Chapter 19
The hitchhiker is right. You’ve got to untie him and get out of here as quickly as you can. As soon as that creature returns, you are both toast. There’s no way you can leave him here for dead.
You crawl around to reach the ties behind his back. You don’t have a knife, but you’re able to work the ties free that bind his wrists. Once those are free, he’s able to help you get his ankles untied. Now unshackled, he sits there on the ground, rubbing his red, chapped wrists.
“Thank you,” he breathes. “Thank you so much.”
“Come on.” You scramble to your feet, acutely aware of the fact that the monster could return at any moment. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Right.” His voice has an odd intonation all of a sudden, like he isn’t quite human himself. “We should go.”
He gets to his feet much too slowly. You don’t know why he is suddenly acting like you have all the time in the world when a yeti monster is literally about to come back any second and eat you.
“Which way is out?” you ask him.
He doesn’t answer right away, but after a few beats, he points a finger to the right.
“Are you sure?” you ask.
“Pretty sure,” he says, not sounding sure at all.
Given that anything else would be a complete guess, you decide to trust his sense of direction.
You do feel a breeze as you start traveling right, which makes you think that it might lead outdoors.
But at the same time, you’re moving away from the light and heat of the fire, which means that it’s getting colder and darker.
“I can barely see,” you breathe.
“Yes,” the hitchhiker agrees. “Me either.”
“I wish we had a light.”
“Actually,” the hitchhiker says, “I have a lighter in my pocket.”
“Great!”
You stand there as he fumbles around in his pocket for the lighter. After a few seconds, you hear a click as the lighter ignites. A tiny orb of fire illuminates his face, making his eyes look almost demonic.
“By the way, Sloan,” he says in a low voice, “did I ever thank you for untying me?”
Wait. Did you tell him your name was Sloan? You must have, because how else would he know? But at this moment, you can’t remember ever telling him your name, and that fact is almost as terrifying as the yeti monster.
“I am so glad you untied me,” he hisses at you.
And then he smiles.
You scream as the flame goes out, just as the hitchhiker’s fingers wrap around your throat. As he squeezes the life out of you, you can’t help but think to yourself that if only you hadn’t untied him, everything would have been different.
THE END
Want to try for a different ending? Turn back to Chapter 1 (page 1)!