Page 73 of The Fall of Iris Henley
He is staring right at me.
CHAPTER 40
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2:27AM
HILL COUNTRY
He bolts upright.
I barely have time to think. I’m on my feet, his phone clutched in my hand. Sometime in the night I took my shoes off and I’m barefoot, but I run toward the trail, burrs and stones biting into my skin.
His hand grazes my back, but he doesn’t manage to grab me. But it doesn’t stop him either. He is still coming. I can hear his voice but can’t make out what he’s saying over the sound of my own breath, my own sobs. Images flicker inside my mind. Lynette and Max. Lynette and Rocky. They all twist and tangle together, the boys turning into one boy and then back into two. Lynette smirking, or weeping, or begging, or laughing. And all through it I am running.
And then, just as quickly, I am not.
My ankle twists. It jerks my leg out from under me, and then I’m falling in the darkness, my shoulder and arm taking the brunt of the impact. Blood fills my mouth as I bite down onmy lip. I can feel burrs and thorns scratch every available inch of my flesh as I tumble down a shallow incline.
For a second, all I can hear is my own breathing. I look around the deep green shadows of the field.
Then his dark form appears, blotting out the stars behind him.
“Iris?” he whispers. “Are you okay?”
I make my breath as shallow as I can, body motionless.
He stands there for a moment, then fumbles in his pocket. A moment later, bright light fills my eyes.
“Wait, sorry.” He moves the beam so it’s not in my eyes. “Shit. You’re scratched to hell.”
“Get the fuck away from me,” I say, moaning.
“I’m not about to leave you out here. You need a doctor.” I watch as he kneels down. He’s next to me, though it’s still too dark to see his face. The moonlight catches on the lenses of his glasses.
“You’re a liar,” I spit. “You’re disgusting. You’re just…”
He holds very still. My voice gives way. I dissolve into sobs. Violent, racking sobs, so heavy I think I might just shake apart.
“Did you murder them?” I finally ask. “Lynette and Rocky?”
“No.” He shakes his head violently. “No, I promise. I know you don’t have any reason to believe me, but I swear.”
“You’re right, I don’t believe you.” I try to get up, but my ankle won’t hold my weight. “You’re a fucking monster.”
He doesn’t speak for a moment. He just sits there next to me, watching as I keep trying and failing to stand.
“Listen, you have to let me help you get back to the car. If you do…” He breathes in heavily. “If you do, I swear, I’ll tell you everything.”
He wants to piggyback me up the hill, but I refuse to let him touch me. We finally settle on a makeshift crutch from a tree branch he finds. The going is slow and my ankle screams in pain, but we make it.
The sight of the little clearing makes me want to start crying again. There’s the soft old blanket where we kissed. Where, just a little while ago, I felt like my heart might finally have something to hold onto besides grief and fear.
All a lie.
“Here,” he says, pulling out a little bottle of pills from his backpack. I shake my head. He sighs. “It’s just ibuprofen!” But he puts it away.
“Talk,” I say. I refuse to sit down. I lean on the tree branch and stand a few feet away from him. “Now.”
He sticks his hands in his pockets. His breath is still heavy from the chase.
