She heard Marcus's gasp, simultaneous with her own whimper. Her eyes darted to his face, and she saw it go ashen. He saw her too.

"You-! I killed you, you stubborn old bitch," he ground out, gaining composure. "I watched you die."

Marta lifted two pale wrists into the air in slow motion. On each was a gaping slash, ugly and pooling with thickly clotted blood. Marcus's mouth worked soundlessly.

Inside her head, Marta's voice rang loudly, urgently. "Go, Alex."

Without any hesitation at all, she turned and bolted for the front door.

Waiting for Eden ~*~*~*~*~*~.

Chapter 23.

The evening air was cloying, but the dirt bike raced straight through the tendrils of humidity, breaking him free of its spidery web. Mouse hunched his large shoulders over the handlebars and concentrated firmly on the road ahead. Dusk was falling quickly around him.

The Honda engine whined beneath him, strong and steady. It felt good to be in forward motion, and headed back to help the lady. He should've felt like a superhero; with the wind whipping over him and his biceps bulging as he clutched the handle bars in his grip, except he was still kind of scared inside. Superman just wouldn't be scared like this. No way.

Mouse wished he was smarter, too, so he would know just what to do all the time. Of course, Jamie always said he was smart in a lot of ways that most people couldn't even see. Mouse was good with fixing things, with knowing how parts went together, and with numbers in his head. He wanted to believe Jamie. Mouse had big muscles too, but that didn't count for smart, really.

Jamie told him that his Dad was wrong, and just because Mouse couldn't talk right didn't make him some regular dummy. Not long after that, they had a phone call from a teacher in Roulette who said he was giving free speech lessons. Mouse thought they were really helping him, too. He also thought that Jamie might just be paying for them.

As he drove up Alex's lane, slowing the motor, the night rushed in around him, making him breathe harder and switch on the single glowing headlight with fingers that felt strangely heavy. The house was still, grey, and silent. The mares whinnied from within the pastures, wanting to come in. Didn't Alex realize it was way past feeding time?

Everything was wrong, and he felt it. There were two extra cars here now, and fancy ones too, yet the house was dark and still. Mouse forced himself to keep the bike moving forward along the lane, and then right on into the backyard without even stopping. He parked by the porch and stepped off of the bike. That funny feeling twisted his gut around all over again, intensely.

At the door, waiting on the stoop for him, was a single flower. Pretty this time, a peach hue, and sweet as sherbet. Cautiously, he bent over at the waist and fetched it, a grin slowly wreathing his broad features. The flower's scent invaded his nostrils and he felt joy again from having it. When he stood up straight, the lady watched him from the other side of the screen door.

"Hi, Miss Lady," he said shyly. "I want to help this time."

You are such a dear boy. A beloved boy. You can help her. Help Alexandra.

Her voice was clear and sweet and soothing inside his head. It was a lot like his Mum's voice had been.

His heart swelled up big and full and strong in his chest, and Mouse smiled at her.

Alexandra was in the midst of a full meltdown, swept away in total flight mode, heart tripping along in spurts like the rat-a-tat of an automatic rifle. She tried desperately to control it, and tamp it down. Her mind churned and her hands shook. The stallion beneath her could sense her fear and confusion, and she focused intently on harnessing her terror to keep him calm and stable... and moving.

They were ascending into the darkening mountains. She had shoved her phone into her back pocket after unclasping the stallion from the cross-ties, opting to ride out as fast as she could after she realized that she had no truck keys. The sky above her now was roiling and ominous. Alex didn't know whether the impending storm was a good thing or bad. But it was time to make a decision.

She pulled back on the reins and the stallion tossed his head impatiently, yet he yielded to her request. Glancing nervously over her shoulder, she wondering what had happened to Michael a to Marcus a and whether he was now following her.

Her stubborn brain still did not want to admit Marta had been in the room with them. And that Marcus had actually seen her, too. Alex wasn't crazy. But she was being hunted. And if she was found, she would certainly die.

Alex tried to punch in the familiar cell numbers with trembling fingers, but the dancing stallion made her fumble three times in a row. She finally thought to switch to voice command and shakily pronounced, "Dial Jamie."

