Stella sipped her coffee. She glanced at David who watched her, and then she looked at Cole who was listening to her. “These cities, and some of their other cities, were highly defensible, like they were constantly at war and constantly defending themselves, like they were constantly afraid of something. Some scientists speculate that they were afraid of other tribes of Indians. But at that time, the Anasazi were the most advanced tribe in that area, maybe even in all of North America. Who would they need to be afraid of?”

Jose sipped his bottle of whiskey. “Is this going somewhere?” he asked her, his words slurring just slightly.

“About seven hundred years ago the Anasazi vanished,” Stella continued, undaunted by Jose’s remark.

“Like many groups of people in North and South America, the Anasazi built massive cities and roads, they built an entire civilization, and then they abandoned them, like they just walked away. Recent findings at some Anasazi sites have uncovered mass graves of murder victims and evidence of cannibalism.”

“The history lesson is fascinating …” Jose said and let his words trail off as he sipped more whiskey.

Stella ignored Jose as she went on. “I got a call from a colleague, a man named Jake. He told me that he’d made an amazing discovery, the greatest of his life. Maybe one of the most amazing and important discoveries in archeological history, and he asked for my help. He needed my expertise of the Anasazi history.”

Stella paused for a moment, sipped more coffee, and then she continued. “Jake wanted everything kept quiet until we were sure what we’d really found. I drove there and met him at the dig site. It was amazing. Jake had found a hidden cave system, and inside the cave were the ruins of a civilization. An Anasazi civilization, I was sure of it.”

Cole stared at Stella. “And that’s where this happened to you and David. Like what’s happening here.”

“Yes. That’s where I found David. He was bloody, but not hurt. But he couldn’t remember what had happened. He wouldn’t even talk to any of us at first. He was afraid of everyone. Except me.”

Stella looked at David to gauge his reaction. He just stared back at her with his dark eyes, eyes that were almost black. He sat motionless on the couch, not moving a muscle.

“Not long after we found David, that’s when everything started to go wrong. Jake suggested that one of us take David to the nearest Navajo village and get some help for him. But …” Stella glanced at David again.

David watched her and then he looked at the front door.

“But our vehicles wouldn’t start. There was nothing wrong with them, they just wouldn’t start. Like all of the batteries had died at the same time.”

David’s breathing grew quicker as he watched the door.

“Then the first person went missing. Jim Whitefeather, a friend of mine. He left in the middle of the night like he just walked off into the desert. Or into the cave.”

“But then he came back,” Cole finished for her.

Stella nodded.

“What did he ask for?” Cole asked.

“It was like this. He asked for body parts.”

“And you guys gave him what he asked for?”

“Not at first,” Stella answered quickly. “We tried to run. Tried to escape. Tried to fight back. But it wouldn’t let us go. It made an example out of one of us.”

Cole stared at her.

“An example like Trevor,” she explained.

Cole flinched at his brother’s name. Cole looked away, thinking for a moment as he pushed the thought of his brother out of his mind. Then he looked back at Stella as a thought occurred to him. “So this thing just took you guys one by one, and then asked for body parts? And you don’t know why.”

“It was making us do things. Trying to scare us so badly that we’d do anything it wanted, anything it asked us to do no matter what it was.”

“Because it was leading up to something,” Cole said.

Stella saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. She glanced over at David and saw that he was frightened now as he stared at the front door. He was up on his feet, standing next to the couch. She looked back at Cole as he asked his next question.

“It was leading up to something specific,” Cole told her. “Wasn’t it?”

Stella didn’t answer. Cole had figured it out. A quick glance at Jose told her that Jose was getting drunk now and not really listening to them anymore, his eyes were nearly closed, pure exhaustion taking over his body.

“It’s leading up to something specific here, too,” Cole said, staring at her with an expression that seemed accusatory and victorious at the same time. “You know what it wants, don’t you?” he asked, his voice getting louder. It was even beginning to rouse Jose from his drunken slumber.

Stella looked over at David. He took a step towards the front door, then another, almost like he was in a trance.

Cole turned in his chair and looked at David, and then he turned back and looked at Stella. “You know what it’s going to ask for next,” he said even louder. “You know what it wants.”

“He’s out there,” David said from the living room.

This brought Jose fully awake. He jumped up from his chair and spun around on his feet and stared at David. Then he looked at Cole and Stella, the fear was back in his eyes now.

David took another two steps towards the door, and then he stopped and looked at Cole. “He’s calling you.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Jose didn’t waste any time. He grabbed his coat and walked right to the front door on legs that were a little unsteady from the amount of whiskey he’d drank in a short amount of time.

“Jose, wait,” Cole said a low voice.

Jose turned and looked at Cole through red-rimmed and terrified eyes. “No, we need to go out there. We can’t keep it waiting. We have to do whatever it wants.”

Jose turned and marched towards the front door.

Cole and Stella exchanged glances. Stella nodded and Cole followed Jose to the door. Jose was already unlocking the deadbolt. Stella took David’s hand and they both followed Cole and Jose outside onto the porch.

The four gathered outside on the porch, a few steps away from the door. Stella was closest to the door. She closed the door almost all the way, leaving it open just a crack. The yellowish light from inside the cabin could be seen through the crack in the doorway. Outside, the world was growing dark very quickly. And it was getting colder.

Frank stood in the same spot as he had before, only thirty yards away from the cabin. The snow was up to his calves and he wore the same clothes. He stood very still, no movement at all, almost just a shadow himself in the pitch black darkness that was descending on the land as the night moved in.

Cole stared at Frank, and he thought of what Jose had said, about Frank’s body being hollowed out. Yet here he stood. Cole believed Jose now after seeing his own brother’s pieces put back together into a walking and talking body.

Frank stared at them with a blank expression; there were no fake smiles from him anymore, no need to pretend any longer. They knew Frank was just a hollowed-out corpse now, just a meat puppet with some all-powerful, invisible force pulling his strings. Frank spoke in a loud, guttural voice. “He is very pleased so far. He believes you are ready for your final task.”

The four waited on the porch. None of them moved or said anything. They didn’t shout back at Frank like they had done before; they didn’t challenge him, or threaten him. What else could they do but listen to his demand?

“When you give him this one last thing he wants,” Frank continued, “then he will let you walk out of here untouched. You will be allowed to keep your money and leave.”

They were silent for a long moment, and then Cole finally spoke up. “What does he want?”

Stella held her breath. Cole had been right earlier in the cabin; she did know what Frank was going to ask for next. She knew all along what this was leading up to – one final task, one final request from this thing. She looked at David. She still held his hand, and she squeezed his hand a little harder.