Page 83 of Fear Me Not

“Yeah, that’s ’cause it fucking was,” Levi says. “She was eating a ham hock, and when I caught her, she ran at me. I thought she was going to attack me, then she took off.”

Dov takes a step back, shaking his head. He’s not liking the confrontation, I can see that, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I didn’t start this shit, no matter what Levi says.

Blake clears his throat and looks at the ground. “I’ve seen Aspen, too, but like… it isn’t really Aspen.”

Levi stares at him. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

I’m not used to seeing Blake embarrassed, but right now he looks like he wants the ground to swallow him. He squeezes his eyes shut then opens them again. “I’ve thought I was having sex with her, only for it not to be her.”

Levi’s jaw drops. “Are you insane?”

Blake bites at his lower lip. “No, it’s this place, isn’t it? It’s messing with us.”

The idea of there being some other version of me, like a doppelgänger, wandering around this place freaks me out. What if I come face to face with it? How will I react? The possibility makes me nauseated with fear, and beads of cool sweat prickle at my hairline. Is it possible to see something so terrifying, so out of the realms of reality, that you could lose your mind and never get it back?

Levi gestures at the mess again. “You said the hotel just shows us memories. It fucks with our heads, but it can’t physically hurt us. If that’s the case, this shouldn’t be possible. It means someone—a very living someone—is behind it.”

He shoots me another look, and I don’t know whether to burst into tears or hit him. I still don’t understand how he could think this of me.

“It wasn’t me, Levi.” My chin trembles as I hold back my emotions. “I swear it wasn’t.”

He stares at me for a few more beats then blows out a breath. “What the fuck are we going to do in the meantime? All this meat is ruined, and we needed it to last us until the end of winter.”

“We’re just going to have to ration what we’ve got, okay?” Blake says. “It won’t be fun, but we’ll survive.”

I hear the word he doesn’t say. Barely.

Levi knots his hands in his hair. “This is insane. This is actually fucking insane. And if whoever, or whatever, did this decides to ruin more of our stocks? If it burns our wood, or destroys our dried food stores, what then?”

“Getting through winter is never easy.” Blake keeps his voice level. “This time we’re just being made to work a little harder for it.”

“Because she’s been interfering.” Levi shoots me another look.

I snatch a breath. “What?”

He’s back to blaming me again.

“Digging into the past and the history of this place. It’s stirred something up.”

I shake my head. “No, things were already messed up here long before I did that. And besides, I barely found anything out. Just the names of the family and what happened to the parents and that the son inherited this place. We don’t know much more than we did before.”

“Maybe they want us to leave,” Levi says.

Dov speaks, his voice low. “Or maybe they want us to die here, so we can join them. So it’ll be winter for us forever.”

Dov’s words hang in the air between us.

A cold chill washes down my spine, making me shiver. Could he be right? Is there a chance we might die here?

“That’s not going to happen,” Blake says firmly. “Now, let’s get this place cleaned up and salvage whatever we can. I don’t want us to risk eating anything that might make us sick, but save anything that’s feasible.”

I think we all feel better with something to do rather than just standing here, fighting among ourselves. We get to work, rescuing whatever meat we can and tossing the rest.

“Let’s take what’s left into the house,” Levi says. “Just in case whoever, or whatever, did this decides to come back and we’re left with nothing.”

That sounds sensible. We load up coolers with the meat we’ve saved, and the men carry them toward the house. The sky is low and pure white, and the cold feels brutal. There’s no way we could hike anywhere in this, even if we did run out of food.

“Hey,” I snatch Levi’s hand, pulling him to a halt. “You believe me, right? That I didn’t do this?”