Borrasca V | CreepCast

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There is a meme on this channel about

traumatizing events,

and usually it always circles back to one word: Baraska.

Barosca, my friends, we here today are finally venturing down the final road of Baraska Part Five.

Now, here's the thing: we've done all four before,

but what people don't know is that part five itself contained has 20 chapters.

This is a behemoth of

time later.

It's written well after the first four parts.

It was written well after, of course, by C.K.

Walker.

Walker.

And she is who we love dearly.

She's the goat.

Our friend, yes.

She's the goat of the crank.

I don't hate us, but we love her.

The goat, right?

But since the beginning of basically the show, I mean, we read Baraska part one and two.

That That was early.

Early, early on into this show's history.

And ever since then, for over a year, we have been getting people asking, when are they going to do Barasca 5?

When are we going to do Barosca 5?

And finally, since we are here in person, it felt weird.

Like, I felt like it was like, it's become an occasion to where it feels weird to just do it over a call, like how we normally do it.

It's been too built up.

Yeah.

To where now you're here.

It feels special in this time to just say, fuck it.

Let's.

Let's re-enter.

Here's what's crazy.

The channel's grown quite a bit since it, which thank you all for that.

There's probably a decent amount of people who've read it by this point.

Who have read it, yes.

But people have come to Creepcast who have not seen the first.

Oh, sure.

We have much, much more of a back catalog.

So if anything, so if that's the case, then for people who don't know, spoilers from here, if you don't want to have the first part of the story, parts one through four, spoiled, please go check out those episodes.

Not only from us, but there's also like, I forgot, put up some other sources of people who have done like fucking radio plays of it.

Like, people have done, like, actual drama.

Like, there's a lot of great stuff.

There's all radio plays starring What's His Face?

One of the Sprouse Brothers.

One of the Spraus Brothers.

Cole Sprouse, I think.

I hear it's amazing.

But there's also, there's so many people.

There's so many fucking stupid jokes in ours.

If you want like an actual telling of the story, it's a great story.

So many, we'll put some references here to go check out some other great stories.

But first, so spoilers.

Spoils.

Spoils.

Now that the spoils are there, as a recap for people who are just like getting into this or, you know, just need a refresher because it's been so long, Isaiah, break us down from what happened.

The story of Barosca, the initial setup, is it's about a guy whose father becomes the sheriff of a small town.

He moves there, meets a couple of his name's Will.

He meets a couple of kids named Colin Kimber.

They start a friendship, and then Will's sister goes missing one day.

There's a legend in the town about something called the skinned man

that takes kids in the night, as the story goes,

if they pass something called the triple tree, which leads up to the old mine shafts in the mountains um the story skips between them when they were much younger when his sister went missing to them in high school and i want to say that that time jump though that first section building up will's new in town dad's the sheriff in town at this time but the way that they build this up in the first part it's not that it's even it's not short i mean it's it it takes its time and it hits all of the classic tropes that a creepypasta does of building up this kind of monster the the skin men, man.

You know, when you have the triple tree, all this kind of, like just so the world building is so concise, and then it does a nice time jump after Will's sister gets abducted.

Yeah.

And that's kind of the crux of the first adolescence part is Will's sister is gone.

It's kind of, you know, and it's something too where that is not an uncommon thing to happen in this town.

A lot of people's

sisters go missing,

you know, in that regard.

Yeah, so it's like there's a conspiracy afoot.

Yes.

And at the beginning, the kids think it to be the skinned man.

And because we're reading a creepy problem.

Yeah, as a parent, and we're reading a scary story.

We're like, oh, maybe it is the skinned man in the mountains or whatever.

I had fully believed it was.

Then, as the story goes on,

there's some suspicions.

Kimber mom seems like she's mentally deranged.

At least that's what the people of the town say.

It turns out she's in the know in the conspiracy.

Long story short, Kimber becomes kidnapped.

Kyle and Will go looking for her, eventually make their way up to the abandoned mine shaft up in the mountains.

Past the Triple Tree.

Past the Triple Tree.

They get to an old mine shaft up there, which the wording of the sign's been decayed to where it kind of spells out skinned men.

So all the legends of the skinned men have come from this mine shaft.

Turns out that years back there was an accident in the mine that poisoned the town's water supply, made several of the women within the town infertile.

So people within the town, in order to make back their money and to also preserve their families families or whatnot began human trafficking operations where they were kidnapping women

impregnating because it's so brutal impregnating them I was gonna say in a very

trimming the fat and just getting straight to it getting straight to it feels psychotic and it is but they're referred to as

the breeding stables the breeding stables and it's the mayor's there it's it's the the build-up of the story is so crazy but that hit there's people at like the the woman in at the cafe that Will works, and she's all upset.

And she's like, oh, I get my child today.

And it turns out that basically Kimber and Kyle and other kids in town are basically incest inbred.

Any kid whose name starts with a K.

I think they're from

the same father.

So it's like just a sadistic, weird, inbred town of people.

And it's just,

it kind of hits you with a fucking freight train.

And I will say we're waiting for the monster to show up, and then they do, but they're not the monster you thought they would be.

Exactly.

And

the emotional tie-ins between everything is so wonderful.

And I, you know, and it's weird to say it now because it's probably,

arguably, the most,

like, the biggest meme on the channel.

Like, I mean, this is like kind of.

Meme, yes.

I think it is only second view-wise to the left-right game.

But other than that, it's like one of our biggest videos that we've put out.

Yeah.

I think that the infamous on this channel is the word Baraska now in the Creepcast subreddit.

Even outside of Creepcast, it is synonymous with like unexpected trauma, something happening.

There was some, I forget the YouTube video.

I was watching some video the other day where it turns out that like a character was like taken advantage of when they're younger.

And one of the top comments was like, oh, so Barosca.

Or like a Barosca movie.

Which of course that isn't just from us.

That's not just from us.

It's a long-standing thing.

But it was after we covered it.

I will take some credit.

It was after we covered it that like new age people, younger audiences started to pick up the story.

And even if it isn't from that, I just, it's so crazy knowing the context of that now because it's just such a, you you know, people are like, I don't know what the fuck that is.

And you can keep scrolling, but if you know.

But anyways,

very,

at least from, I remember our initial readers and listeners and all that stuff,

very divisive

ending.

Oh, yeah, because if it goes from a horror story to just like a super graphic, like human trafficking story, which is a real world war that's terrifying, viewer discretion.

And I wanted to say, because I do not know where this one goes, I'm just going to to throw a fucking trigger warning up this time.

Yeah, yeah.

So that way,

I've never read.

I have no idea.

We go with all the other things.

I actually have no idea.

With everyone else on these.

I have no idea what happens in part five.

Because here's what's crazy.

I knew exactly where we were going the first time because I had read already.

Okay.

Yeah, remember?

Because I was like, this was my favorite creepypasta.

Oh, true.

When I was in high school.

So that's why we read it.

And the whole time I knew where it was going.

And you would say something like, well, I hope the kids are okay.

I'm like, yeah, Hunter.

They're gonna be fine.

They're gonna be okay, Hunter.

So, so I knew where we were going there.

I have no idea.

I've never looked at this story.

I've never had anything spoiled for it.

No idea, you know, and there was a thing, there was a long period of time where we were because part five was written

much later.

The original one, all four were written in 2015, the first four.

This came a year later in 2016.

Okay, so this is like removed from it sequel writtenly.

It was something that was, it was, there was some distance between it to where we were like, it's all it's it's also just one of those things where it's so good that do you read the sequel like do you read the ad on it does it really it doesn't need one the story's complete you don't need to read this but it's it's been enough time now to where i just out of curiosity it comes up so much to where

we're just like fucking like really you know how i see it the uh the guy the first dude who ever climbed everest the guy who died up there i forget his name not Edmund or maybe the guy that was before Edmund one of the guys who climbed Everest who died up there was asked right before he went up.

They said,

why do you need to climb this mountain?

And he said, because it's there, right?

And me and you

standing in front of the Rosca park.

And the Rosca V and a giant neon signal.

I need to read it.

Because it's there.

Because it's there.

Because it's there.

So, I mean, without further ado,

20 chapters, ladies and gentlemen.

Buckle up.

This is going to be a long one.

Me and you till the end of the ride.

And let's get into chapter one, shall we?

Shall we be sure to support it?

Thank you guys for the support.

As you've already shown, thank you for getting the podcast at this point.

Be sure to support CK Walker.

Her links will be in the description to her website.

She always has some project in the work, some story.

We've read a bunch of her stuff and we've enjoyed it every time.

We've read Deepwoods.

We've read Mayhem Mountain.

Mayhem Mountain during the live tour, and that was a lot of fun.

Just extremely imaginative.

Just anything you pick up from her, it's just got to be gold.

So she's stellar.

So be sure to check her out.

And for better or worse, thank you for making this story.

If it traumatizes us, hey, well, we saw what the effect the first one had.

So we'll see this.

Let's get it.

Chapter one.

How long had I been asleep?

And when had I realized that I wasn't anymore?

I watched the ceiling fan circle slowly above me, doing nothing to dissipate the clouds of cigarette smoke that had drifted above my room for years.

I started most mornings this way.

But no, it wasn't morning, was it?

I turned my head towards the bedroom window and confirmed the sky was dark outside of it.

The last thing I recalled was being in the bathroom, and then silence.

Sweet darkness.

Seth.

I sat up and shook an an old bottle of water sitting on the floor next to the bed and then threw the empty bottle at my closet door.

I lit a cigarette and took a long drag, releasing a cloud of smoke up into the apathetic fan that floated idly above me.

Pulling on an old hoodie, I walked out into the living room of the apartment I shared with my roommate.

Evening, princess.

Seth was reclining on the end of the couch, fingers flying across the keyboard of a notebook sitting on his lap.

A confusing yet edgy indie movie played on the TV in front of him.

This was pretty much Seth's life on any given day, and it perfectly summed up all of my interactions with him since I'd moved in.

Well, all of my sober interactions with him, anyway.

I pulled down on my sleeves to subconsciously hide my arms like it made any sort of difference.

But of course it didn't.

Seth already knew.

He noticed what I was doing, and a smile fell into a sobering look.

Found you passed out in the bathroom again.

Sorry.

I rasped and reached for a half can of mountain dew that had been sitting on the the counter for God only knows how long.

You do realize how difficult it is for me to drag a six-foot-three dude out of the bathtub and down the hall to his room.

Next time, just leave me there, man.

Hardly.

You would have choked on your own vomit.

I shrugged.

I knew this was the death lurking in my future anyway, but heroin afforded me one convenience that I refused to part with.

A dreamless sleep.

I'd die before I surrendered that.

Besides, if the nightmares came back, I'd probably just kill myself anyway.

He has a visitor today while you were passed out.

Dreddy stopped by.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah.

He left you more drugs.

Should you get pay him when you hadn't the money?

You know, he must be the sweetest, most generous drug dealer in all of Chicago.

Where is it?

You were sleeping like a babe in the tub, so I just left it next to you.

Cool.

In the toilet.

Dude.

Look, man, if you die, I don't get half of the rent.

And if I don't get your half of the rent, I have to get a real job.

It's just business, not personal.

Of course, that wasn't true.

Seth and I had met at a darker time in both of our lives and shared the sort of bond that is only forged in such circumstances.

Who was the other?

The other what?

The other visitor.

A girl, actually.

I told you you were out.

Figured you'd prefer I tell her over that over the truth.

Did she say what she wanted?

No.

I swore.

That was never good.

It was probably just some girl coming over to beg for free drugs, which I didn't currently have because Seth had flushed them down the toilet.

And I would never let her touch my private stash.

That had to be it.

What else could she want?

Great.

So some chick either wants a hookup or is coming over to tell me she's pregnant.

You wish.

This chick was way beyond anything you could ever get.

It's going to be Kimber, isn't it?

It's 100%.

It's got to be Kimber.

I'm going to get sad.

Because now I'm remembering all the characters.

Well, Kimber actually.

Well, also, she's going to see him Will now, who's a heroin junkie.

Which, to clarify, for those of them that forgot, at the end of the story, Kyle effectively dies.

He gets physically beat to the point that he's brain dead.

And we got hints of this at the end of this, where he's like, I'm not doing well.

Yeah, Will and Kimber get away.

Obviously, too.

You know, that's not a shocker.

Yeah, Will becomes destitute, but his one hope at the end is like, it seems Kimber got on.

Yeah, that she says, he says he got a letter in the mail with a picture of her, and he's like, she's doing well.

And that's all that matters.

Yeah.

Kimber made it out somehow.

That's going to be Kimber come to find him again.

You know what?

This may be kind of cringe to say, but it actually feels

kind of weird to talk about some of these characters again because of how

on this podcast,

in our mind, how

like the Kyle from Barasca is an entire character type now.

Like if we have a story where guys kind of do shit.

They feel like actually dead relatives, kind of, don't they?

Yeah, yeah, a little bit.

It feels like talking about the dead in a a weird way.

It's like, oh, we remember Kyle, right?

Yeah.

Real people in our lives.

But now they're here again.

I don't know.

It's weird.

It's strange.

In this story, we go to see Kyle and he's like in a wheelchair.

I'm going to be sad.

I'm going to be messed up.

He's not like, well,

I can't even remember what he actually says in the story, but all I can think of is like, your wife looks mad funny in that box, dude.

Which someone, I mean, not to keep you real, but someone got a tattoo of that.

Did you see that?

no some girl got a tattoo they posted in the creepcast subreddit they got a tattoo of a coffin that says your wife looks mad funny in that box dude damn that's how much like some of these characters and stuff in the story like meant to people it's just

ck walker ck walker performs magic she does yeah really because she did come asking around for me didn't she sure but i'm not the one who got her number No, you didn't.

I left as I walked into the kitchen and took one of our three glasses out of the cupboard.

Oh, I did.

Seth held up a torn shard shard of white paper.

She gave it to me and asked me to call her when you came home.

Used air quotes on the last two words.

Yeah, well, I don't.

I don't want anything to do with.

There's a knock at the door.

Shot Seth a poisonous look.

What?

He threw up his hands and stood.

She's really hot and you can't stand in the way of true love.

Don't open it.

I warned as he walked over to the door.

Sorry, Sam, but you know I have a thing for redheads.

Oh.

Oh, bruh.

I'm just gonna visit them.

Ah, okay.

Redheads.

What?

Do I know any redheads?

I couldn't place one for the life of me.

And Seth opened the door to reveal Kimber to star.

This is so, I feel like, I feel like, like you said, talking about a dead relative.

And then Seth opened the door to reveal Kimber Destero standing on the other side.

Suddenly felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped on my soul.

I had a few seconds to study her before her eyes found me leaning against the counter in the kitchen.

She was still very short, but her hair was longer, halfway down her back, it looked like.

And she was, of course, almost ten years older than the last time I'd seen her.

Looking at her after all these years was physically crippling.

I had to make a concentrated effort to stay on my feet while my niche tried to buckle underneath me.

Just seeing her face brought back painful memories I thought long buried.

She was like a mirage long dead, returning to torture me.

Kibra's eyes finally found me as she nervously clutched her cell cell phone in her hands turning it over and over against her chest.

Hi Sam.

Oh, sorry, not did I make up the name Will this whole time?

Is his name Sam?

Is his name Sam?

I thought it was Will.

Unless we're just thinking about it.

How did I make up this whole thing?

If

that during the edit, just have to just say Sam.

He moves there, meets a couple of...

His name's Sam.

He meets a couple of kids named Col and Kimber.

They start a friendship.

And then my sister goes missing one day.

Also, Seth did say Sam too.

Sorry, Sam.

Sorry, Sam, but...

Where did I get Will from?

Yeah, his name's Sam Walker in the story.

All right, whatever.

I guess I'm just stupid.

All right, whatever.

That's my.

To be completely honest, I don't remember anything after like two weeks.

So I was just like, I was like, Will?

Will, okay, yeah.

Yeah.

There must have been another story with Will or that or I'm coping.

I'm just thinking of it.

Isn't that his name Will and It?

Yeah, it is.

Yeah, it's Will.

No, no, that's what I've Stranger Things as Will.

Will is the Stranger Things kit.

I don't know.

There's a Will somewhere in a story.

I don't fucking know.

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We are now back to the episode.

Hi, Sam.

He said with more confidence than she clearly felt.

Since Kimber had actually spoken to me, I could probably confirm that this wasn't a nightmare.

She was really here.

And if she was real, that meant that it was all real too.

A shudder racked through my body, and I found my white-knuckled fingers around the edge of the countertop.

Why are you here?

I had meant to sound so angry.

My words seemed to rattle Kimber, and she took a step back.

I will.

I.

Seth watched the exchange with interest, but did not intervene.

You shouldn't be here, Kimber, I said.

Just wanted her to leave.

This needed to end before I lost it.

After she was gone, I could pretend she was just a nightmare seeping through the veil.

Kimber hesitated.

I saw her calculate in her mind as she watched me, her lips moving only slightly as she organized all the variables in her head.

It was such a Kimber thing to do, and made me realize how much I missed her.

I saw the exact moment Kimber found in her mind what she was looking for.

Did you get my letter?

Yes.

And

I threw it away.

Lies.

She faltered for only a moment.

Did you read it?

I didn't say anything, but I knew she could read the answer on my face.

When neither of us spoke, an awkward tension began to bleed into the room.

So,

I'm Seth.

My roommate said, still casually leaning against the door.

Kimber held my stare for a moment longer and then broke it to finally walk into the room.

Seth let the door close behind her.

Kimber, she said to him.

And how do you know Sam?

We grew up together.

Neat.

Sam and I were cellmates in prison.

Seth.

I was in for a super sexy felony.

Computer crimes.

Sam was in for

harder stuff.

Okay.

Good night, all.

I like that Kyle's there in spirit,

even if he's gone.

Yeah, yeah.

I was just saying it's interjecting that new kind of comedic relief into the kind of heavier subjects.

Comedic relief and also the fact that,

you know, like he was in prison for a while for heavy stuff.

Well, I was going to say, also that's just a fun way to interject some more backstory of yeah yeah he's a junkie but also they fucking met in prison it's almost like this is a halfway house yeah a little i mean it's not because they're renting it but still like they're barely on their feet yes i mean not i mean he's getting heroin delivered while he's overdosing in the bathtub like on their feet is a very strong way to describe that but yeah he said cheerfully and left the room I kept my eyes on him as he made his way down the hall to his room, cursing his every step.

As that door finally closed behind him, I reluctantly let my gaze drift back into the room.

Kimber was watching me with an expression I couldn't read, but I didn't like it.

The letter.

Yes, I read it.

Kimber continued to stare at me, waiting for more.

She cracked me just that easily.

I don't.

what to say.

I ran my hands through my mess of dark, unwashed hair.

I'm sorry that we couldn't.

That we didn't.

Sam, stop.

I'm not here for apologies.

I don't need one.

You guys got me out.

Kyle got you out.

His name seemed to impale her.

Wondered how long it had been since she'd heard it.

Well, that's kind of why I'm here.

There are others, Sam.

Women who never escaped this place.

Oh, God.

Here we go.

We're going back.

I mean, how could you not, dude?

Like, I mean, you got to have some cooperation.

There is a breeding factory of humans happening right here.

This story, I really just hope it doesn't go into like a CSI Miami where it's like, the bombs are planted.

Yeah!

And he's like running out.

Look, after the trauma the first one gave, I hope they kill him.

I hope.

No, no, no.

Or do you mean the women in there?

No.

I mean, I hope they kill like the people.

Oh, sure.

I'm saying that I don't want them to,

I don't want them to go back with explosives and be like, we have to destroy this place.

I don't think it'll literally be explosives.

I think a gun.

I think they're just a gun.

Oh, sure.

I'm just saying that.

It doesn't matter.

I'm just saying.

In my my mind, I pictured the CSI Miami.

You know what I'm talking about?

Where he doesn't, he's like, Yeah, I know what you mean, where it's like, yeah.

She'll need another pair of slippers after that one.

Yeah.

I know what you're saying.

I don't think that's where it's going.

Okay.

I don't think that's where it's going.

I do.

You know what?

After Baraska, the first four parts, I'm okay with a little cathartic revenge story.

That's fine.

That's fine.

If that's where it goes, that's cool with me.

Yeah.

How?

I want Drisking to be exposed.

I want what they've done to be known to the whole world.

Yeah, Yeah, so do I.

So do a lot of people.

But the majority of us aren't in a position to do anything about it.

I needed a drink, pulled a plastic bottle of cheap vodka from the freezer and poured it into the glass.

You want some?

I asked almost as an afterthought.

God, yes, Kimber said.

I took another glass down from the cupboard, filled it, and handed it to her.

She drank half of it in one sip, which seemed to steady her.

So what do you want from me, Kimber?

I asked as she set the glass down.

I want you to come back to drisking with me.

I laughed and then tipped my glass back, allowing the hot sting of the alcohol to unfurl down my throat.

I'm serious, Sam.

Yeah, the answer is no.

We never leave that place alive.

We did once.

We're not going back.

I have a contact.

You know, someone on the inside.

The inside of what?

Drisking?

Baraska?

The sheriff's office?

They know stuff, okay?

And they're willing to help us.

That's all we need to know.

No, we need a lot more information than that.

And you'll get it.

Later.

After we get there.

Did you really come all the way from California to ask me this after nine years?

Actually, I wasn't asking.

Kimber looked at me coolly, crossed her arms in front of her with ironclad conviction.

This wasn't the Kimber I remembered.

I didn't know this woman.

So somebody told you that they were going to help you take down a very highly connected and protected crime syndicate, and you believe them?

I didn't say that.

So you don't trust them?

I didn't say that either.

Yeah, well, this isn't happening.

We'd be dead the minute we crossed the county line.

Are you saying you won't go?

Uh no, I won't go, I said, pouring myself more vodka.

All right, Kimber said and set her glass on the table beside her.

Well, thank you for the drink, but I have to go.

Something lurched inside of me.

I couldn't let her leave.

And now when I just got on her back, so why was I being such a dick?

I took a step toward her before I realized what I'd done.

Where are you going?

I told you, she snapped as she started towards the door.

I'm going to Drisking.

I was on her before she'd finished her sentence and yanked her away from the door.

The hell, you are.

I told you I was going, Sam, and I fucking meant it.

I didn't know you intended to go alone.

That's damn suicide.

I don't care.

It needs to end.

Why does it have to be you?

I pled desperately.

My heart began to sink as I realized I did know this, Kimber.

Her mind was made up, and there would be no stopping her.

Who else, Sam?

Who else but us?

There's no one.

The thought of my best friend back at that place seared through my brain like a hot iron.

I had to make Kimber see reason.

Even if I had to hurt her, there was no other way.

So after what Killian Clary did to you there, after all that you suffered at Barasca, you want to go back?

She snatched her arm back from my grasp.

Yes,

because there are other people still suffering as we stand here arguing about this.

We shouldn't have even waited this long to try to help them.

No, wait.

Okay.

We can think this through.

I'll try again with the FBI, the cops.

Interpol.

I don't know.

Whoever will listen.

Did that work before?

It hadn't.

Sam, if I try to report the r.

What happened to me, I'll show up on the radar immediately and be dead by morning.

No more pretensions, no more manipulations.

I had to bear my soul to this girl if I wanted to stop her.

Please, I said desperately, please, Kimber, I'm begging you not to make me do this.

I'm sorry, but I'm going.

I was panicking, unable to control my breathing or the pounding of my heart, which was racing to a finish line that lay somewhere in the immediate future.

Shit!

I screamed and swept Kimber's vodka glass off the table to where it shattered against the wall.

This didn't seem to surprise her, and Kimber kept her composure while I raged.

Damn it!

It was over.

I was going back to drisking.

That's the end of chapter one.

Oh, I'm hooked.

I'm in.

Because I like how it's like, she's like, I'll go by myself.

And he's like, don't make me do this.

As in, like, because he's not going to let her go alone.

Well, yeah, he's like, please, I don't.

Really, he's the frustration there is that I'm afraid.

I'm afraid for you.

Yeah.

And I bet partly himself.

Yeah, yeah.

You're risking your own life with that, too.

Obviously, he cares about Kimber here.

And he's like, please don't.

Please don't put me in a situation where I know you're going to go back because I can't do that.

And I don't want to have to experience that too.

I mean, yeah, it's awesome.

And like, in another story, I may like argue and be like, okay, well, you could contact this agency or do this and stuff like that.

But the story, especially the first four parts, did such a job of setting up that, like, the police are in the know about it.

The law enforcement's in the know about it, stuff like that.

The local law enforcement, yeah.

Local law enforcement.

And now, and now we're like, oh, well, the federal agencies didn't listen.

You, I was thinking about that, too.

I think that.

What are you going to say?

What do you, you call the FBI, hey, there's a giant rape stable

in a mine.

Me and my friends think all the police in this town are and what would they do?

They would call the police and they're like, that's the dumbest thing we've ever heard.

Yeah, it's not joke.

And that's probably as far as it might go, realistically.

Good luck.

And with so many people in the town being in on it, that's also,

that's also, I think, how this has longevity to not just be something that gets completely.

So

I'm willing to say, like, yeah, they have to do it themselves.

Well,

for the sake of the story, yes.

Yeah, I think so.

I'm willing to buy that.

And also, I don't want anybody else to do it besides them at this point.

it would be a sad thing.

Because when they do it, it's going to have like an actual

sense of authority, like justice.

And we're actually being Kimber was kept there for a while.

Don't need to open up that can of worms to know what happened to that.

So that's the end of chapter one.

Now into chapter two.

Chapter two.

I watched the vodka drip down the wall where I'd hurled it.

If I wasn't so terrified, I would have been embarrassed by my outburst, but I couldn't stop the shaking.

Deep breaths, one problem at a time.

I need to wipe it off the wall, pick up the glass, and then I could go die in Missouri.

Pull out a pathetic sob.

All right, that's Missouri's kind of cool.

Okay, if there was going to be.

Yeah, so actually the middle of the country is actually kind of fucking sick.

Yeah, it's a flyover state, but still.

If there's going to be a giant human trafficking operation, it wouldn't be in Missouri.

It wouldn't be here, so you shouldn't even look for it.

Sam, I won't.

Sam, I won't.

Take your time.

It's okay.

It's all right, bud.

Look, chapter two, we still got...

We're only 10% of the way in once we finish the chapter, so, you know, easy going from here.

Sam, I won't let anything happen to you.

Nailed it.

I gave her a ludicrous look.

How could such a tiny person stop anything from happening to me?

Kimber had always been a little fireball, but this was madness.

She raised her chin defiantly when she saw me assessing her.

When are we leaving?

I asked, trying to keep my voice as composed as possible.

All I wanted to do was retreat into my room where I could let the fear overtake me.

In the morning, that's crazy, Kimber.

We need time to plan, and I need the contact number for this source of yours.

Can't just go waltzing into town after a decade.

I've had a lot of time to prepare for this.

Years, in fact.

Look, tomorrow, let's just get in the car and go.

And I'll have the entire eight-hour drive to convince you that I have a good plan.

What is the rush, Kimber?

Trying to be dead by Christmas?

Just trust me.

I'll explain everything in the car tomorrow.

You know it's already midnight.

Yeah, I know.

I've been driving all day.

I'm tired as hell.

You just got in today.

Yes.

From LA?

Close enough.

Damn woman, do you have a hotel?

Not yet.

You can stay here then.

With you talking so much crazy, I don't trust your lunacy out in the city.

Kimber narrowed eyes at me and then

Fine by me.

Okay.

You can take my room.

Give me a minute.

Cheddar whiskey glass forgotten.

I left Kimber standing where she was and went back to my room.

Flipped the light on and glanced around.

My heart plummeted.

The room was disgusting.

I hadn't really looked at it in years.

It was really just a place to watch TV or pass out.

I couldn't remember the last time I had changed the sheets or done any laundry.

The girls who usually stayed over didn't care much what they were sleeping on, but this was no place for a girl like Kimber.

Stripped the bed as fast as I could and herded bottles, discarded needles, and empty cigarette boxes into the closet.

I realized too late that I didn't actually have anything to replace the dirty sheets.

I was so overwhelmed by the last 40 minutes that I felt tears start to well in my eyes.

Get a hold of yourself.

Jumped at a sudden knock at the door.

Seth stuck his head in.

Here.

Handed me a stack of clean, folded sheets on top of a blue quilt.

I wanted to hug him, but I was still attempting to get my emotions under control.

Thanks.

Hey, so listen.

Does this mean...

I mean...

Is that stuff about Drisking true?

I never told Seth, or anyone else besides the feds, anything about Drisking.

What stuff?

Oh, come on, man.

I hear you talk about it in your sleep all the time.

You say all sorts of fucked up stuff.

That's why I've heard your friend's name before.

You talked about her in your sleep.

What are you talking about?

I don't even dream when I sleep.

Yeah, you do.

You may not remember it, but trust me, you do.

I didn't say anything and Seth started to leave.

Oh, one more thing.

If you need anything while you're back home, just call me.

Home.

Yeah, Driskan was home.

Since I lived in a shitty neighborhood, I walked Kimber down to her car to get her bag out of the back seat.

She dropped her duffel on the thankfully dark carpet of my freshly cleaned room, which was still barely passable.

At the very least, I'd known she was here and safe.

I'd always wondered if Clary and Prescott were having me watched.

If they were, Kimber was in danger by just being in Chicago.

Probably was a good idea to leave in the morning.

