The Cabin (4 page)

“I'll come. Though I was thinking we could sneak off for a while.”

I buttoned my jeans and folded my arms, but I liked that he wanted me. “You're insatiable,” I teased.

Blake slowly stalked toward me. I held my ground, determined not to show him how on fire I was at the longing in his eyes.

His gaze rode over every inch of my body. “Can you blame me?”

I was about to say
forget the food
when a wave of nausea rolled over me. I needed to eat soon to soak up the rest of the alcohol. I also needed to keep a clear head. It would be so easy to get lost in all things Blake, and that was dangerous.

“We can find many opportunities to sneak off, I'm sure, but right now I need to eat some greasy food, or I'm gonna feel horrendous all day.”
I can't believe I want to sneak off with him, but after last night I can't help it.

Straightening his back, Blake walked around the double bed and gripped my arms. “Well, that sounds like a plan. I definitely don't want you feeling
horrendous
all day so…” He slid a hand down the bare skin of my arm until he reached my hand. With a little tug, he towed me out of the room and downstairs.

We stopped at the bottom of the wooden stairs to assess the damage. Bottles, shot glasses, and snack wrappers littered the coffee table and floor around it. There were more empty bottles of alcohol than I remembered. No wonder we felt rough.

Blake stood behind me, his chest pressed right against my back and a hand on my hip. I liked the contact a lot.

“This explains the drilling in my head,” he murmured, leaning down to nip my neck. Spinning around, I slapped his arm playfully, laughing. Bad move. My head throbbed with the quick movement, but Blake's boyish grin made my heart swell.

Another bad move.
Don't get too involved with him.
When we went home, Blake would be back off to his dad's, and who knew when I'd see him again. If ever.

A door upstairs opened and closed. I stepped around Blake to watch Megan hobble down. She looked as good as I felt. “Kenzie?” she whispered. “I think I'm
dying
.”

Laughing quietly, I replied, “You too, huh?”

“Bloody hell. How much did we drink?” she muttered, leaning heavily against the bannister as she made the final steps downstairs. She hadn't drunk much, but it was still more than she usually did.

“We're getting old,” I joked. “We can't handle it anymore.”

Kyle was sprawled out on the floor with his mouth wide open, breathing deeply, his jet-black hair stuck out in all directions like a bird's nest. Aaron was curled up beside him, sleeping in the fetal position. They clearly couldn't handle the amount of alcohol either. They were both in the same place Blake and I had left them last night.

Blake watched us with a curiosity I didn't quite understand. I had a feeling he didn't have many close friends, which was a shame, because beyond that I-don't-care attitude, he was a great guy. I thought—from what I'd seen, anyway.

“Where're Josh and Courtney?” Megan asked.

I shrugged. “I don't hear anyone else up, so maybe they're asleep still. God, Megan, I need aspirin.”

Kyle's eyes flicked open and widened as he saw how close Aaron was to him. I felt so rough I couldn't even laugh when he shoved him away, making Aaron wake with a gasp.

Aaron looked up, dazed. “What?” He rubbed his eyes and winced. “Christ!”

“I'm making tea. Everyone in?” I asked, receiving grunts in replace of a yes and a look of disgust from Blake. I smiled, remembering what he'd wanted before. “Coffee for you, Blake.”

I walked into the kitchen; my head was swimming, and everything looked a little fuzzy. A sea of red flashed in front of my eyes. I blinked hard.

You're losing it.

Opening my eyes again, I stared at the floor. It took me a few moments to register what I was seeing. Bright, thick blood stretched from the middle of the kitchen to what looked like behind the island.

I gasped. There was so much blood. My heart raced and the ends of my fingertips tingled. The metallic smell filled my lungs and made me gag. My body turned cold and started to shake.
What…?

“Courtney?” I whispered, not even hearing my own voice over the ringing in my ears.

Oh God, don't pass out, Mackenzie.

Someone came up behind me. “What the…” Kyle whispered, stepping around me. “Shit. Stay back, Kenz.”

Blake was right behind Kyle. “What's going on?” he asked.

