Paying the Piper

Nine: Alternate Reality

When my vision cleared and my heart stopped choking me, I stared at him. "No way. It was just a couple of hours ago that I was in the parking lot and Quentin was warning me to leave again."—off to the side, I saw Ryland's eyebrows furrow and ask something like, "What the hell?" but I was still blubbering—"It was raining then—this is the same rain! And I wandered around for a bit, just planning to calm down and go back in, but I managed to get lost." I took a breath to go on, but he stopped me.

"Why don't you sit down? Let's talk about it some more and—"

"Sit where?" I cut in, too jittery to focus on what mattered most. "Everything's wet. From the rain on Thursday morning."

Ryland's face held no judgment or even pity. He just levelly told me: "It's been raining the last two days."

I had no response to that. But something else occurred to me: I finally realized who I needed to confront about all this, and turned around to barrage Cale with a billion and one questions. But he had vanished before, and I knew that. He had not conveniently reappeared now.

Ryland had his phone out and was dialing a number. I could guess what it was, even though I wasn't nearly ready to deal with what the repercussions of that number would be. Still, I wasn't able to get my tongue untied before he notified 9-1-1 of where we were and that a corpse was with us. I could already sense the police suspicion coming my direction. Maybe I'd seen too many cop shows, but it seemed likely that they'd first question and suspect the person found with the body.

Ducking my head further into my hoodie and hands into my sodden front pocket, I observed this area. The road here was familiar, but it took me a moment to place it. Then I realized it was Highway 240: the road I had been hoping to hit by traveling my straight line. Way back on Thursday. Belatedly remembering my phone, I dug it out and stared at the screen. It was back in service, and the device indubitably presented Saturday's date.

"Hey, come in and warm up."

Ryland tapped my shoulder from behind, making me jump, as he walked back to his car parked on the shoulder. The lights were still on and the vehicle was still running, exhaust lazily snaking through the rain.

I dutifully followed him, teeth beginning to chatter. Ryland pulled open the passenger side door for me, and as I hesitated, he prodded me downward.

"Sit," he said. "You're chilled through. You need to warm up."

"I'll ruin your seat," I said, eyeing the leather. It wasn't the regular suede like my parents' cars.

Ryland made a dismissive sound and pushed me more firmly down into the car. "It'll be fine. Get in so we can talk."

I acquiesced, and once Ryland sat in the driver's seat next to me, he blasted the heat on his car and turned off the music. It had been some K-pop group, but the only one I was familiar with was BTS, and it obviously wasn't them since it was a girl group. Then Ryland was rustling up something in the back seat, which made him lean almost into my space. I kept myself squeezed by the door and almost startled again when Ryland deposited a blanket into my lap.

Exhaling, Ryland drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "I'm glad you're okay. It could've been your body we found instead of Lydia Silver's."

His words made me shudder, especially since after my experience in the woods with that evil entity, I knew how right he was. By this time, I had unfolded the blanket and covered myself with it. That, combined with the car heat, was beginning to warm the chill from my bones.

"We don't have much time before the police get here," he continued, "so I'm just going to get straight to it." Except after he said that, he fell silent. For a moment, his eyes looked out the windshield, scanning the trees. Finally, he leaned closer to me and whispered, "The same thing happened to me that happened to you."