I settled down on the couch and pulled out my personal stash, which I pocketed while kicking garbage into my closet earlier.

I needed it tonight, of all nights, and if it was going to be one of my last, then I would make it count.

30 minutes later, I floated down the familiar river of dark, dreamless sleep.

End of chapter 2.

Chapter 3.

I like that mention where he's like,

I hear you talk about it in your sleep.

You may not remember it, but you do.

It's just like how heavy it weighs on him.

Yeah, I mean, completely tormented.

Which, if it wasn't already prevalent, but I think that, you know,

it's nice seeing a character like Seth being here where...

Yeah, he knows he's a heroin junkie, but he hears the stuff that he's having night terrors about, and he's probably like, well, yeah, I mean.

Guy's going through it.

Yeah, not that he condones it, but I think he's more just like, the guy's been through a lot.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah, what am I going to do, right?

Chapter 3.

I didn't remember dreaming, but I knew I had.

I woke up feeling like I'd run 30 miles, drenched in sweat and fighting to draw in air with raw, ragged breaths.

Sat up on the couch and rub my face.

What time was it?

Why was I in the living room?

Why did I feel a malicious black cloud looming over me like some sort of comic strip character?

And then it all came back, crashing like waves over my head.

Holy shit, Kimber was here.

She wanted something.

I felt the fear shower me like ice-cold rain as I recalled pieces of the night before.

We were going back.

Kimber's bag was next to the door, and she was sitting at the table reading one of Seth's Look How Smart I Am philosophy books.

As I sat up, I slid the evidence of my addiction under the couch with my foot, praying she hadn't already seen it.

Morning, Sam.

Kimber smiled without looking up from the book.

Why the hell are you so chipper?

You remember where...

I'd say, well, Sam is making it hard for you to read through.

He is.

He just dropped in F-bombs left and right.

I'm going to power through.

I'm going to make it.

Why the hell are you so chipper?

You remember where we're going, right?

Yes.

She put the book down, looked over at me, beaming.

I've just missed you so much.

It was a genuine statement, and my mouth twitched into a little smile at her words.

Damn it.

I was happy to see her, too.

Buried underneath all the fear, numbing pain, was a glowing euphoria.

I'd never been happier than when I was with Kimber and Kyle.

One of them had actually come back from the void of the past.

I stood up.

Just let me shower and pack, and then we can get on the road.

That is, if you're still planning on going.

Yes, I am.

Are you?

Yep.

Appears that I am.

I'd run out of arguments.

Seth had already left for the day, so I locked the apartment as we headed down to Kimber's car.

Ten-year-old Mazda sedan.

She took my bag and threw it into the back seat next to hers and then climbed in.

So, eight hours, huh?

I asked as she started the engine.

Yep, but I could probably do it in seven.

And don't rush my count.

Kimber pulled her sunglasses down and pulled out of the apartment complex.

Looked back and wondered if I'd ever seen it crumbling graffiti-covered walls again.

If I even wanted to.

So then some time passes, I assume.

Yeah.

Stop staring at me.

What?

You're not as sly as you think you are.

Sorry, it's just.

I never thought I'd see you again.

Neither did I.

You look good.

Pretty.

You know, like, like healthy.

Stumbled all over my compliment.

Kimber raised an eyebrow.

Thanks, I think.

Don't you do that for this story?

Any other story?

You can give that up with.

If you bring your Scooby-Doo mentality in here.

I'm gonna be so mad.

I don't want to hear a single.

It's behind me.

I don't want to hear a single.

You're going to want to say this.

I laughed nervously.

You know what I mean.

You look like you're doing well from yourself, you know, the last 10 years.

Kimber frowned and remained quiet for a minute as if debating whether to tell me something.

I never told anyone where I came from.

My mom said she had family in Anaheim, but I couldn't find them.

Everyone thought I was just a runaway.

Cops picked me up almost immediately and put me in a halfway house.

Sorry about your car, by the way.

They impounded it.

I don't suppose you ever got it back.

I shrugged.

Nah, but who cares?

It was just an old Honda.

Kimber threw me a sympathetic look.

I'm sorry.

Anyway, the Halfway House kept trying to identify me, so I had to run away from there, too.

And eventually I got a job.

Southern California is a great place to live if you don't have an ID, by the way.

I'm sure.

After that, I went to community college, and yeah, I've just been sort of biding my time.

Are you sure you want to just throw all of that away to expose your rapist?

Kimber winced at my words, and I immediately

that is kind of foreign, isn't it?

It's just, you know, goddamn, like the last time it's like we had, it's just, yeah, just dropping, drop it all down there.

I mean, like, cats out of the bag.

I mean, it is, it's

the looming, the looming haze is all around it already.

But every once in a while, it just feels like he says it and he like looks right at the camera.

It's like

with, like, like you said, Baraska's become a meme for like heavy, like, you know, adult content and stories.

And we are now reading once again Baraska.

So it's like poking out.

We'll see.

Yeah.

It's also, it's kind of demeaning for him to

be like, oh, you're going to die to expose your rapists when it's like, you know, it's more than that.

You know, there's hundreds of women like constantly.

She's like, community college and she's been biding her time.

You want to throw all that away?

Okay.

She's probably like, yeah.

Yes.

Yes.

This is the one.

That is the

goal.

That was the objective.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Okay.

I'm Will.

Kimber winced at my words, and I immediately regretted them.

No.

Him I want dead.

And throw all that and throw all of what away.

I've been playing this for an entire decade.

Yeah, exactly what you said.

Yeah.

Well, you've still done better than me.

I'm a...

I have...

My life's a mess.

Were you really in prison?

Yeah.

She didn't say anything.

Felony possession.

I volunteered.

And you're still.

I knew what she was asking.

Yes.

So, what's your plan?

Well.

First we're going to rent a room just outside of town.

Remember that one motel off exit 113?

Prince Ring Inn or or something?

Outside of town.

I like it.

And then I'm going to meet my contact sometime tomorrow.

Right.

And then we just

go from there.

Go from there?

Yep.

Kimber nodded, but wouldn't look at me.

Please don't tell me this is your plan.

Our contact will give us more direction.

Your contact?

Yeah.

Do I know this guy?

I didn't say it was a guy and it doesn't matter.

Why wouldn't it matter?

Because this person has told me stuff that can only mean that they are on our side.

Just give me a second, dude.

I'm fucking...

I'm a fucking...

On our side.

I'm a fucking...

I'm seriously so dumb, it's unbelievable.

Because this person has told us stuff.

Because this person has told me stuff that can only mean they are on our side.

Hold on, hold on, second.

Hold on a second, second.

You're doing really good.

Look, we're in chapter three.

That's quick.

That's a lot of challenge.

I'm so fucking dyslexic.

It's unbelievable, man.

Are you diagnosed dyslexic?

Hell no.

Self-diagnosed.

How else could it be?

I mean, I'm like, why can't I say this?

Because this person has told me stuff that only...

Okay, well, now it's a bit.

Now we've hyped it up to this one.

Because this person has told me stuff that can only mean they're on our side.

Thank you.

Good job, Butter.

There's only 18 chapters to go.

17.

No, no, no.

We're on three.

Yeah, like what?

Like the sheriff's schedule.

My dad?

Yeah.

He's...

He's still sheriff in Drisking.

I hadn't doubted that.

Okay, what else?

Okay, well, they also told me that they don't know where all the records are.

What records?

You know, all the data for Brosk operation.

The incriminating stuff.

Alright.

And well, uh...

They told me things about Kyle.

Yeah.

I can tell you things about Kyle, too.

Sam.

Kyle's gone.

No, he isn't.

No?

Actually, yeah, because I saw him with my own eyes before I left town.

I talked to him, too.

He's empty, Kimber.

There's no one there.

You're wrong.

He's a total vegetable.

You're wrong.

That's wrong.

My source told me he's just sedated.

Sedated?

Sedated for nine years, Kimber.

Yes.

He said with false conviction.

So your source is just telling you things that you want to hear.

I believe it's true.

Kimber, I saw what they did to Kyle.

They straight up beat the death into him.

The only part of Kyle left on this earth is his mangled body.

Stop, Sam.

I'm sorry.

I just...

I can't go through this again.

Not with Kyle.

I've already mourned him.

You should too.

We need to know for sure.

Hold up, wait.

So this little trip isn't actually about getting the records or killing the asshole who hurt you or helping those people.

This is some sort of ill-conceived rescue mission, isn't it?

Partially.

So that's your rush then.

You got some bad info that Kyle is alive and you're running off half-cocked to get him.

No.

Why don't we just go straight to his house and pick him up then, huh?

I mean, we can be back on the road by dawn.

I don't know where he is.

Delandy's moved him.

Then, what are we doing?

If I'm gonna die for this, Kimber, I deserve to know why.

She jerked the wheel to the side of the highway and slammed on her brakes.

Damn, Kimber, I yelled.

My head cracked against the window, and I was still seeing stars when I realized that Kimber was out of the car.

I rubbed my head until the throbbing stopped and then followed her to the back where she was standing over the open trunk.

Inside were dozens of guns.

Let's go.

What are we doing?

I said I want them to bring.

Surely she wasn't going to go here unarmed, right?

Well, yes, 30, at least 30 guns.

Is that an absurd number of guns?

Yeah.

There's two people.

Yeah, so I think they should do it.

Right?

Unless she's doing it because she thinks that the contact she has will get more people involved.

And there's more people involved to do stuff.

Yeah.

I'm going to get it with the better.

I'm just saying, like, like when I was on the way to the Stalker film, right?

They were like, bring whatever you got and we're going to use it in the movie.

I was driving with, I kid you not, like 70 guns, like rifles in the back of a truck.

And I did have the thought.

I'm like, if I get pulled over, this is going to become a problem.

I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do.

It would be a problem.

Yeah.

I would even say for my film, I'd be like, that's excessive, is what I would say.

Yeah.

Well, did you use all 70?

About, yeah, because all the extras had it and stuff like that running around and stuff like that.

Yeah.

Or at least set dressing and in armory scenes and stuff like that.

Yeah, inside were dozens of guns, at least 30 of them.

There were rifles, handguns, a shotgun, and boxes upon boxes of ammo.

Are you planning to storm the Alamo?

Does this look like Kyle is all I'm after?

I'm actually a little scared of you right now.

I want all of this to end.

I want Kyle back, yes.

And it's true that why I showed up so suddenly, but I want more than that, Sam.

I want him dead.

I understood her hatred for Clary, but if we were going to murder people, I wanted Jimmy Prescott dead as well.

And when the time came, if I was certain, he was culpable.

My father, too.

Yes, kill your dad, dude.

Your dad was the one who sold your daughter to them.

Your sister.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sold his sister.

Sister's daughter, the dad's daughter, and Sam's sister.

And I fucking hate the excuse of like, well, if I didn't do that, they were going to kill us.

I'd be like, then just let him kill us.

Then let him kill us.

Yeah.

Like, am I wrong?

It goes back to the Tommy Taffy thing.

Like, just die.

Just

I know, but here's the fucking difference between that.

And I know people say that because they're like, what was the dad supposed to do?

Because I know Tommy Taffy is basically fucking Superman and you can't kill him or whatever.

Well, if you don't have a crypto, hold on, hold on.

They burned him and he went away, so that proves he can die.

I'm still fully like, me and you, we're getting together.

Everyone we know, we're building a fort.

And it's like, all right, two weeks, guns up.

Facing to the east.

He always comes from the east.

In this case, there's just, I don't know.

I, I,

Something that horrible.

I just, there's no way.

Is that Tommy Taffy?

Is that why he's here?

This?

That's Carly Beth from Haunted Mask.

Goosebumps.

Interesting.

That kind of looks like Tommy Taffy a little bit.

Yeah, the Carly Beth bus does look like Tommy Taffy's face.

But just put a little shirt there that just says hi.

Hi, yeah.

Yeah.

Which is getting a movie, by the way, which is wild.

But anyway,

yeah, his dad has to die.

Look, this is what I wanted.

Kimber being like, I'm bringing guns.

We're going to shoot people i'm not doing any of this like we got we're gonna expose the truth no i want people shot in the head this is cathartic yes no blood will be drawn there there is no more like that will the cops the good guys will get it

no just you know what we can rely on let's let's get it over with how did you get all these kimber shrugged it's taking me a few years Lots of traveling around the southwest to gun shows and stuff.

Okay, well, close the trunk before somebody driving by sees your arsenal.

This is Illinois, for God's sakes.

She slammed it shut.

We got back into the car where I sat rubbing my head and lamenting at the bump that was already forming there.

When I realized Kimber hadn't started the car, I looked up to find her gripping the steering wheel tightly, staring straight out the windshield.

She was fighting back tears.

Kimber, I'm sorry.

She blinked a few times to clear her eyes.

I'm being a total asshole.

I don't know what's wrong with me.

But I did know.

My mind was cloudy from years of drug use.

I had no filter, and I had problems controlling my emotions, which swung back and forth like the pendulum on a clock, changed just as often.

No.

She breathed the last word.

She dropped her hands from the steering wheel.

Asked?

You're right.

I manipulated you.

You don't even know me anymore.

You shouldn't be here.

I leaned over the center console and hugged her.

Kimber recoiled at my touch, like I delivered her an electric shock.

Shit, I'm sorry.

No, it's okay.

I just.

I just don't like to be touched.

This was new, Kimber.

I pulled out my pack of Marlboro's and lit a cigarette without asking if it was okay.

Kimber, I'm a piece of shit.

I've always been a piece of shit.

I probably should be here, honestly.

You've given the opportunity to do

something with my life, but I'm scared and it's making me a dick.

Kimber leaned back and wiped her eyes.

You really don't have that much to worry about, Sam.

You're still the son of the sheriff and he won't hurt you.

I considered this too, and it made my skin crawl.

Son of the sheriff.

If what I was...

If what I suspected was true, then that would make me heir to Baraska.

His stomach lurched in revulsion.

Maybe.

Let's just...

Get to the hotel and we'll decide what to do.

We probably want to make as little noise as possible while we figure out what Clary Clary and Prescott are.

We do not want anybody to know we're back in town.

Kimber nodded.

And the sheriff?

And

the sheriff.

I didn't want to think about it.

I'd buried the assumptions about my father's guilt years ago.

Dear enough black tar heroin to kill a horse.

I guess it was time to remember.

So

end of chapter three.

So

at the end of part four, he goes home to his dad and he's like, Dad, and his dad's like, son.

And like, it's, he's like, the dad says something like, I know about your sister or whatever.

Dad,

son.

Son.

Basically, like, yeah, he's like, dad, this has happened.

He's like, yeah, I know.

I sold your sister.

He admitted it, basically.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know if he ever said, I mean, like, we, you know, we reasoned he sold his sister, but maybe there's some part in Sam's head that wants to be like, maybe he

could be something, but if you knew,

if you knew about it and it's been this long,

I don't, there isn't.

i don't know how his dad's 100 culpable but there is a little piece he's trying to hold on to the biggest thing so far that i feel like it's setting up that is making my stomach fucking turn is i have a feeling that sam is gonna have a hard time pulling through and fucking over his dad i have a little bit and i think that's going to start a domino reaction that's going to fuck but we have it we have a good there's an upside here what if kimber's right about kyle

That he's just trying to get him to.

I mean,

I think that

I believe that he could be sedated and that they are keeping him sedated because they don't want him to tell anybody.

And he's just perpetually a vegetable.

But I do think that it would be a bit of a disservice to you how fucked up he got at the end to just have him be okay, you know?

Like,

not that I wanted him to be a vegetable, but I just mean like he got

paved in.

Yeah.

Yeah, he got stomped, I think.

He has to have some prescott, right?

Like, Jimmy Prescott, like, because he was the mayor or whatever, he's the one who like pounded his head into the floor.

That or Clary or you know, one of those two.

Clary was the one that was abusing Kimber when they got there.

Yeah, which is why she wants him dead, and he wants Jimmy dead.

Jimmy was the one who gave the whole speech.

Like, we call this the stables.

That was just almost, I wouldn't even be surprised if this turned into like just like, we're gonna kill the whole fucking town.

I, you know,

how happy I would be.

I would be, I would be delighted.

If it's just like that would titillate me.

I would, that'd be great.

I'd be titillated.

Kyle's like your grandpa in the mobility scooter.

They got a rifle set up.

Hear that?

Duct tape a gun to his hand.

Yeah.

He's like fumbling over the bolt to re-rack it.

I think that'd be great.

He drives the wheelchair straight into a gas station.

1778.

Hey.

Does the J-Bels pick your attention?

Get up to the chair.

I'm like, hey, what's up, actually?

Yeah,

it's vibrated in the back hub, so it sounds like it's like, you know, like when this car is like,

yeah, it's like,

we need a distraction.

Like,

in the mobility scooter.

I'm like, hey, what's up, Ella?

And I don't know how unreasonable it is, which it might be unreasonable, but I really feel like everyone in the town almost deserves to die.

Yeah.

I mean, like, to an extent.

Obviously, I'm sure there's innocent bystanders.

But like the, when Sam...

What you said at first?

When Sam worked at the coffee shop, and it's like, yeah, the woman who's like, oh, I want to have a kid.

And you feel bad for her.

And it turns out, oh, no, you're like, you know about this whole thing.

Yeah, she's like, I can't have a kid.

I guess

to adopt remembering it but no no no you're right because she's like i really wanted a natural kid i guess we have to adopt one of the human trafficked babies that were bred by someone

yeah even just kill everyone and the only people who have a guilty conscience were like kimber's mom who threw herself off the hospital building yeah so uh yeah kill everyone i i fully think if look If that story goes here, this will be probably the most cathartic creepcast episode we've ever had.

After the meme of what Baroska is, to just kill it with fire, that'd be great, but we'll see.

We'll see.

Chapter four.

Chapter four.

We spent the rest of the drive avoiding the topic of drisking.

We talked about people we knew, movies we'd seen.

Hell, we even made a few jokes that didn't fall totally flat.

It reminded me of those days when we would sit in my car in the drisking high parking lot, listening to music and getting stoned.

Makes me miss Kyle.

And weed.

I'd given it up for the harder stuff years ago.

Or to put it more eloquently, if pot was a gateway drug i'd left it at the gate closer so just to reiterate too they're probably like mid 20s said it had been nine years since they had last seen each other and all those events happen like senior year of high school ish so they're probably 25 26 25 to 30 yeah let's just say yeah in that age ring

closer we got to drisking the quieter the car became and by the time we hit the missouri border we were in complete silence it had started to snow and kimber was completely focused on the drive stared out the window until the dread of familiar things passing by made me look away.

We were almost there.

Kimber pulled into the Prince Ridge within the hour and got out to check us in.

I stayed in the car eyeing the other vehicles in the parking lot.

Nothing I recognized, but seeing as how I had almost a decade since I'd been home, I wasn't sure that mattered.

The first exit for Drisking, and there were only the two, was only four miles down the highway.

If Kimber considered this safe, there was no reason to worry, right?

She'd always been the smart one.

I jumped as Kimber jerked the car door open and got in.

She noticed.

You know I'm traveling with you, right?

I rolled my eyes.

Pardon me for being a little on edge.

209,

she said, pointing up at the second floor.

I'll drive around.

You look for it.

The room was at the front of the property facing the highway.

I brought our bags upstairs and then stood shivering outside in the cold while I smoked a cigarette.

When I was finished, I flicked the cigarette over the railing and watched it fall into the bed of a maroon Dodge Ram.

Oops.

I followed Kimber inside and was relieved to see that there were two beds and three locks on the door.

So far, not a complete disaster.

Since it was around six, Kimber wanted to grab some dinner.

Fratoli's?

Christine's?

They're both only a few miles away.

Uh, no.

Prescott R.

Tennyson's sandwiches then?

She winked at me.

Remember when you worked there with that fucking monster?

I would be like, don't.

Also, I forgot.

It was not a coffee shop.

I can't think it was a coffee shop.

It was the sandwich place.

It was the sandwich place because that was our business.

And Jimmy Brescott, fucking his wife, worked there.

No, it was.

Or he owned it.

He owned it.

She was working there.

Yeah.

And then her husband was the guy who came in and like had that.

You remember when he was info dumping to Sam?

Fucking traumatized, it seems like.

Well, he was standing there and he was like, My wife, she wants, she blames me for not being able to get pregnant.

And we had that whole bit where it's like, yeah, I'm in high school.

I smoked.

I'm 16.

That's when I had my famous line, as I always do with these episodes, where I said, mayonnaise is the sauce of the aristocrat.

It's during that bit.

Do you not remember any of these bits or moments we had together?

I remember all of it.

Okay.

What?

Trying to think of one about Baraska.

No, I said it again, ignoring her joke.

Okay, whatever.

No, I said again, ignoring her joke.

I mean, we shouldn't leave.

We should order delivery or something.

Kimber's casual smile fell off her face.

You're worried for no reason.

And you're homesick.

Kibber's eyes slid to the floor and she sat down at the end of the bed.

Probably.

I just...

I think we need to lay low as much as possible right now.

No, you're right.

Kibber said and tucked her feet up underneath her.

She turned to watch the snow fall through the window.

I rubbed my temples as an ache began to ebb into them like a tide around my eyeballs.

I needed a fix soon.

It doesn't snow in Riverside, where I live.

I miss the snow.

Move to Chicago, I said in between deep, measured breaths.

It snows five months out of the year.

Kimber was silent, and I prayed she was studying the menu.

The sooner she got on the phone for delivery, the sooner I could excuse myself to the bathroom and take the edge off.

I miss Kyle.

I looked up to see Kimber still watching the snow.

Her head leaning against the wall.

Me too, he said after a minute.

Her eyes snapped to mine mine as if she'd forgotten I was there.

You look hungry.

Order pizza from Domino's.

I remember what you like on it.

She said, before glancing at a menu next to her on the nightstand, she picked up the phone and began dialing the number.

I got up to use the bathroom and took my entire duffel bag with me.

Kimber noticed she didn't say anything.

Then some time passes.

I do completely agree.

They do not need to go to a restaurant.

My gosh.

Hello, look, it's Jimmy Prescott.

Yeah,

exactly.

I remember you.

Yeah, great idea.

I love your red hair.

There's nothing good that comes from that.

Kyle's in the back look like Hector Salamanca.

He's doing the

ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

My boy's dinging.

Oh, I miss him so much.

Okay.

I forced a slice of pizza down.

I forced a slice of pizza down for Kimber's sake, though I wasn't hungry in the least.

So, tomorrow, I said, taking the bed nearest the door, what time are we meeting this person?

Um, well, it's just going to be me this time.

Yeah, Kimber, there's no way I'm letting you meet with some random driskine by yourself.

I have to go alone or they won't talk to me.

Who is this guy, Kimber?

I can't tell you yet.

Is it a woman or a man?

I asked.

She shook her head at me.

Just what is he giving you tomorrow?

Files on Baraska?

No.

Then what?

I don't actually know.

Kimber, this is crazy.

I have...

I can't let you go into town alone.

Sam.

Stop being in such a hurry to die, snapped at her.

Kimber's face paled paled and she moved further away from me on her bed.

We'll talk about it in the morning, she whispered and then turned off the lamp.

Fine.

I laid in the dark for a while, and when I was sure she was asleep, I went back into the bathroom for another hit.

By the time I woke up the next morning, Kimber was gone.

End of chapter 4.

Who could possibly be a character that maybe we aren't thinking about that could...

What I suspect is it's someone who Kyle would not trust.

Do you think it's the fucking sheriff?

I don't think it's the sheriff.

You don't think so?

I don't think it's the sheriff.

Because I'm wondering if she isn't telling him because she's like, I'm going to meet up with him, blah, blah, blah.

And then

she doesn't want him to get out.

I feel like that's a bit

much.

I mean, I'm just.

I feel like he was too committed.

Like, he gave up his daughter.

And then he's going to what?

Like, oh, sorry, change of heart.

You know?

I'm trying to think.

I can't think of who it would be at the moment.

It's still a bit...

I have a feeling as soon as we hear about it, we're going to, oh, shit.

I don't think it'd be Jimmy Prescott.

He was too evil evil either.

Yeah.

Well, he just fucking owns the town.

All that.

Yeah, yeah.

He could just be like, hey, let's not.

I'm just trying to

put this.

The person who was at the Prescott sandwiches was the husband of that.

I thought, from what I remember, he worked in the mines, or like worked, he did some blue-collar job.

But what I'm getting at, though, is I could have sworn that he was like kind of fucking bummed on the adoption.

No, no, he was like, I'm wanting to adopt, but she's opposed.

Oh, so and then she comes out crying and says, let's do it.

And he's like, yay, and they hug.

Okay, so she was the one who was kind of more like, I don't know if I want to get my baby for a while.

Well, she can't get pregnant.

And then the husband's like, let's just adopt one of the trash.

There's babies up in the cage.

They're printing these things out up there.

It's like 3D printers up there.

And then, oh, I forgot that.

You remember the shiny gentleman?

Yeah.

That entire thing?

How crazy that was.

They just run people through a meat grinder when they're done with them.

i forgot that they just like wait and they just throw them in there and yeah they would hear that and they would say that's the skinned man

we forgot to mention that in the deal well for first-time viewers of good luck with that one

uh i don't know let's just keep reading yeah yeah chapter five chapter five i called kimber 34 times in five minutes It was 10 in the morning and I hadn't heard her leave.

Hadn't even woken up when she did.

I cursed her in my dope in the same breath.

if she didn't answer soon i would be forced to walk the three and a half miles to downtown drisking and start asking around for her a course of action that would get me noticed really quick i paced the patio for half an hour and smoked cigarette after cigarette thankfully i packed an entire cardon

just as i was pulling on my boots to leave my phone rang i was relieved to see kimber's number pop up a new addition to my phone book that would have unfurled a comforting warp to my stomach if i weren't so irate i answered What the hell, Kimber?

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, Sam.

I had to.

He wasn't going to meet me otherwise.

Where are you?

I'm in the car.

I'm almost back.

They haven't plowed yet in town.

Really?

In bucolic, perfect little drisking.

They haven't plowed the roads by 10 on a Friday morning.

I thought it was weird, too.

There's more.

I'll tell you when I get there.

Don't get off the phone with me until you pull into the parking lot.

Okay.

I opened the door and went to wait out in the cold for Kimber's car.

My heart didn't slow to a normal rate until I finally saw it driving into the parking lot.

She pulled into the space below our door and ran up the stairs.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I had to.

Don't be mad.

Are you kidding me with this, Kimber?

I'm already on edge.

I can barely breathe.

Okay, okay, just sit down.

She pushed me into the room, set me down on the edge of the bed, pulling off her gloves.

Then she crouched in front of me, took me by the shoulders, looking me in the eye.

The sheriff and most of his deputies are engaged today, which I was told means that they are up at Barasca.

Okay, and

and that means that A, they don't know we're here, and B, we can go into town and start discreetly looking around.

Oh, as opposed to driving up to Barasca and killing them now?

Ember stood up.

I want them dead, Sam.

More than anything.

But you know what else I want?

I want their crimes to be known by the whole world.

They don't get to die with their good names.

They don't get to be martyrs.

You want the records.

Yes.

What do you plan to do with them if you get them?

Upload them onto the internet or something.

Send them to the FBI.

The FBI doesn't care.

We need the records, Sam.

I want everyone to know what happened to us.

Kimber's voice had risen an octave, and she seemed on the verge of an anxiety attack.

Okay, okay.

Maybe Seth can help.

Your roommate?

How?

He does some pretty illegal stuff online.

Maybe he can break into a mainframe or whatever and download the files.

So he's a hacker?

He yells at me when I call him that.

Is he any good?

He's well known in certain circles.

Well, we need those files.

I just need to find out where they keep them.

Are we sure they even really keep records on Baraska?

It seems like a huge liability.

That is exactly what I was thinking.

Yeah, why would you ride that?

Fucking person's just like, okay, and five little girls kept shooting to the team.

We had this many people in the shiny gentleman, and we had this many girls poop bop beep

cross my T's and dot my I's, and that's the way we do it here in Drisking.

It'd be funny if there's like a code for it, and it's like, oh, today we had 500 children

reconciled.

Yeah, the shiny gentleman had 300 guests for dinner.

We bagged bread and we sent flowers to

we raped women today.

This lots of women and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of women.

This signed the sheriff of town.

Hey, could you be a sweetheart and faxist to us tomorrow?

I want this fax to myself.

Faxis to me tomorrow morning.

Just so I can record and document it.

In our computers, it's the same paper they just keep restamping.

Just wanted to remind myself that I did that yesterday.

Okay, good.

I'm reminded.

I mean, from a technical, I guess it's like bloodline of keeping track of who's what.

Well, they run the whole adoption agency out of it.

So

people go to the town, they go to the sheriff, and they like apply for a kid.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then, yeah.

And they have to keep record at least somewhat, all the kids are named based on the first letter of their names, who their dad is.

All the E's were Prescotts, all the K's were,

I can't remember who the K's were.

Claire or something.

There was some mention at the end where

his dad started doing it, or someone put that together, I think, because whatever his dad, Sam's dad's name was, oh, Walker, where his last name's Walker.

There was a kid born in town whose name started with a W.

So it's implying that now Sam's dad.

Well, the dad's in on it.

That's what I'm saying, Mike.

There's no redemption for this.

No, no, no.

You got to kill that guy.

Yeah.

You got to kill all these guys.

An operation this size has to have records.

And my source told me they exist.