Against Kyle's orders, I stepped around the kitchen island and my stomach lurched. “No,” I cried, pressing my hand over my mouth as bile rose in my throat. Courtney and Josh lay on the floor in a pool of crimson blood.

I closed my eyes.
When you open your eyes, you'll see something different.
With my heart in my throat, I cracked one eye open. The image didn't change. There was so much blood. Courtney and Josh were still lying motionless on the floor.

Megan let out a high-pitched scream that didn't sound like it belonged to a human.

This isn't real. I'm dreaming. I have to be dreaming.

“Courtney,” I whispered again, my voice drowning in a sea of Megan's sobs and screams. “Josh!”

They didn't answer. My mind reeled.
How? Who? Why?
My body was ice-cold from the shock. My fingers gripped the counter, nails digging into the wooden countertop. I couldn't move. I was frozen in place. I couldn't look away.

Oh God. Oh God.
Do something! Help them!

Aaron dropped to his knees. His arms hovered over Josh as if he wanted to touch him but was too scared. “Shit,” he spat. “Someone do something! Call an ambulance!”

It looked too late for that. Courtney's once-red lips were a pale pink, and her skin was dull and gray. A stream of dried blood stretched from her ear to the floor.

My pulse drilled.

They're dead. They're dead! No, no, no, no!

I dropped to my knees, ignoring the bickering over what to do going on behind me.

This isn't happening.

Courtney's eyes were closed, just like she was sleeping. Maybe she wasn't dead. Maybe my best friend had a chance. If I could get her to open her eyes, she would be OK.
Everything will be OK
, I repeated in my head on a loop.

“Court, wake up.” I reached out and brushed her red hair from her face. She hated when her bangs fell in her face like that.
Where was help?
“We need an ambulance right now. Someone call for help. We need help,” I rambled. Someone had to wake her up. “She needs help. Someone help her! Please! Oh my God, help her!”

I heard someone drop beside me. “Kenzie?” It was Megan. “She's gone, Kenz. We need to… I don't know.” She pulled my arm. I thought my legs would collapse, but somehow I had the strength to stand.

“Who did this?” I sobbed, pressing my hand to my mouth, gagging.
Stop looking!
I didn't want to see this terror, so why couldn't I stop looking?

Kyle spun around. “She's right. Where is he? Or they?”

Dread settled heavy in my stomach. Were their killers still in the house?

Blake gulped, staring at his brother's face. Josh's eyes were still open but had rolled back slightly. He looked how I always imagined a dead body would look. “Where's who?” he whispered.

“The bastard who just murdered our friends!” Aaron spat in reply.

They wouldn't still be here, surely? No one was stupid enough to do something this horrible and hang around. They couldn't be.
But what if they are?

“We need to go,” Megan said, tugging on my arm. Yeah, we do. “Come on. It's not safe. Someone was here. We need go. Now.”

“No one is going anywhere!” Aaron shouted. “Kyle, call the police. Megan and Kenz, get the fuck out of this room, and, Blake…don't leave this house.”

I watched Blake straighten. His face hardened and his eyes narrowed. “Why did you say that? Why single me out? Why can't
I
leave?”

Aaron arched his eyebrow as if to say,
well, duh
. “Come on, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out.”

“To figure out
what
?” Blake spat.

Megan gripped my hand and squeezed until I felt my bones grind against each other. I knew where Aaron was going with this. He thought the killer was Blake.

“The delinquent crashes our trip, and then we wake up with two dead bodies on the bloody floor! What else am I supposed to think?” Aaron snapped.

No. Blake wouldn't.

I wasn't sure why Blake had suddenly become a delinquent in Aaron's eyes. We had no reason to suspect Blake would do something like this. He wasn't Josh's greatest fan, but then neither were we. Loner didn't equal criminal.

Blake strode forward and stopped chest to chest with Aaron. He cocked his head to the side. “That's my
brother
lying down there. Watch your damn mouth.”

“Stop it!” I shouted, shoving between them. I'd had enough of them arguing. My best friend was
dead
. How could they even think enough to pick a fight with each other? I swiped my eyes with the back of my hand. “What the hell is wrong with you, Aaron? This isn't helping, so both of you stop.” I turned to Kyle and said, “Call an ambulance!”

