Once, when she was boating on the lake, Bug was sure she’d seen the one with the glasses just wandering around at the cabin in broad daylight.
The neon BATES MOTEL sign had a brilliant yellow glow at night. For the most part, the lights in the motel rooms were off, but one window on the inside corner was ringed with a halo of soft light. It was probably Logan’s. Bug wondered if Ashley had ever been inside. She couldn’t pretend to understand what Ashley was getting from this friendship.
Bug tried Ashley’s phone again. It rang a handful of times before dumping her into voice mail. “Hey, it’s me again. I texted you. You’re probably asleep. I’m at the motel to do some spy work and thought you might wanna come help.” Bug looked at her phone and frowned. “Anyway, uh, see you tomorrow.”
And then she spotted it.
Parked over three spots on the far end of the Bates parking lot. A massive red truck gleamed in the yellow light, tucked into the shadows like it thought it could hide. Bug narrowed her eyes, because she knew that truck, and it wasn’t supposed to be here. Not at this hour. And not if Ashley wasn’t answering her phone. Bug scowled and opened her text window.
BUG: are you HERE???
BUG: i see your truck in the parking lot
She prepared to call Ashley again, but something rustled in the bushes at the far side of the motel. Bug pocketed her phone and warily approached the noise. There were all kinds of animals that prowled around Snakebite at night, but Bug didn’t think this was an animal. Its rustling was sporadic, more like the sounds of a person adjusting their limbs than a lost animal. She cast a glance at the room she assumed was Logan’s.
Maybe Ashley was in there now.
Maybe she knew what was creeping outside the motel.
Maybe that was why she was here.
Bug held up her phone flashlight and scanned over the bushes. In the murky yellow light, she finally saw the source of the rustling. A creature squatted near the lit window, half shrouded in bushes. Bug squinted and realized the thing wasn’t a creature—it was a man. He stooped along the motel wall with his fingers latched on the windowsill.
Bug’s heart came to a crashing halt.
She took a step back, trying her best not to breathe.
Her car was only a few feet away. She’d had nightmares like this before, meandering through the dark only to realize she wasn’t alone. But she wasn’t asleep now. The oil-slick pavement was real under her sneakers. The night air was warm and sweet, carrying the whistling moans of the wind through the valley. This was real, and so was the strange man staring into the motel.
He was real, and he was moving again.
If the tremor in her heart meant anything—if the instinctual twisting in her gut was real—it meant he was the killer.
Bug ducked around the abandoned pizza stand and sank onto the pavement. The night wasn’t just night, now. She felt something here in the dark. The shadows were thick, smeared across the pavement like molasses. Bug clasped a hand over her mouth to keep quiet.
There was no more rustling in the bushes.
There was no sound at all.
Bug pulled her phone from her back pocket and typed a text to Ashley.
BUG: there’s a man out here please come outside
She stared at the message for a moment, eyes fixed on the flickering cursor at the end of the text. She backspaced the message and tried again.
BUG: there’s a man out here. don’t come outside.
She sent the text and closed her eyes. If she was quick, she could make it to the car before the man saw her. But he wasn’t alone out here. The night was heavy, and the shadows were on his side.
It occurred to Bug that this might be it.