Chimera

Chapter 5

Hours had passed since Chad and Logan left to go get help. I didn't know if I was more worried that they might have found help or that they didn't. Finding help meant that we got to leave this place and find out what happened to Maddy, but also who had done this to her.

Wanting to know was a double-edged sword. It would mean that the truth would finally be revealed but also that one of us might be the murderer. As we sat around the camp, I studied everyone, trying to see whether a glimpse of the truth could be hidden in a mannerism. In a secret way they looked at someone or a way that they carried themselves, but all I saw was the same people whom I shared my free time with for the past two years. The same people who had made me laugh wiped my tears and encouraged me to be myself.

I didn't want to believe that one of us might be a killer and that the rest of us were all in danger. I pushed the thoughts out of my head when we heard noises coming from the forest.

Chad came rushing out of the woods, looking behind him as he ran full speed into Munroe. Fear emanated from him as he tried to breathe and talk at the same time. Munroe was yelling at him to talk, but everything that came from him was incomprehensible.

Jax took Chad by the shoulders and led him to a chair. I grabbed a bottle of brandy, knowing full well that right now he needed something to calm himself so that he could talk. As I handed him the bottle, his hands were shaking profusely. Fear shadowed his face as he brought the bottle to his mouth.

"Where's Logan?" Ronnie asked, looking around, waiting for him to step through the threshold of trees. "Chad? Where's my brother?"

Silence fell as we all realized that Logan was nowhere to be seen. Panic set in.

"Ron—" Tish wanted to console her friend but was stopped mid-sentence when Ronnie shrugged off the hand that was placed on her shoulder.

"No! You don't get to say anything. My brother is missing, and this son-of-a-bitch is the only one that can give us an answer. Talk asshole!" She balled her hands into such tight fists that her knuckles had turned white. We all waited, not really knowing what else to say or do.

It took Chad a while to regain his equilibrium so that he could talk, and by that time we were all annoyed and worried.

"Okay, so you all know, Logan and I went to get help—"

"No shit!" Ronnie interrupted, and after some shushing from Tish, she gestured for him to continue.

"Anyway. We left the camp to go to town. We thought that we would check if there were any working payphones or maybe even cameras that the government might have set up to keep an eye out on the happenings here. If that didn't work, then we could backtrack the road to the main road so that we could get some help if we didn't get signal on the cell phones." He took a sip from the bottle before continuing.

"Well, we got to the town. The payphones were dead, and we couldn't find any cameras anywhere in sight. Which is weird, because since when would the government not be invested in their money town and keeping an eye on it? So, after we didn't find anything of use in the town, we decided to head back the way we came with the van in the hope of either finding help or being able to phone for help."

"Get to the point!" Ronnie chirped, and we all shushed her.

"As we walked, we talked about crap. He even told me to lay off his sister because he's not gonna take responsibility for a broken nose, or worse. We joked around as we walked, but it kept feeling like someone was watching us. We looked around but saw nothing, so we just shrugged it off as creepy ghost town vibes. A few minutes later, I thought I saw something move out the corner of my eye. We stopped and checked out the surroundings, thinking that maybe it could have just been an animal. Boy, were we wrong." Another swig from the bottle disappeared. At this rate, he'd be too drunk to finish his story.