Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
“No. This part of the forest is known for the wild wolves that live here.”
“Do you know about the ghost stories?” she asked.
“Yeah, they’re not ghosts. Just wolves. A few years ago, hikers were banned from crossing the river and abandoning the beaten path. Too many deaths.”
“So, there could be ghosts.”
Dwayne laughed.
She pressed herself against his side.
“Believe me, there are no ghosts.”
“How do you know?”
“I came here a lot when I was your age.”
“Dwayne, don’t try to make out I’m a child.”
“When I was eighteen years old, I killed someone,” he said, turning toward her.
She was surprised by his words, but seeing the seriousness in his gaze, she knew he wasn’t lying.
“Oh.”
“I buried him right here.”
She stepped back, looking down at the ground. “Okay, that’s not creepy at all.” Again, she started to think she had to see a doctor as her brain wasn’t firing right. He’d just admitted to killing someone.
“I’m not a good person, Charity.”
“I know that.”
“You shouldn’t want to be around me.”
“I know that.” She repeated the same words as anything else failed her. What was she supposed to say? So? I don’t care?
“I get why a lot of people think you’re weird.”
“Hey! That’s not very nice.”
“I’m showing you the place that I killed someone and you’re not running away.”
“Is that what you’re trying to do? Make me terrified so I feel I have no choice but to run? But to be scared?”
“You shouldn’t be standing there as if this is a date.”
“I know this is not a date. Far from it, in fact.”
“Then why are you here, Charity?”
“You asked me to come with you. I followed you, and this is where you wanted to take me.”
He shook his head, and she found it infuriating that he wasn’t making any sense.
“I mean this with me. You should have pushed me away. Told me I was an asshole and you didn’t want anything to do with me.”
“I couldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. I like you, okay? Being around you feels normal to me, and yeah, that terrifies me so damn much, you have no idea. A few months ago, I was normal. I had a bunch of friends, and going to the mall was actually a lot of fun. Now, I can’t do it. Being with them, trying to fit in. There is a whole world out there, and it is terrifying. You kill people that are dangerous or whatever, and no one cares. I know I should be running. Screaming for someone to come and save me. You’re the thing that nightmares are made of. I get that. I know that I shouldn’t be so happy when I see you, or feel safe. You’ve proven to me more than once how dangerous you are. How easily you can kill me and dispose of the body. Yeah, I should be scared. Screaming for my very life, but I can’t seem to start moving, Dwayne. You saved me. When no one else did. You came for me. Killed all those men and then carried me out, and I know I’m not light, okay? You still did all of that for me, and I don’t know. Maybe I’ve got a loose wire in my brain somewhere, but it’s not going to stop, okay? I like being around you, even when you are being an asshole, and I really need to stop talking right now.”
She’d started to scream as she spoke, and she was panting.
“Okay then,” he said.
“What?”
“I just wanted to make sure you were here because you wanted to be. Not that I had you so scared that you felt you had to be around me or risk me killing you.”
“That makes absolutely no sense.”
“Does to me.” He shrugged.
She shook her head. There was no way she’d ever make sense of him, not in a million years.
“Do you have more bodies?”
“Yes. I dumped quite a few here.”
“Do you feel nothing?”
“I did feel nothing when I started. They were not good men.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I only hurt them when I caught them doing bad things,” he said, winking at her.
She rolled her eyes, wondering if getting her head tested was a good idea. She was clearly going crazy right now.
“So why come here?”
“Someone has been uncovering old bodies. The latest is a woman.”
“What does that mean?”
“Either someone had the same idea as me back then, or I’m being sent a message.”
“How could you be sent a message?”
“This is where I buried my first kills nearly fifteen years ago, Charity.”
“And?”
“I don’t know. Something seems off with all of this.”
She watched him as he moved across the wood, looking at the ground.
“What are you hoping to find?”
“Answers? Clues? I don’t know. Something that would help me remember.”
“You don’t remember killing these people?”
“I do. It’s everything after that is a bit of a blur.” He sighed and turned. “What are you doing after you graduate?”