“But why?” Kelsey tried to move, to back away, but her leg wouldn’t hold her. “Why are you doing this?”

“Why?” the voice threw back at her, and it came from all directions, the whole cave resounding with mockery. “But it gives me so much power, don’t you see? So much…shall we say…inconspicuous attention? Why, I can walk right through a crowd and pick out my victim in broad daylight. Talk to her. Make her feel special.” The voice grew dreamy. “Take her out and show her a good time…” The voice grew sad, “Make her fall in love with me.” There was a brief, reflective silence, then it spoke again. “And—this is the funny part—she never even dreams that I’m going to kill her…never has slightest clue that I have her life…in my hands.”

“You don’t have to do this! You have everything anyone could want!” Desperately she tried to stand, but slid down again on the slimy rocks. She knew he was watching her, smugly enjoying her struggles, and she backed farther away, farther away from the light.

The feet moved forward. He was trying to keep her in sight.

“But Beth cared about you! She trusted you!”

“She did trust me. But then…they all did, really.” Another long pause, another touch of sadness. “I didn’t want to hurt Beth. But she found out about me, you see, so I had to. I had no choice. Sometimes people really don’t, you know.”

She was stalling for time, inching her way back, wrapping herself in darkness. Surely the stairs were back here somewhere—if only she could grab hold—pull herself up—

“I don’t have a choice now, you can see that, can’t you? I wanted you to stay here on the island…but now you know too much and you might tell, and then they’d put me away…”

The stairs…oh, God, please, help me—

“I could just leave you down here, of course,” he went on, hesitating at the very brink of the light. “All these underground caves flood at high tide…or sometimes…in very bad storms.” There was a faint breath of laughter. “But you’d suffer too much. Being so afraid. All alone in the water. In the dark. The bats would come. And snakes. And the rats…”

Kelsey fought down a wave of panic. A little more…little more…

“I like you too much to let you suffer. I’ll do it nice and fast. I’m good at it, you’ll see.”

Her body jolted as the rubber soles squeaked across the rocks, as the tall, slender figure moved out into the yellow light—

“Kelsey,” the voice whispered, and the cave was full of him— “you’ll never escape me. You’re going the wrong way.”

She lunged then, into the utter blackness, hoping against hope that he was wrong, that the stairs were close, and she heard him, running up behind her, felt his hands on her back as she screamed and screamed and threw herself away—

And fell over the body on the floor.