Oh, great.

Your source.

Okay, so you want to go into town and what?

Ask around about them?

Kimber narrowed her eyes at me.

That's idiotic.

I was thinking more maybe we find out where the Clary house is and like get the information out of Grace Clary.

Raised my eyebrows at her.

You want to torture an old lady?

Kimber exploded.

An old lady that helped to rape, torture, and murder hundreds of women over 50 years.

Fuck yeah, I want to torture that old lady.

All right, all right.

Look, I may know someone who might be...

It'd be so satisfying to just like walk up to that old bitch and be like, she'd say, hello, and you just like

dust her out.

What if she ate the what if she fucking just ate it in the chin like a champ, though, and just looked at you like, oh,

you want to play?

Oh, you want a ball, you're like,

or you like, you like, have a club, you're like,

she's like,

she's like, no,

not here, motherfucker.

Welcome to the jungle, kiddos.

Yeah, you're gonna die today.

Oh,

she just picks me up and like rips me in half.

Oh my god, smell like all thread.

Welcome to the jackup.

We have funny games.

We got everything you want.

Yeah, she just puts on a fucking top hat

and some and Ray-Bans or whatever and gets on a

X-Londros.

Slash.

Slash, slash, yeah.

Anyways, yeah.

But anyways, no, I would love to beat the shit out of the old woman.

She was the one who

earlier, remember they went to the nursing home and they asked, and she was like, oh, the mines used to be the money for the town and stuff.

So she's known.

She was there since the inception of it.

She is a demonic old woman.

Yeah, yeah.

It's good for business.

How

is it ethical to torture someone who has dementia no longer remembers the pressure?

Absolutely.

I think it's free game.

Well, they don't remember it.

It's true, I suppose.

Why does my face hurt?

So, in that case, would you then say that

you are in favor of execution methods or like capital punishment for the mentally unwell?

I'm saying for this old woman, I would love if Kimber just had a fucking spear like Leonidas at the end of 300 when he throws it up at Xerxes and he just fucking like impaled her to a wall.

She's like, ah, ah.

So you do support the execution of mentally unwell people in, you know, society?

I think we got our answer to that.

I think we're, okay.

There we go.

Cool.

All right, so someone write that down.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Look, I may know someone who might be sympathetic.

And I'm reasonably sure that unlike your contact, she's innocent of any knowledge of Baraska.

In fact, she's the one who helped me and Kyle find you.

At the very least, she'll know where the Claries live now.

Drive into town took twice as long as it should have due to the snow.

Why haven't they plowed these roads?

I asked idly.

It's not just the roads, it's everything.

A lot of stores have closed in town.

Buildings are in despair.

Everything looks like shit.

They don't even have Christmas lights up.

It's it's bizarre.

That's weird.

Are we even sure that Barosca is still running?

Town looks pretty destitute.

I am.

Kimber said and pointed to a bulletin board on the corner, second in Osborne, which had six different and seemingly recent missing persons posters.

What is going on?

Murmured as we turned onto Main and into the downtown marketplace.

Everything in town was as Kimber had described, run down and ostensibly poor.

What happened to this place?

I don't know.

But lucky for us, the antique shop is still in business.

Kimber said, pointing across the road.

As he parked, I zipped my park up to my neck and lowered my hat down to my eyes.

Kimber did the same.

The most important thing right now was not being recognized.

Mr.

Dranger was still behind the antiquities counter after all these years, but gone was his air of haughtiness and pretentious stare.

He regarded us coolly, but professionally, until it was clear we were only traveling through the shop to get to Catherine's Scanlon office at the back.

He mumbled something under his breath and thought I didn't catch it.

I was reasonably sure there had been no sign of recognition in his face nor his words.

This is the lady who, remember, was the old history teacher, or like the lady that ran the library, who they went and she gave him, like, well, Baraska is a word for an abandoned mine.

Like, so she did seem dumb to it, the original story, if that makes sense.

When we arrived at the office door of the historic preservations, also, I just gotta say, it is so satisfying to hear this town's poor.

Well, here's the thing: like, they can't even afford a road plow.

Good.

I'm guessing, I'm wondering if they're just, if there just hasn't been enough chill, like, I'm wondering why the snows aren't plowed, and they're like, oh, yeah, things are closed down.

They obviously don't have enough manpower to maybe clear the roads.

Like, I wonder what's going on.

There's just, we haven't been, we haven't gotten a reveal yet.

What's going on?

It'd be really funny.

If it's like,

like the press Scott's, everyone doing the human trafficking is like, yeah, all our job opportunities went overseas.

Like, you know, this, you know, these tariff restrictions and stuff really running this country dry.

American production is losing out to like foreign jobs.

And he's talking about like human trafficking.

Really losing out to foreign investors.

Feet.

Someone's really got to put this country back on top.

We arrived at the office door of the Historic Preservation Society of Drisken.

I knocked softly and listened for Catherine's voice.

Instead, the door was janked violently opened by a man I'd I'd never seen before.

May I help you?

He asked as he eyed us up and down.

Uh, yeah, uh, yes, you can.

All right, then.

Come on in.

I'm Dodd Wheeler, and you are?

Kibber and I exchanged a careful look and entered the room cautiously.

Actually, we're looking for Catherine Scanlon, I said.

I didn't like the way he was staring at Kimber.

Oh, Miss Scanlon, he said, not taking his eyes from her.

You haven't heard then?

My stomach retched.

We haven't.

Kibber said, pulling her jacket around her more tightly.

Sad business, truly.

Disappeared nine years ago now, ten.

Most people assume she didn't take Wyatt's death well and just walked in the woods to

Dunwailer suddenly looked up and seemed to remember his audience.

I'm sorry.

Were you all friends?

Okay, hold on.

Pause.

She was an old lady, right?

Uh, relatively.

So she wasn't kidnapped as a part of Baraska, we assume.

No, I think that they found out that she was

told them about

fucking snuffed out.

Oh, yeah, she got snuffed out.

Who was Wyatt?

I thought that was her husband, no?

Maybe.

I honestly can't remember who was.

I'll put in a little thing here.

There'll be a little thing explaining why we're stupid.

Yeah.

I ignored his question and asked one of my own.

Did she ever surface again?

Maybe in another state?

No, I'm afraid she's dead.

And Wheeler shook his head.

She was such a young thing, too.

Oh, oh no, maybe then

she was young.

Maybe she is at Rosca.

Was she young, though?

I thought she was like an older woman, like a sweet older one.

She was like a library head or something.

Well, if that's the fucking case, then I wonder what happened.

Yeah, that's

rough.

At what point is your

level of production inequivalent to your level of outsourcing?

Because if they keep kidnapping people, but there's no one in the town.

Well, that's what I'm wondering: is that literally a reason why it's not a problem?

There's 10 women adopting children in town, and there's 35 in the mines.

Well, yeah, and also there's actually no healthy children or whatever.

It's like all weird inbred stuff, and it's like five men or whatever in town circulating doing this thing.

To where now the town has no viable resources, there's no one to actually, there's no families actually left to run anything.

So, it's like basically just a failing.

That's human trafficking, yes.

Yeah, that's the only traffic.

Yes, literally,

and all our jobs are going overseas.

She was such a young thing, too.

And her remains, nothing was ever found, I'm afraid.

I was starting to feel ill.

Well, then, we'd better do you happen to know where Clary lives, Kimber interrupted.

Grace and Killian, and of course, old friends of mine.

Damn,

but you must have heard.

Thank you for your time.

We really have to go.

Come on, Allison.

I yanked Kimber out of the room and shut the door behind us.

Before I could get a harsh word out, I had fallen against the wall, trying to quell the building panic and nausea.

He knew.

I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked.

I thought maybe...

I held up a finger as I leaned against the wall with my head between my knees, trying to compose myself.

Kimber rubbed my back as I swallowed down the bile and waited for the dizziness to pass.

Finally, I stood up.

We have to go.

I didn't even look at Dranger as we made our way out of the shop, but I could feel him watching us.

My mind briefly wandered into the past, and I wondered where his daughter was now.

I never liked Phoebe, but I hoped she'd escape this town.

Pray Giad.

The streets were busier than they had been several minutes before when we'd entered the antiquity shop.

There were several dozen people drudging through the snow down Maine.

I wasn't sure where they were headed since half the stores were closed and the city hadn't bothered to put up their tree this year.

Kimber walked around to the driver's side door of her car.

I stared over her head at the people walking by across the street.

I hoped my height, beard and skeleton-like frame disguised me well enough because people were starting to look back.

I almost hope one of them was Clary Prescott or the sheriff.

We had a trunk full of guns, and I wanted this all over with.

I needed to go back to the motel and bury myself in smack.

This time, I didn't even want to wake up again.

And then suddenly, just as Kimber sat down in the driver's seat, I did recognize someone.

It was Mira Grady.

She was holding a little boy's hand.

And as I stared, I realized who that little boy was.

And then I saw nothing but red.

Mira Grady was the woman who ran the

sandwich shop.

Yep.

So that is one of the boys.

That's the boy.

She was like, probably a nine-year-old boy.

Yes.

Or eight.

Yeah, yeah.

A young boy.

A young boy.

Well, chapter six.

Chapter six.

My body was moving, but I wasn't in control of it.

I was suddenly walking across the street with the most intense rage I had ever felt.

Okay, he does not need to do this.

I had ever felt.

How dare she?

How dare she?

I was in front of Mira before I could get back in control.

What the hell do you think you're doing?

She jumped and her eyes snapped up to my face in fear.

Excuse me?

She pushed the kid behind her.

Let go of my nephew.

What?

Who are you?

This is my son.

She yelled.

People were stopping to watch.

That is Whitney Walker's son, and you know it, you cold-blooded, callous bitch.

Mirror's face.

You know what?

Kind of satisfying.

Mirror's face had gone white.

Sam?

Give me my nephew, Mira.

Boyce started quietly crying and whispering.

Mommy.

In distress.

What are you doing?

Stop it.

Kimber was pulling at my arm, trying to turn me back towards the car, but I wasn't moving.

I was seething with a fury I had suppressed for nine years.

Owen!

Mira started screaming.

Owen, please!

Grady came sprinting out of the doorway of the stop next door.

He took one look at the situation, pushed his wife and the boy behind him, and raised his fist to hit me, but there was fear in his eyes.

Let's go sam i heard kimber yell give me my nephew i screamed at owen and spitting red rage and suddenly i felt a slap across my face the strike served its purpose reality began to bleed back into the world and i realized exactly where i was and what i was doing kimber was standing in front of me in between owen and i her hood had fallen down in the commotion and her hair was spilling out of her beanie and down her back in a wild bright waterfall of crimson She looked scared.

We were exposed.

Owen Grady lowered his fist, seemed to realize who I was.

He began screaming at the top of his lungs.

Get the cops!

Get the sheriff!

Get him now!

I was already moving, climbing into the driver's seat of Kimber's car, leaving her no choice but to get in on the other side.

She handed me the keys, and I turned the car on and hit the gas, giving no regard to the slippery roads.

Kimber screamed as I fished hell, trying to get off main, and then at every corner after, desperate to escape the scene I'd caused.

The car slid into a snow drift just outside of town.

I rocked the car in and out of drive and reverse until the tires finally found purchase on the road, and then we were speeding out of town again.

There were no other options.

I'd blown it.

I knew exactly where I needed to go now.

Way to go, Sam.

You like that he did that?

I mean, it was cathartic.

Oh, you're saying way to go, sarcastic.

Well, yeah, I mean, I got you.

Because now Kimber's hair fly.

I mean, like, they're just...

Red.

You blew yourself.

So all of the cover is blown.

Yeah, and even he's just like, oh, get the sheriff.

His son's back.

I know exactly who that is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's not many people that could be.

Which, once again, I understand where he's coming from, but you should have kept this goal.

If you would have kept your goal for like a week, you could have killed that one.

Could have got everyone here killed.

Yeah, you could have just walked in, beat her to death with a fucking bat, beat him to death with a bat.

I mean, like, hey, we're hanging out if you're a kid.

Would that not be

perfectly reasonable, audience?

Would that not be totally fine?

You see a woman who's like, oh, I wish I could have a kid.

Well, I guess I'll partake in the human trafficking operation.

Like, yeah, you get a push her through a wood chipper, right?

Sledgehammer to the face.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I agree.

I mean, not agreeing a lot, but we, I like this.

I like this finally.

Finally, we're on the same page.

We're on the same page of hyper violence against people.

Stop!

Stop and get out of the car, Sam.

You're high.

You'll kill us both.

Don't do the work for them.

That was Whitney's son.

That was my nephew.

Why would you think that, Sam?

Because I know I put together years ago.

You want me to trust you and your mysterious source.

Well, trust me when I say that kid was my nephew.

Okay, just slow down, please.

Where are you taking us?

Where we should have gone in the first place.

No.

Kimber was shaking her head wildly.

Sam, no, we can't go there.

Not yet.

Yeah, well, I have to go.

They know we're here now.

The sheriff will be hunting us by nightfall.

It's now or never.

But the car will never make it up that road.

Oh, I'm willing to bet that road's plowed.

Going all the way up to.

Yes.

So they're going to the fucking mountain.

He's like, we've got guns.

I'm going to go there.

I'm going to start shooting until I'm dead.

That is his game plan.

I was right.

Less than two miles away, we found that road.

It was one I had used only once, and by all logic, I should only barely remember it.

But I had seen that dirt road in my nightmares for years.

It was the road I had sped down trying to save my best friend.

I failed then.

I wouldn't now.

We drove up the side of the mountain in Kimber's Mazda at an unmanageable speed.

I needed to get to Barasca before the adrenaline wore off.

I needed to kill them all.

Clary, Prescott, my father, all the deputies, the local cops, everyone involved, and I needed to die doing it.

I wanted to.

Then where did that leave Kimber?

The higher we got up the mountain, the clearer the air and the clearer my mind.

The uncontrollable madness that had puppeted my every action for the last 30 minutes was draining away.

I chanced to glance over at Kimber.

Her face was as pale as a moonbee, but her jaw was set in resolve.

She was with me 100%, even though we were on a suicide mission.

My heart lurched.

My death was inevitable, even even acceptable.

But Kimber had already suffered so much.

I couldn't bring her back to Baraska, could I?

So the car to a stop when I realized that I couldn't remember why we were heading up to Baraska in the first place.

They knew we were here, right?

No, did they?

What had I done?

I couldn't remember what had happened in town, but I didn't want to admit it.

Will you drive us back to the hotel?

I asked as my heart slowed and the strength began to drain from my body.

No, Kimber said softly, staring into the trees next to us.

She turned to look at me.

We're already here.

The road kept winding up the mountain, but subconsciously or not, I had stopped right at the proverbial gates of the North Central Mine, known as Hell on Earth to many and Barasca to the rest.

I felt paralyzed, unable to move or speak or even think.

I listened intently for the sounds that had scored my nightmares, but all was as silent as death.

They would know we were here.

They would have heard us coming.

Now or never.

Stay in the car, Kimber.

I told her, and she gave me a look I couldn't read as I opened the door.

I walked to the back of the car, popped the trunk, pulled out a nine-millimeter Beretta I had seen when she showed me the guns on the highway.

Checking to make sure the clip was loaded, I chambered around, knocked gently on Kimber's window, and she rolled it down.

Her eyes glued to the gun in my hand.

Stay here.

And if you hear any gunfire, bolt.

I mean, kind of bolt to be like, one magazine, 30 cops.

I'll make it work.

I'm an action star.

Yeah, I'm an action star.

I'll line them up.

I'm Bruce Willis and Dying.

Yeah.

She gave me an appraising look.

I don't think you're in any space to do this right now.

I knelt down in the snow so that I was eye-level with her.

I agree with you, but this is the only chance we have, right?

Wasn't a rhetorical question, but she didn't know that.

Because of your fucking antis in town.

Remember said icily.

She opened the car door.

I'll go with you.

No.

I hissed into the cold mountain air.

But she was already walking to the back of the car and opening the trunk.

I knew any confrontation with her at this point would be loud, so I had to weigh my options carefully.

Kimber pulled out the pump-action shotgun.

Do you even know how to use that?

I asked.

Kimber acted the shotgun with one hand as she walks past me towards mine.

Don't mock me, Sam.

You'd be very surprised what I know about guns.

Her point taken, I ran to catch up.

You know, if we do this now, we'll never get the records.

They'll be dead, we'll be dead.

But Brosca will just continue.

Maybe we should just wait.

It was your idea to come here now.

I'm having second thoughts.

But isn't it your life, Sam?

A series of second thoughts and regrets?

Jesus.

Damn.

Damn, Kimbert.

This is just recon, okay?

Don't get spotted and don't make a sound.

This junky piece of shit.

Fatty.

I mean, at this point, he has blown their channel.

They can't go to the bottom.

I mean, he's fucked.

Yeah.

Immediately, it's like, well, we have precisely two hours before we're dead.

What do we do with those?

Good luck.

Snow this far up the mountain was almost a foot deep.

There would be no hiding that we had been here if we somehow got out alive.

We made our way into the camps using the trees as cover.

And as we moved, I noticed that the driveway in Nebraska showed no signs of tire tracks in the new snowfall.

Were they sleeping up here?

Were there sentries on duty?

Even now watching us.

I turned around to find Kimber, but she was now more than 10 yards to my left and further away than I could hope to whisper.

Closer we got to camp, the more I began to feel it.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

I could see the dorms through the trees, still standing exactly as I'd remembered them.

However, the skinned men's sign had lost a support and was buckling precariously in the middle.

Large building that housed the shining gentleman was also still standing, and the door had been left slightly ajar so that I could see the conveyor belt feeding into the machine.

My blood, like everything everything else around me, froze to ice.

It's so weird.

Again, with just like how much we talked about these elements before and building them up to now, like be back.

Yeah.

It's weird.

Is this how normal people feel like watching a Marvel movie?

Is this like what that sensation is supposed to be?

Like, I remember that character.

Oh, that thing?

Yeah, I remember that thing from the other.

Shiny gentleman.

Yeah.

Human trafficking.

Kimber was suddenly beside me.

Her hand clinched around the shotgun, which hung at her side.

It's gone.

She said louder than I would have liked.

She was right.

It's too quiet.

It looks that way.

I croaked and bent over at the waist to quiet sudden dizziness.

She turned to look at me, wide-eyed and panicked.

Tears began to well at the corners of her eyes.

I stood up to give her a hug, but she pushed me away.

It's gone.

It's all gone.

Took a few deep breaths.

Let me look around.

We should check the dorms.

Kimber tried to swallow a sob, and I glanced over at her.

Did I really just suggest she walk back into the dorms after what had happened to her there?

Was I that cruel?

I was a mess.

Gently pushed the shotgun up and closer to her chest.

Stay here.

Stepped out into the clearing in no particular hurry.

If I was going to get shot, I'm sure as hell wasn't going to die cramped and tired.

But the air in camp was still.

No bullets came out to meet me.

I wanted to get in and out of the dorm as fast as possible.

This was a terrible place.

So much suffering, so much pain and death.

There's no enemy to kill, that I wanted to step off the hollowed grounds as quickly as I could and get out of there.

I opened the same door that Kyle and I first gone in.

It was 10 years before.

The stench still lingered, drifting in, still air and mingling with the fear and tension that had yet to dissipate after a decade.

But the beds were gone.

I went quickly from room to room and verify that the building was completely empty.

Kimber saw me emerge from the other door.

He gave her a shake of my head.

I was only a few steps away from the building when I began to feel dizzy again.

My vision narrowed and I started to lose control.

Last thing I heard was Kimber's voice as she screamed my name and then came the familiar, welcoming darkness.

Into chapter 6.

You cannot have a junkie for something this

operation.

I'm wondering how much more it's going to fuck them over with him having those habits.

I mean,

he blew their cover immediately.

I think the beds and stuff being gone, is I bet you as soon as they left, they're like, We're gonna go ahead and get it.

Well, they can't keep it in the same place because what if they tell someone we gotta move it?

Yeah, they're still doing it just somewhere else.

100% so, chapter 7.

Chapter 7.

I could feel I was moving before I even opened my eyes.

It was a gentle swaying cadence of a car on the highway.

Instead of coming awake slowly, like I preferred, I bolted upright in a panic.

Kimber was driving, and she didn't look away from the road.

Are you okay?

No.

I was I was starting to remember what had happened on the mountain.

I'm sorry.

Kimber didn't respond.

Did I walk to the car?

I was sure I knew the answer, but hoped I was wrong.

No.

You were dragged to the car.

It was actually impressive that she could drag a full-grown man through 200 yards of snow.

It's constantly underestimating Kimber.

Look.

I rubbed my face and realized my hands were like ice.

I laid them over the heaters on the dashboard.

I mean, the good news is that Baraska's gone and no one's suffering anymore.

No one?

She yelled.

Me.

Me, Sam.

I'm suffering.

Her voice was scratchy.

It was obvious she had been crying, judging by the current time, probably for hours.

I'm sorry, that's not what I meant.

You don't fucking get it.

If Baraska is gone, then that means my source lied.

He lied.

Not just about Baraska, but about everything.

Yeah, okay, but we knew that was always a possibility.

A possibility, yes.

But I still had hope.

Hope that he was right about everything.

Hope that there was a chance that Kyle would come back.

Look, we need to accept the facts, okay?

Baraska's gone.

Dismantled.

It clearly hasn't been there for years, so either your source doesn't know anything, or he's trying to trick you for some reason.

But either way, Kimber, he's lying to you.

She slammed her hands on the steering wheel and openly sobbed.

I'm sorry, Kay.

I should have realized Barosca was gone.

I mean, with with the town gotten shit and everything, why did he even want us here?

This guy, who is he?

It doesn't matter anymore.

Yes, it does.

It sure matters to me.

Who's your source, Kimber?

She shook her head, but said nothing.

Damn it, Kimber.

Why don't you trust me?

I was fully prepared to die at your side today, but you still don't trust me.

I trust you, Sam.

I do.

I knew you would never intentionally hurt me.

But you have completely given up on everything.

Your life, yourself, and on me.

You're irrational and unpredictable.

If it was just my life at risk, I would tell you everything he told me.

But this is about Kyle, too.

Oh, what else did he tell you, Kimber?

What other promises did he make?

She shrugged and wiped the tears away from her face.

He said he had seen some medical records and that he could get them for me.

Medical information for some of the Barasca-born babies in town and my mom and Kyle.

Kyle.

Always back to Kyle.

He was her friend, Sam.

Yeah, yeah, he was my best friend.

And I watched him get beaten to death and I saw the aftermath.

You're being fooled, Kimber.

Stop torturing yourself.

He's gone.

I didn't want to pick up my motivations for believing it so adamantly, but I saw in the aether of my mind the raw truth of it.

I knew that the real reason I was so sure Kyle was brain dead was because I couldn't bear the thought that I'd been wrong, that I left my best friend alone in this den of monsters.

I couldn't handle any more guilt in this life.

I know that now.

Kimber said, the sobs racking her body.

I know he's gone.

But I didn't stop.

I couldn't stop.

I was a monster now, too, driven by the unseen.

And what would you have done if Kyle was just sedated, Kay?

No, no, I really want to know.

What do you mean?

I'd get him out of here.

And then, when you told him the truth about who he is, about who you are, you read read the same letter I did.

Things can never be the same between you.

I would never tell him any of that.

Kimber spat.

Her eyes were red from crying, and her fair skin was already so pale.

She seemed so delicate, but I knew she wasn't.

I knew she could take more.

I wanted to push her buttons.

I wanted her to hit me, scream at me, push me out of the car into the interstate.

I needed the pain.

I deserved all of it and more.

Then I'd tell him.

Because it would be cruel to lie to him.

No!

It would be cruel to tell him the truth.

He could never know Sam.

Never.

You have to tell him, Kimber.

He's your brother.

No.

Kimber was beginning to shudder.

Stop.

No, please.

If this was really your plan all along, then Kyle's lucky he's dead.

No!

Kimber.

Dude, just fucking man.

I mean, he's fucking

going in a bit.

Kimber was now shaking so badly it looked like she was about to have a seizure.

She was beginning to lose control of the car.

What was I doing?

Why?

I pushed my fingers into my temples.

I wanted to die, but I didn't want her to die.

I had to get her to stop the car.

Pull over.

I said quietly.

I had to get her to calm down.

Fuck you.

Pull over, Kimber.

I reached over to grab the wheel, but Kimber slammed on the brakes and we were suddenly skidding to the side of the road.

This time I didn't hit my head.

As it turned out, Kimber had buckled me into her car.

The Mazda bumped up against the metal gate that lined the side of the highway, and Kimber threw the car and park.

She laid her hands and arms on the steering wheel and bawled like I hadn't seen since her mother died.

I sat next to her and watched her pain, stunned by my own callousness and cruelty.

I loved this girl like a sister, more than I had even loved my own.

Why was I trying to hurt her?

So out of control, it wasn't me.

It didn't feel like me.

Monster inside me begged for a fix.

And if I didn't feed it soon, it would continue to control me.

And I would get both of us killed.

What do you want from me, Sam?

I held up my hand to touch her back, but remembered that Kimber didn't like being touched.

Least of all by me.

They took everything from me.

My mom, you, my body, my ability to ever have babies.

I can't let them take Kyle to.

If there's even a chance.

She looked up at me then.

Do I not deserve a sliver of happiness?

Even just a little before I die?

What did I do that was so wrong?

Why does God hate me?

I shook my head.

I had no words.

Why do you hate me?

I don't.

Oh, God.

I don't.

Kimber, I'm so sorry.

I'm a piece of shit.

I felt like I'd apologize to her every hour or so since she came to Chicago.

She deserved better than me.

She deserved Kyle.

But I knew she'd never get him.

Why don't you let me drive back to the hotel?

The hotel?

Why if we go back there?

They know we're here.

We're almost to the border.

Let's just get out of Missouri.

But what about our stuff?

My heroin.

Kimber wiped her eyes.

Buy new stuff.

It's not worth your life.

We were seven hours from Chicago, and I knew I was less than half an hour away from a meltdown if I didn't get back to the hotel.

Look, we'll just go back real quick, and I'll run up and get our stuff.

Poor Kimber, I need my stuff.

I could tell by the thinly veiled look of pain she gave me that she knew the real reason I wanted to backtrack to the Prince Ridge.

Then her eyes sort of doled over like her soul was melting away.

Sure.

I don't fucking care anymore.

The person I came here for is gone.

I'm gonna sleep.

Kimber crawled into the backseat and curled up into a ball.

I'll make it quick, I said.

Moved over into the driver's seat.

I could hear Kimber crying all the way back to Drisky.

Man, what a junkie, dude.

To have this guy here who's like, look, I know they're going to kill us.

I'm like, a heroin.

I've got to get my heroin.

Just the idea, too, of a heroin adding to like scoping out a police operation.

Well, now, too.

He thinks he's sneaky and he's like knocking stuff over.

When I was saying earlier, too, I was like, I was wondering how the drug position, like him being a junkie like this, is going to fuck it up more.

Them going back for the...

This is their chance to get out and just leave unscathed.

Him going back for this is going to royally fuck them.

Yes, yeah.

Chapter 8.

The hotel was quiet.

No police presence, no note on our door, no blinking light on the phone.

Nothing to confirm that we had indeed been outed.

Kimber tiredly climbed the stairs to the room, lay down on the bed as I loaded everything into the car.

Let her lie there for a while while I locked myself in the bathroom to get high.

When I came out, she seemed to be asleep.

Kimber, come on, we gotta go.

Nothing.

Kimber walked over and shook her.

No.

I'm not going anywhere.

You can go.

Take my car.

Just leave me here.

I wanted to argue with her, but my eyes were already heavy as the H breathed sweet euphoria into my body.

I lay down on the other bed and enjoyed the high for a while.

We were going to be killed in our sleep that night.

I wanted it to be like this.

I dreamt of nothing but blackness, which is what the dope bought me.

But slowly, I became awake in the darkness to the sound of piercing metal screams floating down from the mountains.

Echoes of a beast already slain, but still haunting me, hunting me.

The nightmares were back.

I turned my head towards the window and watched the snowflakes that were falling through the fluorescent light over our door.

No one had come into the night to kill us yet.

I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling of heaven still coursing through me.

It was a feeling I loved, waking up high, enjoying it for a few moments and trusting that it'll cradle me back to sleep and make me whole in the night.

It was a monster I never wanted to kill, and encompassed me.

The metal whirling started up again.

I opened my eyes to the window as if I expected to see the shiny gentleman sitting outside of it, covered in snow.

Is it real?

So hard to tell.

I began nodding off again.

Then I heard it a third time.

The shiny gentleman was quieter than it had been nine years before, but it was still there, still alive, floating down through the black mountains to my door.

I concentrated.

My head tried to wander, but I focused on the noise again and again until I was sure it was real.

When I opened my eyes, sunlight was peeking through the curtains.

Turned over to look at Kimber's bed.

She had her back to me and was still curled up into a ball above the covers.

Didn't look like she had moved since the night before.

Kimber.

She didn't respond.

Kimber!

Who do you want, Sam?

I heard it last night.

The shiny gentleman.

Baraska's still there.

She was silent a moment and slowly rolled over to look at me.

I didn't hear anything.

I did, I swear.

It's quieter, like it's farther away, but it was there.

Kimber sighed and sat up.

She looked at the clock, 7.53 a.m.

I don't think you heard anything at all.

I furrowed my eyebrows.

