For Nevermore Season 1

“Right?”
    “Yeah, I dropped her off. Come in, Sam.”
    Sam stepped inside. Josie closed the door, then turned back to Sam. “You haven’t seen her?”
    “No, I didn’t see her all morning, and I heard about what happened with the girl across the street, so I decided to bail at lunch and see if I could help. Did they find Tori yet?”
    “No,” Josie said, then turned the conversation back to Noella. “When did you leave?”
    “Just a few minutes ago.”
    “And Noella wasn’t there yet?”
    “No,” Sam shook his head.
    “Well, maybe you just missed her,” Randy said, “I just dropped her off about a half hour or so ago.”
    “Maybe,” Sam said.
    Something itched at the back of Josie’s brain, something off about Randy’s story. Then she remembered.
    “Wait, I thought you dropped Noella off a few hours ago,” she said, turning to Randy.
    Randy closed his eyes, then turned to the front door. When he turned back a second later, he was holding a gun and aiming it at Sam’s forehead.
    He said, “You really should’ve stayed in school, boy.”
    Randy’s hand exploded forward, smacking Sam with the butt of the gun hard across the head, sending him to the carpet.
    Josie was too shocked to do anything but stare in horror as Randy turned his eyes to her. His smile was gone.

    * * * *

CHAPTER SIX

    The basement-turned-dungeon had been quiet forever. Noella knelt on the floor ready, waiting for something to happen, waiting for her chance.
    The basement door opened and cracked the silence like thunder – the sound quickly followed by Randy’s voice, “Get in there!”
    A familiar voice sent a new rattle of fear through Noella. “What are you doing? Please, Randy, you’re scaring me!”
    Josie!
    Noella jumped to her feet, then ran to her door just as Randy flicked on the overhead light. Randy was nudging Josie at gunpoint into the cell across from her.
    “Josie!” Noella cried.
    “Noella?” Josie yelled, then ran to her door, putting her hands on the door and pressing her face into the hole so their eyes could meet.
    Josie looked relieved to see Noella, though her eyes were filled with terror.
    “Don’t worry,” Noella whispered. “I’m gonna get us out.”
    Josie’s mouth opened in a scream as her head was yanked away, dragged by the hair, toward the open door across from Noella.
    “Get in!” Randy screamed.
    Josie cried out as Randy shoved her into the cell. She fell forward, slapping the ground hard with her knees. Randy slammed the door shut, then spun toward Noella’s door. His eyes would have been dark if they weren’t burning with hate.
    “Remember!” he roared, “this is your fault! ”
    Randy turned, then headed back up the stairs.
    After he closed the door, Josie’s face appeared in her door’s slit, her eyes wide.
    “He has Sam!” she whispered.

    * * * *

CHAPTER SEVEN

    Sam woke with his head throbbing. He was lying down, disoriented and confused, wondering why he was in the back of a car.
    The back of a sheriff’s car!?
    His hands were cuffed behind him, biting into his wrists.
    Then he remembered Randy hitting him.
    He craned his neck to look up and saw that the squad car was stopped, with the front seat empty, parked in front of a run-down- old house surrounded by woods.
    Panic swelled inside him. He had no idea what was happening, but knew it had to be something terrible. Tori was missing, and Noella seemed to be as well. And judging from Randy’s response, he was somehow involved.
    Is he the serial killer?
    While the idea would’ve seemed ludicrous just an hour earlier, it was the first thing that popped into Sam’s mind, and the thing which made the most sense. Why else would Randy attack him?
    Where had Randy taken him? And what did he do with Josie, Noella, and Tori?
    Sam didn’t have any answers, but he knew what he had to do — get away.
    He raised his legs, set the soles of his sneakers against the rear passenger-side window, then pushed to see if the glass would crack under the weight of his force. He’d never been in the back of a sheriff’s car, but assumed the glass had to be thicker than regular glass to keep prisoners inside.
    He pulled his legs back and kicked, and then again even harder. The glass shattered, mostly outside of the car. Sam had cleared a path of escape, but was still handcuffed, and if Randy was anywhere nearby, he would have heard the glass shatter. Which meant he had to get out quickly.
    Sam kicked out the rest of the