'Is something wrong?' Serena asked.
He told himself that nothing was wrong, but his gut told him otherwise. Everything was wrong. The cold air wrapped fingers around his neck. His stomach knotted in fear. He didn't hesitate.
'I have to go,' he told her. 'Maggie's in trouble.'
Chapter Fifty-one
Kasey huddled in the darkness. She lay on her stomach, freezing and wet, hidden behind a stack of rotting wooden beams. Her hair fell in limp curls across her face, and she clenched her fists to keep her body from shivering. Cold water dripped from overhead, landing on her back and legs. She could barely feel her feet. She wasn't sure how long she had been hiding, but she knew he was looking for her, and sooner or later he would find her.
The flashlight beam searched the room like a laser. He shot it into corners and crevices, hoping to surprise her. The light lingered over the wall just above her head, and she flattened herself further against the concrete floor and held her breath. Where the beam illuminated the wall, she could see orange rust stains, graffiti spray-painted by vandals, and pockmarks where someone had used the stone for target practice. Five seconds later, the light disappeared, and she was blind again.
He spoke to her out of the darkness. He couldn't have been more than twenty feet away.
'I know you're here, Kasey.'
She waited with a growing desperation for him to search elsewhere in the school, but after a long minute of silence, he switched on the light again. It lit up the floor inches in front of her face, and she shrunk backwards. The concrete was littered with nails and bricks. A foot-long rat froze, staring at her with pink eyes. The animal was inches from her face. Caught in the light, it charged directly at her, and she had to cover her mouth not to scream as its furry body scratched across the skin of her back.
'You can't hide forever, Kasey.' He added, 'Someone's waiting for you.'
Kasey tensed and inched forward. She heard a violent clap and a wince of pain. 'Talk,' he barked.
She heard a new voice.
'Forget about me, Kasey. Save yourself.'
Maggie. It was Maggie's voice. Kasey wanted to pound her fists on the floor. She pushed part of her face past the pile of wooden beams, far enough to see as he shone the light on Maggie's body. She was tied to a chair with her hands behind her back. Her neck was ringed in blood, and Kasey had a flashback of that night in the fog and of Susan Krauss appearing out of nowhere at her car window. Looking just like that, with her throat half cut. Behind Maggie, in the dim glow of the flashlight, she saw the other bodies, posed as if they were decomposing dolls.
She was angry. Angry that God had dropped her in the middle of this, when she wasn't prepared. Angry that God had abandoned her. But maybe this was His revenge. Over the past year, she had stopped believing in God and found herself believing only in despair and betrayal. She had grown bitter at the world. She had simply never imagined that the awful road would lead her here.
'You can't run, Kasey,' he taunted her. 'What do you do now?'
She bit her lip, listening to his slow footsteps as he walked away. The beam of the flashlight shifted, streaming through a gaping hole in the far wall. His back was to her. This was her chance, and she didn't dare wait any longer.
I kill you, she vowed to herself. That's what I do now.
She scrambled to her feet and picked up the heavy metal joist. She held it like a club as she edged around the stack of wooden pilings. She put a foot ahead of her, tested the ground, and laid her heel down without a sound. She kept an eye on the flashlight beam in the corridor as she inched across the floor, but as she watched, it went dark. She froze where she was, feeling exposed. She thought about retreating to her hiding place, but she knew she was close to Maggie. In a voice that was barely audible, she murmured, 'I'm here.'
She heard noises of struggle. The chair to which Maggie was tied rocked loudly on the floor, and she heard Maggie grunting with effort as she strained against her bonds. Trying to free herself.
She took another step and spoke again in a soft hiss. 'Maggie.'
This time, Maggie whispered back immediately. 'Get out of here, Kasey.'
It was too late to run. Light flooded the room and pinned Kasey like a convict in a searchlight. She still had the metal joist poised over her head, but he was in the doorway, twenty feet away, too far for her to charge him. Behind the light, he was in silhouette, but she could see that he held Maggie's gun, pointed at her chest. He walked closer, stepping over dirty glass, and stopped six feet away from her. The gun was outstretched in his left hand.
Kasey's back stiffened in defiance. 'You better shoot. That's the only way you're getting close to me again.'
'That's not how this goes down, Kasey,' he said. 'You know what I want you to do.'
'Fuck you, you sick bastard.'
'I want to see you kill her,' he said.
'You're crazy.'
'Take the joist, and crush her skull.'
'I won't do it.'
'Yes, you will. You'll do whatever it takes to save yourself.'
'You don't know me.'
'I know you better than anyone,' he said. 'You're just like me.'
'I'm not like you,' Kasey snapped, breathing harder, watching him.
'We both know you are. Kill her.'
'I'll kill you instead,' Kasey swore, raising the joist higher over her head and clutching it tightly with her hand.
'Don't be stupid.'
'I don't care what happens to me any more.'
'Yes, you do. You know the stakes, Kasey. You know what happens if you fail the test.'
'Leave my family alone. They're not part of this.'
'You weren't a part of my game, but you put yourself in the middle of it. You can't stop playing now.'
'You are done,' she shouted, taking a step toward him. 'You are dead:
He read the violence in her face. 'It's a powerful feeling, isn't it? To hate so much you want to kill. That's when you know you're really alive.' 'This ends right now,' she said.
'I'll sweeten the deal for you, Kasey. Kill her, and I'll let you go.'
'What?'
'I'll let you go,' he told her. 'Game over.'
'You're a fucking liar.'
'I'm not lying.'
The joist felt slippery in Kasey's hand. 'You'll never let me go. I've seen you.'
'But you're not going to turn me in, are you? You wouldn't take that chance. Come on, Kasey, what's another death on your conscience? I'm giving you a chance to walk away.'
'Kasey.' It was Maggie's voice, interrupting him sharply. 'Kasey, look at me. Don't listen to him. Don't believe him.'
Maggie's eyes were calm and focused, as if she were talking Kasey down off a high ledge.
'This guy is pathetic,' Maggie went on, her voice growing loud and sarcastic. 'He's a joke. Look at him. Acne Face here probably had dates laughing at him in high school, and now he's taking it out on women everywhere. Or maybe Mommy liked to dress him up in her lingerie. Which was it, Nie-Man? Nie-Man, isn't that like German for "not a man"? Wow, the shrinks'll have a field day with that one.'
'Maggie,' Kasey murmured.
Nieman didn't move or say a word, but Kasey saw his muscles quiver as his body knotted up in rage. His smile froze on his face and turned ugly.
'So what's your story, Nie-Man?' Maggie asked. 'What turned you into such a miserable excuse for a human life, huh? Did Aunt Penny like to take you into the closet when you were a boy and play with your little wee-wee? Did you grow up on a farm and spend too much time fucking the pigs and goats?'