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Trevor and Jose got their coats on and already had their weapons in hand. Needles shrugged slowly into his coat. Stella and David waited on the couch, huddled together. David stared at the front door of the cabin almost like he could see through it.

Cole looked at Trevor and gestured at him to check the front window. Cole crept towards the front door, ready to open it and charge out onto the front porch.

Trevor stood beside the front window and pulled the curtain back a little so he could peek outside, his gun up beside his head, his finger on the trigger.

“What is it?” Jose hissed. He stood on the other side of the door, ready to run out right after Cole to back him up. “How many are out there?”

Trevor stared out the window for a long moment. He didn’t seem afraid, more like he was confused about what he was looking at.

“Only one,” Trevor answered Jose.

“One?” Cole asked.

Trevor backed away from the window and looked at Cole, shock on his face. “It’s Frank,” he said.

“Frank?”

“I told you I saw him,” Jose said. “You guys didn’t fucking believe me. I told you I saw him out in the woods.”

“What’s he doing out there?” Cole asked Trevor, ignoring Jose.

Trevor shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing. He’s just standing in the snow and staring at the cabin. Like he’s waiting for us to come outside.”

“Does he have a gun?”

“I didn’t see one.”

They could hear something from outside. A voice. Someone calling their names. Calling them to come outside.

“This could be a trap. They could be using Frank as some kind of bait. We all have to be ready for that.” Cole looked at Stella, hoping for some kind of help, some kind of acknowledgment, but he didn’t get any.

Cole took a deep breath and opened the door and stepped out onto the porch. Jose followed, and Trevor was right behind him.

Needles hesitated before going outside. He looked at Stella and David like he knew something about them, like he knew about the secrets they were keeping. “You coming out there?” he asked Stella.

Stella nodded. “Yeah. We need to get our coats.”

Needles was willing to wait for them.

Stella and David grabbed their coats from the end of the couch. Stella helped David get his shoes on.

Needles still waited for them.

Stella and David glanced at each other, they were ready. Needles gestured at the door with his pistol. “Let’s go,” he told them, and he waited for them to go outside first.

They walked to the doorway with Needles right behind them. Stella had a feeling that Needles was going to aim his gun at the back of their heads and pull the trigger and end their lives in an instant. But he didn’t. The three of them stepped out onto the front porch, out into the bitter cold air. The floorboards of the front porch creaked and popped under the weight of all of them standing in a tight group on the porch staring out at the front field.

Frank stood in the snow thirty yards away from the cabin. He wore the same clothes that he’d walked away in, the blue flannel shirt and dark pants. He wore no coat, no hat, no gloves. But he seemed unaffected by the cold. He just stood there, the snow up to his calves. He was statue-still and his head was cocked to the side just a bit.

“Frank,” Cole called out as his breath misted in front of his face in the freezing air. He clenched his gun in his gloved hand. “Where have you been all this time?”

Frank just stared at them, his body motionless, his eyes lifeless, his face slack, his head still cocked at that strange angle. For a moment Cole didn’t even think Frank was going to answer him, but then Frank’s face twitched and he smiled. But it was a fake smile, a wide grin that didn’t even touch his dark eyes. This person looked exactly like Frank, but he didn’t seem like Frank. Frank would’ve never had this goofy grin on his face, and it made Cole’s skin crawl. This wasn’t Frank. It couldn’t be.

“Frank!” Cole called out again. “Where did you go? Why did you leave in the middle of the night?”

“He called me out here,” Frank finally answered, his voice was guttural and deep and not like his own voice. And when he spoke, that strange smile never left his face. “I don’t expect any of you to understand.”

“Understand what?” Cole yelled out to Frank.

“He wants things, and you have to give him what he wants!”

CHAPTER TWENTY

“You have to give him what he wants!” Frank said again through that strange smile on his face, his head cocked to the side, his body motionless in the snow.

“Or what?” Trevor yelled. Trevor was jumpy, ready to charge out into the snow. His gun hand twitched just a bit. Cole hoped his little brother would hold his cool for a few moments longer. Trevor had always been the more hotheaded of the two brothers, more impulsive.

Frank’s lifeless eyes and plastic smile focused on Trevor. “Or bad things will happen, Trevor.”

“What kind of bad things?” Trevor asked.

Frank’s smile dropped suddenly and his face went slack. Somehow this expression was even scarier than the creepy fake smile. “Things you won’t even believe.”

“Frank!” Cole yelled. “Who called you out here? Who are you working with?”

Frank didn’t answer.

“This is bullshit,” Trevor whispered to Cole through clenched teeth. “Let’s just rush out there and get him. It doesn’t look like he has his gun.”

“Wait a minute,” Cole whispered back, never taking his eyes off of Frank. “Something’s not right here.” Couldn’t Trevor see that? Couldn’t he see that this person out in the snow wasn’t the Frank that they all knew?

Cole waited for an answer from Frank, but Frank still didn’t speak; he just stood in the snow with his head cocked to the side just a bit, his face slack, his expression blank.

Cole tried a different approach. “Frank, are you hurt?”

No answer again from Frank. It was like Frank was thinking this over, his expression and eyes still blank.

“Did you hurt yourself?” Cole asked again.

“I’m hurt,” Frank finally answered. “It’s pain that you couldn’t possibly imagine.”

“Come on inside, Frank!” Cole yelled to him. “We can help you.”

“Cole,” Jose whispered to him. “There’s something fucked up about Frank.”

Cole glanced at Jose, then at Needles who stood behind Trevor. Cole looked at Stella and David; they both stood closer to the front door of the cabin like they were ready to bolt back inside if they needed to. Stella’s eyes met Cole’s, but she didn’t say anything, she didn’t offer anything. He looked back at Frank, waiting for an answer from him.

“I can’t come inside right now,” Frank answered. “He wants things and you have to give him what he wants.”

“Who wants things?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“What does he want?” Cole asked.

“He wants all of the money you took from the bank on the front porch,” Frank told them in his strange guttural voice. His speech was slower, like he was concentrating on every word.

Jose took a step forward and raised his gun up.

“Jose,” Cole growled.

“The money,” Jose hissed. “All of this is about the money.”

“You have four hours to put all of the money on the front porch,” Frank said.

“What if we don’t want to give you the money?” Cole asked Frank.

“Then bad things are going to happen.”

“What if we decide to keep the money?” Cole continued. “What if we decide to leave? Just walk out of here.”

Frank thought for a second and he cocked his head to the side even more like he was listening to a voice that none of them could hear. Then his face lit up suddenly, like all of his facial muscles were pulled up by invisible strings at once, creating that creepy smile on his face again. “You can’t!” he said. “He won’t let you leave.”