Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
“Hey—whoa!” a male voice barked as he twisted to catch my other arm right before the flashlight would’ve hit his head. His face scrunched up in anger and he shoved me back, taking several steps away from me. He held both hands up in surrender. “Hold on. It’s me, Travis. I’m not here to attack you.”
Travis.
Not…whoever I thought it might be. I jerked backwards, bent over and sucked in some air before I was steady enough to speak. “Holy shit, Travis! Holy shit!” I shook my head and pretended to hit him with the flashlight. “Announce yourself. Jesus”
He laughed but kept an eye on the flashlight. “I thought you’d be in bed. I pulled in and shit went nuclear in the coop. I thought maybe a coyote was trying to get in or something.”
“No. Or…” I looked back. They were still worked up. “I don’t think so.” I walked back that way and I went in through the cage first, so if the hens ran out, they still wouldn’t be loose. Travis was right behind me.
I threw open the inside door, and the hens ran out. Every single one of them.
I wasn’t able to count them, but I went inside, my heart in my throat about what I was going to find. But there was nothing. No predator inside at all.
“Are you here about Brett? I fell asleep in the coop. I haven’t checked my phone. Is he okay?” I looked around. “Is he here with you? Wait…” Where was his truck?
Travis stood in the middle of the cage, the hens running around him, and he had the coldest look on his face.
A chill went down my spine. “Travis?”
He continued to stare at me, hard. He looked like a stranger.
I didn’t know this Travis.
A chill sliced through my whole body, and pieces began connecting to one another.
“Travis? Is Brett okay?”
He’d been interested in me for a long time.
But no… The killings had started north in the Midwest, leaving a trail to here.
The truck on the road, the guy watching…
I would’ve recognized Travis. Wouldn’t I?
“Little Billie, you need to know my secret.” My mom’s voice came to me, echoing through my mind. I frowned. Why was I remembering her at this moment?
“Travis? What are you doing here?” I asked again, a wholly different tone in my voice. I felt detached from everything, already knowing and feeling the cold that only death could bring.
“You know how we move from place to place all the time?” my mom asked me.
I shook my head, needing to clear that voice from my memory. It wasn’t the time right now.
But I heard my own voice respond, like I was twelve. “Yeah?”
“Things are out of my control now, sweetie. I need to tell you the truth.”
“Mom?” I started crying.
“Brett sent me.” Travis’ voice was off. His demeanor was off. “He couldn’t get ahold of you and he needed to stay with that girl.”
Right. That made sense. It was something Brett would do.
I couldn’t focus. I was distracted by the flashback in my head.
My mom was crying too. “We didn’t move around so much because I kept getting fired, sweetie. I didn’t want you to get attached. I told you it was because I didn’t want you to have friends. That wasn’t the truth.”
“It wasn’t?”
“No, honey. I would’ve loved it if you could have friends. You and your brother. You were both so full of goodness and love, and you both deserved to have that in your life. You know that, right?”
I’d been so young back then, and it was the day after I lost my friend.
“Billie, are you okay?” Travis asked.
“What?” I couldn’t focus, yet every fiber of my being screamed that I could not be distracted in this moment.
Travis was talking. From a distance I heard him say, “Did something happen after the game? Broudou seemed off tonight…” He kept talking, but I couldn’t hear him.
I could only hear my mom.
“It’s your father, Billie.”
“Dad?” I whispered aloud.
Travis stopped abruptly.
“He’s not a good man. You know that,” Mom continued. “He keeps finding us, and he’s never done anything to you, but yesterday…” She trailed off, more tears cascading down her face. Her hands shook and she tried to draw in some oxygen. She tucked my hair back, smoothing it before she forced herself to move away. “He hurts me, sweetie. And he did something with your brother yesterday—”
“What’d he do?” my voice was so flat. The panic was locked up, real tight.
My emotions needed to be off.
It all came back to me. I used to do that. That’s how I would get through those visits with him. I’d shut everything off and become a rock. I’d pull all the way inside myself, turning into a robot when he was around.
Travis came closer to me.
I needed to step back, but I couldn’t make my feet move. This, whatever had been unleashed in my mind, I needed to remember it first.