Kyle nodded and pointed to the phone that was glued to his ear. He was so calm.

I dropped back to my knees. “We should do something! How long do you think it's been? Aaron, you know CPR. Try. Please,” I begged. In my gut, I knew it was pointless, but we could at least try.

“I can't. Mackenzie, I can't bring her back.”

Try!

Logically. I knew he couldn't. Of course he couldn't. She was stone cold and white as a ghost. It wasn't as if she had just collapsed. Courtney was dead. But what did it say about us if we didn't at least try to help? Courtney's and Josh's blood stained the knees of my jeans, seeping into the denim and turning the blue dark red. Horror movies have always been a favorite of mine and I'd always thought they went over the top with blood, but there seemed to be so much blood here that I felt like I was starring in one.

“There's so, so much blood,” I whispered and stroked Courtney's hair as tears blurred my vision. Her face was still perfect, apart from the red trickle by her ear. Most of the blood was below her chest and had spread toward her legs. I could just about make out inch-long wounds over the bottom half of her abdomen. “Do you think they died before? They did, didn't they?” I asked. My voice hitched as I sobbed. Had she been in a lot of pain?

Aaron knelt down and rubbed my back in slow circles. “Before what?” he asked, speaking to me like he would a baby. He was surprisingly comforting. Aaron was usually more protective rather than empathetic.

“Before they…” I took a breath. “B-bled out.”

“No more of this,” he said gently. “Get up, Mackenzie.” He tugged me to my feet and pulled me into a hug that was to console himself as well as me. Whether she died quickly or not didn't change the fact that Courtney had died an awful death. They both had.

They were dead. Gone. My heart shattered that I would never get to talk to my best friend again. I pressed my fist to my mouth and started to heave. Aaron hauled me off to the bathroom.

His fingers dug into my arm as I flopped to the floor. Aaron lifted the toilet seat just in time for me to empty the contents of my stomach into it. Again. Gripping the side of the toilet, I threw up until nothing was left.

When I finished, I sobbed and collapsed against the wall. My lungs burned. It hurt so bad I felt like someone had stabbed me too, right through the center of my heart. My best friend was gone, and I was terrified. This was all so unbelievable and so surreal.

“Do you want to stay in here?” Aaron asked.

Fear gripped me. I grabbed his hand. “I-I don't want to be on my own. Please don't leave me.”

“OK, it's OK,” he reassured me. “Come on.” He helped me to stand up because my legs were made of sponges. I turned the tap on and rinsed my mouth out. The aftertaste of bile and alcohol made me want to be sick again. “Let me help you to the living room,” Aaron said.

“No, I want to be with everyone.” We had to stick together. We
had
to. I grabbed his hand again and held on to it as if it were my only lifeline. Aaron nodded and we slowly walked back.

Just don't look.

My stomach rolled as we walked into the kitchen. I let go of Aaron and leaned on a counter. From where I was standing, I couldn't see them and I wanted to keep it that way. The image would forever be burned into my memory; I didn't need to see it again.

“The police and ambulance are on their way,” Kyle said, still holding the phone to his ear as he relayed information. “I don't know,” he growled into the phone “Neither are breathing… They're cold. They're dead. I'm sure of it!” he snapped. His face paled and he closed his eyes.

None of us knew what to do. We were out of our depth. I had never felt so helpless before in my life.

If I could have turned back the clock, I would have gone to that CPR course with Aaron. Hell, if I could have turned back the clock, I wouldn't have drank last night. I would have protected them. How did we all sleep through this? One of us should have stayed sober. We're so stupid.

Aaron stood beside Megan and wrapped his strong arm around her shoulder. Kyle stared at Courtney with wide, shock-filled eyes. I refused to look. I'd already seen enough to haunt me for years.

My body was weak, dizzy, and I felt like I was going to collapse again. I knew I needed to eat, but there was no way I'd be able to keep anything down. I focused on breathing slowly.

“Why would someone do this?” Megan wailed loudly, coughing as she tried to catch her breath. She was hysterical—the way I should have been but wasn't.

I was empty, numb. Was it denial? They were gone. I knew that, but how? Why? This couldn't have happened right under our noses.

