Page 80 of Hide And Seek

We followed him at a distance, keeping to the shadows along the building’s exterior wall, our footsteps as quiet as we could make them.

When we rounded the corner of the building, we both stopped. A wide path stretched out ahead of us, cutting away from the main grounds through a thin line of trees. It led to the staff accommodation section; a separate cluster of individual cabins set apart from the main sleeping quarters where all the kids and counselors usually slept.

Knox was already heading down the path, so we started following him again, being careful to maintain a safe distance. A moment later, he slowed and stopped.

Then he turned around.

“Down,” I whispered.

We dropped behind a shrub at the edge of the path in the same motion, crouching low, shoulders pressed close. I held completely still, not even breathing properly, my pulse roaring in my ears.

Seconds dragged. Then Jasmine exhaled quietly beside me, and I risked a look. Knox had turned back around. He hadn’t spotted us.

We waited until he’d put more distance between us before rising and continuing after him, slower this time. The path curved slightly, and then the staff cabins came into view ahead, windows catching the last of the pale evening light with a flat, glassy blankness.

We ducked behind another shrub and watched.

Knox didn’t hesitate. He walked straight toward the cabin at the end of the row, like he already knew exactly where he was going.

“What the hell is he doing?” I muttered, head slowly shaking.

“Maybe he’s decided to stay down here,” Jasmine suggested. “These cabins all have their own private bathrooms, so it beats having to walk all the way to the bathroom block every time you want to pee, right?”

“But they only have one bed in them, don’t they?” I asked. She nodded, and I went on. “Why would anyone want to sleep alone right now?”

“Fair point.” Her eyes narrowed on Knox again. “I sure as hell wouldn’t want to.”

Knox finally stopped in front of the last cabin. Then he lifted a hand to rap on the door.

Jasmine's fingers instantly tightened around my arm. “Oh my god,” she said breathlessly. “Someone must be in there.”

A few seconds later, the door opened. Knox stepped inside, and it shut quickly behind him before we could catch a glimpse of who had let him in.

We stayed crouched there for a minute, both of us too stunned to move or speak.

Then I finally pushed to my feet. “We have to get the others,” I said.

But Jasmine was already moving, her ax lifting as she headed toward the cabin.

“Jasmine!” I hissed as I caught up to her. “We can’t just charge in there! It could be dangerous!”

“I need to know what’s going on in there right fuckingnow,”she shot back. “I’m not waiting.”

I grabbed her arm before she could get much further. “Stop. Please.”

“No!” She turned on me, eyes bright with something that looked a little too close to desperation. “We need to know who’s in there!”

“I know,” I said. “But we don’t know what we’re walking into. We can’t just stroll up and knock like it’s nothing.”

“I wasn't planning on knocking,” she said with a pointed look at the ax in her hand.

I tightened my grip on her arm. “Just think about it for a second. If it's the killer in there with Knox, then that means it’s the two of us against someone who’s already taken out five people. Including people much bigger and stronger than us. And Knox is obviously on his side. So how do you think that’ll work out for us?”

Her jaw flexed as she chewed the inside of her cheek. “We don’t know it’s the killer. Something else could be going on.”

“Maybe, yeah, but we should go back and get the others before we check,” I said. “There's safety in numbers. So we tell them what we saw, and then we come back as a group, and—”

“And in the meantime, whoever’s in there could slip out and disappear into the woods,” Jasmine cut in flatly. “We could lose them entirely.”