Outside on the porch, Cole and Jose wrestled. Cole had a grip on Jose’s wrist, keeping the gun pointed down at the floorboards of the front porch. They wrestled on their feet for a moment, but with one violent twist of his body, Cole swung Jose over him in a Judo flip and they both landed on the floorboards of the front porch with Cole on top of Jose.
The gun went off.
The shot was loud in the eerie silence of the dark night all around the cabin. It echoed across the snowy fields.
Inside the cabin, Stella and David watched the door. They had heard the gunshot. Who was shot? Was it Cole? Jose? Both of them?
Cole got up off of Jose and his hands went to his own abdomen, afraid he’d been shot and didn’t feel it yet. But his bare hands came away dry. No blood on him. He looked down at Jose who wasn’t moving. Even in the darkness, Cole could see the darker stain spreading across Jose’s shirt underneath his open coat. Cole didn’t even remember shooting; he wasn’t even sure how it had happened.
It had happened so fast.
Cole picked up Jose’s gun from the porch and he aimed it down at Jose.
Jose stared up at Cole with wide eyes, he was afraid, he knew what had happened. He opened his mouth to speak and he coughed up a chunk of pulpy blood and then gasped for air.
Cole backed away from Jose, he moved closer to the front door of the cabin.
Jose’s body trembled as he sat up and scooted across the floorboards to the log wall of the cabin. He pushed himself up into a sitting position with his back against the cabin wall. He gritted his teeth and moaned in pain; his hands shot to his abdomen, holding on to it, trying in vain to stop the flow of blood.
Cole turned and looked out at the snowy field. “We left you a bonus!!” he screamed out at the woods. Then he turned to walk to the front door and Jose’s hand grabbed Cole’s pants leg, stopping him for a second.
Jose stared up at Cole with wide, terrified eyes. “Please, Cole. Don’t leave me out here for that thing.”
Cole stared down at Jose for a moment, and then he ripped his pants leg out of Jose’s grasp and he walked to the front door of the cabin. He twisted the door handle but it wouldn’t open – it was locked.
He beat on the door. “Let me in!” He screamed at the door. “Stella, it’s me, Cole! Jose is shot! He’s not coming inside with me!”
No answer from inside.
Cole could hear Jose chuckling from the darkness. That chuckle turned into a laugh. “Now who’s been double crossed?”
“Shut the fuck up,” Cole said.
“We’ll just both have to wait out here now,” Jose said. “We’ll both have to see what comes for us out of the darkness.”
There was a sound from the dark woods at the edge of the snowy field, a loud sound, like something very big was crashing through the trees. Cole turned and stared at the darkness, nearly all the light from the setting sun was gone now, and the world around them was blanketed in almost pure darkness. And there was something in the woods, coming closer.
Cole turned back to the door and pounded on it. “Let me in! There’s something in the woods, I can hear it!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Stella and David stared at the front door. They could hear Cole beating on the door and demanding to be let in. Cole said it was only him and that Jose had been shot. But could she believe him?
David touched Stella’s hand. He nodded his head yes.
Stella nodded back at David, and she took a deep breath. She moved close to the door and talked through it. “It’s only you, Cole?” she asked.
“Yes,” Cole answered, and there was panic in his voice. “You have to hurry. I can hear something out in the trees. It’s something big.”
Stella looked back at David one more time, making sure. Then she opened the door and Cole rushed inside.
Stella closed and locked the door. She twisted the knob for the deadbolt. Then she backed away from the door and stared at Cole.
Cole stood only a few feet away from Stella, closer to the kitchen. He looked very cold even though he was only outside for a few minutes, but he didn’t have his coat, hat, or gloves. He stood very still and stared at her.
Stella began to wonder if she’d made the wrong decision letting him in.
“You were going to leave me out there?” Cole asked Stella in a strangely calm voice. “Leave me out there in the cold? Out there with that thing?”
“I … I had to be sure,” she told him.
“I just killed another friend of mine to save you and David. How is that not enough?”
“You’ve seen now what that thing can do,” Stella answered quickly, a sudden anger in her voice. “I had to be sure it was really you.”
Cole walked away from Stella and let out a long breath. He inhaled deeply, trying to calm himself down, trying to think rationally. But he’d been through so much in the last few days, seen things he never thought were possible, hadn’t had much sleep or food, and now thinking rationally was a little more difficult than it used to be.
He grabbed the bottle of whiskey and took a sip, letting the fiery liquid relax him a little. He turned and looked at Stella who stood in the same spot in the living room, staring at him. He had frightened her, but at least she was trying to trust him.
She had trusted him enough to let him back inside, and he needed to trust her. “This is what it’s been leading up to the whole time, isn’t it?” he asked Stella.
She nodded yes.
“This is the same thing that it led up to at the dig site, isn’t it?”
Stella glanced at David, and then she looked back at Cole. She sighed heavily and nodded. “Yes.”
“Why does it want us to kill David? He’s just a kid. Why doesn’t it just come in here and do it?”
Stella hesitated for a moment, staring at Cole. “I don’t think it can,” she finally answered him. “I think it’s afraid of David for some reason. I don’t think it’s able to kill David so it needs others to do it. It tries to scare others so badly that they will do anything it wants – even kill a little boy.”
There was a pounding on the front door.
They all jumped.
From the other side of the door, they heard Jose’s voice. “Cole, let me in! I’m not dead yet!”
They all stood very still and stared at the door.
“I need help,” Jose continued from out on the porch. He beat on the door again. “Please, I’m bleeding bad, man. Please don’t leave me out here!” They could hear that Jose was beginning to cry. “Please don’t leave me out here with this thing!”
Cole took a step towards the door; he rested his hand on top of the butt of his gun that stuck up from the waistband of his pants.
“I won’t hurt David,” Jose said from behind the door. “I promise. Just let me in.”
Cole took another step closer to the door, he stared at it. It couldn’t be Jose, Cole thought to himself. Jose had to be dead by now. Or taken by that thing out there.
“We’ll think of another way,” Jose said from the other side of the door. “Like you said, we’ll think of something else. We won’t kill David.”
As Cole stared at the door, he took another step towards it. David jumped off the couch and ran across the floor to Cole. He grabbed Cole’s hand and took it in his own hand, like a son would grab his father’s hand. Cole looked down at David who stared up at him.
“It’s not him anymore,” David told Cole in a soft voice.
Cole nodded down at David. “I know,” he told him.
There was a sudden flurry of poundings on the door. Jose screamed at them from the other side of the door, and his voice was no longer pleading; now it was angry. “You’re going to be very sorry, Cole! It will get you just like it got me! It won’t let you die. You just go on and on. Just like Frank! Just like Trevor!”