The connection was audibly crackly, for she had only one bar of service. If she had proceeded any higher into the mountains before stopping, there would have been no reception at all.

Her hasty and unplanned escape on horseback had been a double-edged sword. She just might have done better to head down the lane on foot and out to the main road, taking her chances of being noticed by a local passer-by. But her cell had been in the barn with Bold, and there was simply no turning back now. Nor any knowing which step was wrong or right.

Several tense seconds passed before the cell signal caught on a tower and the phone rang through. Jamie answered on the first ring.

"Alex! Where are you?"

"Jamie." She hardly recognized her own voice, as it burst through her lips both trembling and unfamiliarly high.

"Alex, are you okay? Where is Dalton? Where are you??"

The ominous whine of a familiar four wheeler engine rose up from the valley below her. She gasped, and the useless phone slipped from her fingers as the stallion spun and bolted beneath her. She bent over his neck and let him run. Marcus was coming.

The last time Mouse rode his dirt-bike up onto the rocky mountain trails, he had wrecked it up real bad. Not only had he twisted his ankle and cracked a few ribs, he had busted the brake lever right off of the handlebar. His Dad was really mad, and his crumpled up ribs had ached for months in silent accusation.

He began his ascent cautiously. The lady had told him that the bad man had a four-wheeler now. The fact worried Mouse because he knew they were much more stable than dirt bikes on tough climbs. And it was getting dark. The bad man could beat him. He chewed his lower lip while he gripped the handlebars and thought about his sore, broken ribs.

Hurry, said the lady in his head, clear as day. It seemed like she was going to stay with him now, and that knowledge made him feel stronger inside.

Hurry, we're out of time. But the meaning behind the urgent whisper frightened him badly, and he was really scared for Alex now. And he was scared that he couldn't save her. He gritted his teeth in frustration and throttled the handlebars with a twist. The dirt bike jumped forward and into the shrouding forest gloom.

"Alex!!"

Jamie was near panic. She wasn't answering at all. She was simply gone.

"Don't hang up, Jamie!" Aaron whispered urgently in his ear. "I'm calling the police right now, just stay connected to her signal."

"She's not there anymore," he whispered back, his heart pounding in his chest. It wasn't a steady beat at all; it was jumping all over without rhythm. Frantic, like a moth against a window pane with a winter's night at wait behind it. The helpless dread in his gut was growing simply unbearable.

The distant drone of an approaching engine through the tinny cell phone microphone he still clutched in his grip made him gasp for breath. His dismay thickened and spread malignantly.

"Dalton's in the woods with her," he told Aaron brokenly. "I think he took the four-wheeler. We'll never get there fast enough."

Aaron was talking on his own phone now, quietly and urgently. He held up his hand for silence, but met his older brother's eyes. "They understand the situation," he mouthed.

Jamie shifted his truck into first and spun the wheel toward Eden Ranch. It was all he could do.

The anger that pulsed through Marcus's veins felt like a drug injection. With every heartbeat, it chugged through his blood vessels with a strange and burning sensation. He was no longer in control at all, yet his body still functioned smoothly and efficiently, steering the ATV, maneuvering over rocks and ruts along the trail that snaked ever upward into the gloomy evening air.

The trees grew taller, with lanky twisted limbs, and their leaves rustled like a threat as they hulked over him. He had no fear at all. Simply purpose that must be followed.

The forest was going to fight him though, just like the apparition that had tried back in the house. Marcus had strode forward to flip the wheelchair and the old bitch right out of it, but when he reached the space it occupied, there was nothing but air... an odd, grey vapor.

And then it was simply gone altogether. The only thing remaining was the bloody carcass of Brian Ridgeway, slumped on the couch, with his stupid mouth hanging open and disbelief in his glazed-over eyes, like some ugly ape. Marcus had withdrawn the knife from the dead man's chest with a sucking slurping sound, and wiped the blood on a pillow.

Lip curling in disgust at the remaining stains on the engraved hilt and the acrid, metallic scent on the blade, he had stomped to the kitchen and cleaned it properly with Dawn in the sink.

