Limbo

Ambivalent

ASHLEY:

"You might want to be careful poking around in the bushes like that, dude! Rachel says that it's not too uncommon to run across snakes out here." I call out as I see Jake over near a pretty thick stand of blackberry bushes. "Besides, those things have some nasty thorns on them."

And before the words are completely out of my mouth, he jerks his hand back from the bush, sticking his finger in his mouth. "Yeah, I just found that out! Shit!"

The other guys are sort of spread out along the treeline of the small patch of woods at the edge of the B and B property, sort of looking everything over, because we decided that we'd come out for awhile and see if we could find any sign of where Rachel or her husband might be buried. I left the necklace in my room, because even though it's a long shot that we'll find anything, I can't imagine how traumatizing it would be for her to be with us if we do.

Andy and CC have found themselves a couple of long sticks that they're using to poke the ground with, trying to see if there's any place that seems softer, like it might have been dug up at some point, and Jake, Jinxx, and I have been checking around for things like hollowed-out trees, or even stuff like oil drums or storage tubs that may have just been dumped off in the woods.

Jinxx walks over to me and says, "If we don't find anything here, maybe we should go check around that little lake you were talking about the other day. It would probably be a lot easier digging there than it would be here, with all of the roots and stuff."

"Yeah, maybe," I sigh. "But how bad would that suck for her, if it turned out that her asshole father had ruined the only place around here that she actually enjoys being by burying her, or Sawyer, there?"

He sort of nods in agreement, and then we both get back to looking around for anything unusual. I pull out my phone and check to make sure that I haven't missed any calls or texts, because while we're roaming around out here, Charlie and Bob were planning to go check out a rickety old storage shed out behind the house, see what might be in there, and call if they found anything interesting. There's nothing so far, so I stuff it back in my pocket and find a stick for myself, even though I'm already pretty well convinced that there's nothing here to find. From what I understand, the cops did everything short of take a backhoe to the property and never found any sign of them, so my guess is that her dad probably took them somewhere else to dump them on his way to wherever the hell he took off to. If they took the time to check nearby jurisdictions for any reports of unidentified bodies being found, they might come up with something.

Or, there's another possibility that just crept into my brain, which, if it turned out to be true, means that we'll never find her. It's occurred to me that there might be something to what Jinxx just said, and maybe the bastards did take one or both of them there, but instead of being by the lake, they could be in it.

We make our way through the small patch of woods without finding anything, and as the sun gets higher, it starts to get fairly hot. Andy pushes his hair back out of his face and says, "Hey, guys, maybe we should head back now. I'm pretty sure nobody wants to get heatstroke or something like that. At least I know I don't."

"Yeah, you're probably right," I reply. "Besides, if there actually are any snakes out here, they'll be more active when it's warmer."

"Uh, guys," CC interrupts from a few feet away. "I think I found something."

We all sort of freeze in place for a second, looking at each other incredulously, before we slowly turn toward him. He's standing by an old, dead tree with a split in the trunk, and I suddenly feel the urge to turn tail and run like Usain Bolt back to the house. Yeah, we came out here trying to find Rachel's body, but now I'm hoping with everything in me that we haven't, because I'm not sure I could deal with it.