red hill - jamie mcguire

Chapter Five
Scarlet
THE LAST RAYS OF SUN unceremoniously fell behind the horizon. Shaking with fear, I slowly stepped
out of the Jeep. My tennis shoes, still a little wet from the morning rain, sunk into thick mud. Clutching
the tire iron to my chest, I took a step into the woods. The night was quiet—so quiet that every
movement I made seemed like a boom echoing through the trees.
Every sound made my body freeze. Could they see in the dark Did they rely on smell like an
animal Only when I thought of my girls waiting for me did I find enough courage to take another step.
About an hour later, a dragging noise startled me enough to make me cling to a tree. I hugged it to
me and closed my eyes, trying to listen for danger over the pounding in my heart and gasping breath.
Just when I thought I might hyperventilate, my eyes popped open wide to try to pull in enough light
to penetrate the darkness. Something darker than the dark and about as tall as a man crossed from one
tree to another, only twenty yards or so from me. I closed my eyes tight one last time, and then broke
into a sprint, refusing to stop until I slipped in the culvert beside the main highway in and out of town.
My knees hit hard, and then my stomach, chest, and face shortly after. Face and palms down in the
mud, I quickly tuned in to the sounds around me, and then flipped over, searching in a panic for
whatever was hunting me.
My chest heaved as my lungs tried to keep up with the constant adrenaline pumping through my
body. A scream welled up in my chest, but recognition choked back the noise. Drawing anyone’s
attention—alive or dead—could end my rescue mission before it started.
A man walked toward me, his arms out, trying to wave away the scream he could see was about to
echo throughout the east side of Anderson.
The fear in his dark eyes was highlighted by the amount of white surrounding them. “Ssssh! I’m not
going to hurt you!” he said in a loud whisper.
He slid in next to me, his clothes and skin already soiled with mud, spattered in some places,
saturated in others. He looked like he’d been crawling on his belly through the woods for days.
I pressed my lips together to stifle a yelp, my entire body shaking involuntarily.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said again, panting. He didn’t need the mud. His skin was dark
enough to keep him hidden, even if he was well over six feet tall. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m just
trying to get into town. Same as you.”
I nodded, unable to form a proper response.
“My name’s Tobin. You . . . you okay”
I took a deep breath, trying to settle my nerves. “Scarlet.”
Tobin took a quick scan of our surroundings. “Are you from Anderson”