It was then that he had heard the cacophony of whinnies from the stable, and remembered Alex fleeing the house. He had her truck keys. She wasn't going far. But if she was on horseback...

With a growl, he had exited the old farmhouse, refocusing his intent, re-calculating his plan. He didn't know how to ride a horse, for that had all been a ruse. So when he had discovered the four-wheeler, shining and new, with the keys right in the ignition like an offering, he couldn't help but laugh. What a dumb bitch. It would be a fun night.

The primeval forest had closed in around him now. When he breathed in damp air laden with the overwhelmingly strong scent of pine, his nose tickled and his sinuses ached. He found it harder to breathe. It felt as if some giant pressure gradient had shifted within the mountains, squeezing hard at his lungs. Marcus drove through a sticky cobweb draped across the trail and it clung to his cheekbones and eyelashes, clinging and moist.

He imagined dark and filthy spiders crawling in his clean, groomed hair. It was infuriating, maddening. All he could think of was getting Miss Alexandra Winters in his grip. All alone. And he would do so, for this little game was going very well in his favor, all things considered. No one would find her. Or hear her demise. He could make it linger, if he chose.

Of why the thought didn't bring him as much pleasure as it did initially, Marcus was unsure. But he most assuredly wanted to play with her. For a long time, before the end. And afterwards, after those final moments of bliss, nothing really mattered. He had lost control, after all. But he liked it.

Waiting for Eden ~*~*~*~*~*~.

Chapter 24.

Alexandra lifted her torso up off of the stallion's sweaty neck and unclenched the fingers that were wrapped in the tough fibers of his mane. With dismay, she realized that he was blowing hard with exertion, with nostrils distended. She could vaguely detect a trembling in his limbs.

Bold Venture had read her fear. She had willingly submitted to her own terror, and had relinquished her control. Alex had allowed the sturdy animal to find his way up the back of the steep and hazardous mountain trail, trusting his inner instincts and agility. She was asking too much of him.

And now the light had fled. Shadows lingered threateningly, as the dense canopy sucked the last vestiges of the golden sunset from the forest's interior. Now she could barely discern the trail beneath her stallion's hooves. And the gnarled path grew only steeper and thicker with rocks and logs at every step.

Soon darkness would fall, and what then? The whine of an engine from below still rose incessantly, droning with threatening intent. Its growl seemed to echo around them from several directions within the forest, causing her fear to steadily build and tumesce.

When night overtook them completely, the forest would fall black as pitch. She had no light source. But the four-wheeler certainly did. And she was positive that fear of the deepening night was no deterrent to the kind of man who stalked her. He was more than competent, and thoroughly evil in his intent.

She shivered, even though the air was warm. Drops of sweat and condensing dew had formed on her arms and in her cleavage. They were nearing the summit. The trail ended there... at the very point where she initially fell over the rocky precipice after losing her way and hiking cross-county for miles.

So what then?? The stallion couldn't maneuver in the darkened forest over trees and hummocks of ground. He would break a leg. Marcus would catch them. And kill them, among other things on which she didn't want to even dwell.

Alex debated dismounting and crawling off into the undergrowth in a desperate bid to hide in the dark, without the tell-tale noise of the stallion to give her away. But Marcus had all night to search. No one knew where she was a she was in the middle of thousands of acres of wild land and she wasn't aware of any road access.

And how could she leave Bold alone in the midst of these mountains after all he had done for her, and meant to her? He would be the first target Marcus went for.

The purring growl of a diesel engine was growing louder, as their steps slowed in the lengthening shadows. The stallion went down on one knee for a moment, and Alexandra nearly pitched off his back. She heard pebbles scatter in the gloom.

"Whoa," Alex whispered after they had regained their footing, drawing the animal to a halt. She dismounted and took the reins in her hand. The stallion danced and shivered beside her in uncertainty, wanting only to be back in the safety of his barn, with his mares around him. He was a herd animal, and not some wild creature of the night.

