A recap of the story so far; this is for those who don't want to or haven't read the preceding opus:
My sister Rachael and her friend, Kyla, are trekking the Rainbow Mountains in Bella Coola, BC. Along with them are two of Rachael's college friends, Andrew and Susan. Unbeknownst to them, they are being followed by Josh Woodard, a dangerous wilderness recluse, who has his sights set on one of the women. He has picked Susan as his target.
Kyla, Rachael and I grew up together and a few years back, on her Prom night, my sister and I had indulged in an incestuous relationship that was both confusing and compelling. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it and am hoping to rekindle those filial affections on this trip.
I was supposed to have been with them but circumstances, fate, karma or whatever it is has connived against me and I was delayed, reduced to playing catch-up. It was in Bella Coola that I met up with Daniel Benn, a giant of Paul Bunyan proportions, and someone who knows these mountains better than most.
A few paragraphs from Part I that connects you to the sequel -
Near Hunlen Falls, on an obscure pathway off the beaten track, Rachael and Kyla share a tent and are talking about Andrew and Susan.
"Rach? Are you awake?"
"Yes."
"It's Andy and Sue ... they look an awful lot like each other. They are they related, aren't they?"
Rachael was quiet. She wasn't sure if she should confide in Kyla. It was very personal and unless she could empathize with them, it was bound to color her perspective and possibly affect the relationship adversely.
"She's his sister, right?" Kyla persisted.
"Yes. They are twins." Rachael confirmed reluctantly.
The ensuing silence was uncomfortably deafening. From the moment Kyla had met the twins she knew there was something unusual about them. She had wanted to pursue this but could never find the right moment. She also knew that something had transpired between Rachael and Luke after their Prom, something that had affected their relationship but that night was strictly off limits. It was an unspoken contract between them that barred them from ever broaching the subject. The condition had been set by Rachael and one that Kyla agreed to honor. It had taken a while to mend the breach and both of them never wanted that to happen again. Kyla, especially, didn't want to lose Rachael.
"You know that they've been making love every evening, don't you?" Kyla asked.
"It is easy to judge things you don't or can't empathize with ... I used to do that and it's a trap. Passing judgment is how we demean others; put them down so we can feel better about ourselves." Rachael said as though talking to herself.
"I want to understand, Rach, I really do," Kyla said whispering across the darkness, "Please talk to me ... please? What happened? I mean, between Luke and ..."
And then they heard the scream.
Read on ...
The Abduction
The scream, a single, strangled cry that lingered within the abbreviated quotient of time was an auricular alarm that shred the silence for a moment before acceding to the stillness of the night. In the distance, the strident yelp of a young jackal badgered the uneasy quietness with its sham. Both women in the adjacent tent reacted immediately and with an efficiency that resembled a military exercise. They unzipped their sleeping bags, wiggled free then undoing the side flaps of the tent, they crawled into the open, alert and ready. It had taken them all of three minutes.
"Shit! Where is it?" Kyla muttered as she fervently felt around for her pocket flashlight.
Rachael was the first one out. She stood balanced on the balls of her feet, her senses honed to a razor's edge, the hair on the nape of her neck prickled and bristling. The 'fight or flight' response had flooded her body with adrenaline. Her heart was pounding in her chest, her breathing had quickened, pupils dilated and attention focused. She held the pepper spray extended in front of her, armed, scanning the trees and the shrubbery, expecting an attack from any flank. Her mind devoid of rationale was panicked and racing, creating monsters in the dark; zombies and ghouls of childhood nightmares that shook and shivered within the sibilant rustling of the leaves.
'Calm, stay calm... slow it down and breathe ...' she told herself taking slow, deliberate breaths.
She could see the other tent bathed in nebulous hieroglyphics, silhouettes teased by the silvery streaks of moonlight filtering through the dense cover of the evergreens and the naked branches of the deciduous Red Alders. The sides of the tent were shredded, ripped open by some unnatural act of violence, the shorn fabric fluttering helplessly in the night's breeze. There was no sign of life from within.
"What the ..." Kyla had started to say when Rachael called out.
"Sue? Andrew?" She paused then called again, a bit more loudly, "Susan? Are you okay?"
Then throwing caution to the wind, she rushed in and was stunned by what she saw.
"Oh, God!" she whispered and stifled a scream, putting away the canister of pepper spray.