I know what I heard, Kay.

She shrugged and got out of bed.

I'm not sure you believe it.

She said as she shrugged off her parka.

Kimber, I said, leaning up on one elbow.

You saw it yourself, Sam.

They're They're gone.

It's over.

I haven't heard the...

I haven't heard that sound once in three days we've been here.

But I did.

I think you probably dreamt it, Sam.

What?

I snapped my head up.

You fucking drifted off again.

I'm sick of this shit from you.

Your fucking addiction has turned you into a different person.

She pointed at my bag, and I knew that she knew exactly how often I've been getting high.

Of course I'm a different person, I said defensively.

You haven't seen me in a decade.

You know that's not what I meant.

I'm talking about the heroine.

You're killing yourself, Sam.

You look like a ghost already.

Governor threw the parker on a chair and wound a scarf around her neck.

She sat cross-legged on the tattered chair in the corner of the room.

Is this an intervention?

Because better friends have tried.

Liar.

Fuck off, Sam.

This isn't even about drugs anymore.

I can't rely on you.

You make yourself a fucking liability.

Nodding off, passing out, not all in control of yourself.

always needing a fucking fix.

And you're mean, vicious, even.

You forget things happened hours or even minutes before.

I needed you here, Sam.

And you fucking let me down.

I didn't ask to come on this little mission of yours.

I told you no back in Chicago.

No one put a gun to your head.

Well, you may as well have.

I wasn't going to let you go alone and get yourself killed.

So you come with me and put my life in danger every chance you get?

Just forget it.

This is all for nothing anyway.

They know we're here.

They haven't even attempted to stop us because they know how price how powerless we are.

We can't do anything because there's nothing left to expose.

We got outsmarted.

I heard the mill last night.

They just moved it, is all.

You didn't hear anything.

You're unconscious.

I know what I heard.

You don't know shit.

You're too high to even realize where we are half the time.

That's bullshit.

You haven't been sober in days.

Maybe weeks, maybe even years.

She is right.

I I haven't been sober since prison.

And even when I was, and even when I wasn't, I was usually high on something.

It had been so long.

What do you want from me, Kimber?

For most of the conversation, Kimber had been staring out the window, but now she turned her head back and looked straight into my soul as if this was the question she had been waiting for.

I want you to give me Sam back.

My Sam.

Her words cut deep, so I laughed at them.

I want to be able to trust what you say

I want to tell you who my contact was in Drisking.

I want you to talk to him.

He wants to talk to you.

And there are things I wanted to tell you.

Things that...

things I might as well tell you since it's over anyway.

Like what?

Killing Cleary's dead, Sam.

Oh.

what?

When?

Eight years ago.

How?

I don't know.

My heart broke for Kimber.

Clary was dead and she had known it.

Kimber should have been able to confront her abuser, cut his dick off, kill him if she felt the need to.

And now she would never have that chance.

She'd known it all along.

Kimber.

Just fucking stop, Sam.

There's more.

You know Ambercott Fort and the Triple Tree?

They're gone.

Someone burned that shit to the fucking ground years ago.

There's unrest and drisking.

We could have used that.

Damn it.

That's not even remotely the worst thing.

The worst truth of all this?

I didn't come out here to expose that fucking baby farm.

I should have, but I didn't.

I didn't even come here to kill my my She was tripping over her words as she tried to breathe in between them.

The man who hurt me.

But I really, really wanted to.

The reason I came out here was to find out the truth about Kyle or die trying.

I couldn't even do either of those things.

I don't know where Kyle is, and I'm still alive to live with the pain.

So I knew I could never fight all of this.

I wanted to hug Kimber so badly, but I knew she wouldn't want it.

But you could have.

That's the worst thing.

You could have.

I brought you out here to do what I can't.

Expose them, kill them, help all those women we left here nine years ago.

I'm too weak to do it.

Too broken.

The only person I could have helped was Kyle.

I thought you could handle

everything else.

Kimber let out a spiteful laugh.

It sounds so fucking stupid now.

No, it doesn't.

But you're stronger than you think, Kimber.

So are you.

I didn't know if she was right.

I had monsters I couldn't kill, and she was stronger than I would ever be.

But she was hurting, and I inflicting so much of that pain.

Kimber had been buried under all those burdens alone.

She was trying to carry all the way to Baraska and Kyle by herself.

I just made her burdens heavier.

She couldn't afford my weakness on this campaign, but still she bore it.

Just like when we were kids, Kimber was the glue that held everything together.

She was even holding me together.

But the glue was cracking.

Kimber was about to shatter.

And I was the one making the final swings of the hammer.

I had to listen to her now.

She was telling me that she needed me.

She needed me, not who I had become.

It had been so long since anyone had needed me for anything.

Those Those women, all those years ago, what was it that I had promised them?

I will come back and help you all.

Promise.

As soon as I find Kimber.

Man, that would.

I forgot about that.

That scene where, like,

when Kyle's getting to know you.

Look at all of them.

Yeah,

he talks about how they're clean faces, and he's like, I'll be back.

That was nine years ago.

Oh, man.

Brutal.

Also, too.

I was like, I am harsh on him for being a junkie, but at the same time, like.

Listen, he's a a junkie.

He's unreliable.

I will say, too, having her just be like, I wanted you to come and take care of all this because I'm not strong enough to, that's like an impossible challenge as well.

Yeah.

To where they both, I think, had a little bit of grand, you know, delusions of what was actually going to happen.

To where she's like, no, it's not about this.

I want to help people and trying to like kind of guide him into the, so you should.

You should do it.

You should, but I got guns.

I'm getting fucking high.

Yeah.

You know, which, you know, she probably was thinking, oh, well, I'll have Sam and he can help me.

But she probably didn't realize, you know, when she was daydreaming about this, how much of a fucking junkie he was going to be.

Also, you've got, like,

so Clary's dead.

Right.

The one that used her, and it was eight years.

It was right after they left.

Maybe natural causes, but maybe some issue, a fight that happened, maybe, or whatever.

The town's suffering.

What do you think that is about, like, there was a fire and the triple tree burned down and stuff?

It's like some.

I think it's just legitimately them burning.

They're getting rid of all of the evidence.

because also the kids in the triple tree if i'm almost if i'm correct there was stuff in there talking about there's like oh yeah we come up here and kids

are a tree and then the skin man takes you if you don't or if you go past the tree or something like that but there it's just which his sister did right before she was kidnapped yeah to me it just reads as them completely covering their tracks yeah you think uh sam's sister's still alive no Don't think so?

It's only been nine years.

I mean, they said that they keep him.

I mean, nine.

I mean, think about that, though.

It's nine years.

Yeah, but they said they keep them for like 20.

they said they keep this is so brutal they said they keep them until they can quit having children oh i mean i don't know i mean i would assume that not so messed up dude oh my gosh it's brutal well kimber was here so was i so were they despite it all i was sure of what i'd heard i needed to do better i needed to be better for her

kyle and all of those i'd left behind Baraska was still there.

It meant that maybe, maybe, Kimber Source was telling the truth about Kyle.

And that meant there was hope.

But not if I remained the sickly, unpredictable heroin addict that I had let myself become.

Kimber,

my bag, the side pocket there, rolled up in a pair of pants.

There's

tinfoil.

Dump everything inside of it in the toilet.

And flush it.

Kimber's dark expression light into fraction.

She stood up uncertainly.

and went to my bag and found the heroine where I told her it would be.

She wrapped the tinfoil and I watched the sadness cross her face when she saw the size of the brick.

Kid, uh, it takes a lot for me.

Are you sure about this?

Was I?

No.

I had almost everything about the idea, and my body was already recoiling at the thought.

Yes.

Henry came back from the bathroom and sat down at the edge of her bed.

What do I do now?

I've actually only done this once and only for a few days.

The next 72 hours are going to suck for us both.

I can go sleep in the car for a few days.

No, no, Sam.

I'm going to be here.

Okay.

Well, here's what you can expect.

I'm gonna be a total asshole.

Check.

I'm going to feel cold all the time.

Looked over the thermostat, which was currently set at 84.

Check.

I am going to be in pain, a lot of it, and I'm going to sleep like shit.

Give me a sympathetic look.

Check.

And I'm probably going to ask you to find me dope.

I wouldn't even know where.

And I'll know that, but I'll ask anyway.

This will probably start in a few hours and peak sometime tomorrow, but I'm a heavy user, so it could be a few days.

How long are we checking to this hotel?

It's open-ended.

Well, that's good.

Kimber crawled over the bed to where I was sitting, and for the first time since we were kids, she put her arm around me, lay her head on mine.

You're going to be okay, Sam.

You're stronger than you know.

Believed her.

The question for me wasn't whether I could do it.

Kimber by my side, I knew I could.

The real controversy was who would appear on the other side?

I'd have been sober since I was a teenager.

I had no idea who I was going to be in three days.

I glanced over at the thermostat and pulled the quilt up higher on my body.

I was already feeling a chill.

All right, so Sam's at least kicking

kicking the white dragon.

Sounds good.

I'm happy for him there.

It is so risky to do this again.

in the hotel outside of town.

I think this is probably the worst time for an intervention.

I think maybe give the boy a little bit of heroin to be

heroin would probably help you in a gunfight

like me like me right now i bet if you gave me heroin i would fight better

are you telling me you wouldn't fight better imagine like you got a dose of something that like woke you up like super mess does heroin wake you up i'm pretty sure you're like too slump you're like oh

well you it gives you a euphoria it gives you meth i bet you meth could help in a fight meth would help with the fight for sure

maybe i'm just saying maybe i'm thinking like it would take the pain duster like if you took some heroin it would take the pain off dust yeah but i think you're just gonna don't do that i I think you're just gonna sit there though, and heroin are just gonna be like

you don't think a little bit would make me like a super painkiller.

Like,

I think you're gonna be just fucked.

I think if you're just like a crackpipe, I've never, oh,

I'm invincible.

You think that would you think a crackpipe?

You just shut the chest and you just like pull the bullet out already.

Whoa, that doesn't affect me.

I'm super die.

Chapter Nineteen.

I was true to my word, much to Kimber's distress.

By that evening, I was climbing to the walls, and I didn't shut my eyes even once that night due to the pain in my back.

Kimber tried to soothe me, put on movies she thought I would like, curled up next to me at night.

But the real comfort was just her presence, even in spite of her insistence that I drink water every hour that I couldn't keep down.

What a, what a...

I know that, like, Kimber is bringing Sam to like get you get this and stuff like that, but just like

something so calming about her being like, oh, I thought you liked this movie, you know?

It's very refreshing in one of these stories after some of the things we've read recently where it's legitimate friendship.

Yeah, she actually cares about it.

Yeah.

And I think that that's something that we don't see a lot in these stories.

I refused food through the next day, but she finally got me to swallow something in that evening.

That night I slept, and I lived in dreams so real they were almost lucid.

More than once, Kimber woke me up because I was crying or shouting.

The day after that, I laid in bed all day, didn't move other than to limp limp to the bathroom.

My back was still in burning pain, though the rest of my body was freezing.

Kimber, not knowing what else to do, turned the heater all the way up to 95 degrees.

She was down to a tank top and underwear, but still I shivered.

Following morning, I awoke with no memory of the night before.

Kimber told me she had only woken me up once from my nightmares.

It was the fourth day I had been clean, and though I was still aching and going through heavy withdrawals, my mind felt more clear.

Reality was painfully bright and raw, and my actions over the last week were agonizing to remember.

I apologized to Kimber about what I had said and done so often that it went from amusing her to downright annoying.

I had smoked half a carton in the days I had been detoxing, and my throat felt like the smokestack on a coal train.

With my new clarity came some realizations.

I started to notice Kimber on her phone throughout the day, her expressions dubious and worried.

Wanted to ask, but I couldn't focus on too much intricacy yet.

We ate more pizza that day.

I kept down an entire two slices.

Kimber made me drink liters of water, which also stayed down.

As we neared the weak mark, Kimber started sleeping in her own bed again.

I was remembering some of my dreams, and while most of them were nightmares from the years before, I also had some pleasant dreams.

Of Whitney and my mother.

I was feeling again, and though it hurt more often than not, I realized that not all feelings are bad.

It was something I had forgotten during my many years of numbness.

The dreams of my family awakened me in an unrelenting ache that I couldn't ignore.

I wanted to to see them again, my sister and my mother.

One was impossible.

The other maybe not entirely.

The fact that I was less than 10 miles away from my mother at any given time wore me during the cold nights.

And finally, I felt my physical strength begin to return.

I was allowing myself to take ibuprofen for the pain, which was not unlike hurling a dart at an elephant.

I was getting out of bed, sleeping through the night, and my mind was as crystal clear as ice.

The more I thought about our situation, the angrier I became, but it wasn't the festival of rage that had been my life up until that moment.

It was a simmering, controlled ire that I was able to rein in and compartmentalize, ready to execute at my leisure.

With the mental clarity, I became even more convinced that what I had heard that night was real.

They, whoever they were now, simply moved their operation.

I told Kimber my belief, but as much as she wanted to believe her source was legit, I knew she was afraid of hoping again.

Nine days after the incident on the mountain, I came out of the shower to find Kimber pacing and sliding worried glances my way.

What's the matter?

Asked as I tell-dried my hair.

Hey, do you think the front desk here sells razors?

I don't know.

I'll ask.

I could tell she wanted to say more, but hesitated.

What is it?

My contact.

Yeah, what about him?

He's on his way here.

What?

How?

You told him where we were?

No, he already knew.

It's no secret, secret, I guess.

Well, that's comforting.

Why is he coming here?

Because he wants to know what the holdup is.

What holdup?

What does he want from us?

From you, actually.

I thought this guy was just giving us hospital records and pointing us towards whatever server the Barosca database is sitting on.

He's, um.

I made a wild gesture with my hands, begging her to continue.

We're never gonna get those records from him, Sam.

What?

She glanced out the window and crossed her arms.

I'm sorry, we never were.

He's offering something different, and he's here.

I don't like this, Kimber, said as I stood up from the bed.

Heard someone climbing the stairs outside.

Heavy footfalls indicated a large man, or possibly someone who just walked like a Neanderthal.

Kimber opened the door before he could knock, and Jimmy Prescott walked in.

Absolutely not.

Bro,

dude.

Dude.

Hold on.

I said that.

I said, I said Jimmy Prescott.

I said, Jimmy President.

You said no because you said no because he owns the sub shop or whatever.

No, no, no.

You said the sheriff.

And I said, no, it can be him.

He's gone too far.

And I said, I would thank Jimmy Prescott.

And then I made the joke, but Jimmy Prescott runs the town.

He's really saying no.

I don't think it'd be Jimmy Prescott.

He was too evil either.

I don't think it'd be Jimmy Prescott.

I don't think it'd be Jimmy Prescott.

I don't think it'd be Jimmy Prescott.

I don't think it'd be Jimmy Prescott.

All I know is.

Play that back.

That was me.

That's my...

You know what?

You know what?

Me.

Me.

I played this.

Turn that camera.

I played this.

Turn that camera.

That is wild, though.

How the fuck did she get in contact with him?

You know what I bet it might be?

They said Once His Face died eight years ago.

There may have been a power struggle or something.

Jimmy Prescott doesn't care about the morality of it.

He just may be like, oh, they have my operation.

Jimmy Prescott is the son or grandson of the crazy old son of a bitch who started this whole thing.

Yeah.

He was the one who gave the whole speech where he's like, we call these the sables.

This is where we keep the women.

That's him.

That is the.

I thought that was Clary.

Was it?

I thought it was Prescott.

Where me and you were awful at this about remembering the details of this stuff.

Hold on.

I could find out real quick.

Sure.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

All right.

Hold on.

Yeah, I mean, he's the monster who's like, was was doing that.

You're right.

Because here's a quote: You wouldn't believe how much money is in the industry.

I mean, my dad was a smart man, and he knew we didn't have anything of value to sell him back then.

So, yeah, he's the one who pretty much enterprised it.

Yeah, so this is the scene where they get into

where they open up the stables and all the girls are tied up.

Says, oh boys, Jimmy's voice rang out from somewhere in the buildings.

Yeah, yeah, that's that is this guy.

So, classic, yeah,

oh boys, it's me.

Isn't also the guy then that beat the shit out of...

Yeah, it's the guy that brained file.

Yeah.

Pretty sure.

Damn.

I'd been keeping the 9mm next to the bed, but had moved it during my withdrawals in case I wanted to shoot myself in the head.

It was currently in the bathroom, completely out of reach.

Holy shit, look at you.

Fucking Sam Walker.

Did you know you look exactly like your dad?

Bro.

Dude, you gotta kill this guy.

Oh my god.

I was

like, devil.

You're hungry?

You want to get a a bite to eat?

It's like that casual.

Yeah, yeah, that casual.

What is he doing here, Kimber?

I seized.

She was standing in the corner next to the door, arms crossed and a grim expression on her face.

Oh, don't be mad at her, Walker.

She was just conducting business.

You want something?

I want something.

Doesn't need to be personal, right, sweetheart?

I'm getting upset.

I'm actually coming.

What are we doing?

What are we doing here?

What is this?

Is she fucking going to sell herself to get this deal?

No, no, no, no.

I want something she would.

Well, what do you mean that's it?

I want something new.

He wants, okay, what happened is they said What's his face was dead.

Clary died eight years ago.

Sure.

I bet Sam's dad was like, I'm going to run this operation.

Kicks Prescott out.

Prescott.

We don't know.

We're speculating.

I am speculating, but I think that, you know what?

I'm playing it right now.

That's my bear trap.

That I think Sam's dad, Walker, Sheriff Walker, is running everything.

So I'm playing this right now.

That however.

You don't want to kill your daddy.

I think that Jimmy Prescott's like they took my business uh and uh I don't like that so I need them dead and you guys are gonna be the ones to do it I'll give you the the grub grub Kyle yeah if you all kill your daddy yeah I need I need I need Jimmy to die let's see let's just see how do you how do you do this again with it you place them sideways when you play them right is that a magic card card that's when you attack that was an attack I'll call that an attack so I'm taking my bear trap and I'm turning it sideways yeah

He turned and gave her an oily smile that made my still delicate stomach churn in revulsion.

Just talk.

All right, well, you want to give the men some privacy, then, princess?

Jimmy asked, sitting down on the sofa by the door.

I'm not leaving you alone with him, she told Jimmy.

He shrugged, and before I even realized what he was holding, he had shot Kimber with some sort of taser.

What?

She fell on the floor immediately and convulsed a few times before going limp.

Women, right?

Gosh.

My heart dropped to my feet and I lunged towards Prescott.

He casually swung the taser around to point at me.

Settle down, Prince Charmin.

She's fine.

We've been trying out some non-lethal stuff at the stables.

He rolled it around in his hand and smiled.

I think I like this thing.

Thanks, Sam.

What do we do next?

Get him to talk, buy yourself some time.

Why would Kimber want to talk to you?

What'd you tell her?

Nothing really.

Threw her a bone on that landy kid we stomped to death way back when.

Well, you remember, you were there.

Shit, I almost forgot about that.

Anyway, what was I saying?

Oh, yeah.

I told her I could give her information on that kid's condition, you know, gave her some hope.

Gave us information about the sheriff, too.

All the information you gave her is useless.

Or total bullshit.

She played a part.

I'm done with her now.

But I'm willing to fulfill my end of the bargain with you.

What bargain?

We'll get to that.

Jimmy said as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it with a red Zippo.

Fine, you told Kimber that killing Clary is dead.

Is that true?

There's a doornail.

Why'd you kill him?

You think I killed him?

He's a useful and loyal business partner.

Why would I kill him?

Because you're a hothead, that's why.

Jimmy reclined back in his chair and took a long draw on his cigarette.

You really don't know anything, do you?

The mind is under new management.

Yeah, okay, what does that mean it means there's a new sheriff in town kid i swallowed the bile that rose in my throat sheriff walker what reason would he have to murder clary

because killing gave the orders to send walker's daughter to meet the shiny gentleman

i shook my head i can't i can't believe she was working with you

believe it kid

You're not gonna give us the files you keep on Barosca, are you?

Fuck no, son.

That'd incriminate me and my entire family.

And the medical records for Kyle and Ann Destero?

Trust me.

There's nothing in there that would help you.

So what are you offering us?

Jimmy put his cigarette out directly on the glass coffee table next to him and leaned forward.

The chance to take down your father.

Okay, so

damage.

I'm attacked.

Have rod.

Oh, hit back at you.

I called it.

Mine.

My bear trap.

That's not how that works.

You're.

How do you, how do you, there's a way to throw car.

I have like five of these.

Like,

hold on.

That one, that one's, and that one's me.

No, I call, I said, I said that beginning.

I was like, I was like, oh, no, is this going to be Jimmy Prescott here?

Stop making the noise.

It's mine.

I did that.

Is that a shotgun?

Yeah, mine's more of a bear trap.

I thought you were doing a crap claw.

I said, that's a trap.

Oh.

There's like, I don't know where those went.

Anyway.

I was so right about that, by the way.

Okay.

I scoffed.

Why would you want that?

Look around, kid.

This town's a piece of shit.

White trash, poor, filthy shadow of what it once was.

When Walker took over, he changed the whole business model.

We used to provide a service.

It was fucked up the way we did it.

I'll admit that.

But in the end, people got to live in a rich town, raise families like they did before the water got all fucked.

Driskin was a nice little place people could be proud of.

Even you had to admit it.

Driskin was a facade.

None of that was real.

It was real to them.

to your teachers, your friends, even Mira and Owen Grady.

I heard you scared the shit out of them a couple weeks ago.

Man, when I heard that story, I was laughing so hard.

Didn't think you'd give up your animity so quick.

Seeing that's the only thing that you had going for you.

Other than me, of course.

Jimmy Prescott was off his rocker.

I felt like my skull was going to crack from the audacity of it all.

Working with Jimmy Prescott was the definition suicidal insanity.

Anyway, kids, so yeah.

Your dad comes in, big dick on campus, and he flips the whole system on his head.

Suddenly, we're running the sex trade operation.

The higher-ups are happy because now they get girls and more money than before.

Walker really don't care about money as long as they keep supporting him.

So every

long as they keep supporting him, so every dollar we make from the stables goes right into the pockets of the upper

echelons, right?

Echelons.

Echelons.

Dollar make from the stables go right into the pockets of the upper echelons.

No more money for the town.

No more babies for the families.

The Prescott legacy is ruined.

It's in ruins.

It's all straight sex trafficking now.

It's just unseemly, if you ask me.

You got this guy.

I hate, I hate, I hate this guy.

I hate this.

Look, we were running, we would only rape and impregnate the women of our town.

We would not outsource to people who weren't local.

It was a family

workaround that he's doing where he's like, well, yeah, what you did was kind of weird.

He was a little messed up, but people had families.

Our town was rich and it supported the town.

Yeah.

You know, now, like, oh, we're getting money.

Now we're paying other people's money.

Now we're letting other people.

It's insane to even.

Gosh.

I need him dead right now.

He does not.

Look, he doesn't have any information.

You've got what you want.

Also, I don't trust a single thing he's saying.

And most importantly, I was right about his dad being the sheriff, and that's why Prescott wants him dead.

So he gave me my bear trap.

So let's kill him now.

I think he should do that.

I just don't trust trust anything he's saying either.

Absolutely not.

I mean, I'm sure he's telling some truth, but I feel like he's

believing something.

I think he is right.

I think he's being honest about Sam's dad.

Because there's no other reason to keep these two alive, right?

For some reason, Jimmy Prescott has let these two run around town, do this stuff, because he wants two people to kill Walker so that he can be boss again.

I believe that because it's selfish.

Otherwise, I don't believe anything he says.

Yeah.

And you're sure the sheriff's involved in all this.

In bald?

he's fucking running it kid did you listen to anything i said and you want me to kill him jimmy tipped his head in my direction you'd be much obliged why can't you do it i said watching timber out of the corner of my eye she still hadn't moved because you're the only person on earth who has a prayer of killing your daddy i laughed if you really believe that you're dumber than i thought you got the wrong kid prescott my dad would kill me without thinking twice it's whitney he loved shudder ran down my spine loved was not the right word.

I don't believe that.

He could have had you killed already, spouting off in town like you did

like you did about stolen babies.

He's left you alone out here, hasn't he?

He knows you're here.

The whole sheriff's office does.

But they prohibited from moving on you.

On his orders.

That doesn't make any sense.

I mean, why?

No idea.

I think it's probably just a game.

You don't play until you cross the city limits.

Walk out a thing about playing sick games with his kids.

It's disgusting if you ask me.

Ew, I guess they had all those kids from the mind.

Ew,

gosh, you gotta burn these people, dude.

There is no, there is nothing they can do to them that will make me happy.

There has to be.

I need them to suffer in unimaginable ways.

We have very different ideas about what's disgusting.

Well, I think you'll change your mind on that before you leave town.

You actually think the sheriff would let me get close to him knowing I had a gun and intended to kill him?

I don't think there's a chance.

He likes his games.

And anyway, I'm certain he'd hesitate to kill you.

You're his only son and all that.

I think we both know that's bullshit.

Jimmy raised an eyebrow at me.

Holy shit, Walker.

I would impress you knew about that kid.

I don't even think he knows about his bastard.

Let's say I do manage to kill him.

Wouldn't his deputies just shoot me?

Nah.

Nah, I've got a promising coup in the works.

Been playing this for years.

A fair number of his people are loyal to me.

Even if that's true, you just kill me once it's over.

I wouldn't do that.

Why not?

You be in charge, so why keep me alive?

I want Baraska exposed.

I want all you sick pricks in jail.

Kid,

I don't want to be in charge.

I don't want to do the paperwork or give shit about the money is handled or whatever it goes.

You could do that, though.

I say we take down the sheriff and install you as the big dick on campus.

Pussy for miles, son.

And you.

Oh, God.

Oh, my.

And you can't be getting a lot these days after walking around like you do.

Oh, my God.

Oh my.

That felt gross.

I mean, the whole story does, but that one, like,

yeah, dude, he's a fucking, like, yeah.

I mean, the whole story does.

Jimmy Prescott, could you stop it?

No, no, I just mean like, I mean, like, that sentence specifically, like, it becomes so mechanical that now he's trying to be like, hey,

dislike,

he's so inhuman.

It's like, it's like

it's like he still recognizes, like, oh, these are ladies, you know, if you want to get laid and stuff.

Oh, my God.

It's Barosca things doing Barosca thing.

It's Barosca.

It's very Barosca, Barosca, yes.

Screw you.

I'd never be interested in this deal, and I don't understand why Kimber thought I would be.

Yeah, I never actually told her a part about putting you in charge.

What part did you tell her?

I promised I'd tell her where her boyfriend was, and I told her she'd have a shot at killing a rapist.

Her rapist is already dead.

Nah.

Jimmy leaned back and put his arm behind his head.

He isn't.

My brain ran into a brick wall.

I couldn't understand what he was trying to tell me.

Don't look at me, kid.

She wasn't assigned to me.

And And then it clicked.

I threw it before I could stop myself, and the vomit ran down my pants to the floor.

Sick, kid.

You tell.

You tell the sheriff.

I'm coming for him.

Oh, wow, so it was his dad who did it.

This is his dad.

I like your fury, son.

Harness that shit.

But you're going to need a lot more than blinding rage.

Here.

Jimmy dropped a folded piece of white paper onto the coffee table next to his pile of cigarette ash.

These are the coordinates of the new operations.

Use your phone or something.

Jimmy stood up and moved Kimber's leg out of his way with the toe of his boot.

I can't wait to see what you cook up.

Just remember, I need him dead.

Not incapacitated.

He opened the door and walked out, then stomped abruptly on the other side of the threshold.

Oh, and the chef always wears a bulletproof vest.

Always.

Probably when he's fucking his wife.

He laughed at his own joke and then shut the door behind him.

As soon as it clicked, I stumbled over to the door and locked it with both deadbolts.

Then I collapsed against it and crawled over to Kimber.

I was worried he'd had it on too high of a setting for a small frame.

Rolled Kimber onto her side, a life-saving maneuver that an addict like me would need to know.

And when I was satisfied that she was still breathing, I dragged a pillow down from the bed and shoved it under Kimber's head.

I wanted to punch something, or break something, or beat someone to death.

Not just anyone, my father.

The man Kimber had known since she was nine years old.

Oh my gosh.

The man who had watched her grow up with his own son.

Why was I surprised after what she had done to Whitney?

I'd killed my monsters.

I'd kill him too.

Perhaps worst of all, Kimber hadn't told me.

She kept it all to herself to protect me from the pain.

I was a spitting image of my father.

I known it, and Prescott had confirmed it, but she never recoiled from me in disgust, looked at me with fear.

I knew the sheriff had to die.

Jimmy Prescott, sick and twisted as he was, was about to get exactly what he wanted.

But I knew I couldn't let him live either.

Prescott couldn't keep me alive.

I was a liability.

He knew that.

He knew that I knew that.

He was simply gifting me a lie that I could use to comfort myself while I prepared to go through with it all.

Because I knew if Jimmy Prescott was coming to me for help, that meant that he had completely lost control of the situation.

And if Jimmy, with all of his money and influence, couldn't have the sheriff killed, no one could.

Except maybe me.

On the logshot bet that my father harbored any remaining paternal feelings for me.

I only had the beginning tethers of a strategy, but soon I would have a full plan.

And I knew for damn sure that it couldn't involve Kimber.

