Dawn didn’t plan to stop here. Didn’t realize she was stopping until her body ceased to move. It’s like she tripped some switch inside herself, some override trigger, and it slammed on the emergency brakes.

And now she stands in the woods on the shore of this lake, breathing so hard she thinks her heart might burst loose from her chest.

And the air is still. No sign of mama bear.

Dawn dares to look behind her. She imagines that Warden is right on her ass, that he’ll tackle her from behind and cut her open with that knife and that will be the end of this story.

But Warden isn’t behind her. The trail she’s run down is empty. It could be that Warden never followed her at all. It could be that angry bear is the only thing standing between Dawn and freedom.

Dawn wishes she could believe that. It would make the next couple of hours of hiking seem a lot shorter.

But she knows Warden’s out there.

He has to be.

Stories like this don’t just end without that final battle.

And it’s funny: a few days ago, that pissed-off mama bear was the scariest thing Dawn could ever conceive of having to encounter in these woods.

Now? She’ll take her chances.

Dawn keeps going.

If the bear is still out there, maybe it will kill Warden instead.

Chapter 117

DAWN’S JUST ABOUT at the other end of the lake when she looks back across the water, and that’s when she sees Warden.

He’s just coming out of the trees on the far shore. He’s running, but in that way athletic people sometimes do where it doesn’t look like they’re expending any effort at all.

Dawn catches herself staring. Like in that sick, fascinated way you would stare at, like, a big hornet. Or a poisonous snake. Or, I don’t know, a police car you just blew past at twenty-five over the speed limit.

Like when you know it’s dangerous and possibly fatal to just stop and stare, but something triggers in your mind and you can’t take your eyes away.

That’s how Dawn feels, watching Warden. He runs down to the shore of the lake and then starts along the trail that skirts the water. He is as big and dangerous and unstoppable as any monster in any horror movie. Dawn watches him and knows she should run, but she can’t.

She’s frozen.

And then Warden looks up and sees her and he starts to run faster.

And suddenly Dawn is unfrozen again.

Chapter 118