“When did you get here?” Michael asked him.
“I left as soon as I woke up and saw that neither of you were coming back. I headed straight here, thinking that this would be the most likely place you would come to once you found each other,” Adam answered. “What happened to you guys?”
“I fell off the mountain,” I said.
“You what?”
“It was dark, and I couldn’t see where I was going and tripped. I fell off the side of the mountain and landed, thankfully, on a rock slab that was jutting out from the side of the mountain. Michael found me and saved me.”
“Of course he did,” Adam chuckled. It sounded like he was half grateful and half jealous that Michael always seemed to be my knight in shining armor that came to rescue me every time I needed help.
“Well, I’m just glad you’re both okay,” he said as he looked at Michael. “Even you.”
Michael laughed. “Thanks. Any sign of Rob?”
“No, none,” Adam answered. “Are we still going back out to search more?”
“No, Lisette can’t walk well enough and it’s pointless to continue after this much time has passed. We need the help of the police now.”
Adam’s face gave away that he felt just as nervous about asking the cops for help as I did.
“Yeah, I know it’s not ideal,” Michael said. “But we really don’t have a choice now if we want to find him. Especially not if we want to find him alive.”
There obviously was no arguing with that. As soon as I fixed up my leg, we would go into town. It wasn’t broken, just torn up a bit; nothing a shower and an ace bandage wrap wouldn’t be able to help with.
The shower felt so good. I stood there and let the hot water cascade over my body until it washed all of the chill out of my bones. When I was finished, I stepped out and wrapped a towel around my body as I walked into the bedroom. Michael was already there waiting on the bed for me with a bunch of antiseptic wash and bandages, and even a brace that would make walking a lot easier.
“I thought you might need some help with it,” he said as he slid the stuff over to make space for me to sit down on the bed.
“Thanks,” I said, coming to sit down beside him.
He lifted my leg up gently and started to take care of the cuts. It stung and I reflexively grabbed his hand. Michael looked up at me and stopped what he was doing. My wet hair hung in dripping strands that ran down my back, and the only piece of clothing that I had on was a pair of panties beneath my towel. Michael was still dirty from the woods and needed a shower too, but all I could think about was how badly I wanted him to pull my towel off from around me and lay me down on the bed. His look was deep and darkened, and I could tell that was what he was thinking about too. I yearned for this torture to be over. Even in the midst of the disparaging things that we were going through, it would all be so much easier to tolerate if there wasn’t this invisible barrier between us. I knew that he felt the same way. After a moment, he looked back down at my leg and finished wrapping it up.
“There,” he said as he set my leg back down on the floor. “Good as new.”
He stood up to go take a shower and I reached out to grab his hand, which made him stop abruptly. He helped me up and I stood up against him, then wrapped my arms around his back and hugged him. I knew that I could at least do this for now. I could hug him and feel his arms around me. That much, at least, was safe no matter who we were to each other. Michael held me too, and we both sighed deeply. We stayed there for a few long minutes, before finally letting go. He went to take a shower, and I got dressed, while I could hear Adam out in the kitchen making more coffee.
When all three of us were ready and looked more like we were walking the earth again, instead of just having crawled out of a cave or been thrown off the side of a mountain, we got ready to go into town and ask the police for help.
I still wasn’t sure if this was a good idea, but it was the only one that we had.
4
I hated going into the police station; like absolutely hated it. I was uneasy and I didn’t even think that the police were going to be that forthcoming in helping us find Rob.
“I want to leave,” I whispered in Adam’s ear.
Michael gave me a look that either meant he was curious about what I was saying, or he didn’t like the fact that I was sitting so close to Adam.
“I think we should at least—”
I was looking at Adam while he was talking, and by the way that he abruptly stopped mid-sentence, I figured that a cop had probably walked up behind me and was ready to talk to us. But when I turned around, I was too shocked to speak. A cop did walk up to talk to us, but it wasn’t just any cop; it was Rob. I was so stunned that I just sat there staring at him as if I was looking at a ghost. Maybe after everything that I had been through this far, I was finally starting to lose my mind.
“Rob?” Michael asked.
Rob looked at all three of us as if he was only mildly surprised to see us here at the police station.
“Why don’t you come into my office and we can have a talk,” Rob said pleasantly. “I understand that you wanted to file a missing person’s report.”
“Yes, for—”
Adam yanked my arm before I could say Rob’s name. He gave me a look that I knew was supposed to mean “shut up” and so I just stood up and walked with him instead as the three of us headed back to Rob’s office. How does he even have an office here? He’s not even a cop anymore and he was never a cop here in Asheville. I was literally too confused to think straight. Rob led us into an office with large, glass windows, and closed the door behind us. Michael, Adam, and I all sat down at the other side of his desk and waited for him to say something. But Rob just looked at us in silence as if his tongue was tied.
“Rob, what are you doing here?” Michael asked once it became clear that Rob wasn’t going to start the conversation first.
“I work here,” Rob said.
“What the hell, Rob?” I shouted at him. Enough of this. “What the hell is going on? You disappeared from the cabin for days, leaving only a single shoe behind. We spend days in the mountains searching for you, and nearly die in the process, mind you. Then we come here as a desperate last resort to try to find our missing friend, and find out that you’ve been here all along pretending to be a cop again?”
“Calm down, Lisette,” Adam said as he put his hand gently on my lap over my own hand.
The way that he used his thumb to stroke the top of my fingers, was the same way that he used to calm me when we were locked in the stone room. Something wasn’t right about this whole situation and Adam was trying to tell me that.
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Rob said as he smiled in a very politically correct kind of way. “I had my badge transferred to this precinct when I decided to rejoin the force. And didn’t go missing, I left you a note. And as far as a shoe being left behind, I must have dropped it when I moved out.”
“Moved out?” I asked. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. “There was no note Rob.”