I wasn't going to bring her to the mine with me.

I put her in too much danger already.

I had to figure out how to execute this perfectly because perfectly was the only way it was going to work.

For now, I would just lie on the floor as a throbbing body ache ate up my coherence.

A sharp pain began to push into my back between my shoulder blades.

Damn.

I only had days left to live and I didn't want to die sober.

I didn't want to feel everything that you feel when you die.

I want to be high as the stars when my time came.

I'd earned that at least, hadn't I?

Sheriff knew I was here.

Prescott was getting impatient.

Time was running out.

Pulled my phone out of my vomit-soaked jeans and dialed a familiar number.

Yo, man, I need a favor.

High again after all that?

I think he's contacting Seth.

He was.

I hope so.

I think he's contacting Seth to be like, I need you to get some answers.

Sounds to me like he's calling a plug.

Oh, I hope not.

I hope not, too.

Oh, all right.

Chapter 10.

Kimber stirred next to me.

Before I could stop her, she rolled onto her back and started to sit up.

Whoa, slow down.

Easy, easy.

What happened?

She looked down at her sweater in a panic.

Did I get shot?

Yes, with a taser.

You thank Jimmy Prescott for that one.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God, Sam.

Are you okay?

Did he?

What happened?

I'm fine.

We stood up and looked around the room.

He's gone.

Yes.

Okay, listen, Sam, I...

I waved my hand dismissively.

I know why you did what you did, Kimber.

Priscott's a key player, and it's smart to listen to someone that high.

Wants to flip informer.

Yeah, but was it worth it?

Did he give you any good information?

He gave us the location of the new camp they're using.

So it's true.

Do you trust him?

No, but I trust these coordinates are correct, and I trust that he really does want the sheriff out.

Did he tell you anything else?

I couldn't admit to her that after everything she had gone to protect me from it, I'd found out the truth anyway.

No, just a lot of bullshit and random tangents, you know, Jimmy.

So what's the plan?

We go in there, guns blazing?

Yes.

Liar.

She wouldn't be coming on this particular suicide mission.

When?

As soon as I get my package from Chicago.

As soon as I get you somewhere safe.

As soon as we have a plan.

Okay, and did he say anything about Kyle?

I didn't have the heart to say it out loud.

I simply shook my head.

Kimber nodded and was quiet for a few minutes.

i watched her inner struggle i remembered kimber well enough to recognize that she was searching for something inside something to fight for such a kimber thing to do

okay

okay what do we do now we need to inventory what's in the trunk so i know what i'm working with we

yeah we okay what else Well, I don't think Prescott is the only one who knows what room we're in at this motel.

Let's go down to the front desk and see if they'll swap us to a room at the back of the building.

On the first floor, if possible, in case a quick escape's needed.

We'll keep parking in the front, though.

Yes, right.

Very clever, Sam.

I'm almost impressed.

Yeah, I guess I'm smarter than I look.

That's not what I meant.

You're different when you, you know.

Without the drugs, you're cunning, strategic.

It's going to make all the differences in the end.

I shrugged.

I really didn't know who I was yet.

I was cold a lot, very stiff.

My movements felt unnatural.

The sunlight that covered the walls of the room from dawn until dusk every day was was garish and off-putting to me.

Everything felt very raw and sharp and unfamiliar, but for the first time in so long, I was able to remember every minute of my day.

My motivations were also much clearer, more coherent.

Keep the monsters dead.

Kill my father.

And above all, maintain Kimber's safety at all costs.

We pulled the car around the back of the building and inventoried Kimber's arsenal that afternoon.

There were two bulletproof vests and 27 guns in total.

Seven rifles, two shotguns, and 18 handguns, including the bread I always kept on me.

Kimber had 460 rounds of assorted cartridges.

I spent most of the following two days pretending to plan with her and waiting for my package to arrive from Chicago.

I was beginning to feel so guilty for planning to leave her behind that I wondered if maybe it was even cruel.

She wanted vengeance.

She deserved it.

But Kimber had already suffered so much.

She didn't have to die for revenge.

Not when I could do it for.

The death I would receive at Barasca was a death I didn't deserve.

An honorable one.

I could live with that.

Then one day, Kimber got a call from the front desk while I was in the shower.

The package had arrived and I wasn't there to intercept the front desk from letting her know.

I hated hiding anything from Kimber, especially now, but I knew that if she found out about the mysterious package, she may realize that I was planning something without her.

When I came out of the bathroom, the package was sitting on my bed, unopened.

Kimber was draped casually over the armchair, watching something on TV as if nothing were wrong.

I could only be so lucky.

I didn't comment and gently move move the box to the area between the bed and wall where I kept my duffel bag.

I took a deep breath.

I had almost been dreading this day because now that the package was here, things were going to start moving very quickly.

Two days.

Two days?

Kimber asked without taking her eyes from the screen.

We do this shit on Wednesday.

I couldn't believe I actually knew it was Monday.

It's a little things that continued to impress me.

Kimber kicked her feet off the bed and sat up in her armchair.

Are we really ready?

We'll have to be.

Our plan is solid and we're running out of money.

We need to make a move.

We can't just wait for them to forget we're here.

Do you think we should drive to a few towns over and pick up more ammo?

No, if we can't do it with 500 rounds, we can't do it at all.

I need Prescott's number so I can ask him when the sheriff will be on the mountain.

I've mapped the coordinates that he gave us, and it'll take just under 40 minutes to get there.

I'll find out, she said and pulled out her phone.

No, I don't want him having access to you anymore.

Once it's bad enough, Sam, I can handle this.

I got this for it, didn't I?

Kimber, you know what that man's done.

Yes, better than you do, Sam.

Give me the number.

We stared at each other for a few minutes, both refusing to back off.

Why are you trying to take me out of the equation?

I'm not.

Kimber glared at me angrily and then threw her phone at my head.

Get it yourself.

She sat back down in her chair and watched me as I picked up her phone from the floor and imported the number into my own.

I know you wouldn't leave me at this fucking hotel, Sam.

Of course not.

I wouldn't go without you.

Liar.

Fine.

Then I need you to tell you that before we kill Jimmy, I wanted to tell us where they're keeping Kyle.

What?

Sent the text to Prescott and then pulled the 9mm out from under my pillow where I kept it and checked the clip for the hundredth time, counting the bullets.

What do you mean where they're keeping Kyle?

I told you about this, but I'm not surprised you don't remember.

Kyle isn't at Landy's.

He hasn't been for years.

Otherwise, I would have just gone and got him when we first came into town.

Jimmy told you this?

Yeah, he said

either in a home or care center or hospital or something.

Maybe not even in Drisking at all.

Prescott wouldn't tell me, but I know he knows and he promised to tell me if we could kill the sheriff.

I assume you planned to kill Jimmy too, and I want to know where Kyle is before you do.

I nodded.

I had to give her this.

I would give her this.

I'd make sure to beat it out of Prescott before I killed him.

How to get that information to Kimber before I was gunned down, I didn't know.

And I had precious little time to figure it out.

The phone chimed.

It was Jimmy.

Who the fuck is this?

Sam Walker.

Where's the distorted girl?

You talk to me now.

Hey, it really is you.

When will the sheriff be a Baraska?

Nobody calls it that prick.

When will he be there, Jimmy?

Your daddy's heading up to the stables tomorrow morning.

I assume he'll stay a while.

Here's a couple of girls he really likes up there right now.

You know how it is when you get a get a new piece.

I got a man every every time they say something, I'm like, wow, that is insane.

Just a literal bruh.

Yeah.

Every time.

Yeah.

Certified bruh moment.

Human trafficking, bruh moment.

The sheriff is going up to the mine tomorrow morning and he'll probably be there a few days.

Perfect.

She said, but her tone betrayed her.

I could hear uncertainness in her voice and fear.

Wish I could tell her that she was safe and that nothing was going to happen to her.

But she couldn't know that yet.

We'll make our move Wednesday morning just before dawn.

It should be dark enough to see yet still maintain decent cover.

Kimber nodded then stood up and began to pace around.

We need to do a lot of prep tomorrow.

Figure out how many guns we can carry and how much ammunition we can fit in our pockets.

Reloading takes time when you aren't trained.

Maybe tomorrow we can go with the firearms you're carrying and I can familiarize you with how quickly to reload clips.

We'll want to prep those early.

Maybe tomorrow night?

Good idea.

I said as impassively as I could.

I knew that by tomorrow night I would be gone.

But I needed to do something first.

Something I had been thinking about ever since the dreams I had in the throes of withdrawal.

I needed to see my mom.

I wanted to let her know that I was still alive and I needed to know if she knew what her husband was doing to people.

I just couldn't accept that she did.

And even if that were true, I believed that my mom would never hand me over to the sheriff if she thought he could hurt me.

If you loved her kids too much.

I looked over at Kimber and realized that today was the last day I was ever going to have with her.

I needed to get her out of town, but not now.

Not yet.

It was our last day together, and I didn't want to spend it arguing.

There'd be enough of that tomorrow.

The phone chimed again.

I looked down to see another text from Jimmy.

You finally making a move, kid?

That's the end of chapter 10.

What do you think the package is he got?

Well, I mean...

He said he's going to get Kimber out of town.

He may be getting...

He may have called his dealer.

to get something to knock her out so he can like put her in a car like physically get her out of town maybe actually it might be fucking pills and he's like here let's toast to like one drink before we go or something yeah and like like knocks her out so you can just get toasting in that.

And you could, I mean, I wouldn't rule Seth out.

I just feel like the whole computer thing is too set up to where it's like, I feel like,

oh, we'll get the records.

Well, yeah, but still, is there something that maybe there might be?

Some technological thing that you like, here, yeah, I'll hit you up.

I do like that this story, like, it's fun enough, and I care about the characters enough.

I'm willing to overlook a lot of the nitpicky stuff, you know, like there was, like, them saying, um,

like, thinking the two of them could single-handedly go in and like gun everyone down.

I'm like, sure, they can think that.

Whatever.

It's unrealistic right now, but I'm curious.

I don't think that's how it's going to play out.

I don't think that's how it's going to play out either.

They're very ill-prepared for also it's just it's too

I don't know like schlocky is not the right way it's like too campy for it I feel like it would him going in and like actually shooting people it just feels so I mean he may get one or two but he's not gonna I don't even think that he's gonna fire a gun you don't think I don't think so but I'm not gonna get up for this big thing this if you make like the sheriff has to die.

Has to.

I mean, or when I say that, I think, I do not think he is going to get into a firefight.

Yeah, I see.

I got you.

I imagine he will probably shoot and kill somebody, but I don't think it's going to be a thing where it's like, eat it,

reload, like,

doing mag changes or clip changes, as they keep calling them in the story.

Yeah, I don't think they'll happen.

I did.

We looked over this because there was other stuff going on, didn't it?

But that argument.

they were having where she was like, I would never tell him.

So she was going to live with Kyle forever and never tell him that they were half siblings.

Like, just live out their life.

Yeah.

Kyle would probably figure that out.

So I pose this question to you, Hunter.

Right now, you found out you're an Allison are half-brother and sister.

Let the good times roll.

Do you tell her?

Hell no.

Hell no.

And you just would not.

I feel like also, I mean, I mean, don't get me wrong, it's disgusting, but...

I feel like people would be like, I'm going, that I cannot live with myself for what I've done.

Like, that's so...

It's literally an Oedipus moment.

Yeah.

Not as intense as a mother.

I don't think she's going to gouge out her eyes and throw herself off a mountain or something like that.

Like the, oh no, like the bummer, we're siblings.

Yeah.

That's uh, that'd be rough.

I don't

is it messed up to say I don't think I'd tell Kayla.

It's very, it'd be a difficult subject.

It's weird.

It's weird.

I would rather, I would rather have sex with my sister forever than have the uncomfortable conversation.

That's our, we're We're taking our break now.

Half.

Half.

Yeah, it's half.

Come on.

Chapter 11.

Chapter 11.

I'm ready to go.

I've also reassembled my bear traps for future reference.

All right.

Chapter 11.

Are we ready, Hunter?

Oh, yes.

I slept very little that night, waking well after 11 a.m., groggy and aching.

Kimber didn't say a word to me as I brewed pot after pot of stale motel coffee.

We spent most of the morning and early afternoon in a stretched, uncomfortable silence.

I thought maybe she was nervous or scared, and today was just the silence before the storm.

But as the afternoon wore on, I caught her sliding calculated, angry glances across the room.

She pretended to read book after book.

That's when I realized she knew.

What?

I said, finally ending the charade.

I didn't want to say it.

I hoped to spend a few more hours with her before the end because I knew that from this point onward, Kimber's last memories of me would be betrayal and deceit.

I braced myself for the coming fight.

You left the room last night.

You were gone for hours.

I didn't reply.

There's no point in denying it.

And that package you got yesterday from Chicago?

More fucking heroin?

My heart cracked at the pain in her voice.

Kimber was starting to understand what I was doing to her.

Are you going to deny it?

And though her voice was angry, I heard the plea underneath.

Please deny it, please.

It was drugs, wasn't it?

What the fuck is wrong with you?

Why are you doing this, Sam?

Kimber screamed, flinging her book across the room where it hit the wall behind my head.

You couldn't fucking handle it, could

More than anything in the world.

You're weak, Sam.

You're fucking weak.

I'm sorry.

Where'd you go?

Where'd you go last night, huh?

Did you park down the street where I couldn't see?

So I couldn't stop you, Kimber.

You're a piece of shit.

And I wish it had been you instead of Kyle.

It should have been you.

I'd often thought that very same thing, but hearing it from her hurt so much worse.

Me too.

My quiet admissions.

Come on, give him a bit more than just

Me too.

He's defeated, right?

So he says, me too.

Oh, did I say that?

Okay, well,

not that.

It should have been you instead of Kyle.

Me too.

I thought.

All right.

I didn't realize I was that fast with it.

Me too.

Is that good?

That will suffice.

My quiet admission seemed to sober her.

Kimber squeezed her hands together to still the anger and fear that were spawning wild electrical currents throughout her body that manifested as violent shudders.

She knew this was the end, and for the first time since we'd crossed into Missouri, both Kimber and I were well and truly alone.

We didn't even have each other anymore.

We didn't have anything.

Prescott won't talk to me anymore.

She said more calmly this time as she tried to compose herself.

Does that mean what I think it does?

Yes.

So you're planning to leave me behind, Sam.

I took a deep breath and then answered her honestly,

yes.

Well, that's not gonna happen.

I need to be there when he dies.

I deserve to be there.

Her voice was still dripping and acid, but she seemed to be steady.

I knew Kimber was right.

She did deserve to be there.

In a better world, she would see him slain and watch the light leave his eyes.

But I refused to risk her safety.

I couldn't watch Kimber die.

She had suffered so much already.

I need to be there to choke the truth about Kyle out of Jimmy Prescott.

And I fucking will be.

She stood up and whipped her long hair out of her face.

When are we leaving for the mine?

You'll die if you go.

I don't give a fuck, Sam.

We stared at each other.

There's no point in challenging Kimber.

She never backed down.

Never.

3 a.m.

I said finally.

Fine.

Perfect.

I'm going to show when you're going to sleep since you were gone all fucking night.

Later you can shoot up the rest of your heroines so that you're useless up there.

But hey, at least you'll die high.

Kimber gathered her clothes and threw a contemptuous look back at me.

She stomped down the little hallway to the bathroom.

I studied her, hoping to remember all the details.

This was the last time I would ever see my best friend because even if I somehow lived, Kimber would ever forgive me for this.

But I would slay her demons for her, just as I had slain mine in this very room days before.

I prayed she would turn around just once before shutting the door.

I just wanted to see her face one last time.

But she never did.

I had hurt her again, this time mercilessly.

Everything that was left of what would have been called my soul was scorched to cinders.

Thank God I didn't have much longer to live because I'd be limping across the finish line as it was my heart and soul burned out.

I stood up and placed the bread onto the bedside table.

Using the cheap motel stationery, I wrote Kimber a last letter, just like her mother had ten years before.

I took the car.

There's a red pickup that's been parked next to us for a week.

You swipe the keys, they're in the drawer.

I programmed Seth's number into your phone.

Call him when you hit the border.

He'll tell you where to go.

He knows the plan and he'll take care of you.

I placed the note under the gun, prayed Kimber would heed it.

I could taste salt and ash, and I let the motel door click shut behind me, and I realized that I knew the feeling well.

Regret.

Walked around the building and climbed into Kimber's old Mazda.

I'd wanted to leave her own car, but it would have been too risky to transfer the guns from the Mazda to the red pickup, especially when the Dodge's methed-out owner could sober up any time.

I pulled out of the parking lot and merged onto the highway going west.

There was just one more errand to run before I made my final trip up the mountain.

My heart sunk lower every passing mile.

There were precious few between the Prince Ridge and my old house.

And before I'd even decided if going home was a good idea, after all, I was pulling into the driveway of my old home.

The house was very different than I remembered.

My parents had built an addition onto the dining room and had widened the windows into bays on the bottom floor.

Why they felt the needed extra room when their children were dead or as good or as good as was beyond me.

It was odd to climb the familiar patio stairs and ring the bell as if I I were a stranger.

The chime was different too.

More lilting and melodic.

I waited a few minutes, rocking foot to foot, wondering what I would say to the woman who had raised me when she opened the door.

If she opened the door, I was beginning to doubt that anyone was home.

I had nothing left to lose anyway.

I decided to try the front door.

It was locked.

I knocked hard on the window next to it.

Mom, I said through the door, it's Sam.

Nothing.

Was Was she home?

Asleep?

Still locked in Whitney's room wailing away her grief after all these years?

I jumped over the patio railing and walked into the backyard.

My parents had built a giant wooden deck where the back porch had been, complete with a hot tub and wet bar.

They are certainly living it up without us, eh?

I felt ire and indignation seething just below the surface, but I held it in check.

Superpower had only just recently acquired.

Okay, for one, he is assuming that his parents even live here, which is a stretch.

And on top of that, he's also assuming his dad doesn't have like 14 children from the mine.

Yeah, well, I think he's looking at it through the lens of big man in charge spends big money.

Yeah.

You know, that kind of thing.

Like, whoa, wow.

So you need bay windows, dad.

Yeah, wow.

Yeah, I'm glad the children's blood paid for it.

Yeah.

Walking up the deck, I tried the sliding glass door to the kitchen.

Caught on something, but with a hard yank, I was able to free it.

The door slid open, allowing me access to the house.

There were more upgrades inside, including mahogany floors and top-of-the-line kitchen appliances.

And why not?

What else was he going to do with the kids' college fun?

I thought bitterly.

Mom?

Called again and stepped over the threshold.

As I waited for a response, my eyes began to wander around the room.

Most of the walls hosted art of some kind, but now and again, I found beautifully framed photos hung reverently among them.

I went room to room, studying the frame pictures, all of which were hung on the most propituous part of the wall as if in worship.

And of course, all the pictures were of Whitney.

You will never leave her be.

Never.

I wanted to hit something.

As I wandered through the house, I began to realize that some of the pictures were duplicates.

As if my father hadn't had enough photos of Whitney to cover the entire house, there were no photos of my parents.

Or me.

I walked upstairs, and it was more the same.

My old room housed only a flat-screen TV and a tanning bed.

while Whitney's was exactly the way she'd left it.

I couldn't bear to go into my parents' room.

Everywhere I looked, I saw Whitney.

No, I will not let this happen.

I collected the photos from every room, foyer, and hallway, and then dumped the pictures, including glass and frame, into the deep marble sink in the kitchen.

Then pulled a bottle of whiskey from the outside bar, poured it liberally over the sheriff's shrine.

Took out a cigarette, lit it, brought the lighter down to the alcohol-soaked pyre where it erupted into a pyramid of hungry flame.

I would burn it all.

Burn him too.

While I smoked the marble roll and waited for the smoke alarm to trigger, I heard a familiar sound from down the hallway across the room.

Someone was opening the garage.

I didn't know what I would say to her, but she needed to answer for all of this.

And I had to know what she knew about her daughter's death and her husband's crimes.

Heard the door open, and she was walking down the hallway toward the kitchen.

I flicked my cigarette into the dying blaze and started toward her.

But it wasn't my mother who emerged from the darkness.

Bomb, bump, bum.

That's kind of fucking creepy, though, huh?

What?

No pictures of the family, only pictures of Whitney all over the house.

Yeah, that's his shrine.

Yeah.

That's who his obsession was with.

Super, super creepy.

Yeah, how culpable do you think the mom is?

It's hard to say.

I mean,

my gut reaction is you let this kind of stuff happen, or you're just kind of like anyone who's idly sitting by for these things, it always feels iffy.

But at the same time,

I don't know.

Who knows?

My gut, I want to say I, you know, don't care for her.

No, no.

The only way that she's not evil in my eyes is if she was like being physically like abused during the physically abused or she's like in a catatonic state where he's been drugging her for

some other snare where she's a victim too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Chapter 12.

Emmeline.

It had taken only seconds to recognize her.

Emma hadn't aged very much since we were teenagers and she looked absolutely gorgeous.

But I couldn't figure out what she was doing in my house.

Emmeline immediately dropped the bag she was carrying in shock and slung back against the wall.

Who are you?

What are you doing in my house?

She said quickly, her eyes drawn drawn to the fire quietly burning behind me.

I was gonna ask you the same thing.

Why are you here?

Why are you burning?

Her voice had risen high-pitched hysteria.

What's in the sink?

What are you doing in my house, Emma?

Her eyes finally slid up to my face as a familiar use of her name.

I watched hesitant recognition dawn there.

Sam?

Yeah, now answer my question.

Why are you in my house?

Where's mom?

Your mom?

Yes, she lives here.

You know, tall, brunette, always trying to feed everyone, married to the sheriff.

sheriff Emma Line finally seemed to regain her composure.

She straightened up against the wall, but refused to move away from it.

Actually, I'm married to the sheriff.

He didn't mention you were in town, come to think of it.

Ugh.

Emma was one of the three girls that he said were hot when he was younger, right?

There's that those three girls that he'd be like, oh, they were so cute in their bikinis or whatever.

You know what at this point?

Yeah, like that's that's a perfectly expected reaction from this guy.

Yeah.

This dude, you're married to my dad.

My stomach heaved.

Yes, for about seven years now.

She crossed her arms in front of her and smirked.

What had he done to her?

Emeline was never like this when I'd known her.

She'd been sweet and friendly and shy.

It's the reason I'd crushed on her so hard.

With a sinking feeling, I remembered that my dad had known all that because we'd spoken about my feelings for Emeline at length.

Oh,

you tell your dad about Emma.

Yeah, you're like, I feel like I like this girl.

She's beautiful.

And then your dad ends up getting with her.

It's like

new ways for him to be gross.

And only two years after they left.

She's been with him for seven years.

Probably even longer.

The moment she turned 18.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, yes, but still

in his 40s, 50s, whatever.

Yeah.

No, I'm saying that he was clearly waiting for a public.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Or maybe in this town, they probably don't give a shit.

Yeah, but to like, she said she's been married seven years yeah i'm saying that so he could have he could have married her when he was 14 yeah i'm sure they were hooking up and stuff as soon as his son was gone but i'm saying like to get legally married like the moment she turned 18 i guess yeah maybe in this town too they're just like i'm staying married

i'm the sheriff jimmy's words came back to me unbidden from days before walker has a thing about playing a sick game with his kids I turned and threw up in the sink.

Dowsey went little, he throws up a lot.

It's like the third time.

He is a heroin, John.

That's true, yeah.

I turned up and threw her up in the sink.

Dowsing what little fire now remained in the pile of ash and twisted glass.

That's revolting.

What were you burning in my sink?

Where is my mother?

I asked, spitting out the last of the Bible.

She died years ago.

Listened a year after you were run out of town.

Emma said.

She was beginning to sound annoyed and bored.

My mother is dead?

Yes, dead.

It's almost a relief.

If my mom had been gone for so long, it meant that she hadn't been a part of any of this.

But the pain was lurking there, too.

I could only hope that her death had been natural, because if it hadn't been, all I had was the prayer that the sheriff had shown mercy to his wife of 22 years.

I'm his wife now.

And a shrill voice cut through the fog of grief that had surrounded me.

How did she die?

I don't remember.

It was so long ago, but it's not like you were here, so why do you care?

You need to get out of here, Imma.

He's dangerous.

My husband would never hurt me.

I'm the mother of his child.

He loves me.

You have a kid with my dad?

Yes.

She's at daycare right now.

And she's his whole world.

No one else compares.

Not even you.

He better fucking roundhouse kick this bitch in the face as soon as he can.

He's like, oh, cool.

He's like, that's awesome.

And just like caves in her chest.

Kicks her.

She like flies across the room.

Well, you know what's saying that, right?

Because like his last daughter, that was his whole world.

Well, yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, gosh.

Every time I think, it's like, well, it can't get grosser.

The story does.

Do you think he renamed his new daughter at Whitney?

He probably did, that animal.

What have he named like Kimber or something real?

I mean, what?

He named it Adolf Hitler at this point.

I can't see.

I mean,

yeah.

Oh, really?

No one else compares?

What's her name, Emma?

I asked.

Melanie faltered and the smile on her face turned snide.

I'm not telling you that.

What's her name?

What did you burn in my sink?

I burned every picture of Whitney Walker that was in this house.

Emili's eyes widened and her face paled almost immediately.

You can't.

You you didn't?

Yes, every picture of Whitney is gone.

He doesn't have backups of those photos.

He'll come after you.

He'll kill you.

Not if I kill him first.

Emiline pulled a phone out of her back pocket and began scrolling through the numbers.

She laughed, but it was disingenuous, high-pitched, and nervous.

He'll kill you.

He'll kill you when I tell him what you've done.

You tell the sheriff I'm coming for him.

I nodded at her as she dialed.

Emeline put the phone up to her ear.

I didn't try to stop her.

It's too late now, anyway.

My eyes flicked back to the sink.

Couldn't hide this.

The sheriff knew I was in town.

He probably even knew what I was here for.

But if Jimmy Prescott could be believed, he didn't know that I knew where to find him.

And that was the only thing I had going for me.

That and the prayer that the sheriff wouldn't come tearing down out of the mountain when he found out what I did.

I needed him there.

Where it all begun.

Emma was moving slowly toward the back door, no doubt ready to bulge as soon as she reached it.

The line suddenly connected and Emiline began to speak very quickly.

Send everyone to the housies.

Before she could get another word out, Emma was suddenly on her back on the ground.

her phone spinning across the floor toward my foot.

Kimber had come through the sliding door so fast, I didn't even realize what had happened until I saw the mess of red hair on top of a screaming Emma.

The line was still connected, so I smashed the phone under the heel of my boot.

By the time I looked back toward Emmeline, Kimber already had the Beretta jammed under Emma's jaw.

Say another word, Adler, and I'll put a bullet through your fucking skull.

I added the fucking.

That's okay.

Emmeline whimpered.

Where's Sam's mom?

My throat tied in.

She's.

I wasn't talking to you.

Adler.

She's.

She's dead.

How?

I don't know.

It was a car accident, I think, or some of the car.

I'm sorry.

I don't remember.

I'm a victim like you.

Oh, fuck you.

Yeah, kill her.

Kill her.

Kill her.

Kimber let go of Emma and she scrambled back against the wall.

Her disposition changed as soon as she was freed.

Gone was the scared, wilting flower from moments before.

Emma was once again mistress of the house.

She smiled coolly.

But of course, I'm a survivor.

And it's it's Walker now.

You both are so dead when my husband finds you.

I feel bad because she's definitely mentally insane.

She is mentally brainwashed, in my opinion.

Does that not read like a fucking...

You know what?

You're right.

And we should put her out of her misery.

I agree.

Well,

you know.

I have no sympathy for anyone in this town.

Listen, I'm just...

Everyone is aware of.

I am just saying, you think whatever you want.

I'm just saying that it's all clicking here.

Listen, I fucking...

I'm trying to catch the shit as it flies by now because of all the you know what what's been going on the last couple episodes yeah so i just want to say she's sitting there even her just being like oh so it's walker now and giving us like a gym helper like

that to me i'm like oh you're you're just insane yeah she's she's been she's a victim of it as well but she's different now yeah yeah yeah understood that being said uh this town needs to burn yes kimber turned and cracked him over the head with the butt of the gun She fell face first onto the rug she was kneeling on.

We gotta go, I said, taking Kimber's arm.

get off me screamed and jerked away from my grasp kimber gave me a fiery look and then held out her hands keys

no you need to get out of town immediately kimber she pointed the beret at my chest now

i hesitantly handed them over to her and she whirled out the door i followed her to the mazda where she tore open the driver's side door and got in the red pickup was parked haphazardly on the front yard grass torn up under its tires a driver door hanging open i walked up to the mazda as kimber scowled at me but didn't get in Kimber, I'd rather be dead than take you with me up to that mine.

I told her through the open window, her hands flexed, white-knuckled on the steering wheel.

Can I just say, I think he's being too much of a little fucking pussy white knight right now?

He is a little bit.

Like, I gotta say, goddamn, just let her fucking go.

Just let her go.

Like, she's better than one.

Seriously, you're gonna get hurt.

She's as committed to die for this as you are.

What the fuck?

Like,

you came up there.

You both are in.

You both are up shit's creek right now.

Yeah.

Stop being such a fucking pussy and just let her go.

Hey, seriously, babe.

No more.

I cannot rest with blood on my hands.