“Mackenzie,” Aaron whispered, turning from Megan and gesturing with his head for me to follow them.

I shook my head. “I…I…” What was there to say? Nothing could make this better. Nothing.

“Shh, I know.” He pulled on my arm, and I let him lead me and Megan to the sofa in the living room.

The door handle rattled just as I sat down, making me jump. It was only then that I saw the flashing blue lights.
Oh, thank God.
Help was here.

Someone pounded on the front door. “Police! Open up!”

Blake dashed to open the door. I couldn't remember anyone locking it last night.

Police officers burst in, and Aaron, Blake, and Kyle wasted no time in explaining what had happened.

They rattled off the story all at once; their voices muddled together, mouths moving at a hundred miles an hour, creating a buzzing sound that couldn't be understood.

One of the officers, a tall man with shaved black stubble for hair and a jet-black suit, held up his hand. “Calm down. Please. Where are they?” he asked, his voice thick with authority, similar to my old high school headmaster.

“Kitchen,” Blake replied, taking a breath. “I'll lead the way.”

“Stay here, girls,” Kyle said, looking between Megan and me before following the guys to Courtney and Josh.

I did what he said because I couldn't face seeing them like that again. Leaning to the side, I huddled into Megan for comfort. Really, I just wanted my mum.

“What do you think they're doing?” I asked.

She shook her head, and her hands trembled in her lap. “I don't know. Where will they take them? To the hospital?”

To the morgue
. I squeezed my eyes closed at the thought. “I don't know. Probably,” I replied. The protocol for situations like this was not something I was familiar with.

As a distraction, I fixed my eyes on the fireplace and watched the last of the flames struggle to flicker. It'd gotten cooler last night, so the boys had lit the fire. The pale-orange glow was almost out, leaving the room marginally cooler.

A female officer with her hair pulled back tight against her head knelt down in front of us. “I'm Detective Inspector Julienne Hale, but you can call me Julie. How are you both doing?”

I shook my head. How were we supposed to answer that question?

Megan's reply was a strangled sob that sounded like it hurt.

“I need to ask you a few questions.” Neither of us replied. I tried to, but when I opened my mouth, nothing came out. She continued. “Can you tell me your names?”

“Mackenzie Keaton,” I answered. “That's Megan Haydock.” Megan was in no state to talk. She buried her head in her knees and her body shook as she silently cried. “Is there someone else in the house? I didn't hear anyone break in. I would have heard someone, wouldn't I? We didn't look. We were too…”
Preoccupied with our dead friends.
I closed my eyes as a tidal wave of nausea almost took me out.

She smiled, placing her hand over mine. “Mackenzie, slow down.”

“Why didn't we hear them? Courtney had a loud voice and her scream—”

“I'm sorry,” Julie said, giving my hand a squeeze. “We can do this a little later. You've had a terrible shock. Take some time.”

“You will find who did it, won't you?”

She squeezed my hand. “We will do our very best.”

That wasn't the answer I was looking for. My friends were lying on the floor with deep gashes all over their bodies and she would do her best?

Blake strolled back into the room and stood beside the fireplace. Leaning his elbows on his knees, he tugged his messy hair with his fingers. From the little I'd seen of him, he didn't show emotion, unless it was a cocky smirk, so I had no idea how deeply Josh's death had affected him. I wanted to get up, go over, and help console him, but I didn't have anything left to give. Every muscle felt like it was made of lead.

“Blake,” I murmured softly.

He didn't look up but cocked his head to the side, acknowledging me.

“You OK?”

He didn't move his position or attempt to reply. How was one supposed to answer a question like that anyway?

“We have to wait in here,” Kyle said as he and Aaron entered the living room. He shook his head and sat down beside me. Julie walked into the kitchen, leaving us with another uniformed officer who I had a feeling was assigned to watch us.

For the longest time, no one said a word. We were stunned. Paramedics and more police officers—about five or so—streamed past us, but we stayed still. I felt as if I were in a nightmare and needed to wake up. I couldn't think straight. Nothing made sense. Who would want to hurt them? Why attack just them? Why not the rest of us too? And why hadn't we heard anything?