They had reached the summit. The monstrous trees loomed above, somehow managing to move and creak in the thickness of the still night air. The understory of verdant ferns sighed and whispered from all around. She could still hear the approach of an engine, but it had definitely been slowed by the falling darkness and the stones and branches strewn across the trail over which the stallion had lightly stepped.

If only a massive tree had fallen across the trail over the past few weeks! But the path had remained relatively clear throughout their whole upward journey. Now she stood, surrounded by her giant trees, with nowhere left to run. Trembling, she picked up a long pointed stick, and stood her ground, as the motor grew ever closer. She could feel Bold Venture's warm breath on her back and neck.

Alex brought to mind the picture of Jamie's face, then Diana, Ezra, and of Mouse's sweet visage, so dear to her now. She thought of Eden, the lands, the trees, the garden, the house, and her horses. She thought of Marta, dead and gone, but still trying so hard to hold everything together.

She straightened her back and raised her chin.

Finally, the cold glare of headlights blinded her.

Mouse made a rash decision. Instead of following the main trail, he had swerved off to the right, and onto a narrow path known mostly by the deer herds that frequented this part of the forest. It was a faster, yet much steeper way to the top. The lady told him he might beat the bad man this way. Mouse wasn't sure about the trail, but he trusted the lady.

It might have been a mistake though. He'd been caught up on roots twice. Then his rear tire had gotten wedged between two stubborn rocks. It took dismounting and shoving the bike wheels up over the impediments to get going again. He was losing precious time.

Tree boughs and plants that he didn't even know swept at his arms and legs as he passed by in the gloom. Crickets chirped in steady rhythm like the heartbeat of the night. How could such tiny creatures chirp so loud? The dirt-bike engine was a low, deep gurgle, he was going so very slowly, and the wheels dug hard into the earth, trying to grab purchase.

All of the night sounds filled him with wonder. Even the air was different a wet and thick in his chest, yet energizing in a strange and heady way. He had never been alone so deeply in the mountains at night.

The lady never stopped talking to him now. Her voice was smooth and encouraging. It gave him what he needed to keep going. It reminded him of when his Mum would tickle his back until he would sigh with contented pleasure. Her voice was like being touched again.

The four-wheeler slowed, and then finally drifted to a stop about twenty feet from Alex's position. The headlights didn't dim, however. She remained unable to see clearly, even when she shaded her eyes.

Her heart thudded audibly in her chest. The shape of a man emerged from the gloom, walking slowly toward her. The stallion continued to dance, but she held onto the reins firmly, sucking in pulls of moist night air.

Could it be Jamie? She trembled with her stupid, clinging hope. If only Jamie could save her. Impossible.

"What do you want from me, Michael?" she shuddered out the words in breathy little gasps.

"It's Marcus," he returned, his voice all too familiar, and all too frightening. Her heart bleated in her chest like a lamb on the block. "Did you forget already? And all I want right now is you, Alex. All of you."

She gripped the branch tighter and steadied herself. "Don't come any closer. You still have a chance to just go away. Disappear."

He snorted at her. "Oh for fuck's sake. Are you serious?"

"Yes," her voice trembled dismayingly on the single syllable.

"You're a dumber cunt than I thought," he returned, his voice like shards of ice. "What a disappointment. Maybe you are just like Andrea."

"I don't know who Andrea is," she returned resolutely. "But this is my land. These are my people, now. I'm wanted here, and there is no way I will give it up. These trees will stay."

"You're a fool," he countered, stepping ever closer. "You still don't even get it. I don't want this land. These trees. These filthy bugs, and this damp, rancid dirt. And, by the way, I hate horses."

She balanced herself and gripped the branch. Silently, she allowed the reins to drop in a pool at her feet. Bold didn't run. She felt his breath on her back in warm puffs. It steadied her. In a single heartbeat, she swung the wood at the outline of Marcus, swiftly and smoothly.

Alexandra felt the jarring impact before the sound of the wood snapping reached her ears. A momentary confusion assailed her until she realized that the branch had simply broken on impact. Low laughter followed and Bold backed away, twigs and branches crackling under his hooves.