The suicide run made

more sense to me

when,

like, he, I get leaving the note, like, I'm going to go and stuff.

That's fine.

But now where they're standing outside, he's like, no, you've got to go.

I mean, I've been at.

I've been fucking holding that back for a while to where it's just like, he's like, you know what?

She doesn't know, but I'm going to go up because I deserve to die.

It is very wide.

It's like, just shut the fuck up and like if you guys go up there and get your brains blown i guess i was giving him more credit for that because like he's a heroin addict he feels like he has nothing to lose and him and kyle died and now he feels determined to die for kimber i hate i think i guess i just i want kyle's sacrifice to mean something i need her to get out of here listen i understand that's coming from a place of her Kimber surviving is the actual goal.

That's like, that's like, how do you know if you want?

She has to be safe.

If she's the one who lives, that's all that matters in his eyes right now.

But at the same time, stop being such a fucking pussy.

And then also just be like, I mean, dude, I don't know.

This whole white knight thing, just shut the fuck up and let her go with you.

Just get her with it.

Because it's been like forever now.

It's like, I seriously don't even know what I do.

I don't know how to do it.

You'd probably do heroin, dude.

Probably.

If I was a fucking gambling man.

It's like, it's insulting, is honestly what it is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She's certainly capable.

Yeah.

I agree.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Two's better than one, but I guess if he wants to die.

Also, a character.

Dying is also an easier route for a character like that.

I hate when characters, male or female, like have verbiage or they say shit where it's just like, trust me, you'll be better off.

Like I'm deciding how you feel.

It's your decision.

Yeah.

I think that's fucked.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it would be different too.

There's a couple different things.

It'd be different if she was like, if she's like, well, yeah, I'll go with you if you need that closure.

And it wasn't her perpetuating the whole thing too, right?

This was Kimber's idea.

Yeah.

He was going to get high until he was dead back in Chicago.

Let's say he's like, well, let's say it's just a distraction.

He's like, well, I was going to go buy heroin before they fucking blew my brains out.

Yeah.

Or something like that.

And maybe he's like a junkie and going off.

But this whole like weird white knuckle thing, I'm going to break into my old family's home and burn these photos.

I'm like, God, dude, extra.

It's a bit extra.

Is it not?

Because if anything, she should have come home.

He's like, fire should stay lit.

And he should have just fucking scissor kicked that bitch right in the face.

So when I say it, it, it's a problem.

But when you say it, it's fine.

I said, I said, listen, dude, I'm the monster

of this show.

You got to stay pure of heart.

See, now I'm doing the same to you.

Ah,

you know, it's good.

Because I got a finger.

Exactly.

You're like, what the fuck are you talking about?

Shut up.

You know what I'm talking about?

You actually got me ready to go with that one.

With that one maneuver, I'm 100% on your side now.

He needs to shut up.

That was good, gaslighting.

I like that.

All right.

Well, that's it.

That's exactly what he's doing.

That's exactly what he's doing right now.

I'm the tortured gargoyle that hangs out these chapel halls.

The moment you said that, I'm like, don't, don't infantize me.

Yeah, yeah.

I should have just had like six syringes in my arm.

I'm the animal.

I'm the dark side.

I'm the devil.

You're the angel.

Oh.

Okay.

All right.

Point made.

Don't make me leave you here, she said as the far-off sirens of police cruisers began to creep into the neighborhood.

Damn it, I yelled.

Did Kimber always get her way?

Before my door was even shut, Kimber was screeching out of the driveway.

She made her record time back to the highway, but the sirens continued to grow louder behind us.

They're chasing us, Kimber.

Where were you going?

You know where Broska is, and I don't.

You're not going to tell me, are you?

No, said in a low voice.

Then there's only one place to go.

She said, and before I realized where she was going, we were already there.

She pulled into the back lot of the Prince Ridge, parked, walked straight into our hotel room, which she hadn't even bothered to lock on her way out.

Ran after her, locking the hotel door behind me.

They know we're here.

We have to go now.

Kimber fell into the armchair and began spinning the car keys on her finger.

The spin is kind of rough.

I didn't think about the visual of that.

That's kind of cringe.

Yeah.

That's a bit cringe.

Now, see, now I'm picturing her in the white night armor.

It's like I'm picturing two completely

armor.

Yeah.

They're just like, Kimber, you have to get out of here.

Now she's like,

I knew you'd go to your mother's.

No, don't do that to Kimber.

I'm not.

I'm not.

I knew you would go to your mother's.

Even when you're high,

even when you're high, you're not stupid enough to make a run at Baraska in the daylight.

I'm not high.

You had it well.

Hold on, hold on, Paul.

But this is a Kimber shrugged.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I can't, I can't, not this, not Baraska, not this one.

I'm not doing that much of a voice.

I am doing the actions of what she's doing.

All right.

And I reeled back the voice.

So

she shrugs.

You hide it well.

And anyways, how can I believe anything you say?

You've lied to me at every turn.

I lied.

You kept everything from me.

Only what I didn't trust you with.

And I agree that you were right.

I was a liability, and I'm so sorry for that.

Kills me to even think about the danger I put you in.

But you need to admit,

I can see you spinning faster out of the fire.

I see it going

like it's making, it's making a loud noise.

But you need to admit the reason you're really here.

Let me take care of the rest.

I can do that now, and I want to.

I know what my life is buying.

I want to help, Sam.

I want to help, Sam.

I want a Barasca gone and those men dead.

I know you do, but that's not why you're here.

You're here because of Kyle.

I'm not saying that's wrong, Kimber, but...

I'm here for Kyle, okay?

I never pretend I wasn't, but I want to see Barasca exposed, too.

Sirens were getting nearer, and we were no closer to getting out of this room.

Kimber sighed.

It's clear that that's never going to happen.

I thought we might be able to get records, but I don't know how to find them.

These fuckers are going to die with their good names but at least they'll die right

yes they will die we'd finally agreed on something and you're not going up there alone for some suicidal showdown got it clinched my teeth time for lives was over but I couldn't agree to this siren suddenly cut off they were here

Kimber come on out son we know your girlfriend are hiding up in that hotel room megaphone was coming from the other side of the building they they think that we're still in 209 Kimber whispered as if they could hear her it was the break we needed.

Get your shit and get in the car.

Kimber gave me a wary look.

We can argue later.

Let's just get out of here, Kimber.

If they catch us now, no one makes a run of Varascu.

She nodded, still looking distressful, but slung her bag over her shoulder and quietly opened the door.

I prayed they had yet to surround the whole building.

I grabbed my duffel bag and followed Kimber out, quietly closing the door behind me.

Come on now, Samuel.

Don't make us come into this cracked din after you.

Come out real nice and obedient so we can bring you to your daddy.

He's really looking forward to seeing you.

Wants to spend some quality father and son time.

I like how even the deputies are comically evil.

Hey, and he wants to spend some real quality time with his son.

I mean, to be fair, they are helping run a child sex trafficking ring, so I guess there's no limit.

I mean, I imagine them all with extremely long pencil-thin mustaches

that curl.

They'll have this.

Don't make us come in that crackdown, Samuel.

Yeah, that's excellent.

You're going to fall right into our trappy.

And don't worry about the comically large mouse trap outside your door.

There's a big box instead.

Yeah, I bet you're hungry for being in that crack den so long.

Why don't you grab that nice big piece of cheese?

We're going to put him in the

cheese, and then he'll be in Schrödinger's box with the cat and the cheese.

Well

Everything is going according to plan

Isn't that right, sir?

And everyone's doing it too?

Yes.

Yes, yes, excellent.

We threw our bags in the backseat and climbed into the car.

I waited to hear the megaphone again before I risked turning the engine over.

This time a different voice spoke.

Samuel Walker, you were one of suspect of the felony assault of Kyle Landy.

If you resist arrest, we may have to hurt you.

The sheriff really wouldn't like that, so don't make our jobs more difficult.

Where are we going?

Just away from here.

We have to lose them.

Knowing that they would spot the monster immediately, I decided our only hope was to gun it and light up the highway.

The tires screeched as we shot out of the parking lot, headed straight for the freeway on-ramp.

There are a few places to hide, and I realized our best shot was one of the forest roads we knew so well.

I risked a glance in the rearview mirror as we hit on the on-ramp.

The deputies had been caught off guard by our sudden appearance from the back of the building and were only just taking their cruiser out of the park as we emerged onto the highway.

The pedal was on the floor and I was taking all of my concentration to keep the car stable in the gently falling snow.

I knew there was a strong possibility that they would catch us since their cars were a lot faster than ours.

Kimber, hand me the gun.

No, she said without looking away from the side mirror.

I'm a better shot than you.

She was probably right.

I hadn't shot a gun since before I went to prison.

The highway began to curve, and I knew this would be my only blind spot for miles.

The one chance chance to make a move they couldn't see.

Instead of pulling off to the right, headed up a gently inclining forest inlet, I cut the wheel and careened over the snow-covered highway divider, across oncoming traffic, and up the steeper, more challenging access road to my left.

I prayed our tire tracks wouldn't be visible to them, with the moderate holiday traffic kicking up slush over them.

The snow was falling softly through the trees as we climbed the mountain road, and I knew that if we were going to make it somewhere less vulnerable, we couldn't stop.

Snowfall would only get heavier.

End of chapter 13.

it is interesting how they yelled uh you're wanted for the assault of kyle landy yeah they're just gonna they just pinned it on yeah yeah yeah chapter 14.

kimber remained focused on the road behind us throughout our ascent it was slow going at times and we got stuck every mile or two i wondered if kimber could even get the car back down in the morning there seemed to be no fear in her no anxiety in her voice no agitation in her movements Kimber knew as well as I did this was the end.

She didn't hesitate to meet it.

Finally, I saw what I was looking for.

A turn off to a more level road that would move us laterally around the mountain.

I took the corner and drove a mile and a half down the road before finally putting the car in park.

Kimber turned around in her seat and stared out the back window.

They're not following us.

How do you know?

Because I've been followed before.

Kimber turned back around in her seat and chewed on her thumbnail.

But because we're not being followed doesn't mean we can go back.

They're not going to let us off this mountain.

I choked on a deep breath of thin mountain air, hoping to calm my racing heart.

Kimber patted my back.

Breathe, Sam.

She leaned forward and popped her glove compartment open, took out a large folded paper target.

Why do you keep that in your car?

Kimber shrugged.

Practice?

She opened the door and stepped out in the snow.

I followed her.

You think they're following us and you want to shoot a gun out here?

You said we weren't being followed.

I trust you.

Why on gods hurts?

What you should- Okay, whatever.

Whatever, whatever, whatever.

Okay, we're going.

Just like,

yeah, this is Baraska.

It's Kyle and Kimber.

Kyle, haha, Kyle and Mom's funeral.

Okay, I'm good.

She gave me a small smile as if she hadn't said anything significant.

Kimber trusted me.

It was a bittersweet victory that wouldn't last long.

Come on.

You need to learn how to shoot.

Use the Bretta since you favor it so much.

Honestly, I just thought it looked cool.

It does, and sounds cool, too.

Have you ever shot a firearm before?

Once, but I didn't hit anything.

Well, that's not going to be acceptable up here.

We have a lot of ammunition, but it's going to help us if but it's not going to help us if you can't hit anything.

Couldn't argue with that.

Now the sheriff is probably going to be wearing a vest, so you have to aim for so you can't aim for the body mass.

You'll need to hit him in the head.

Save with Jimmy and anyone else that shoots at you.

Okay, I said, as if we weren't discussing murdering cops.

Kimber walked 20 yards away and pin the target to a tree branch.

Now, the bread is a semi-automatic gun, so you won't need to chamber every cartridge.

Just point and shoot in secession.

Right.

You don't need to rack the slide because there's already a bullet in the firing chamber.

Your left foot should be in front of your right, about shoulder length apart.

Hold the gun with both hands.

Okay, good.

Now align the sights and fix it on the target.

Squeeze the trigger when you're ready.

The shot was louder than I'd expected and echoed through the mounds for almost three seconds.

Well, if they didn't know we were here already, they do now.

Not bad.

Kimber said as she walked up to the target.

You hit the very outer circle.

Let me correct your stance a little.

We worked through the afternoon in similar form, taking a lot of time between each shot.

I would fire the gun, Kimber would adjust me or give me advice, and then I would try again.

With each progressive squeeze of the trigger, I got a little closer to the center of the target.

She worked with me until the sun had sunk far into the horizon and the shadows were too long to decipher from each other.

I began to shiver in the sunless cold.

I know you're freezing, but this is the perfect amount of light to practice in.

You're still leaving at 3 a.m., right?

Yes, but Kimber, can't have you out there.

Oh my gosh.

I can't have you out there.

You know that, right?

Why do you think I'm teaching you to shoot?

You're going to let me go alone?

Do I have a choice?

No.

Kimber shrugged.

Maybe, maybe, like, as they talked about the Kyle thing, like, she'll get Kyle

and he'll go to Baraska, maybe.

I don't know.

Yeah, in his wheelchair.

Sheesh.

Gets shot like nine times immediately.

Happy cooking pots with my baby.

I was running through six with my loves.

yeah.

So, Kyle, he likes Drake now.

All the S's living Tess's like I'm George Drake.

Like, I'm George Strait.

Okay.

Kimber shrugged.

Then I guess I have to.

It's too too easy.

Deceptively easy.

We both knew she didn't mean it, but I didn't want to argue.

Okay, get low like I taught you and try to hit the birch tree again.

I'm gonna get the sig so I can show you how to use a rifle.

I eyed the white bark of the far-off birch through the sides.

I was determined to hit the trunk this time.

Even though I knew I wouldn't have the luxury of taking time to line up my shots at the mine, I needed to learn how to use them properly if I was going to have any kind of chance at success.

I exhaled slowly and brought my finger down down to wrap around the trigger.

Sam, stop!

Turned around to see Kimber standing at the trunk of the car.

Her face, which had been flushed from the cold for the last hour, had gone white as snow.

She was standing in.

What's wrong?

It's gone.

What's gone?

All of it.

What?

I walked over next to Kimber and stared into the trunk.

All that remained was one bulletproof vest and a scribbled piece of yellow legal paper.

What?

Someone came up

to be fair.

they've been off the highway shooting guns for hours.

They didn't see my comically large net above the tree, did they?

They didn't see my gun magnet.

They didn't see the large cartoonish cartoon magnet that sucked all the guns up into the magnet.

Yes, it's all a part of my plan.

On the yellow paper, it said, We know all you have on you is one semi-automatic handgun.

We're leaving you this ballistic vest to show that we play fair.

Your daddy wants to see you.

Come to us before we come to you.

Coordinates below, the good guys.

P.S.

Your vehicle has been low-jacked, courtesy of the Butler County Sheriff's Department.

They just won.

So, so the police see them and they scooby-doo sneak up to the car and still 23 rifles.

They're like, or no, seven rifles, two shotguns, and like 20 handguns.

There's four cops.

All right, everybody got grab five guns apiece.

And we're going to sneak back into the woods like this.

I was going to play Pink Panther music while I do it.

Unless it's supposed to be that they took it while they're in the parking lot.

Which is what I actually assume happened.

I like to think that they did out in the forest, but.

They've been shooting all day and they didn't go to get ammo.

They've never really been shot.

Well, I guess they have, but, well, yes, because I think that she only has had them, because he's been holding the...

The Bretta.

Yeah.

So I imagine that when they were out of the way.

I thought she had a box of ammo in the front seat or something.

Yeah, sure.

Okay.

All right.

They just won.

Wait, didn't it say your vehicle's been low-jacked?

Well,

I don't even know what the fuck that means.

I assumed it meant like putting a like a...

Probably like a tracker on it or something.

Like a cap on it.

Or maybe whatever.

Okay.

Kimber said in defeated sort of bewilderment.

And she was right.

We were absolutely screwed.

No.

Maybe we can still.

Kimber slapped my face.

She seemed to immediately regret it as if she had surprised herself, but she carried on anyway.

Don't be an idiot, Sam.

Kimber jerked the 9mm out of my hand and ejected the clip.

It was empty.

You don't have anything on you.

Nothing?

I asked in cold fear.

I could work with very little, but I couldn't work with nothing at all.

Nothing, said Kimber as she racked the slide.

Except this.

Bullets sprang out of the chamber and fell into the thin layer of snow below where it sunk.

Fell to my knees to retrieve it.

One bullet?

One bullet.

It probably have failed with a thousand bullets, but with only one, I might as well just put it into my head.

Sam, you're gonna have to curve the bullet.

That'd be great if it's a wanted thing.

He yells all the cops.

It's like that scene, the Guardians of the Galaxy with that little arrow guy.

Yeah.

Yondu.

Yeah.

I will say this is getting very cheesy.

If he's like, all I need is one.

And we go and he's like, Dad, fuck you.

He does like a Gran Torino thing.

Get off my lawn.

And he pulls it out, and then they all start shooting him.

Yeah.

Doesn't that happen in Gran Torino?

Why are you looking at me like that?

He doesn't have a gun.

Oh, what's fake?

Yeah.

He's like, he's like,

he lets them gun him down so that he can make a case to get them out of the neighborhood.

Yeah, finally, they're all arrested.

Yeah.

My grand scheme all along.

Yeah, that's what the moral of that movie was about.

He was right from the beginning.

I had a pretty good hunch.

I wanted this to happen and it happened the end.

When could they have done this?

I was beginning to panic.

I don't know.

Actually, we did our inventory days ago.

Damn it.

Damn it.

How did they know what we were carrying on us?

They've probably been watching us, or Jimmy told them.

Shook my head wildly, unable or unwilling to comprehend our current situation.

I couldn't get control of my fear.

We needed to sit.

We needed to thin.

Get in the car.

We need to get in the car.

We shut the door and I turned on the engine, blasting the hot air into the cab.

We ran it for 20 minutes, but nothing seemed to dissipate the cold.

Maybe we should just leave.

Ember's voice wobbled when she finally spoke.

Her shock was melting into hopelessness.

Come back in another 10 years.

Didn't want to tell her that we couldn't leave.

They were tracking the car.

They knew exactly where we were.

They always had.

All the roads down the mountain were already blocked.

All the roads now led to Baraska.

End of chapter 14.

Okay, so why don't you

go to a Walmart, a dick, somewhere that sells a box of ammunition?

Well, I'm wondering, but that's why I was like,

earlier when I was like,

oh, well, he had to wait till she was 18 to marry her.

I was like, I feel like in this town, everybody's just in on it.

So I feel like even if they went into like a place that's local, they're just going to be.

All the roads outside a local town are blocked.

Sure.

Sure.

Look, if this wasn't Barosca, I'd be a lot more upset about it.

Even where you're pointing out, like, this is getting kind of cheesy, the one by the way.

Well, I'm just saying,

I'm not saying I'm not enjoying it.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm willing to put up with it a lot

only because it's Barosca.

If this was any other story, my hopes would be in the gutter right now.

There has not been a cartoonish

firefight.

So I no one, no explosions yet.

Nothing to that degree.

I'm willing to put up with a lot because

this is Sam and Kimber.

And I'm also holding out hope calls out there.

That's fine.

At this point.

Okay.

Chapter 15.

Pulled off my jacket and shoved it behind my lower back, which was beginning to throb in pain.

Kimber was in and out of sleep, and I occasionally turned off the car to conserve gas, making sure to cover her with all the clothes I could find in our duffel bags.

It was midnight.

The woods were quiet, and there was no moonlight to reveal what surrounded the car.

We were enveloped by empty, black, ice-cold air.

I was cold and tired and in pain.

I needed to wait until a few hours before dawn to start my trek trek to the mine.

The walk to Barasca would be around two and a half hours from where we were.

I had to make sure I left Kimber enough gas to get down the mountain and out of town.

Because as soon as the sheriff was dead, or I was, they'd be looking for her.

I watched her sleep and wondered at the madness of the world.

We should all have lived normal lives, graduated together, went to college, been roommates, backpacked Europe.

But none of that could ever happen now.

What cruel irony it was that Kimber was more of a sister to me than she had ever been to Kyle.

Universe was just a big asshole.

I rubbed my eyes and debated braving cold outside for a cigarette.

I had fourteen left, and I planned to smoke them all before I reached the mine.

I didn't mean what I said.

Jumped a little, and Kimber laughed softly.

I didn't know you were awake.

Who can sleep?

Good point.

Kimber sat up and pushed twenty pounds of clothes off her.

I noted the time and started the car.

I didn't mean it.

What I said about wishing it had been you instead of Kyle.

Don't worry about it, I said, shifting uncomfortably in my seat.

I wish the same thing.

No, Sam.

Kimber grabbed me by the sides of my head and pulled me to her where she rested her forehead against mine.

There's no one I would rather have by my side tomorrow.

And I know you don't want me there, but I will be to the very end.

With Kimber holding me the way she was, there was no way for me to hide my wet eyes.

Pulled my head back and wiped my face with a ratty flannel sleeve.

Emotions were so much more overwhelming when you felt all of them.

Without responding to her, I opened the door and stepped out into the piercing mountain air.

Closed the door, leaned against it, dug into my pockets with a shaking hand.

Left my park in the car, my haste to get out of it, but I wasn't going back now.

A new mantra echoed through my mind again.

One bullet.

Heard the passenger door open, turned in time to catch the parka Kimber had thrown at me.

You idiot.

Get back in the car.

It's freezing.

You think?

I took a long drag off my cigarette cigarette and felt the nicotine begin to work its magic.

I needed to stay calm.

One bullet, Kimber.

Pulled my Parker around my shoulders.

And a bulletproof vest?

Yeah.

More bullet resilient depending on what you get shot with.

Nothing is really bulletproof, am I right?

He gave her an icy glare.

Well, I didn't know that, but thanks.

Sorry.

It's fine.

It doesn't matter.

They'll probably just shoot me in the head anyway.

We're almost done because it's fucking freezing out here.

Don't you want to get some sleep?

I'll sleep plenty soon enough, I thought morbidly.

Not really.

Flicked the cigarette away and followed its ember glow to where it settled in the fresh, still-falling snow.

Climbed back in the car and I checked the time.

Four more minutes, and I would have to shut the engine off again.

I know you think I should stay, so tell me, what do I do after you leave?

Timber asked as she laid both of her hands over the air vents.

Wait until you hear gunfire.

As soon as you do, get the hell off this mountain.

If you haven't heard anything by 6 a.m., leave anyway.

Hitch the car about three miles down and walk out.

Do not follow the road.

Just keep going downhill.

Call Seth as soon as you get to signal.

Kimber nodded.

Interesting.

And how will I know what happened to you?

I'll contact you or

I won't.

Both knew it would likely be the latter.

Chances that I could get a shot off, especially one that my father was expecting.

wasn't expecting were less than one percent but i knew they wouldn't let us off the mountain until one of us was dead I just hoped it would be the sheriff.

Checked the time and turned off the car.

How far is Baraska from here?

A couple hours.

Kimber buried herself under half the errant clothing and threw the other half over me.

You know I could just follow you, right?

I know.

I could already see my breath in the card and have it turned off for 10 seconds.

Unless you tell me an acceptable plan, unless I truly believe you can live through this without me, I'm going to follow you.

You can't.

Kimber, I need to stop being a selfish little shit and sacrifice something for once in my life.

And you, you've lost too much already.

But I need to do this, Sam.

I won't watch you die.

I won't let that happen.

Don't you think you're being a self- like you're being a selfish freak right now?

My death isn't yours to decide.

I've gotten this this far and I've been preparing for this for so long.

You can't go without me.

Let me do this for you, Kimber.

God.

That one was her up.

That one was her up.

Jesus fucking Christ, man.

Oh, that one hurt.

Let me do this for you, Kimber.

My armor is true, and my heart is pure.

May my arrow fly true for you, my queen.

Or Austin Butler and Dune.

May your knife, Jibby Shagger.

The fuck, that's so fucking stupid.

We need to have knives because we have shields on our bodies.

You like Dune?

I love Dune.

Dune 2 is pretty sick.

I was just like, oh, dude,

I can't take out a fucking gun and just shoot the guy in the chest.

Well, it's because they have the vibrational arm.

Oh, I know.

And you have to stab him a certain way.

To me, I'm like...

In the future, there's not a single bullet that can get through that motherfucker.

I thought that was cool because

it's like a battle for the throne.

So they go back to old ways of honor.

Yeah, but they've been fighting like that the whole time.

It'd be different if it was one time.

It's like everybody, when they're fighting out in the fucking wars, all just have like little pocket knives.

They're slashing each other.

I like the movie.

I'm just saying, really?

Word?

That's fair.

They're taking cinnamon off the ground.

They're being like,

yeah, I can see God.

And then they're like, there's not one guy who's like, yeah, I made a laser that can just shoot through your fucking armor.

May I die?

Chippy in gender.

Austin Butler's still doing the opposite.

Austin Butler's still doing the office impression.

May my knife chip a shuttle baby.

Sorry to interrupt you again.

One of my favorite things ever is an interview being like, yeah, Austin Butler stuck in character years after this role.

I was like,

was he really sunk in that deep?

Oh, mama, what are you doing?

I can't stop.

What does my voice really sound like?

There was a screenshot of him, like the first photos came out of him on Dune, like with the bald head and stuff.

And I remember there was a comment one time.

under a picture that said, they took my hair, mama.

Mama, they took my hair off.

The whole time I'm watching the movie, you don't come on a boost, mama.

I look just like the fat bald dude in Dune, though.

The guy that floats around.

The Harkinen?

You do not look like Baron Harkinen.

I like whenever he goes up.

And see, even then, instead of doing somewhere, he's just like, also,

hey, bye, bitch.

Boom!

Blows off his bald head, spots everywhere.

He just like walks up into his neck and he's like, Just barely sticks it in.

He's like, ah!

I did like the symbol of the ants eating him.

That was pretty cool.

I like the symbol of the ants eating him after they throw him out of the desert.

I'm not talking about fucking Dune right now.

All right, let's go.

All right.

I'm the one who brought it up.

Yeah.

Yeah, I start to engage in the conversation.

He's like, okay.

I'm bored.

Rand's corner.

Yeah, no, actually, I'm bored now.

Made high knife, Jimmy Jedder.

I like a hoop when Timothy Shalmay does show up, though.

He's just like, all right, Austin Butler.

It's time for us to duel.

And Florence Peters, if I win, you're going to be my wife forever.

Isn't that right, Chris for Walking?

He's like, eh.

I guess so.

Is that what happened?

Why does he bail on?

You haven't seen Dune 2?

What?

No, the reason he has that scene is because he is establishing himself as the king of the United Forces of the different planets or whatever.

And he was like,

I will marry, because your daughter's royal blood.

So I'll marry her to be a part of, like, to keep the royal bloodline.

So I'm a legitimate, like, a king to the throne.

So,

by defeating, he's supposed to fight Christopher Walken in combat.

He says, unless you put forward an opponent, and that opponent is the Von Baron Harkin and Austin Butler's character.

So he kills him.

So now he is the like emperor over the different tribes of space.

And now he's effectively going on a holy war against everyone who attacked his home.

Because the entire story is a metaphor for like uh Muhammad

and that's like Middle East yeah

yo the yo you know what's kind of crazy though is that not only are you right but also the sandworms are kind of like camels

they write them

in the desert

let me do this for you Kimber my monsters are dead I killed them I'm clean I can do this.

I'll find out the truth about Kyle and where he is, and then I'll call you.

No Baraska has signaled because Emma called the sheriff there.

Maybe he'll go easy on you.

Maybe his guard will be done since you're his son.

You're the only son he has.

And I'll.

I didn't correct her.

I doubt it.

We did burn all of his daughter's photos and pistol whip his wife.

Worth it.

Ah, but what do you mean about Whitney's photos?

Trust me, you're better off not knowing.

One gun, one bullet, one vest.

We need a motherfucker of a plan.

Yeah, we do.

And I need to be a part of it.

No, Kimber.

No, Kimber.

I'm not backing down from this.

Neither am I.

Look, if I can come up with something.

I'm losing my mind to him right now.

I'm fighting demons right now.

Look, if I can come up with something that gives me a reasonable chance of not dying, will you agree to assist from afar?

I'm listening, but you should expect me to argue.

Trust me, I do.

argue is what we did deep into the crisp morning hours before i was ready the clock showed 3 a.m i turned off the car and threw everything i could spare for the walk to baraska over kimber's sleeping form cold would wake her soon enough equipped myself with everything i needed closed the door quietly behind me started off alone toward barosca i will you know what i will give the story credit for this they are not because back in like the original parts he kind of had a crush on kimber And then like her and Kyle started dating.

He's like, that's fine.

They are not making this romantic.

That takes

over strength.

I agree.

And I will give it points there, too, because as soon as the forehead thing happened, I was like, here it goes.

Here it goes.

I was thinking of that, too.

When they were talking about like being in the car in the late hours, I'm like, they're going to do it.

It's kind of warm, and this is our last night on this earth.

That's, I was like, they're going to do it.

They're going to do it.

And they didn't.

And they didn't do it, which is nice, too.

And I was going to say, if they would have gone there, I would have been like, that's very confusing.

Because the entire time he's like, that's like a sister to me.

You're like, my pops.

I guess I am kind of like my pops.

And then there'd be a scene where he's there and he's like, you and I aren't so different.

It'd be like that scene in Heat

where

the bank robber and the cop.

It's like, you're not so different, you and I.

You have your jobs, your people.

You like incest, I like incest.

Put it there, kidding.

