Cold Comfort: Friday, July 12, 2024 – Henry (4)

Truman had to be half deer or something. Did you call that a faun, or were fauns goats? No, the goats were satyrs, and the satyrs were the horny bastards always after wood sprites and female anything. A lot of women got turned into trees or something to keep them away from lecherous satyrs, but fauns? Or were fauns only girls?

The point was, Truman had to be at least partly a mythical creature. He moved through the woods in a straight line and didn’t wobble on the uneven ground or get smacked in the face by a branch when he looked down to make sure he wasn’t stepping in a hole. Seriously, the trees seemed to bend out of the way for him and mark some sort of luminous path to follow.

Henry panted and cursed and wished he’d had time to do more than slip on a pair of shoes that really weren’t cut out for this and would, at any moment now, start showing a bloodstain over his injured toe.

Jane didn’t seem to be struggling, but maybe that was the whole ballerina thing. All the noises Henry heard came from himself: his lungs, his feet, his pounding heartbeat. It couldn’t be the physical exertion, right? He was used to gyms instead of the outdoors, but he did at least make use of gyms. And honestly, it wasn’t actually fear, unless it was fear of getting lost in the woods.

Okay maybe it was fear of getting lost in the woods.

He breathed a sigh of relief when Truman slowed down, and yes, things looked lighter up ahead. It was even nicer when Truman held out a hand to tell them to stop, and Henry did, holding onto a handy tree. A tree oozing sap. He had the ridiculous duct tape still clinging to his limbs under his sweatshirt and jeans, and now his palm was sticky, too. Great. Just great.

Jonathan might carefully select the reviews to put on the website, but that didn’t mean Henry couldn’t put scathing comments on Yelp and Google. Seriously, Loon Lake needed to screen its residents better.

Truman looked back, held a finger to his lips, and then gestured for the others to come join him. Henry peeled his hand away from the tree and resisted the urge to try to wipe it on his shirt, where it would just get stuck. He made it up to Truman in time to see the Loon Lake van leave the parking lot, Jonathan at the wheel and Percy in the shotgun seat.

It was impossible to tell if they were alone. The windows in the back of the van were dark, for the passengers’ privacy.

Henry sighed and felt his shoulders drop. “So that’s all right, then.”

Jane ignored him. “How many people can you take in your car?”

“Five, same as Alyssa’s. Three in the back seat.” Truman even hooked a thumb over his shoulder to demonstrate.

She started popping up fingers: “Alyssa, Edgar, Emily, Agatha … maybe Mary … we didn’t see Lydia … could you cram two people in the cargo space if you had to?”

Truman shrugged. “If we had to, we could make people sit on top of each other.”

Jane held out her hand. “We’ll go far enough to call. I’ll hang back so I don’t see them.”

“Do you have any idea where you’re going?” he asked, not ready to surrender.

She nodded. “Out to the highway and take a left. Drive until we get signal.”

Truman handed over the keys.

“Okay, but we’re like safe here,” Henry protested.

“We just saw someone you told us has a gun drive off with Jonathan,” Jane pointed out. “None of us is getting out of this without a police interview, so either you come with me now, or you wait here for them to show up.”

Neither of those sounded like a good idea, thanks. “What are you going to do?” he asked Truman.

“Get my keys and find Alyssa,” he answered promptly. “See how many we can round up and get the hell out of here.”

Henry pointed up the drive toward camp. “This is the one place you know Percy isn’t!”

“For now,” Truman agreed. “But we don’t know how long he’ll be gone. Get out of here, make that call, and put people on this.” Jane nodded as she and Truman started walking, veering away from each other in a V, and Henry found himself limp-running after Jane to catch up.

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Cold Comfort: Friday, July 12, 2024 – Alyssa (4), coming August 13