Trevor. His brother. His little brother.
The worst part was Trevor’s head. It was right there in the middle of the pieces of his body. The head was upright and the eyes were staring at him; flaps of skin from Trevor’s neck were spread out underneath the chin like lily pads. Trevor’s mouth hung open in a silent scream. His eyes were wide open, staring at Cole; perhaps those eyes were still seeing their last image on earth – some unimaginable horror that had pulled him out through the bathroom window and torn him to pieces.
“Oh God, Cole,” Jose yelled from behind Cole. “Shut the fucking door!”
Cole still stood in front of the doorway. He wanted to look away from these pieces that used to be his brother, but he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away.
Jose moved into action; he could see that Cole wasn’t going to move, he was too paralyzed by shock. Jose hurried around Cole and slammed the front door shut, and then he twisted the lock on the door handle and then turned the deadbolt lock.
Cole finally came alive; he stared at Jose with a hatred burning in his eyes. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Jose stood his ground. “They’re out there. We need to shut the door. Get ready to defend ourselves.”
“Trevor … he’s out there …”
“We can’t do anything for him now! He’s gone!”
Cole stared at Jose.
Needles’ screams had died down, but now he was whimpering as he cowered in his recliner, staring at the front door like he was waiting for it to suddenly crash open. “I told you, Cole,” Needles cried. “I told you it was the devil out there! I told you the devil was coming for us!”
“Shut the fuck up, Needles!” Jose screamed at him.
“I told you when we first got here that we shouldn’t go inside this cabin. I told you we couldn’t stay here. And now it’s too late. Now the devil’s here and there’s nothing we can do.”
Jose stomped across the room, his gun aimed at Needles who cowered back into the recliner even more. “I said, shut the fuck up, or I swear to God I’m going to blow your fucking head off.”
The cabin was suddenly quiet.
Stella held onto David, her body was nearly in front of his body, protecting him. She knew what was coming next.
She watched Cole who stared at the front door like he wanted to open it again, like he wanted to see his brother one more time, but he didn’t want to see him like that.
Then Cole looked right at her.
And Stella saw the rage in his eyes. He marched across the wood floor, his boots thumped on the wood as his long legs made the trip across the floor in a few strides. He stood in front of her, stared down at her. And she was afraid of him at this moment; afraid he would snap and kill her and David.
“Who’s out there?” he growled at her.
“I don’t know,” Stella told him.
“They killed my brother. If you don’t tell me …” Cole began.
“I swear to God I don’t know,” Stella said quickly, interrupting his words. “That’s the truth. I don’t know what it is. How many times do I have to tell you?”
Cole stared at her.
“I already told you what I know,” Stella continued. “At the dig site in New Mexico, it was like this. Something was taking us one by one. I took David and we managed to get to my truck and get away.”
“How come your truck wasn’t destroyed there like it was here?”
Stella paused for a moment, and then she answered him. “I don’t know.”
Jose paced across the living room floor, his gun still in his hand. His eyes flicked to the front door and windows every few seconds. “I told you, Cole. I told you earlier that you were making a big mistake.”
Cole tried to tune out Jose’s voice.
“We should’ve questioned her more,” Jose went on. “We should’ve started putting bullets in that kid’s knees until she told us everything we wanted to know.”
Cole’s stomach churned at the thought of shooting a small child in the kneecaps.
“She’s just bullshitting with us,” Jose continued as he paced. “She’s just playing fucking mind games with us. There’s no monsters out there. There’s no devils. It’s just some people out there. And either Frank’s working with them or they’re making Frank work with them. I don’t know. I don’t care, but it’s just some people out there and it’s all about the money.”
“That’s enough, Jose,” Cole said.
Jose stopped pacing. They all watched him as his face scrunched in anger and hurt. “You’re still gonna stand by that bitch even after your brother was killed by those people out there, the people that she’s protecting?”
Cole turned and marched towards Jose.
Jose tensed his body, ready for a fight, but Cole walked right past him and into the kitchen.
“What are you doing?” Jose asked Cole.
Stella could feel David clinging to her arm; she could feel his quick breaths as he held on to her. He was so scared, and he had a right to be. It took a while before they wanted to kill David down in New Mexico, but here it would be happening much more quickly, she was sure of that.
Cole searched through the bottom cabinets until he found what he was looking for – a box of heavy duty black garbage bags. He turned and saw the expression on Jose’s face. “I can’t leave my brother out there like that,” was all Cole offered for an explanation. Cole searched other drawers and cabinets until he found a bag of rubber dishwashing gloves. He slipped his coat and leather gloves on. Then he slid the rubber gloves on over his leather gloves. The rubber gloves were a loose fit over his hands which might interfere with his fingers when he held his gun, but he had to take that chance. He needed to do this for his brother.
Cole grabbed the box of garbage bags from the counter and walked towards the front door.
“So that’s it?” Jose said as he followed Cole to the door. “You’re just going to let that bitch and that kid sit there on the couch while those people out there pick us off one by one?”
“I’m not torturing anyone,” Cole muttered. “And that’s it.”
You don’t know what you’re going to do soon, Stella thought to herself. You’ll do things you never thought you were capable of. But she couldn’t tell them that. She knew that between these three men, Cole was her best chance of staying alive, the only one who seemed opposed to the idea of either torturing or killing her and David, or just leaving her and David here in the cabin while they ran.
Stella knew what Cole would see next. She wanted to warn him, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t reveal how much she knew, how much she and David had seen. Not yet anyway. Their lives depended on it.
Cole was about to grab the door handle and open the front door, but he turned to Jose. “I’m going to get my brother off that porch and then I’m going to find those motherfuckers out there, whoever they are, and I’m going to kill them.”
Jose started to say something, but he didn’t. The look in Cole’s eyes stopped him. He wasn’t afraid of Cole, but he was wary of him. And there was a look in Cole’s eyes like he’d never seen before.
“Wait, I’ll help you,” Jose said and he rushed back into the kitchen for another pair of dishwashing gloves.
Cole opened the front door, about to walk out onto the porch. But he froze, he stood very still as he stared at the front porch.
Jose rushed up behind Cole and saw what Cole was looking at. Jose just stared. “What the hell?” he whispered.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Trevor’s head and the pieces of his body were gone.
Cole stepped out onto the front porch, but only one step. He could hear Jose right behind him. “What the hell is this, Cole?”