Chapter 13 #2
Aspen drummed her thumbs against the steering wheel—a nervous tick of hers—and then turned to Maddy.
“Okay. New plan. I’ll walk back up the highway to Earl’s.
It was only what, like seven or eight miles back?
You stay here, keep the doors locked, I’ll use his phone to call a tow truck and then pay Earl to drive back back down to you. ”
Maddy’s eyes widened. “Absolutely not.”
“Maddy—”
“It’s nearly dark, Aspen. People take these roads at like seventy miles an hour, and it’s full of blind curves. It’s dangerous.” She was not being dramatic. This was just a fact.
“Because of all the other cars we’ve seen?” Aspen gestured out the window.
Maddy shot her a look. “Well even if you don’t get hit on the highway, and that’s a big if, you’ve still got four miles of walking that awful pothole road in the pitch black, where I guarantee you’ll roll an ankle in the first mile, and then you’ll just be lying there completely helpless and probably get eaten by a coyote, meanwhile I’m just left here alone like a sitting duck.
That isn’t a plan, Aspen. That’s the cold open. ”
Aspen frowned. “The cold open?”
“Of the episode. The one where they find your car with my mangled body inside.” She thought that was obvious.
Aspen huffed. “You’ve read too many murder trial transcripts.”
Probably true. But also not the point. The point was that if Aspen walked off into the dark, Maddy would be alone in a dead car on a deserted road, which was the exact composition of the top of every horror movie.
The lone woman. The broken-down vehicle.
The dark road. She was not afraid of being left alone.
She was afraid of ending up on Dateline.
Aspen held up her hands. “Fine. No walking. We’ll just keep sitting here, waiting. Happy?”
“Ecstatic.” Maddy said flatly.
“Great. I’ll wait outside so we don’t miss them.” Aspen climbed out of the car again and went around to the front, leaning against the hood with her arms crossed, her shoulders hiked up to her ears, the wind blowing her hair in all directions.
Maddy scoffed. If Aspen wanted to get hypothermia while waiting for someone to come to their rescue, that was on her. What did Maddy care? She could watch the road just as well from here. There was no reason to stand outside in the cold. She crossed her arms.
She lasted about thirty seconds of watching Aspen shiver through the windshield before she opened the car door, and got out just enough to yell at Aspen across the hood. “What are you doing out here? It’s freezing.”
“I’m fine.” Aspen yelled back without turning.
“You’re being ridiculous, Aspen. Get back in the damn car.”
Aspen, wisely, did not argue and walked back around the car and climbed inside, rubbing her arms.
Half an hour later, headlights came around the corner from behind, lighting up the inside of the car. Aspen jumped out and waved her arms. Maddy got out too, wrapping her arms tightly around her body to ward off the wind chill.
The truck slowed and pulled onto the shoulder ahead of them. A woman in her sixties, wearing flannel, jumped out of the cab, and waved as she approached. “Howdy. You two broke down?”
“Yeah, we came down a pretty rough road back there and then the engine just gave out.” Aspen held up her phone. “We couldn’t get a signal to call for help.”
“Ah let me guess, Earl’s?” The woman asked.
Aspen nodded.
The woman took them in, then the dead SUV.
“Well, shop in town’s closed till morning, but I’m about fifteen more minutes down the mountain.
You can connect to my WiFi and call a tow, and you’re welcome to stay for the night.
Beats freezing out here. Dangerous too. It’s pitch black and people take these curves way too fast.”
Maddy shot Aspen a told you so look. Aspen rolled her eyes.
Then a new panic set in. Maybe she did read too many trial transcripts, but there was a reason there was a whole genre of true-crime television.
And it often started with someone pulling over to help stranded women on a dark mountain road, and those same people were usually the entire reason the road was empty in the first place.
Aspen clearly did not share Maddy’s reservations.
“That’s so kind of you, thank you,” Aspen said with a smile. “We really appreciate it.”
“Could you give us one second?” Maddy said with an index finger raised, forced smile in place.
The woman waved a hand. “Take your time. I’ll clear off the passenger seat. Name’s Doreen, by the way.”
The second Doreen turned back toward her truck, Maddy’s hand shot out and gripped Aspen’s arm. She pulled her in close and dropped her voice. “Are you insane? We can’t go with her. She probably wants to harvest our organs.”
Aspen looked down at the hand on her arm, then back up, entirely unbothered.
