Page 66 of Tenebrous

My lips quirk, despite myself. “Not exactly.”

She hurries toward me with her walker, stopping several feet away to gaze at my tangled hair and ragged clothes. When her eyes catch on the jacket—on Dennis’s name still emblazoned across the chest pocket—they nearly bug out of her skull. “Where on earth have you been, young man?”

A dry, almost manic laugh rolls off my tongue as I finally emerge from my hiding spot on trembling legs. “So, I've got quite the story to tell, but you have to get really cool about a lot of things really fast.”

Chapter

Twenty-Four

Benji

Mary's house sits less than a hundred yards away from the gas station, hidden by aspen and pine. It’s about the size of a cabin, with chipping blue paint and a sagging porch.

She quickly ushers me up the attached ramp in hushed tones, and once we finally step inside, she throws the locks on the door behind us—all twelve of them.

“Worried about something?” I murmur, gazing over her framed photographs and crowded bookshelves. Everything seems so… painfully normal that my throat tightens. Definitely not the cavern hidden in the mountain that I just ran from. Would Orion even enjoy something like this? A little shack, filled with books and knitted blankets.

The image of his massive body lounging on Mary's plush sofa pops into my head, and I have to stifle a sob. As ridiculous as the whole thing sounds, I actually like him just the way he is. Cave and all.

“Can't be too careful,” the older woman responds, pulling lace curtains over the windows shut. “Sit down.”

“But I'm filthy.”

“I don't care,” she barks, hands on her hips.

I roll my eyes, but comply, because all the fight left me a while ago. Between crawling from that cave and spending the day hiking through miles of forest, I'm spent. Could probably sleep for a month if I tried.

As soon as I sink down into my seat at the kitchen table, she grabs a plastic pitcher from the fridge and a glass before standing beside me. “Now, start talking, young man.”

When she pours some brown liquid into my cup, ice clinking, I don't even hesitate to snatch it from her hands and drain the entire thing.

Fuck. Iced tea. Unsweetened, which isn't my preference, but god in heaven, it tastes like fine wine after consuming river water all day and warm spring water for fuck knows how long before that.

“More?” Mary raises a wispy brow in amusement as I slam the empty glass down.

“Please. Is that a bowl of fruit?”

Pushing the ceramic bowl in the middle of the table toward me silently, she fills my cup once more, and I practically inhale an entire banana, peel and all. It tastes so good that I reach for another, draining a second glass of tea. It's not until I've asked for another refill that I find her watching me like a rabid beast.

“Sorry,” I mutter around a mouthful of fruit. “Haven't had anything but mystery meat in… Shit, how long has it been since you saw me last?”

“Over a month.” She slowly lowers herself into the chair opposite mine. “Everyone thinks you’re dead.”

“Figured.”

“Earl told everyone you attacked that other guard and then fled into the woods. Said you killed your uncle when he ran after you.”

I scoff and snatch an apple next. “And then what, he just decided to steal my car? How'd he fix it up so fast, anyway?”

Mary frowns. “Sheriff's got some city friends who do favors for him.”

“Like what?”

She watches me eat for a few thoughtful moments. “The kind that makes all these deaths disappear, I'd reckon.”

Instantly, the fresh food sours in my stomach.

Setting down the apple, I wipe my mouth on the back of my sleeve and stare at her in disbelief. “You… you know about them?”