit the floor and mud flew as I raced through the puddles. Noah grabbed me by the hand and pulled me into the workshop. I blinked when I entered, my eyes trying to adjust to the total blackness.
“We need something to block the door,” Noah said in between gulps for air.
“I can’t see a thing,” I shouted.
“Grab your phone torch!”
“Okay, okay.” I scrambled for my phone but dropped my bag. “Shit!”
“Find it!” I could hear he was bumping into things. I fell to my hands and knees and crawled across the floor, hands reaching out in front of me, looking for the familiar feel of my phone.
“I can’t find it!” I wailed at Noah.
“I can’t find anything to block the door with,” Noah wailed back at me with the exact same-sounding voice I had, one laced with terror. “I can’t see a damn thi—”
We paused in horror as the lights flicked on.
“Nooooo,” I whispered, closing my eyes tightly because I just couldn’t face what was coming. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt as badly if my eyes were closed?
“What are you guys doing?” Mienkie asked.
“Why are you crawling on the floor like that?” Tiaan asked.
Well, this was it, wasn’t it? The end of it. The end of my life, and I couldn’t even remember that much of it anyway. What a waste, that I could only account for a few short years and now it would all be over. I turned slowly, catching Noah’s eye on the way. We both looked towards the door just as a lightning bolt ripped through the sky. We screamed and reached for each other as Tiaan and Mienkie stood silhouetted against the doorway, knives in hand.
“Please don’t kill us. I don’t want to die!” I howled at the top of my lungs.
“Wait! Wait!” Noah stood up and walked in front of me. “Take me and let her go. You can kill me, but you have to let her go.”
“Kill you?” Mienkie asked, coming forward.
“Why would we kill you?” Tiaan also stepped forward.
“You have knives! You have Lucy’s eyes and you’re peeling Susie’s leg!” I shouted at them, peering around Noah, who was now completely blocking me. They shared a look, and then when they glanced back at us, they burst out laughing. Their laughter was so wild and loud and unrestrained. Mienkie was even bent over at the waist and Tiaan rested his hand on a nearby bench to support himself.
“You thought we were killers!” Mienkie howled.
“Well, aren’t you?” Noah asked. “Who are Lucy and Suzy and what are you doing with them?”
“Look around,” Mienkie said.
“Look arou—” I repeated as I turned my head and took in the illuminated room for the first time.
“This is Susie.” Tiaan walked up to a bench and picked up what looked like a ball of fur.
“I do taxidermy. This is the little squirrel that lived in the tree in front of our house for years. We called her Susie, after one of my favorite songs, ‘Susie Q.’ You know it? I used to go out every morning and feed her. And then, one day, she wasn’t there. I went to look for her, and she was dead. I couldn’t bear to bury her, she had been part of our lives here for years, so I thought I would memorialize her.”