“Or she’s a person doing a nice thing for two women stranded on the side of a road at night.
What is it with you and being murdered or harvested today?
You need to chill. We’ll be fine, I promise.
If anything seems sketchy, I will sacrifice myself so you can escape. Okay?”
No, absolutely not okay. Maddy needed a new angle. “What about the fireworks? We can’t just leave them in the car, anyone could come take them. We should stay with them. Sleep here.”
Aspen rolled her eyes again. “Maddy. You heard what Doreen said. And you were right, okay? It’s too dangerous to stay here all night.
I’m not putting your life at risk over fireworks.
If someone steals them, I will personally break the news to Bunny and take one-hundred percent of the blame.
” She peeled Maddy’s hand off her arm, gently, and started toward the truck, dragging Maddy with her by the hand. “Now come on.”
Maddy followed, reluctantly, and after a few seconds, remembered to yank her hand out of Aspen’s grasp.
* * *
Maddy had assembled a very specific image in her mind on the drive up: dilapidated wood, a sagging porch, taxidermy, plastic sheeting somewhere, a chest freezer she would make a point of not looking at.
What they walked into instead was a decently-sized timber-frame cabin, fully renovated with new appliances, well-kept, warm light, a fireplace, the smell of something delicious that made Maddy’s stomach growl, and walls covered in framed photographs.
Nobody with that many photos of children had ever harvested a single organ.
“My grandchildren.” Doreen stepped up beside Maddy, looking at the photos affectionately. “I’ve got twelve of ’em.”
“Wow. They’re adorable.” Maddy moved past the photos and continued to admire the beautiful, open-plan space.
Doreen must have caught the look on Maddy’s face. “Not what you were expecting?”
Maddy smiled sheepishly. “It’s lovely,” she said.
“WiFi password is over there by the router.” Doreen nodded towards a shelf with a blinking router. “I’ve got chili in the crockpot. I’ll get us some bowls served up. Make yourselves at home.” Doreen disappeared into the kitchen.
They got on the WiFi and Aspen stepped away to call the tow while Doreen ladled chili out of the crockpot.
Aspen returned a few minutes later, and said the tow truck driver was on his way and gave them the number to the shop to call in the morning.
Maddy texted Bunny, because someone had to know where they were.
Maddy: Car trouble. We’re fine. Staying the night in Pine Valley.
She dropped her a pin. The reply came almost instantly.
Mom: Okay sweetheart. Be safe.
Along with a cascade of pink heart emoji’s.
Maddy had no proof that Bunny had somehow reached across all these miles and personally sabotaged a working vehicle in order to strand her and Aspen together overnight, but she would not put it past her. She locked the phone without replying.
The chili was excellent. With all of the stress and adrenaline, Maddy hadn’t realized how hungry she was.
Doreen watched them eat for a minute, satisfied, then nodded toward a door at the back. “There’s a guest suite over the garage. My daughter’s coming to visit next weekend so it’s already all made up. Fresh sheets and everything. You girls’ll be plenty comfortable up there.”
Guest suite. Singular. Maddy and Aspen locked eyes.
It better have a fucking pull out couch.
* * *
There was no pull-out couch.
It had a bed. One bed, a double if she was being generous, made up with a quilt and shoved against the back wall across from a window that looked out onto nothing but black mountain and a full moon.
There was a nightstand. There was a lamp.
There was the warmth of the fireplace coming up through the floorboards from the room below.
There was not a second sleeping surface anywhere in it.
No loveseat, no futon, not even a beanbag she could have slept on.
Well, that Aspen could have slept on, let’s be real.
Doreen appeared in the doorway behind them with two folded t-shirts. “Figured you’d want to sleep in something besides your jeans.” She set them on the foot of the bed. “Holler if you need anything.”
Then she was gone, down the stairs, and the door at the bottom clicked shut, and it was just the two of them, staring at the two shirts on the one bed they were expected to share.
They each grabbed a shirt.
“I’ll just—” Aspen turned around, giving Maddy her back, shirt already coming up over her head.
Maddy turned her own back, facing the window, and pulled her shirt off.
If anyone was outside, they’d be getting a free show, but judging by how dark it was out there, she figured she was probably safe.
Her eye caught on the reflection in the window of Aspen’s bare back and legs as she finished stripping off her pants.
Jesus Christ. Maddy’s throat went dry. That woman really was sculpted from the Gods. She swallowed, then forced her eyes away, and finished taking off her clothes.