There will not be a chapter posted on November 25th.
The next chapter will be posted on Dec. 2nd.
New installments of this serial novel are posted every week. Need to catch up? Use these links:
Ch. 1 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4 | Ch. 5 | Ch. 6 | Ch. 7| Ch. 8 | Ch. 9 |
Chapter 10
Wary, Silas moved out into the clearing. He scanned the immediate area for weapons, and then gave Wentworth a good once over to check for telltale bulges under his clothes as well.
“You just going to give up now?”
Wentworth nodded. “No point in running, right? Rachel said you wouldn’t stop until the task was complete. Seems like I would just be wasting both of our time if I tried to get away.”
Silas shrugged. His targets had said they wouldn’t run before, and they all seemed to change their mind at the last minute. So he’d reserve judgment until this one was safely restrained and under control.
“Nearly a century in the Gully, and you still don’t get it, do you? Where did you find your victim?“
Wentworth shrugged. “Just someone I grabbed off the road. No one anyone will miss.”
Silas nodded. “I hope you’re right, but I can’t take any chances anyway. Where’s the body?”
Wentworth grinned and rubbed his belly. “I took care of it. It won’t be a problem.” He held his hands out to the side and looked around, head tilted back. “This place is even more beautiful than when I first built this cabin. The way that it’s grown and matured over a century is just amazing. If I have to die, I’m glad it will be here.”
Silas approached, slowly, his plastic wrist binders in one hand. “I need you to put your hands behind your back now.”
Wentworth sighed and turned his back to Silas, placing his hands behind his waist and grasping one wrist with the other. He stood calmly as Silas tied his wrists together tightly, and he never saw it coming when Silas hit him on the back of the head with the butt of his hunting knife. Wentworth went down, and Silas tied his ankles together as an added precaution while he cleaned up.
By the time Silas was done scrubbing as much evidence of Wentworth’s presence from the cabin as he could, his target was just coming to. The sun had crested and was moving downward, and Silas wanted to get back to the truck before dark. He slipped a rope around the man’s neck before he fully came to, a leash of sorts that he knew Wentworth wouldn’t appreciate having to wear. It was the same rope-leash he’d used on his victims, stained dark in places with their blood.
“Good, you’re awake. I wasn’t looking forward to having to haul your ass all way back to the truck.” He pulled his pack back onto his back, cut open the bindings at Wentworth’s ankles and helped the man to his feet. Wentworth looked confused.
“Where we going?”
“You didn’t honestly think I was going to dispatch you in the same place that you killed all those people. Retribution is not about you being comfortable or happy with your last hours here on this earth. It’s about you feeling and experiencing similar things to what you made your victims feel. Which means you’re coming back to a place I’ve already prepared for us.
Silas grabbed the rope leash and tugged, forcing him to follow as he went over and untied Mabel’s reins, and then led both man and beast out of the valley.
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