Behind Our Walls Read Online Free PDF Page A

finally looked up at him. "How did you find us?"
    "We—"
    "What the hell is going on?" James burst into the room, looking frantically around with a clear look of panic on his face. "I heard shots from up on the road, what happened?"
    Rowen put his hands out to try and calm him down. "James, you shouldn't have just blown in here like this, you could have gotten yourself—"
    "Corrine!" He elbowed past Rowen and knelt over his daughter, reaching out to carefully brush a strand of hair from her face. "Just tell me what happened." His face reddened as he seemed to suddenly notice the nude figure of his daughter and he averted his eyes as he pulled the blanket up over her. She shivered at the sensation but offered no sign of being aware of his presence.
    "She..." Rowen seemed to be trying to think of the best way to phrase what had happened. "The guy who lived here was assaulting her." He nodded into the corner towards Reggie's body. "Adam charged in here to help Corrine, and the guy managed to get a shot off before I could get in here. Adam...Adam's dead."
    James glanced at the body of his once future son-in-law but offered nothing else as he turned back to Corrine.
    "Anyway," Rowen said. "You guys had been gone for too long, so we came after you. It wasn't hard to spot the house, and we could see your packs on the table from outside. It looked like someone had been searching through them so we figured something was wrong."
    Rowen glanced at Sophie and nodded towards the outer room.
    "Are you okay?" he asked in a low tone so the others wouldn't hear. "Did he..."
    "I don't think so," she answered, seeing the skeptical look on his face. "He drugged us. He stripped my clothes off but I think he started with Corrine."
    Rowen nodded and glanced back at the room where James sat in quiet vigil over his daughter. "We should probably check out the rest of the house," he said. "Just make sure everything is safe and see what we have to use. I have a feeling we're going to be here for a while."

-8-
     
     
    The next morning, Sophie stumbled down to find Rowen and her father, eating dry cereal. They looked up as she walked in but only Rowen stood to greet her. She stared at the table apprehensively, trying to block out the memory of the drugged fog from the night before.
    "I'm going to sit down over here," she gestured to one of the over-sized chairs next to the bay windows and settled down, looking out over the lush expanse of forest that swept away from them. All she could see was the dark evergreens and for just a second, she could almost convince herself that everything was all right out there. They were just enjoying a weekend trip in a rented cabin. The grief soon chased that thought out of her head though, the memory of what had happened, just below where they now sat. She felt the acute offense of staying here, of using it for their own benefit.
    "It's not like it was his house either," Rowen said as he took the seat next to her. "You shouldn't feel bad about staying here like this."
    "I know," she said, glancing at the ceramic mug of water he handed her.
    "There's a pump outside," Rowen said, settling back and drinking from his own mug.
    She looked at her father who sat with his back to them, no indication that he had registered what they were saying. She listened to the wind assaulting the sides of the house and watched the tree tops wave at her before putting the water down.
    "So what are we going to do?"
    He swiveled the chair towards her and lowered his voice, although James seemed to be in his own universe. "Well, we were lucky to happen onto this place. There's no way we're going to be able to move Corrine any time soon. She's still near catatonic from what happened and I'm not sure how long it's going to take for her to snap out of it. I would normally say that you would be the only one who could bring her back, but..." He trailed off, not voicing the thought.
    "But our relationship hasn't exactly been stellar as of late."