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Adell Cameron's eyes narrowed in concern. “You used to.”
Dexter paused, took note of the disquiet expression on her face, and sighed heavily. “I have a lot of work to do. Goodnight mother.”
She followed him to the exit. “Will you be coming over tomorrow for turkey dinner?”
Again he sighed. She certainly made things difficult for him. “I don't think so. I don't like turkey.”
“I can make ham.” She smiled, encouraged, but it soon disappeared as he shook his head.
“As I said, I have a lot of work to do.” He stopped at the door and looked down at his mother. A fleeting spurt of emotion softened his heart at her expression. Quickly he smothered it, before dropping a light kiss on her cheek and making a hasty exit.
Adell watched her son go. Her usually smiling aplomb face bore the sadness that weighed her heart. It had been fourteen years, fourteen years since she lost her jovial and loving son to this stranger now occupying his body.
“Adell?” Norton Cameron came up behind her and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
She forced herself to smile, turning away from the exit doors. “Let's get back to that party of ours, shall we?”
* * *
Dex's black Volvo easily maneuvered the freshly fallen snow now covering the dark country roads. He turned out of the parking lot and as he did, he noticed the imprint of tire tracks. Someone had left the party earlier than him, leaving him a slightly plowed path. Turning his attention to the CD player in his car, he slid a popular disc into the drive then sat back to listen to the music.
Eyes back on the silent road, he eventually reached the fork in the highway where he would have turned right. However, frowning, he slowed the Volvo until it came to a halt. The other vehicle, the one which owned the tracks he had been following, had taken the road to the left.
“What idiot would have taken that road on such a night?” he muttered to himself.
The road ran parallel to the deep valley n
icknamed Hungry Hollow. Admittedly, the chasm was worthy of its name. Over the centuries since it appeared in the earth's surface, it maimed many, while consuming the lives of others. When the north road had been built, the foundation was difficult to lay because of the hard minerals beneath the rocky surface, so the result was a very winding, and at points, steep decline along the gorge. A popular spot for sightseers in the summer with its spectacular view, but only a fool would attempt the road in the winter. Especially an icy night as this.
Dex found himself swinging his vehicle around and heading down the north road, shaking his head at his own stupidity as he went. What dim-witted notion forced him to follow those tracks, he had no idea. All he knew was he continually told himself to turn back, but discovered his instincts were completely ignoring that practical portion of his brain.
He had not gone far when the tracks suddenly veered to the left and disappeared. Dex pulled his vehicle to a stop and hastily jumped out. Running over to the shoulder of the road, he peered out into the darkness. Shock, mingled with immense horror, swept over his stunned form as he stared down into what could only be the black and deadly abyss of the Hungry Hollow gorge.
Then he saw it. Barely visible through the thick descending bush and the black of the night, was a tiny glow of red light.
A nightmare he had long repressed into the back of his memory suddenly resurfaced. A night, very similar to this one, fourteen years earlier where he stood frozen in fear, unable to command his frightened limbs into action.
Dex stared down at the small red light. The night around him seemed to go completely still. The only sound was the low rustle of bare branches. A chill crept up his spine and it wasn't from the below zero temperatures.
Then he heard it, a cry for help. And the nightmare came back to horrific life, transporting him fourteen years back when he was an eighteen year-old boy. He could hear his father calling out for help as he desperately clung to the cold jagged ridge of a gully. His car had just plunged off a bridge and while his son had miraculously thrown himself free before going over, Wallace O'Reilly had not been so lucky.
The vehicle nose-dived into the hard surface of the rock, tossing the remaining occupant out, before disappearing into the dark brush below. Dex ran over to the steep edge of the incline to find his father clinging fiercely for his life. He called for his son, his hand stretched out begging for help, but to Dex's horror he found his feet incapable of moving, gripped with fear. Instead, he stood and watched as his father, no longer having the strength to hold, disappear. The night around him had gone deathly silent.
A second cry for help pierced his conscious, drawing him back to the present. A force greater than any he experienced before, told him he had to go down that ravine. A descent, fourteen years before, he was unable to make. In an instant, he knew he could not make that mistake twice. Someone was still alive down there and in desperate need of help. Gingerly, he plunged downward.
* * *
Laura pushed her hands hard against the dashboard, while at the same time tried to give herself enough leeway to reach over and undo her seat belt. To no avail. She grunted in frustration before lifting her hair to peek outside her car window. The last of her dying headlights left just enough light for Laura to survey her surroundings. Her vehicle had landed in an awkward position, a near ninety-degree angle, wedged between two trees. The hood had been forced to a grounded halt down a steep embankment overlooking the gorge. The gorge itself was blocked from view by a wall of bush and trees and the night itself, which Laura figured she should be grateful for. She was already horribly terrified.
When the vehicle finally came to a complete stop, to her amazement, she was still alive. But her feet, she discovered were trapped under the crushed area of the floorboards. She was incapable of freeing them due to the seat belt having her securely strapped in, and because she was basically hanging from it like a wilted plant, she was powerless to reach behind to unfasten the latch. She pushed again on the dashboard and tried to pull herself back into the seat. With both hands occupied, she could not free herself at the same time. She would need an extra pair of hands. With a frustrated cry, she allowed herself to drop back against her restraints once again.
The only alternative for her at that moment was to cry for help. Which she had been doing with no success. She wondered how long she had been down there. At least forty minutes she figured but, with a resigned sob, she knew no one would be leaving the party for another three hours. The snow had begun to fall steadily. No doubt what was left of her tracks would be completely covered within the next hour. And the fact remained, no one would be missing her.
Her situation appeared resolute. The thought of dying a slow and agonizing death in her seat belt had her attempting her efforts once more. She refused to give up. Pushing as hard as her tired arms allowed, she pulled with all her effort to free her feet. With no luck. Frustrated, she cried out in anger, slamming her steering wheel with her fist.
“Hello? Are you in the car?” A male voice broke through the still night.
Completely taken by surprise, Laura remained speechless, until it registered in her brain. She was being rescued. With a sob of relief, she responded, “Yes, yes. I'm in here.”
