Chapter 28
Oh my God, oh my God, I think I killed Albert.
Despite the panic clawing at my throat, and the very real possibility I might pee myself, I drop to my knees beside him and check his pulse.
I'm shaking so hard I can't feel anything—barely able to tell if there's a heartbeat pulsing under my two fingers. A pool of blood spreads around him, dark and blooming. There's no coming back from a hit to the head like that. Oh, fuck, what have I done?
Where is Chet?
Where is anyone when I need them?
I bolt to the check-in desk, heart hammering, and snatch up the landline. I slam the receiver back down a few times, jabbing the old-school clicker and waiting desperately for a dial tone.
Nothing. It's dead.
I'm too impatient to figure out a back exit, so I take a chair and throw it at the entrance's glass door.
Not even an alarm goes off, and why would it? This town is a piss stain on a map, full of clueless locals who wouldn't know a real threat if it knocked on their front porch. They don't take precautions, despite all the shit that's gone down here.
Regardless, I crawl out the door, expecting a swarm of bodies to meet me on the other side, desperate to find out why the beloved motel in their town has been vandalized from the inside out.
But there's no one. The town is dead. I don't even see a car on the road.
I need to warn the girls. I don't know what they're expecting at the cabin, but it can't be good. They need to know Albert is behind it all.
Running to Cabin One to alert Chet, hope blossoms in my chest that he might have a radio or walkie talkie to alert the police in case of an emergency. This qualifies as one, seeing as I just killed his dad.
Albert's run-down pickup truck is parked behind Chet's cabin, and even though I'm pounding my fists hard and jiggling the door handle, no one answers. It's locked.
"Open up, dammit!" My fists are on fire from the force I'm exerting.
But this is pointless. I know I'm fleeing the scene of a crime, but I sprint to Albert's truck and—praise the redneck Gods—his keys are still in the ignition. The trust of these folks, I swear.
I stomp the pedal and head toward the cabin.