Leroux turns serious. “I just worry that this guy is going to be sitting close by, watching while we all run around a cemetery gobbling up his poisoned breadcrumbs.”
Leroux turns right onto Basin Street. The corner is bustling with tourists and townies alike. A group of three women piles out of a massive yoga studio and toward a café with outdoor seating. People enjoy their lunch outside on this bright Louisiana afternoon, nibbling on buttery croissant sandwiches within sight of where someone might be desperately fighting to stay alive. He reaches the cemetery entrance, dotted with tall palm trees that mock the imposing white wall surrounding it. They bend slightly in the breeze and shake their fronds, welcoming visitors to this strange landmark, completely blind to the horrors that await inside.
Wren nods. “I know. The same scenario ran through my mind too. But our only choice is to try. I’m praying that the ambulance sees more action than I do this afternoon.”
CHAPTER 19
EMILY’S FEET ALMOST HOVER ABOVE the ground as she glides over unfamiliar terrain, with only a bouncing beam of light to guide her way. She did exactly what Jeremy had hoped. She abandoned Katie and indulged her own primal urge to survive.
He can feel Emily’s sudden, overwhelming panic. She pushes forward, but the swampy ground swallows her every step, making a sickening sound and forcing her to exert more energy than she can sustain. The bayou is working in tandem with Jeremy, lending its hand to help him accomplish his final vision. The environment belongs to him. And, more important, it has turned against her.
She stops, pushing her back into the hollow of a tree. Crumbs of earth and frenzied insects cascade down her shoulders as she leans against the moss and the mud of the massive trunk. He wonders if she thinks she is being quiet. He can hear her breath, quick and shallow. He tastes the fear in the air and can’t contain himself any longer.
“Emily!” his voice booms through the chaos. “It’s Cal, Emily!”
She cringes and tries to keep the sob from escaping her throat. He hears it tumble out in a choked whimper.
“It appears that you are my final girl,” he yells with a chuckle. “Have you located the perimeter yet?”
She can hear him coming closer. He is intentionally making himself known as she shuffles through the underbrush. This is his crescendo.
“Do you even know what direction you are running toward?” he laughs. “Well, don’t let me discourage you. Run, rabbit, run!”
In an unplanned show of theater, he shoots his handgun into the air, and Emily instinctively takes off. She runs through a stream, splashing loudly and allowing the thick mud to swallow her shoes whole. She leaves them behind as she bounds out of the water and through a wall of thicket. The sharp spines pierce and rip at her legs, arms, and face, but she keeps moving. He is running now, too, gaining on her. She serpentines to avoid a fate like Matt’s or Katie’s.
Suddenly, it appears. Like an oasis in the desert, she sees the perimeter. A metal fence that runs through the trees and clearly delineates Jeremy’s kingdom from freedom. It’s only about six feet tall, and all she needs is momentum to clear it. She stops briefly and then dashes forward, diving onto the fence, hooking the toes on her right foot and the fingers on her right hand onto the links.
All at once, searing pain. A jolt of electricity takes hold of every cell as her body stiffens and convulses before being tossed back into the nightmare behind her.
“I am a little offended that you didn’t think I would electrify my perimeter fence,” Jeremy condescends as he steps over a fallen tree and hovers over her.
She sputters out blood and furiously oscillates between blacking out and keen focus. She rolls onto her side and begins to crawl. She desperately claws at the mud and moss, propelling herself forward as best she can. She doesn’t have a plan. Her only thought is to place as much distance as possible between herself and the monster behind her. Jeremy slowly follows, slipping the bowie knife from its sheath and kneeling to loop his arm around her throat, pulling her up on her knees.