Don't Scream

Chapter 88

Brandon circled like a shark. Sarra stood slightly bent, dizzy mouth half numb, her sleeveless dress little more protection from the elements than a slip. Every breath was a knife in her ribs. The hole in her right shoulder had soaked her clothes,and her wrist were still bound together. Sarra wiggled her fingers against her hips, and thought maybe they moved slightly, but she wasn't sure. The blood on her hands felt like gelatin.

Brandon smiled his gym bag hanging over his shoulder and the gun pointed in her direction as he walked around her. A lantern sat on the ground about five feet away another one shed sickly light from somewhere behind her.

"Do you like it?" He asked, indicating a small clearing in the woods. "I chose this spot just for you."

"Where is Abby?"

"Who? Oh yes Abby, why telling you that would be rather like sharing the the end of a story ahead of time. Wouldn't it?"

Sarra closed her eyes on a prayer. God please don't let me have walked all this way into the woods only to find that Abby isn't here.

"You didn't answer my question. How do you like my stage? I wish you could see it in daylight. The lanterns hardly do any justice."

Sarra forced her eyes open, taking in the details of the setting Brandon had chosen, Even as she tried to focus on breathing. There seemed nothing important about this particular spot in the forest.

"Where is Abby?" Sarra asked. "Did you kill her the way you killed Christie?"

"I told you I didn't hurt Christie."

"And I told you I didn't believe you."

Smack.

Sarra's head snapped to the side. she gritted her teeth. Cry Be weak, Let him jerk you around, Stard said to her in her head. Don't make a sound unless it is to say go to hell bastard. Brian said. She closed her eyes, wanting to serve Brian's memory by doing things right this time.

"Go." Said Brandon, jerking his chin toward a deer stand. "I want you up there."

Sarra spit at him.

The gun in his hand sailed toward her cheek. She ducked, but her reflexes were dull and caught the side of her head. She reeled with impact, and a second later Brandon was beside her on the ground, his voice and pistol both digging into the gash it had just made on her temple. "You want to hear from your daughter again, don't you?" Sarra closed her eyes but didn't make a sound. "Then get in the deer stand."

He pushed her up the rungs, his body at her back and the gun barely lifting from her as they moved. Sarra slumped into a corner on the floor. Even in dim light, she could see that the platform seemed to have been prepared for her arrival. Leaves and other debris had been brushed off, revealing patches of moist, darkened wood that had been eaten away by insects for years holding imprints of pine cones like ancient fossils.

Brandon opened up the gym bag and pulled out an old cassette player. One by on, he set the tapes  out in a row. Sarra realized they were his victims names on those tapes.