Nightfall Read Online Free PDF Page B

woods.”
    â€œI remember,” she whispered, her eyes unfocused.
    â€œEventually, he told me to get out of the woods and learn more, the things he couldn’t teach me. I got my GED and I joined the military. And no matter how he did by you, he made me a man. He saved my life.”
    Reality returned to her. He saw it happen, like switching off a light. She yanked her hands back into her lap. “Fine. Say I believe you about Mitch and the stupid promise you made. What does he have to do with you kidnapping me?”
    â€œYou’re right.”
    Mason stood and fetched their coats. He held them in the air between their bodies, waiting.
    She eyed it with suspicion. “What?”
    â€œYou wanted to get out of here, so let’s do it.”
    â€œSo you can kill me in the woods?”
    Mason laughed tightly. “Why not here? And why not hours ago?”
    â€œI don’t know, but I’m not going out there with you.” Her gaze darted to the blacked windows.
    â€œC’mon.” Without waiting, he grabbed his nine-millimeter and a Maglite.
    Jenna didn’t miss his preparations. “I’m not stupid, you know. You’re not going to get any trouble out of me.”
    â€œNot from you, no.”
    â€œYou’re trying to scare me and it won’t work.”
    â€œIt’d better.”
    Ten minutes later, with Jenna trailing like a sleepwalker, they stood in a small clearing just north of the cabin. Mason didn’t trust her compliance. She was still thinking, doubting his word, and that would get them both killed.
    God, he didn’t want to get rough with her, but she wasn’t getting away from him. She couldn’t. Her life depended on him—his will, his cool, his knowledge. But his survival depended on her too.
    â€œC’mere,” he said quietly.
    She didn’t move.
    So he went to her instead. Something good and calm opened in his chest when she didn’t shy away.
    â€œListen, Jenna.”
    â€œWhat now? More stories?”
    â€œNo, listen . Listen to the forest.”
    The stillness enveloped them, a dark and unnatural stillness that gnawed at bones and wore away at the mind like a drip, drip, drip of water. No moon shone through the quiet leaves. No animals moved among the foliage. Although they stood in the trees, among those countless living plants, breathing each other’s poison air, there wasn’t a single noise to indicate life.
    Jenna stood at his side. He could barely see her in the thick black soup of night, but he heard her frantic breathing.
    â€œWhere is everything?” she whispered.
    â€œMitch took you camping, right? When you were younger?”
    â€œIt creeps me out, you knowing stuff like that.”
    â€œDid he or didn’t he?”
    â€œYeah, when I was a kid. And you were right. He never hit the bottle out here. For him, being in the woods was normal.” She inhaled deeply, unsteadily. “But this ... this isn’t normal.”
    He took her hand, the only solid, real, warm thing in the forest. “Everything I’ve said is God’s honest truth.”
    She tightened her fingers as a shiver worked down her arm. “There’s no God here.”

FIVE
    From out of the enveloping darkness, Jenna caught the faint baying of distant hounds. Only they didn’t sound like any dogs she’d ever heard. Their howls echoed with an unwholesome wetness, as if they keened through blood. Her heart skipped a beat. The cold cut through her jacket like icy knives.
    The second-scariest part? Mason was the most harmless thing in the woods.
    â€œWe have to get back to the cabin.” He tugged her hand. “You’re not ready for a fight.”
    â€œWill I be?” she murmured, frozen and dazed.
    He leveled a steady look on her, his secrets hidden in the near dark. “Yes.”
    Jenna had no time to think about that. She stumbled as he pulled her back toward the cabin,