Chapter 16: Nowhere to Hide
1112 Words
Chapter 16: Nowhere to Hide
Emma locked the door with shaking fingers, every nerve in her body screaming. She double-checked the windows, drew the blinds, and shoved a chair under the doorknob, even though she knew it wouldn’t stop someone determined to get in.
She pressed her back against the wall, chest heaving.
The Polaroid picture sat on the kitchen table.
Her face. Her bedroom window.
Taken from just outside.
Emma swallowed the rising panic and forced herself to think.
Liam was in custody.
Daniel was in the hospital.
So who was watching her?
Her phone buzzed again, making her jump.
Another message.
Blocked number.
You can’t protect her.
Emma’s fingers tightened around the phone.
Her first instinct was to call the police. But they’d already told her they were doing everything they could. They’d check her house, tell her to stay somewhere safe, and promise to update her.
But Sophie didn’t have time for promises.
Emma needed answers.
And there was only one person left who might have them.
---
The Truth in Blood
The hospital smelled like bleach and stale air. Emma walked past the nurses' station, heart pounding like a war drum, her hands curled into fists at her sides.
Daniel was in a private room, his body hooked up to machines that beeped in quiet, steady rhythms. His face was pale, bruised, and the bandages around his chest stood out starkly against the hospital gown.
But his eyes opened when she stepped inside.
He flinched when he saw her.
Emma ignored the stab of pain in her chest.
“Who’s helping him?” she demanded, voice low but sharp.
Daniel swallowed, his throat working painfully.
“I don’t know,” he rasped.
“Don’t lie to me, Daniel.”
He shook his head weakly. “I swear, I don’t. Liam… he was always careful. He never let me see anyone else.”
Emma’s jaw clenched.
“But he would brag about it,” Daniel whispered, voice brittle. “Like he loved knowing something I didn’t. He’d say things like, ‘We’re everywhere’ or ‘She doesn’t even know how close we are.’”
Emma’s stomach twisted.
“We?” she echoed.
Daniel nodded slightly. “I think… I think it’s more than one person.”
Emma took a shaky step back.
“Like a group?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Daniel’s eyes flickered with guilt.
“I think it’s a cult.”
Emma’s pulse roared in her ears.
“A cult?”
“Not in the religious sense,” Daniel croaked, coughing. “But… people obsessed with control. With possession. Liam talked about it like it was a family.”
Emma’s blood turned to ice.
“They share victims,” Daniel muttered, voice fading. “Trade them like property.”
Emma staggered, gripping the chair beside the bed to stay upright.
She wanted to scream, to cry, to break something.
But all she could think about was Sophie.
Tied to a chair.
Surrounded by monsters.
---
The Cabin in the Woods
The text came at midnight.
An address.
No words. No threats.
Just a location.
Emma stared at it for a long time, her heart slamming against her ribs.
She should call the police.
She should tell someone where she was going.
But she didn’t.
Because if this was a trap, she couldn’t risk the cops arriving and scaring them off.
She couldn’t risk Sophie being moved.
Or killed.
So Emma slid a knife into her jacket sleeve, grabbed her car keys, and drove.
The address led her deep into the forest, down a narrow dirt road that twisted through the trees like a snake. The headlights barely cut through the darkness, illuminating only the gnarled branches stretching overhead like skeletal fingers.
Emma’s hands tightened on the wheel, her knuckles white.
She parked when the road ended. The rest of the way, she walked.
Branches scraped her face as she pushed through the underbrush, her breath clouding in the cold air. Every crunch of leaves beneath her boots made her flinch.
And then she saw it.
A cabin.
Isolated. Silent.
A faint light glowed through the window.
Emma’s heart slammed against her ribs. She crept closer, careful not to make a sound, and peeked through a c***k in the curtains.
Her stomach dropped.
Sophie.
Tied to a chair, her wrists raw and bleeding.
Her head lolled forward, her chest rising and falling in shallow breaths.
Emma’s heart shattered.
She didn’t think. Didn’t plan.
She kicked the door open.
The wooden frame splintered, the echo of the impact ringing through the cabin.
Sophie jolted awake, eyes wild with panic.
“Emma?” she rasped, her voice broken.
Emma rushed to her, fumbling with the knots. “I’m here,” she whispered, tears blurring her vision. “I’ve got you.”
But before she could untie the last rope —
The door creaked.
Emma spun, knife raised.
Someone stood in the doorway.
A woman.
Smiling.
Her face was familiar, but Emma couldn’t place it.
Until the woman tilted her head.
And Emma remembered the grocery store.
The barista at the coffee shop.
The stranger who’d smiled at her from across the street.
Emma’s stomach twisted.
They’d been watching her.
For months.
The woman stepped inside, closing the door behind her.
“It’s so nice to finally meet you,” she whispered.
---
The Family
Emma lunged.
The knife flashed in the dim light, but the woman was fast. She sidestepped, grabbing Emma’s wrist and slamming it into the wall. The blade clattered to the floor.
Emma gasped as pain shot up her arm, but she didn’t back down. She threw a punch, catching the woman’s jaw.
The woman only laughed.
“Feisty,” she purred, wiping blood from her lip.
Emma scrambled back, heart racing.
“Why are you doing this?” she demanded, voice raw.
The woman smiled.
“Because he loves you,” she whispered.
Emma’s skin crawled.
The woman stepped closer.
“We all love you.”
Emma’s breath caught.
Footsteps thudded outside.
Shadows gathered behind the curtains.
Shapes.
People.
They were surrounding the cabin.
Watching.
Waiting.
Sophie whimpered, her body shaking.
Emma pressed her back against the wall, her mind racing.
She was outnumbered.
Trapped.
The woman knelt, picking up the knife.
“You shouldn’t have come alone,” she whispered, twirling the blade between her fingers.
Emma’s chest constricted.
Because she was right.
Emma hadn’t told anyone where she was going.
And now, no one knew where she was.
The woman smiled, her eyes gleaming in the dim light.
“Welcome home,” she whispered.
And then the lights went out.
- Writer