Chapter 16.

There's a lot to think about when you're walking towards your end.

But instead of the existential bullshit, I expected my mind wandered in and out of the past.

I revealed in memories I'd been unable to conjure for a decade.

My family, as we were and my childhood friends, it's not something I wanted to forget again.

Finding the mine wasn't hard.

I simply followed the road we had turned onto the day before.

I had to go off trail a few times, but I knew the map well.

Recalling details came so easily to me now.

Still, as much as I hated to admit it, I didn't want to die sober.

I wondered how much it would hurt if he shot me in the head.

Not a lot, I thought.

At least that was something to hope for.

I was wearing six layers of clothing, but frozen to the core by the time the sun turned the sky a murky gray.

Cigarettes were gone and I had been jonesing for another for the past hour and a half.

I needed more time and I knew I was almost there.

I left the trail I had been on to make one more shortcut along the river and within 20 minutes I could see the edge of the mining camp.

The sheriff must have been tracking me because he was already standing in the large clearing facing my direction.

Surrounded by nine of his men and a smirking Jimmy Prescott.

Jimmy was standing a few feet behind my father, smoking a cigarette and watching me as I approached.

He winked.

Before I knew, they were behind me.

Two deputies still in uniform grabbed my arms,

pinned them to my sides, dragged me the last few yards into camp.

They dumped me at the sheriff's feet and he looked down at me in disgust.

13.

13 men and one bullet.

I couldn't believe it all came down to the lies and whims.

Jimmy Prescott.

I stood up, noting all the guns suddenly drawn on me in response.

Looked at the sheriff-eyed eye.

I was sickened to realize that we were almost identical in every way.

His hair was the same dark brown color as mine, untouched by age.

The skin on his face boasted only a few light creases, and my terrible lifestyle and weathered features somehow matched his older rage.

I wondered how had Kimber stomached my face every day without turning away in disgust.

Hello, Graham.

I said and spat into the snow between us.

You're a damn disgrace.

Shut the fuck up.

Greg, teach my son some respect.

I didn't bother to defend myself and I wouldn't have had the time anyway.

Greg knocked me back into the snow before I could even blink.

His fist split my cheek open under my left eye and I didn't rush to get up from the cold, numbing snow that was now pressed against my face.

It was in that moment that I felt Baraska all around me again.

It was as deafening as the last time.

I could sense it in the air.

The fear, the suffering, and the pain.

I could almost hear them whispering through the walls like they had ten years before.

Help me, please.

Help me or kill me.

Don't leave me here.

The building to the sheriff's back was most surely the dorm.

It was larger than the other one, but radiated the same aura of agony and death.

Now listen the fuck up, Samuel.

This little charade of yours ends today.

It appears you actually believe a woman and a drug addict could single-handedly dismantle a business this size, so you must be fucking stupid.

And that makes me feel sorry for you.

So, why don't you just hand over the gun and go back to the ghetto you crawled out of?

I pushed myself to my knees.

No,

I told him.

Well, I look how you read it, too.

No, no, and you know what?

That'd piss me off if I was the dad to a bike.

What?

No.

No.

And you know what?

Given some of the story's decisions lately, I'm not changing it.

That's the reading we're going with.

No?

Are you dog shit insane, son?

You broke into my house, destroyed pictures of my daughter, and beat up my wife.

You're lucky you're still alive.

I've killed children for less.

We're so close.

Just gotta keep it together.

Just gotta keep it together.

I feel like I just like opened a baby diaper.

Like, yeah, like the grossness.

There's been like a faint smell brewing, and you just like, all of a sudden, you're like...

And looking at him now, I didn't doubt it.

You need to die.

Well, then, by all means, take your shot.

The sheriff swept out his arms mockingly.

You know, we know you only have one round or two left because yesterday we heard you have 15 shots into some fucking trees.

His deputies laughed, but the sheriff remained sober.

Just remember, boy, your aim better be true.

Because when he cometh the king, you better not miss.

God.

Okay.

We're going to get through this.

We're gonna make it through this.

Me and you?

I'm holding back.

We're close.

We're very close.

We're very close.

I fell onto my arms as my lungs erupted into a sudden coughing fit.

Even if I could escape after the sheriff was dead, my lungs wouldn't hold up.

I was screwed.

I knew it.

The sheriff knew it, and his men knew it.

While the sheriff's gun hadn't left his holster, all but Jimmy Prescott had weapons trained on my chest and head.

If I even reached into my jacket, I'd be shot.

Or

you could use the scents you were born with and go home.

Hell, I even have Dreddy drop off more heroin before you go there.

You've run up quite a tab with the boy over the years.

My dad's my supplier.

How stupid was I?

I couldn't even remember the last time I'd paid for my drugs.

He'd been keeping me harmless and docile for years, and I let him do it.

Who was this person that I'd once loved most of my life?

A heroin addict who's just like, I actually not think about it.

I've never

actually had to pay for the heroin.

Everyone in my life has given me heroin for free.

I thought it was really cool.

I thought they all liked me a lot.

No, I have questions you have to answer.

I told him through the burning in my throat.

No, that's where you're wrong, Sammy.

I don't have to do nothing ever.

Why did you hurt Whitney?

Sheriff janked his gun out of his holster and then crossed his arms in front of him, pointed it at the ground.

The only thing I did to Whitney was avenge a death.

No, you raped her.

The sheriff stepped forward and cracked me across the face so hard with his pistol that I felt bones snap in my nose.

I fell back into the snow and before my vision had even cleared, he snapped one of my ribs with the toe of his boot.

I lay curled on my side for a few seconds while the pain radiated from my chest to my spine, scattered to every nerve in my body.

I really wished I had some H.

Fire high enough, death would feel like a glorious footnote.

When the pain was verging on manageable, I rolled over and got up on my hands and knees, spitting blood into the snow.

I raised my head to look up at my father.

He was still standing above me, fists clenching the butt of his gun, and a red rage spread across his face.

Bit of a sore spot?

Don't you ever say anything so filthy about your sister ever again.

I will shove my gun under your ballistic vest and shoot you in the fucking gut.

I needed him angry, but not angry enough to kill me.

Not yet.

What happened to my mother?

I grimaced, speaking hurt.

Sheriff stepped back and smiled, his composure regained.

Ah, what a woman she was.

But I'm afraid she died in a freak accident some years ago.

I don't believe you, I said and sat back on my knees, struggling to breathe.

Slow breaths, get in the air and don't pass out.

I don't give a shit if you believe me.

The conversation's getting boring.

This isn't a fucking Q ⁇ A.

You had your chance to leave and instead you decided to say discussing things about your sister.

Was I wrong?

You were talking about things you know nothing about.

I love Whitney.

You're a monster.

Is that any way to talk to your father?

You know, I think Grigg needs to teach you some more fucking respect.

Screw you.

I know what you did to Kimber.

Oh, yeah?

Would you rather have someone else you didn't know?

Someone that disgusted her like that geriatric fuck Clary or Prescott over here?

Jabbed a thumb back at Jimmy.

I'd rather have it be no one.

Screamed at him.

Bloody spit flying across the space between and landing on his jacket.

He backhanded me, but this time I didn't fall.

You watch your tone with me, boy.

It's been bad enough that my men are here to see what a fucking joke my own son has become.

It's fucking embarrassing.

And send them inside.

Let's just talk, just you and me.

You think I'm scared of you, Sammy?

I don't think you have two bullets.

I think you've got one.

And I think you want to use it on me.

Well, go ahead, son.

Put that gun on me so I can kill you nice and legal.

Not until I know why you did this.

You were my dad.

I loved you.

You don't look like any son of mine.

But more importantly, you were a cop.

You were supposed to protect people.

No, Sammy, I'm a businessman.

Always have been.

Even back then.

Why the fuck do you think we came to drisking in the first place?

I remembered.

I had understood it at a young age, but I knew now what the whispers had meant.

Because of those girls, the things they said you did.

Exactly.

I was making money.

They were getting laid.

They were 14.

14 is older than you think, Sam.

And it's not like I touched them.

So this is.

What?

I wore a suit.

Just listen.

Just listen.

I mean,

is this not comical?

No, listen to this line.

So, this is what you wanted all along?

A great big rape?

What have I

been doing?

My sweetest friend.

Yeah.

And you

literally, I feel like I want to look up at

the book of Brascus in there.

It's like just burning.

exactly.

My empire of rape.

I will let you down.

I will make you rape.

What the hell is this?

His organization.

So this is what you wanted all along.

A great big rape empire?

Hold on.

I can't be expected to read that correctly.

There's no way.

All right the sheriff

gosh

the sheriff shrugged if that's what it takes i'm only here for the power and the women i'm an alpha sam

who

i'm done

i'm done

what the fuck

i'm an alpha what

at what point was that what this was about?

Boom!

What are we doing?

I'm an alpha.

I rate myself today

to see if I could rate to see if I still come,

That's why I can't figure out what the fuck happened to you.

You got the blood of kings running through your veins, and you fill them with tar.

That shit is for fucking women.

But I have to send it out to be handled.

But I have to send it out to your handler every month.

My only son is white trash drug addict.

How do you think that makes me feel?

This should be your birthright.

And you're too weak to take it.

I'm an alpha.

I'm an alpha.

It is.

I love this.

And

I'll say this right now.

This might be one of the most disappointing things to come.

This turn of events.

Well, we said in the beginning, it doesn't need to exist.

No.

Listen.

And it doesn't.

Well, we're almost done.

Let's just...

Power through.

Give me more credit.

I'm stronger than you think.

Strong enough to take a bolt to the head and lift through it.

Should we just

ham it up from here on in?

I don't know how I could possibly take this seriously anymore.

I say ham.

Go full ham.

I literally think after the alpha line, I just don't see how you could.

All right, so we're cartoon mode.

All right, got it.

All right.

Give me more credit.

I'm stronger than you think.

Dude, you sound like Shinji.

Yeah.

That's pretty good.

That's good.

That's fucked up.

That was a really great Shinji impression.

Who's Shinji?

The main kid from Avangelion.

Oh, oh,

it sounds like that.

Strong enough to take a bolt to the head and lift through it.

Are you?

Sheriff's expression darkened.

Sam, you oi boss.

Look what I caught looking around.

I mean, it says oi boss.

I mean, it is written like,

hey, boss, I caught something lurking around the forest over here

Are we getting punked?

Is this like do we click like a child?

I just want to put the preface up again.

Can I preface really quick?

Yeah.

Behind them in the snow is

hundreds of women.

Of women and children being raped

in a factory manner.

In a meat grinder.

In a meat grinder.

Killing people.

And then they are outside smoking stogies acting like they're vaudeville

Like cartoon right like cartoon villains

Okay

All right

15 15 men two men I hadn't seen previously came around the side of the dorm pushing a woman in front of them Kimber I breathed, but the sheriff knew who she was.

I'm sorry Sam they they well sheriff drew out the word.

I heard you turned into a looker, but

I had yet yet to confirm it for myself.

Hello again, sweetheart.

Sheriff walked over to Kimber,

ran his fingers along the side of her face.

She recoiled at his touch.

Don't you touch her?

I screamed and screamed.

That's fucked.

That actually made me so uncomfortable.

Don't you touch her.

You would fucking kill working for Crunchyroll, dude.

If you weren't for Funimation or Crunchyroll, you would fucking kill.

If there's somebody out there making an anime, you gotta get this motherfucker in.

I screamed and scrambled to my feet.

Greg shoved the barrel of his gun into the back of my head.

Sit the fuck down.

Watch a tempest, Sammy.

You fucking this wild Philly?

That's my boy.

I can't.

Every other sentence against worse.

You fucking this wild Philly?

That's my boy.

At least I don't know you didn't turn into a homo in prison.

There's no way.

Stay away from her, you pervert.

Blood was rushing in my ears and the rage in me was deafening.

Sam.

Sam, stop!

Just stop or they'll kill you!

Sheriff looked back to nod at Greg, who cracked stars into the back of my head with his fist.

Man of Sam!

That's not how you talk in front of a lady.

I've had enough goddamn respect for you.

This is your last fucking warning.

Sheriff turned to Kimber and yanked her hair towards him so that their faces were almost touching.

She writhed against the man behind her, holding her arms.

Soon, princess, we'll catch up soon.

Sheriff let go of Kimber's hair and walked back to stand in front of me.

Where were we?

Let Kimber go.

Let her go and I'll do anything you want.

Oh, really?

Anything?

Yes, just let her go.

Would you leave here and never come back?

Yes.

Would you stay and help me run my business?

I wheeze through a deep breath.

Yes.

Well, no, he's saying that so that he doesn't kill him.

He's like, yeah, but so how do I know he's not just like and you know what?

I did.

I don't know, man.

I mean, I mean, I don't know.

I guess.

Sure.

Oh, my God.

Would you go inside right now and fuck one of our girls?

It's so gross.

It is so gross.

It is like such an insanely, in the original, it was such an intense and seriously handled topic.

And now it is like a punchline.

I don't know when I'm supposed to break down that.

Like, I was so drawn in by the characters, and I was like, I don't really know where we're going here.

But this, like, we're almost done with the story, or like, there's four chapters left.

I just,

what do you get out of this?

Like, out of Broska 5, what's the problem?

It's like making a joke out of it.

Out of like the twist from the first one.

You know?

I mean, like, legitimately, yes.

Yeah.

Because by this point, when this stuff was happening in the last story, it was so wretched.

And, like,

you had Jimmy Prescott, who was also being kind of a sleaze ball, but it was never, I don't,

I don't know.

You know the

trope with comic books, the woman in the fridge?

That old thing?

There's an old, I forget which comic book it was, but there's some old comic book where a superhero's love interest was found dismembered and shoved into a fridge.

And like there was never a second in the comic about her suffering.

It was just used to like, oh, look at our poor hero whose wife has to die.

Never given a moment to the woman who was dismembered and shoved in a fridge.

So a trope became woman in a fridge when a like a woman character is used just to give a male character like story development or plot development so now the barasca dorms have become a giant fridge with hundreds of women shoved in there yeah just a really big refrigerator

yes please don't call that bluff no sam richards Would you shut her the fuck up?

I heard a sickening thud, but couldn't see through the blood running into my eyes from the split on my forehead.

Kimber gasped.

Now then,

how about Phoebe Dranger?

If I recall, she was raging to you in high school.

Yeah, that word is 100% YouTube band.

Why don't you go in there and take some vengeance for yourself?

I'm sure she'd love it.

I don't.

She's not really my type.

That's the follow-up.

Well,

I think I understand, but it's just...

Ah, Dad, come on.

Pick a good one for me.

Is that not how it reads?

You know?

Oh, I guess Kimberly Starr is more your type, then, isn't she?

No.

No, somebody else.

Anybody else?

What a fucking pussy.

Jimmy Prescott laughed.

Look, this family reunion has been real sweet and all, but we've got investors coming into town today and a lot of fucking shit to do before they get here.

Plus, it's early as balls, and I need more fucking coffee.

Can we just kill this little prick and get on with all day?

The sheriff shot Jimmy an annoyed look.

Do I look like I need to be fucking entertained right now?

Did I tell my monkey to dance?

No.

I fucking didn't, so shut the fuck up, monkey.

Jimmy shrugged and took a sip of coffee.

Actually, Jimmy, on second thought, take the girl inside and find her a new home.

Make yourself fucking useful.

No, no, no, no, no.

You can't take her in there.

Please, I'll do anything.

Dad, please, just don't make her go in there.

Sheriff turned around to give me a disgusted look and shook his head in disappointment.

Then, without even turning to look at her, the sheriff shot Kimber in the chest where she stood, and she fell over in the snow without making a sound.

Enter chapter 16.

Kimber's dead.

There's no way, right?

I absolutely believe that she's dead.

You think they just shot her right there?

100%.

I think that's legitimately and period.

And she's done.

All right.

Chapter 17.

Oh, quit your yelling.

I tried to warn you, Sammy.

The sheriff said through the echoes of the shot still resonating through the camp.

Dropped to my knees and screamed into the snow until I had burst every capillary in my face.

Jesus Christ, son.

Enough, theatrix.

I didn't even act like this when your mother died.

You killed her.

You murdered her.

I've killed a lot of people.

Although I must say, I do regret that I'm not going to get a turn with her again.

Usually I don't like redheads, but there's something about her.

Like father likes son, I guess.

I told her not to come.

I told her not to come.

I mumbled, barely coherent.

Shut, shut up, shut up, shut up.

I screamed at him.

Greg took a step toward me, but my father stopped with him, stopped him with a hand.

Let him throw his tantrum.

He did the same thing when I took away his toys as a kid.

This ain't no different.

Richard stepped over Kimber's lifeless body and exchanged a few quiet words with the sheriff.

I couldn't hear them over the dry heaving of my stomach, which didn't stop until my abdominal muscles ached from the force of them.

Richard just had an interesting idea.

You're for a real treat, Sam.

Get him up.

The sheriff said to the men behind me.

They hauled me to my feet and shoved me in the direction of my father.

I stumbled but didn't fall.

We don't use it too much anymore on account of the noise, but

how about we throw your girlfriend's body into the shiny gentleman and scatter her bone fragments all over the mountain?

He slapped me on the back.

That way she can be here for all, at all times, for all eternity.

I bet she liked that.

I was shaking so violently, I could barely wipe the blood out of my eyes.

No, I said and fell back down on my knees in the snow.

No, no, are you sure?

No.

No.

I'm not giving any effort to this character.

No.

No, are you sure?

He asked.

I could hear the smile in his voice.

No, no, please.

My voice broke over my words.

The sheriff's smile fell into a look of distaste.

Don't beg.

Makes you look weak.

Get off your fucking knees.

Please, don't touch her.

You know what your problem is, Sam?

You're not mad enough to take what you want.

You're not strong enough to say, fuck what's polite, fuck the consequences, fuck the law.

You're a cop.

See?

Now there's a bit of spirit.

That's his rebuttals of that.

You're a cop.

See?

Now there's some spirit.

Sometimes in life, you just have to claim what's yours.

That's what society is built on.

Now our operation may not work within the laws of the land, but we sure as hell work within the government.

But Whitney, look what it did to her this place.

I ain't gonna warn you again.

Keep my daughter's name out your mouth.

Which daughter?

What can I say?

Witness a beautiful name.

It's sick.

You're sick.

You need help.

I have help.

Look around you, Sammy.

He gestured to the 14 men standing in a half circle around me.

I'm a sultan.

These are my governors, and this is my harem.

Kill yourself.

I'm starting to think you're not gonna come around, Sam.

Oh my god.

This is also going on so

long.

Oh my gosh.

This is going on so long.

It's got to do.

There's three whole chapters after we get out with this.

Yeah.

That's insane.

I'll never be a part of this.

I will never stop trying to kill you.

Well, I'm really sorry to hear that.

That's a pity.

Looks like you're going to have to be broke in like a horse.

Kind of wish you'd left the Staro Girl alive now.

Kill yourself.

He gets a fucking.

Kill yourself.

Kill yourself.

You say another fucking word like that to me and I'm going to execute you right here on your fucking knees.

The sheriff's men seemed to lean in, smelling blood in the water.

I knew this was it.

If you want to be dead, you would have already shot me.

Are you sure about that?

The sheriff asked and leveled his gun at my forehead.

Why don't you pull that gun on me and find out?

Oh, I'm sure about that.

You need me.

Through the sea of your bullshit, I see the truth.

It's a pride thing.

You want your son taking over your business.

You want another Walker in charge.

John Connor from Loma Spectrum.

Yeah, that's it.

I've got to make this a little bit enjoyable somehow.

I've got to figure it out.

The sheriff's mouth spread into a wide smile, but he didn't lower his gun.

I can make another son.

You could, but you want me.

You want to break me.

You want.

You want to mold me into you because that way you win.

Oh, I've already won, Sam.

No, I have.

You're a slave to your.

This is insane.

You're a slave to your own hubris.

You're a slave to your own hubris.

God, I just wish you would have just kept reading the sun fans.

I can say and do whatever I want, and your pride won't allow you to kill me.

Maybe not.

The sheriff shrugged and dropped the barrel of his gun to my chest.

Back or break your ribs with fucking bullet.

I heard the shot, but didn't feel it under my body.

I instinctively put my hands over the entry wound on my chest.

I didn't have to feel it to know it was there.

Sound was pulsating in and out of my ears in time to my deceptively calm heartbeat, but through the waves of sound and silence, I could hear them all laughing.

Hurts like a fucking bitch, doesn't it?

I knew I was going into shock.

I pulled my hands away from my jacket and saw that they were covered in thick, warm blood.

The laughing died immediately, and the sheriff took a step in my direction.

What in the hell?

Kill yourself.

it works it works

just to think you're on the floor i really hope they edit you with like a white button up and jeans or whatever just bleeding out yeah there's blockboard

just shinji on the ground

i hate you dad i hate you dad

kill yourself for real by the time i put it all together and looked over at her Kimber was already standing where they'd left her discarded in the snow.

She was staring at the sheriff down the sides of the Beretta.

And before anyone could react, Kimber squeezed the trigger and killed her monster.

So Kimber shot his dad in the head, and I don't even care.

Whoa.

That's so cool.

Whoa, yeah, that's awesome.

Imagine if that would have happened three chapters ago and not during this whole escapade.

Imagine if I didn't have to read that stupid diatribe for that long.

It's your hubris, dad.

You're a victim of your hubris.

I'm a human being talking to my dad.

You're a victim of your hubris, dad.

I live in 1574.

Kill yourself.

Kill yourself.

That's Shakespeare.

You're a victim of your own hubris.

Kill yourself.

That's a plot.

William Shakespeare.

That's a plot of Hamlet, right?

I'm pretty sure.

The bullet went through the sheriff's eye and out the back of his head where it buried itself in the wood of the building behind him.

Before his body even hit the ground, guns were pulled from every side, and the men loyal to money taking control of the men loyal to fear.

Jimmy Prescott had somehow come through.

Holy fucking shit, kid, you did it.

Prescott said, taking a sip of coffee and stepping over my father's body.

I mean, I think the wound is probably fatal, but you know, don't let that take away from your accomplishment.

Hell, I'll even name a wing after you.

Gestured to the dorm behind him.

Take the gun off of Kimber,

I demanded.

I knew I didn't have much time to play my Trump card.

Ortiz, what the fuck?

Quit pointing that shit at the hero of the day.

The man closest to Kimber lowered his gun.

She doubled over, then, clearly in enough pain of her own, broken bones, Jimmy nodded, reading the thoughts on my face.

Your daddy shot her with a 357, which, well, you know, he shot you too.

It's pretty fucking big bullet.

She might actually fucking be bleeding, but she'll probably fucking be fine.

You, on the other hand.

I strained against the darkness.

I needed to tell Jimmy something.

What was it?

Oh, yes, my insurance policy to make sure Kimber left his place alive.

So you talked all that shit and you weren't even armed?

You had nothing on you?

You sure you don't want to come work for me?

I did.

I did have something on me.

Oh, yeah, what's that?

This.

I pulled out a small remote control and dropped it in the snow in front of me.

Jimmy laughed.

What the fuck is that?

It's a remote for video cameras.

What the fuck are you talking about, kid?

What video cameras?

For the first time since I met him, Jimmy looked rattled.

Those video cameras.

I point

I pointed up into the trees, where a dozen small cameras blended into the dark branches, their blinking red lights, all but visible.

All but invisible.

I need to stop the bleeding.

Are you fucking kidding me, you shit-eating donkey?

What is this left?

Are you fucking joking?

You better be joking because I'll put the bullet in your head that your daddy couldn't.

He raised the gun to my face, but seemed conflicted.

If he believed me about the cameras, I knew he couldn't shoot me.

It all came down to my ability to bullshit.

I'll just take those cameras down and break them like they weren't even there.

He said and cocked the gun he was holding to my face.

You're on a live feed, asshole.

Jimmy's face twitched a few times before he lost it and hurled his coffee cup at the building behind him.

Fuck!

Fuck you!

The video is streaming back to a laptop in Chicago.

It's over.

Jimmy's men looked uneasily at one another.

Fuck this.

Griggs said finally and dropped the gun he was using to hold one of dad's men's hostage.

Now I don't imagine they're cops.

I imagine they're wearing bandit masks, and they have like the white and black striped sweater.

They scattered like roaches to all sides of the camp, starting their trucks and speeding down off the mountain.

Jimmy, literally, just the concept of a video camera is all it takes for them to stop a

60-year human trafficking operation.

Vidja cameras?

Whatcha mean, Vidgi cameras?

Jimmy was already on the phone with someone as he dug into his pocket for his keys.

Delete it all, all of it, get it off the DHS intranet, and make sure it's gone for fucking ever.

I don't give a shit where you are.

We need a database gone now.

Like it never fucking existed.

Now fuck the fucking backups.

Delete it all.

Jimmy threw his phone on the ground and shot it four times.

Jimmy threw his phone on the ground and shot it four times with his gun.

He ran to a nearby truck and ripped the door open.

Prescott, I shouted hoarsely.

Jimmy paused before he slammed the door and glared at me.

Kyle, Kyle!

Kyle Landy!

What's all that bullshit?

Jimmy's glare

contorted to a bitter smile.

Where is he?

Where's Kyle?

You fuckers will believe anything.

He sneered before he slammed his car door and sped off down the mountain.

Last of my energy expended, I fell forward in the snow with my back to the sheriff's body.

I could see a mess of Kimber's red curls over the top of my arm, but she was so far away.

Kimber!

I gasped through the blood in my mouth, but she didn't stir.

With my strength running out like sand in an hourglass, I I pulled my phone from my jacket and dialed Seth's number.

He answered on the first ring.

Tell me.

It worked.

She's alive.

I'm alive.

The high school.

Those sick pricks host all the records on the school server.

Drisking High.

Drisking High.

Got it.

Can you get in?

I'm working on it.

The database is going to be locked down secure as fuck, but I don't think that.

But like I said the other day, I'm pretty good at what I do.

I don't know what the file will be called.

I muttered and dropped the phone down next to me where it sunk into the snow.

I faded in and out for a few minutes trying to hold on.

I got it.

I just looked for the most buried shit on the server.

They're scrubbing it fast, man, but I got it.

They definitely know I'm here.

Felt myself pulling away from my body.

Fuck me.

There's some serious heavy hitters in here.

I can't believe they kept this on a school server.

What fucking assholes?

I could barely hear Seth anymore.

Hey, you okay, bro?

Sam.

And then I was alone.

Passes out.

Chapter 17, chapter 18.

The clock read 1.32 a.m.

I turned the car on again.

Kimber muttered her approval and laid her face next to the heater.

She gently banged her forehead against the dashboard.

We're getting fucking nowhere.

She said, and she was right.

We had been arguing for hours and still agreed on nothing.

The mission was suicide no matter how we went about it.

So are we getting a flashback?

So we really just arguing how many of us should die and in what order.

They're going to kill you if they see you, period.

Those guys have no reason to let you live.

Yeah, I'm not arguing that.

But how are you you going to shoot anybody when you have one bullet and

they know you're coming anyway?

And they know about the bulletproof vest.

And they know about the bulletproof vest?

Making it absolutely worthless.

Yep.

I leaned my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes.

I just wanted to sleep.

Yep.

We need more time.

At least another day.

If we don't come to them in the morning, they'll come to us.

And kill us either way.

right we're dead in every scenario

unless

i turn my head to look at her through one eye unless what unless we do something stupid oh kimber that ship has sailed no listen i'm serious you wear the vest and you give me the gun split up the vest and the gun

yeah they won't expect that

yeah because it's stupid so one of us pulls out the gun they're gonna get shot so

so if that's-

So

if that's the plan, my brother, you wear the vest.

But I need the gun.

Then wear both.

No, that's...

That's...

She was silent a moment.

Well, actually, that's pretty brilliant.

I gave her a dubious look.

What are you thinking?

Hear me out.

I'm going to get shot either way, and that actually puts us in an advantage.

Let him shoot me, and then, once they've forgotten about me, and they're not paying attention to me anymore, I'll shoot him.

This is the most unnoticed.

This is so.

I get it.

I understand.

This is what happened.

Well, you know what?

So much has gone wrong in the last five chapters.

Why not?

Well, you're banking on the fact that they don't search us when we get to Baraska.

Yeah.

And that they won't just shoot you in the head.

Granted.

And also, that they'll shoot you at all.

I mean, they could just, you know, keep you there.

Okay.

And finally, that Jimmy will, or uh, even can, take control of the situation like he promised.

Okay, all accepted risks.

You're high, Kimber.

I'm fucking not.

But are you?

Because for this to work, I'm gonna need you to step the shit.

I'm gonna need you to streep the shit out of this.

I wish, man.

Kimber raised an eyebrow.

That package didn't have drugs in it, you know.

What?

Sorry, but I couldn't tell you at the time.

You have realized that I was going without you.

You're a dick, Sam Walker.

So, what did it have in it?

It was a care package from Seth.

He sent me video cameras.

Why?

For what?

Remember the night I disappeared with the car for several hours?

Why would he not just tell her that?

This is so stupid.

Remember the night I disappeared with the car for so?

I don't, I don't know.

Okay, it doesn't matter.

Remember the night I disappeared with the car for several hours?

Yes.

I used the directions Jimmy Prescott gave me to find Baraska 2.

The call Baraska 2.

Oh gosh.

Please don't call it that.

Also, please tell me you're fucking joking.

Sorry, no, I'm not.

