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Curt kept his hand on the butt of his gun. He looked around the area, halfway expecting someone to appear right in front of them.
Bradley touched the back of his neck and stopped. His gaze went wild and his expression was downright weird.
“What is it?” Curt asked.
“Do you feel that?”
“What?” Curt stood real still waiting to “feel” it, too.
“I
do,” Justin replied, searching the trees.
“This place is eerie,” Bradley said.
A gust of cold air washed over Curt. “What the hell?”
“Now you feel it.” Justin’s teeth clattered. “You do. Don’t you?”
“Yes,” Curt admitted, not at all comforted by the fact. They were grown men spooked in broad daylight. “Let’s keep moving.”
They took a few steps. About that time, the earth opened up in front of them. “Look out!” Bradley grabbed hold of Justin’s shoulders before he fell into a pit deeply embedded in the earth.
“What is that?” Justin peered down. “Did that just appear…like magic?”
Bradley muttered something under his breath.
“The hole was there, Justin.”
“Yeah,” Bradley muttered, pulling a flashlight from his bag and walking the perimeter of the well. “It looks like it may have been here a while.”
“How can you tell?”
Bradley directed the light straight down. When he glanced up, he looked like he’d seen a ghost. “Bones don’t lie.”
* * * *
“Jims?” Heather snuggled closer to the wall. She hadn’t heard a peep out of him in the last hour. Then again, she wasn’t certain of the time. Perhaps it had only been a few minutes since Toms had left them.
Grateful Jims had left her one of the four water bottles, she uncapped her only drink and took a swig. She slowly returned the cap and listened to the dripping water. Maybe if she could find the leak, she could fill her bottle when it was empty. Then again, she didn’t know if the water was clean or not. Sure, they were in a well but given the stench, she wasn’t exactly anxious to drink from it.
“He’s gonna…kill…you.” Jims finally spoke with some level of sanity. Not that his chosen words eased her mind.
“I believe you,” she said.
“Me, too.”
“Then we have to work together, Jims.”
“No.”
“Don’t you want to fight?”
“It’s part of the sacrifice. Don’t ‘cha know?”
“What sacrifice?”
“That’s what they always told me. I’m the one, the chosen one in the family. I have my demons and so I have to be the one sacrificed.”