I couldn't see much or hear anything, but I was there.

I know the way.

It's the reason we're parked on this road right now.

I can't believe you went to Baraska.

I can't believe you, Sam.

That's madness.

Yeah, and I realized that too late.

And the whole thing took me longer than it should have because I had to be stealthy.

which i don't know if you've noticed but i'm not a graceful person and i had to climb trees to velcro that down oh and i had to find the place this is the most like autistic coded thing this is insane for you people who don't know i'm not the most graceful bird i mean this entire chapter is literally flashback to something we've already seen the events of so holy we're gonna have actual footage from the mine it's brilliant Not exactly.

They're dummy cameras.

What does that mean?

They're not real?

Yeah, they're solid as like deterrents.

But then

why would you risk that?

Why even bother putting up deterrence?

Techino.

Why not just have him say regular cameras?

I just thought that it was kind of cool.

Why not just say regular cameras?

It kind of reminds me of that finale in Breaking Bad when Walter hires people to just point lasers

at the rich family at the grave.

They're not really snipers, but it worked.

Tina, deter anyone from murdering me.

Oh, god damn it.

I really wish you were real.

Yeah, me too.

But there's no way I could have installed something like that.

Fuck, if we had film, we wouldn't even need Barasco Records.

Seth thinks that if we figure out where the files are, he might be able to get in and download them.

So many ifs.

So you really want to get shot, huh?

I think it's the best plan we got.

Maybe I'll just stumble into a camp later than you.

You know, get caught.

That way they'll assume that you have a gun and I was just being careless, Sam.

Sam?

She was shaking me.

I drifted off.

Oh, sorry.

This is an iron shit.

She was shaking me.

I drifted off.

Sam, wake up.

Wake up.

Chapter 19.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Walker.

I'm sorry to wake you, but the detectives have been asking to interview since yesterday.

I'm afraid they're very insistent.

I tried to focus on the woman standing next to me.

Everything was very white.

Where am I?

Drisking Regional.

I'm Dr.

Klava.

And I've seen you're going to be speaking to two of the rudest men I've ever met.

And I'm going to and I'm going to morphin and I'm going to up your morphing of smidge.

Okay.

I blinked a few times against the bright light that sung my eyes.

No, no, no morphine, please.

Take me off it.

Are you sure?

You'll be in a bit of pain if I do that.

She says she walked over to the IV trip.

Yeah, turn it off.

Where's Kimber?

How is she doing?

Also, how am I not dead?

I'm not Kimber's doctor, so I'm not sure who you're talking about.

I don't know who that is, Roger.

That's a name, and there's a lot of human beings on the planet.

As for your survival, you owe that to a rather skilled surgeon on staff here.

I could already feel the pain radiating from my chest below my heart.

Is there any way you can make it any darker in here?

Absolutely.

She replied as she walked to the door and turned down the lights.

Good luck.

A nurse will be later by to check on you.

I didn't recognize the two men who pushed past Dr.

Clava in the doorway.

They were serious looking men with the dry air of immediacy about them.

Sam Walker, my name is Agent Grant.

This is this is Special Agent Trippine.

We're with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

How are you feeling?

I'm fine.

My voice sounded strained, and I tried to

sit up.

When it was clear I wasn't going to make it, Agent Grant grabbed my arm to steady me and pointed to a remote control at the edge of the bed.

I held the raise button until the bed set me up to level with these two men.

We are here because you are found unconscious and near death at a crime scene, along with a 27-year-old woman and the corpse of a county sheriff.

Sounds about right, I said and rubbed my face.

I winced as I brushed my nose.

They had set the bones, but it was all still very tender.

I didn't even want to see my chest.

Can you comment on how the events that led to that location?

Agent Grant asked.

Trapine remained silent.

Sure, I'd love to, but first I really need to know where Kimber is.

She's in federal custody, giving her own statement.

And what happened to all the women at the uh at the mine?

The people who were in prison there?

The victims have all been removed from the scene.

And why are you only talking to me now?

I tried to contact the feds for years about Baratska.

Is that the local name

for the trafficking group?

Sort of.

I went a stab of pain and ricochet from my spine to my ribs.

We don't have any record of you contacting the FBI at any time.

Yeah, well, I did.

And this will be addressed.

An internal investigation has been opened due to the, shall we say, sensitive information leaked by the press on Wednesday evening.

Oh yeah?

Did they receive some sort of press packet?

Do you know something about that?

Trippian finally spoke.

I know nothing about that, but I do know a lot about everything else.

I wanted to laugh.

This was ludicrous.

I was alive.

The sheriff was dead.

Barasca was gone.

And everybody associated with it was going down.

It was almost everything Kimber had wished for.

It could really be happening.

The detective pulled two chairs that were set back along the wall up to the bed.

Do you mind if we record you?

Uh, absolutely not.

I want all of this on record.

All right.

Grant started, setting the recorder on the bed next to my leg.

Tell us about your father.

End of chapter 19, chapter 20.

I stood outside one of the massive tents the feds had erected on the tarmac of Driskin Small Airport.

It was old, crumbling, and abandoned, but they were sure as hell landing shit here now.

Grant had promised Kimber to me within the hour, and I nervously smoked a cigarette in the cold while waiting outside the giant tent.

They told me they needed to hold her longer than me because Kimber had admitted to killing a law enforcement officer.

Grant said the prosecutor would almost certainly decline to press charges due to the circumstances rapidly coming to light.

But still, it was early days and the waters were murky.

We'd no longer be in custody, but we weren't allowed to leave town either.

I pulled my jacket tighter as the wind cut down the thoroughfares and alleyways of the sprawling tent city, or as Grant referred to it, Central Ops.

Special Agent Tripping had given me the thick, brown duster I was currently wearing since my own jacket had been taken in as evidence, which didn't bother me because this coat was warmer anyway.

Sam!

I turned around just as Kimber jumped on me, wrapping her arms around my back and squeezing tightly.

I buckled, grunting in pain and trying not to drop her.

Kimber released me immediately.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I forgot you got shot.

Well, you sure reminded me.

I winced.

Tripping walked up from behind Kimber and nodded at me.

You can go.

There's a Ford Explorer you can use.

Park off a draper across from the mobile command unit.

Here are the keys.

Don't leave town and don't talk to the media or the locals.

In fact, don't talk to anybody.

We found the car right where it said and climbed in, slamming the doors with the biting wind.

You're gonna have to drive.

I don't think I can manage it.

Don't they have you on painkillers?

Prescription Tylenol.

Oh my god.

I want to cry for you, but still good for you, Sam.

She smiled at me and pulled out onto the road.

Honestly, I can't believe they discharged you from the hospital after only a few days.

You got shot in the chest.

I'm well aware.

But they had to.

The hospitals are full.

Every hospital within 50 miles and a mobile one for at least several cases is what I was told.

Holy shit.

How many women were at- were there at Brasca?

You don't know?

No, they wouldn't tell me anything.

They even took the TV out of the hotel room they'd held me in.

132.

That'd have been my reaction, too.

But there were never that many when I was there.

Maybe 60 at most.

I guess he wasn't lying.

The sheriff really was a businessman.

Turn here.

Emphasis on was.

Kimber smiled.

I couldn't fault her for being happy he was dead, and even though he was my father, I was too.

So they didn't tell you anything, huh?

The only thing they would tell me is that you were alive and that and that's only because I started throwing throwing cutlery at them.

I laughed.

Well, I guess

Jesus Christ.

That's the scariest thing from today.

Holy shit.

God damn.

Shinji after he fucking destroys all of mankind.

I think I'm still depressed, but it's okay.

I don't know where that came from.

I'm so in the bowels of hell.

I'm actually so mad.

It's funny.

Just with this whole story.

Well, I guess I'll give you the news then.

Every major news outlet got a copy of the Baraska Records on Friday.

And the files were apparently very detailed.

Open investigations were triggered across the map.

Fucking A.

And they caught everybody that was on payroll, including James Prescott.

What?

They caught him already?

Grant said he didn't even last a day.

What an asshole.

And I've been really wanting to tell you, that was a beautiful shot you made.

Oh,

I've made that shot a thousand times.

This is the first time that my target was actually in the in-th was actually in the flesh, though.

And hey, congrats on taking a bullet, living through it, and taking it like a fucking champ.

Turn right.

Yeah, who knew I could excel at getting shot?

I wonder what sort of career I could make out of that.

Bullet tester?

She was different now.

Gone was the anxious, despondent version of her that I had come to know in the past weeks.

This was Kimberly as I remembered her before her mother died.

Happy, unburdened, hopeful.

I couldn't believe that I was about to strip it all away from her, but she deserved to know.

Take another ride up here.

Where are we going?

You'll see.

Kimber's smile wavered.

I'm not sure if I like that at all.

At the end of the street, we're looking for house number 445.

There?

She said and pulled into a spot at the front of a large gothic-style house.

This place is off-putting.

What is it?

It's a group home.

A group home?

What for?

I didn't say anything, but watched her carefully.

Kimber sobered.

I don't.

You mean?

Her hands were tucked back into her sleeves, suddenly covered her mouth as she realized why we were here.

Kimber began to shake her head.

But Jimmy said, I-I heard him say.

Well, contrast to Jimmy Prescott's last words to me, I don't believe everything he says.

I took a deep breath.

The landies left town with just about everybody else two days ago.

It's funny to imagine he's yelling at her like standing there.

The landies left town with just about everybody else two days ago.

According to Grant, they didn't take their oldest son with them.

Just Parker.

Kimber continued to stare at the house with her hands over her mouth.

She looked like she was about to cry.

And

Grant ordered Kyle's caretaker to stop giving him his daily meds until they could get a hold of his doctor, who skipped town with the rest of Drisken.

So, Kyle is inside?

And he's been off his medication for

for days, which means if he has been sedated for all this time, like Jimmy said, he might not be anymore.

Kimmer coughed into her hands, but it sounded more like a suppressed sob.

I put my arm around her.

Are you okay?

She

knows this is our job.

Let me be in here right now.

This is our career path.

Fuck.

What do I do?

Oh, God.

Me sitting in your floor.

She pulled her hands away from her mouth and shook them loose of her sleeves, then reached for the key and turned the car off.

I'm fine.

I'm ready.

Good.

Let's go get our boy.

Oh, God, man.

We rang the bell on the palatial home and a young woman answered, looking frazzled and annoyed.

Hi, we're here to see Kyle Landy.

She asked, brushing unkept brown hair from her face.

Yes, we're family.

How do you mean that, Kimber?

Because you're her sister or

girlfriend.

The woman crossed her arms and leaned against the door jamb.

Kyle's family hasn't visited once in all the years he's been here.

Are you on his authorized visitation list?

I doubt it.

But we're coming in anyway.

Kimber Adam and became the woman's defiant posture.

She sighed and dropped her arms.

Fine, I don't care.

I'm the only one here.

Everybody else has left town because of the scandal.

She moved aside and walked into the foyer.

The woman closed the door behind us and gestured up the grand staircase.

He's in his room.

Second door on the left.

We turned to go.

Oh, and please remember that he's non-verbal, so don't expect him to talk to you or move or anything.

If you want to bring him downstairs, let me know and I'll get the key to the elevator.

Fine, thanks.

Kimber said to the air behind her as she climbed the stairs.

I followed most behind more slowly, taking deep measured breaths.

Please, Kyle, please, please be real.

By the time I got to the top of the stairs, Kimber was standing in the open doorway of Kyle's room as if she couldn't bear to go any further.

She was crying softly into her hands.

When she turned and saw me, she began shaking her head.

I can't, I just can't, Sam.

I walked over and gave Kimber a hug.

It's okay.

It's gonna be fine.

I said.

Like, she's walking around with Sonic the Hedgehog, like overly happy.

Yeah, two-do-dimensional anime character.

I said into her hair.

I took a few moments to mentally prepare before I finally turned around and glanced into the room.

Kyle was in his wheelchair, which was facing the bed, and he was staring straight ahead at the swirling ocha of the wall in front of him.

He didn't react to our voices or move in the slightest.

I couldn't be sure he was even blinking.

I released Kimper and walked slowly into the room.

I said...

I sat down at the edge of the bed in front of Kyle to study him.

His injuries had all healed, other than his nose, which remained out of of place and broken.

He was wearing flannel pants and a nondescript white t-shirt and socks.

His hair was long and red beard covered the bottom half of his face.

His eyes were fixed over my shoulder, lazily settled on the wall behind me.

Kyle, I said as I moved to his line of vision, it's Sam.

He blinked.

Kyle's eyes seemed to try and focus on me, but when I moved, they didn't follow.

I could see there was no one behind them, but I couldn't accept it, not after all we'd been through.

Kyle, please tell me you're in there.

I begged, but there was nothing to show that he'd understood.

His eyes glazed over, and I knew that what remained of Kyle was only the bear's to brain functions.

Shit!

I swore.

Kimber was now openly sobbing.

Stop!

Sam, stop.

I worked to get a hold of myself.

Over the last two days, I had convinced myself that there was more to Kyle than I had been led to believe the last time I had seen him.

I needed him to be more than the soulless vegetable I'd left behind, but being confronted with the human shell in front of me made the truth hurt even more.

I stood up from behind the bed and walked over to the window to watch the snowfall outside.

I knew powder to cover this place.

We had come so far, not far enough.

We'd won in almost every conceivable way on the barest of odds, but it still wasn't enough.

I wanted Kyle back too.

I wanted to be whole.

I heard Kimber leave the doorway and turn to watch her sit in front of Kyle.

She took his limp hands into hers and held them while she softly told him that she had missed him and that she loved him.

Then she laid her head on his lap and continued to whisper to Kyle through her tears.

I turned back to watch the snowfall, and then I heard a voice that hadn't spoken since the day I had told Jimmy Prescott to kill himself 10 years before on the now silent mountains.

Kimber.

The end.

So look at that.

Kyle's alive.

Kyle, Kyle, or like Kyle, I guess, will be undrugged at some point and could get better.

Even though he still is in a romantic relationship with his sister, but whatever.

And that's the end of Baraska Part 5.

So a while back, so a while back, you said

that while we were reading My Best Friend Tried to Ruin My Life, you said that that is what you're betting as the worst thing you've ever read.

So I am putting this as the worst thing I've ever read.

on this podcast because like if it's bad bad's fun bad's like you know it was a bad time.

I had fun with it.

But this, like, went off of, like, for one, some very sensitive, insanely serious topics and a story that I enjoyed and have enjoyed for like over a decade.

And it immediately crapped the bed on all of it.

So this is the worst thing I've ever read on the show.

I won't go as far to say it's the worst thing we've ever read, but I do think it's just,

it's like the fucking reason why we didn't read it for so long, too, because it's like the original Baraska run.

is so good.

Did not need a sequel.

What is this?

Like, what does this honestly give us?

What's trying to do?

it's trying to give characters closure and it's also i bet you fucking anything people bitch and complain that it's like whoa wow so i want a happy ending so the the people just get

quit doing that voice they're just like oh she they they get to just get away with it and whatever and it's still out there and it's just this evil lurking that i'm upset by that because that's you know whatever and i bet you anything she's like well i could just have them like go and stop the whole thing and then

you know and i bet you that's what it was but man

there's, there's I mean, it's like, is that what if you make a story about like, you know, a sex trafficking ring and out there, it's like, is that what your moral of the story is?

You should stop all of it.

You should stop bad things from happening.

Like, it kills the ethos the original story had.

Well, the,

I don't know.

The original Baraskas,

to me, when we read it, it's a very, very hard ending.

Like, it's very

bittersweet, but to me, it was reminiscent of like the evils that lurk in the world that are just like so out of your control and that you're just kind of like a part sometimes you feel like you're in a bigger you're you're a bigger part of a situation and then when it when it comes to reality you're just as insignificant as every other person on earth and like some things are just like born to be evil and that there's just evils in the world and that doesn't mean that it makes them right or like whatever you know that you should just turn a blind eye but it was kind of harrowing in that way to where it's like you know what the fuck am i supposed to do about every other major conflict in the world you know you want to you want want to feel like you can support things, but sometimes you just have nothing you can do.

The majority of the time, you have nothing you can do.

So

seeing this, it was very, like, the thing too is like

C.S.

Walker, C.K.

Walker?

C.K.

Walker.

C.K.

Walker is an amazing writer.

And, you know, we're like...

The reason there was such a visceral reaction is because you have, look at the juxtaposition between the first barasca, which takes these characters.

And, you know, there's like some funny situations, whatever.

But then, whenever the ending happens, it's very, it's like a gunshot to the chest, and then you're kind of just left with like, and that's just like the horrors of what this place is.

It doesn't revel in it, but to have such a long-winded thing, and like, I really didn't get anything out of

the sheriff being like the businessman head honcho.

Like,

there's so much things where it just dips into this level of cheese, and it completely takes the wind out of the serious nature and the actual horror of the first, like Baraska, in my opinion.

Yeah, it

honestly, I got more mad than anything because it goes from like taking these characters we like and like the setting we like and stuff, and then he immediately just like funny joke out of it.

And there was some.

When you shooter the king, don't miss.

Like, what?

There were some things during the, while we were reading, where it was like,

I don't know, we're like, you know, it's Baraska, so we're going to let it slide just because we love the characters.

I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, yeah.

Yeah, but then it gets gets to a certain point to where it's just like

it's just distracting with it and i think it's just more so you know there could be people who read this and they're like i think that they're over exaggerating whatever but to me i'm like i feel like i was just so satisfied with the first story that reading this now i just never needed a sequel never needed no and there's probably a world where a sequel could have worked but i don't i honestly like i mean even making the ending of the first one with its goal was so impactful and leaving it as an unanswered evil in the world ending it with because the last lines of part four is the letter from Kimber's mother.

Strong, powerful, let it lie.

It does not need to be a hero fantasy.

And we were going to read it if it was one, which is what I expected it to be to be like, you know, fun for the audience.

People at home suggested it.

But it was like, yeah, but also, what if I make the first one, what if we make the first one a joke a little bit?

And then like, you know, it's like, whatever.

Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, even just the beginning, I remember I was, I didn't say anything because once again, I know that I have a bad habit.

I have a bad habit with being just negative in general when it comes to a lot of these stories and i try to go in having fun with the audience and stuff but as soon as i as soon as he was like i'm a heroin addict and my prison partner my prison roommate who was also a convict

is a is a hacker and i'm like okay that's going to come up in some whatever weird way and it once again it's one of those things where it's like the whole story lies on well thank god i have that super hacker roommate that was able to hack the school and did the FBI arrest everyone, all the bad people, and all the good people get away, and then just whatever.

Which, you know, once again.

Which again, I never read the first one, and I was like, well, the story wasn't really impactful because they didn't save the day.

It's like, that wasn't the point of the first Baraska series.

I also think that people, I think that people get very upset online when

I don't know.

I feel like people think that maybe they feel cheated in a way, or that because there's a subject matter that doesn't have a resolution that's positive, that it's glorifying or it's trying to be like

you know that it's trying to get one over on the reader but i think sometimes letting things lie in this way of this hopeless nature one is just extremely emotionally impactful but

i just i think sometimes stories can just be brutally blunt at the end and just end you know that's fine one of the most powerful film endings I can remember is The Mist.

Watching that when I was younger.

Pretty funny.

It is rough.

Just like they all die.

Yeah.

And he gets out of the car and stuff like that.

It's zero resolution, character development.

I love that movie.

And it sticks.

It sticks.

I love that movie, and it's legitimately one of the funniest endings of all time.

The comedic beat to that.

It's horrible.

Yeah.

It's horrible.

But he's like, ah, and then immediately that guy's just like, hey, pussy, stop crying.

It's over.

And he's like, oh,

and that's his family.

Yeah.

And you're like, oh, god damn.

It's like that, what's that music?

Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do.

So I don't know.

I mean, you know, I do think that there's probably an audience who

they feel nice that this has like an it's over, right?

To be completely honest,

you don't, Hunter doesn't feel this way.

I feel this way.

I think that's juvenile.

I think if you read a story that is about like

real world,

again, not that Barosca is real world, but themes of like human trafficking and stuff like that, something that...

that's that heavy and you read that story and you're like but i want to feel good in the end it's like well then you don't why are you reading a story about these things?

Because that's not how it works.

The point is like people that come out of it, about you have these stories of humanity or you have these individual characters that are able to rise above the evil of the world.

It's not that every story that has this mass evil in it is, and then the good guys win.

The idea is that people are able to come out of that awful.

I mean, you have authors like McCarthy that do things with that all the time, or a lot of the Cohen brothers films.

You have these awful people, but there's heroes that rise up out of that, right?

It's not because they eliminate badness from the world.

It's because they eliminate it from themselves they purify themselves through the awful they go through you know i think if you i think if you read something that heavy and you're like

i need a happy ending then i don't think you are engaging with the story in a way that that topic is meant to be engaged with yeah and i think you're discrediting that like the story itself can be something where the beauty and like the the the humanity of your main characters that you love along the way exactly that's the adventure you know and sometimes that adventure is cut short you know and even in a way you know even Kimber getting away to me was in the first run, one through four, was

that like light.

Yes, exactly.

And the sacrifice and everything.

Which I think is one of the reasons that I'm so heated about this.

And I want to clarify, you know, and Joe, I don't mean to say that in like you're not allowed to watch them.

Enjoy stories as you see them.

But if I felt that way about a story, I would felt myself to be juvenile, so to speak.

And it's not even that that applies to every story.

Just specifically, like, I think the reason I tied that to Barosca is because that's what I got out of the first one.

Because the first one was such a good example in my mind of like, you have this awful, terrible world, but Kimber got out.

Like, she was, she was a character who we treasured, who managed to get away from it.

And it's like, what if we bring her back in, take her through this, and then, and then it's happy ending.

There's

sunshine and rainbows.

She is the exception that is also the constant reminder of everyone else struggling.

Yeah.

She is the person who was lucky enough to live.

But then every time that you think about her now, you you have to realize that not everyone was that lucky and i think that's like a harrowing kind of like

like greek tragedy esque ending of a story you know and i i mean i could be completely wrong i'm just i'm just riffing i mean i

what the fuck do i know i'm just talking about my feelings but i just mean i feel like this was i'm a youtuber like you can i can be wrong i feel like this was completely written out of people being upset I think it was written out of people being like, wow, I think people really didn't like that ending.

And I feel like I need to do this it feels like oh you want to have creating a lie yeah you see you'll see creatives do that a lot but luckily this is this is the this is the good this is the good takeaway from this is that there were still a lot of great moments in it with the characters that i enjoyed it was nice just being back it's nice to see that sam and kimber again that was nice kimber especially but also i think

ck walker Having the fucking balls to even end this thing in the way that she did the first and second time, regardless of what you think, the person made the executive decision, took time, wrote this.

I think that's fucking cool.

And also, if you don't like this, or maybe you love it, and if you didn't vibe with it,

you do not have to have this extension.

Yeah.

Which I think is a powerful tool as an artist or as like a writer to just be like, oh, then just stop here.

Because there's a lot of work like that.

Even like we were joking about, you sound like Shinji, that there's fucking 80 endings to Evangelia.

You can just pick which one you like and fuck with it.

But at the same time, it's like the art, it is legitimately the artist's,

it's the artist's right to just be like, I'm going to do whatever the fuck I want with it.

And you get to explore that, and more people are going to experience it in different ways.

The laughter at every, the frustration that came out of this was just the comical levels that it went to to the point where I feel like I was, I feel like, yeah, there was things I was like, eh, well, it is what it is, all the way up till 15, chapter 15.

15 killed it dude.

And then from there, when he said I'm an alpha, Sam, I was gone.

Yeah, I mean, the alpha line was really the thing where I was like, this is like the fucking

nail.

Okay, Okay, it's a joke.

Sorry for caring.

That's, I think, why I got so mad and like sarcastic with it.

Because the whole time I'm like, well, maybe they'll find Kyle in some way.

Maybe, you know, they'll get those girls out of there.

And then we're like, I'm an alpha Sam.

It's like, oh, I see.

Sorry.

Joke's on me.

My bad.

Sorry I cared for 14 chapters, which I guess is why I'm still kind of, if you couldn't tell, a little emotional right now.

I think, too, what was weird, I get a lot of.

I really like stories, so I get heated about them.

My apologies.

I get feedback sometimes where, and I agree, is that I don't think my cartoonish voices help whenever it's like, well, I think it's unfair because you read it in a way.

But the script in which I was reading, it was in like a southern,

weird kind of like cartoonish.

I'm an alpha Sam and with a bad Western villain.

Yeah.

It's what it was.

I mean, like, oi.

Or like, but he said, oi or whatever.

Yeah, I'm an alpha Sam.

And it's at what point, it's just like, it's just a bit cheesy.

Yeah.

You know?

And it is what it is.

But at the the same time i'll say this i'm happy we read it so many i cannot tell you the amount of people who are like you have to read barosca five but

do they mean it as in it's a good way like it's a good story i don't know i'm not even going to speculate i just know it is an extremely requested thing it's an integral part i look if i watched this show uh i would want i would also want us to read barosca five because it'd be like well that was you know there's a sequel to the thing that they love so much.

Yeah, it's like you like the original Star Wars trilogy, but then you don't watch the prequels or something.

Yes, exactly.

Something like that.

Yeah, it's like, well, watch them if you like that so much.

Yeah, exactly.

If that's because we've said several times Rosk is one of our top three of all time, it'd be like, you know, oh, Jurassic Park's my favorite movie.

No, I never watched Lost World.

It's like, well, it doesn't have to be as good, but it's there.

You know, like, I think to just blatantly ignore it.

As my final note, I'll say this: is

CK Walker, still one of the undisputed goats of this.

I won't hold it.

I will not hold this against you.

I think that there's, I think a lot of the kind of cheesy, fun narratives blend so well with some of the child stories like Mayhem Mountain,

original Barosca.

She writes children in such a conceivably fun, like, you know, it's a big, bubbly world and

all these like different traumatic horror stories.

Because the only issues that, I don't want to say I've had with her, but the only times I've like disliked the writing has been when it's a sequel that is written later on.

Like Deepwoods.

Like Deepwoods, the first Deepwoods was about them going to the church, seeing it.

And it's kind of like, oh, we're going to make fun with it.

So, and this Barosca 5 is probably a similar deal.

And there's nothing wrong with a writer who's posting stories to her own website and no sleep to be like, I've made this old story.

Let's have a little sequel.

You know, let's have fun with it.

You know, someone, I forget which story, but someone

commented on episode of ours and said, Well, yeah, she entered the sequel to one of these stories for a 24-hour writing challenge.

So she's just having fun.

She's doing challenges and stuff.

So I don't hold, I don't hold bad work against her.

I just look at what she's capable of.

And she's capable of Barosca,

the first Deepwood section, mayhem out.

She's a great author.

But for how much I cared about the characters in the original Baraska, how much the story meant to me.

And to be completely honest, to kind of like examine myself, I think one of the reasons I got so heated is because I read Barasca, like the first four parts when I was, let's see, 20, 15.

I would have been 15, 16 years old.

I would have been in high school.

I read those and was like, I really want to start writing horror stories.

Like Baraska was hugely

impactful to me and it made me want to continue today which now like not just barosca but stories like that led me to want to talk about scary stories online which put me on youtube which put me on a podcast with you you know it's like one of the many stepping stones that got me here so i i do admittedly i probably have too many emotions tied to that first story so seeing a sequel i get i get like defensive about it but it's not my story you cannot be limited

you cannot be limited creatively by how people are going to react to your work.

You have to simply create things, and the way people react is how they react, and it doesn't diminish any of the other works.

It doesn't do anything.

It is just a piece of expression that you're putting out.

If I was to use this as a fucking piece of motivation for anybody out there, you're probably going to write stuff that people are just like not vibing with.

That's fucking okay.

Just make shit.

Do things.

You know what I mean?

So much of my life, I'm too fucking handicapped to actually

creatively do things.

And I feel like I make subpar shit because of it.

And I feel like sometimes if I could find a more earnest approach to things like people like this who I don't know I'm just it I I am always admirable of these things if I was CK Walker and I'm sure she's a nice person and wouldn't do this but if I was her I yeah if I was her I would tell me to get over it like I wanted to write a story I wrote a story interpret it as you want don't take it on me and that's right I need to like need to not be so emotional about the story but like

Like I don't want to think of this as like part of her work because she wrote a work that like inspired me to create inspired me to tell stories stories.

Like Cormac McCarthy, I haven't read all of his books, but I had an English teacher who taught me the road in high school, and I got super into literature because of that.

Like, it doesn't, you don't,

not everyone has to love everything you do, but you might do something that like people love.

And I don't, I don't want this to, I just feel bad because I was a little heated there for a second.

I don't want this to take down like my opinion any because she wrote a story that inspired me a lot and that still stands.

And I'm going to say my last, I think I've said it my last piece three times, but I will say

this is, this will still hold a a special place in my heart because it's a time when I got to be here on the set recording it with you live in person, with, of course, the lovely Nick here as well.

And I think that that within itself is enough to hold a nice little memory.

So I got it.

CK Walker put me down a path where I started a YouTube channel.

And now I am sitting in the floor at my friend's place reading stories with him for a living.

So that's enough for me.

What else do you need?

Guys, that's Creep Cash for this week.

We appreciate you, and we'll see you in the next one.

We love you all.

Bye-bye.

We do love you all.

Thank you you for the opportunity to do this.

I'm sorry that I crashed out, but it will happen again.

Bye.