Read The Innocence Game for Free Online

called my name once. Then I was alone. I let the light play over the walls, patterns of rock drifting and moving. I actually smelled him before I saw him.
    A single eye. Cobalt blue.
    Snapshot.
    His body. Small. White. Naked.
    Snapshot.
    A gray T-shirt, torn into strips and wrapped tight around his neck. Hands and feet bound with dirty pieces of twine.
    Snapshot.
    Snapshot.
    The boy’s mouth was stretched open as if to scream. But it wasn’t he who screamed. To my surprise, it was me.

8
    Havens got to me first. “You okay?”
    What I thought was a scream had turned out to be more like a gasp. Havens waited for me to speak, but I just looked at him. Sarah picked up the flashlight I’d dropped on the floor of the cave. That was when they both saw him.
    “Holy shit.” Havens moved closer. Sarah remained rooted where she stood.
    “Don’t touch anything,” I said.
    “We need to make sure he’s dead.” Sarah’s voice seemed to grow smaller by the syllable.
    “He’s dead,” Havens said and took a step back. “Looks like the animals have been at him.”
    I took Sarah’s arm and guided her back down the passage. “Move out the way you came. Exactly the way you came. And don’t touch anything.”
    We backed out of the cave and huddled by its mouth. After what we’d found inside, the air felt cool and fresh on my face.
    “Think we contaminated anything?” Havens said.
    I looked at Sarah. She shook her head.
    “How about you, Jake?”
    “Didn’t touch a thing.”
    “Let me see your shoes,” I said.
    They were both wearing sneakers. Sarah, Nike. Havens, New Balance.
    “Generic enough,” I said. “We’re probably fine.”
    Havens looked at me with curiosity and, maybe, a touch of respect. Off to the left, another branch popped. We fell silent, considering one another in the dense light. A creak followed, like someone was shifting his weight, settling. I gestured for Havens and Sarah to stay where they were. Then I eased into the scrub to the right of the cave. The moon was cut off on this side of the rocks, plunging the slope into a world of purples and blacks. I slipped down, this time disturbing nary a pebble, then looped to the left. Inside the tree line, I found a trail and began to work back toward the cave. Along the way, I picked up a rock, as large as my fist, smooth, and heavy. It felt good in my hand.
    I came up against the slick trunk of a tree and wound my head and shoulders around it. Through a tangle, I could see the river, alive in the night. Straight ahead, the trees marched out in a checkerboard pattern. To my right, a riot of vegetation grew in a twisted mass. I let my eyes defocus and reassemble the scene. The tangle separated into bushes and branches, humpbacked roots, and, at the very center, a large, flat boulder. On the boulder sat something. Something breathing.
    A pair of yellow eyes stared intently up the slope. Toward the cave. The eyes blinked once and a soft moan issued. It was an aching that pricked the back of my neck. I slipped down to my belly and crawled forward. I’d covered maybe ten feet when there was a thrashing and rolling above me. A slide of rocks rumbled down the slope, followed by the hammer of feet. Yellow eyes rose up from his perch. His silhouette turned to look at me, as if he’d known I was there all along. Then he was gone. I scrambled to my feet. Havens was somewhere nearby, whispering my name. A roar in the darkness.
    “Over here,” I said and fought my way out of the trees. Havens pulled me to the ground.
    “There was something there,” I said. “Got spooked when you came down the hill.”
    “Something? Human or animal?”
    “Couldn’t tell.”
    “Forget about it,” Havens said. “We’ve got bigger problems. Definitely human problems. Come on.”

9
    The man with the yellow eyes ran smoothly, silently, navigating a slalom course of limbs and roots, hunks of bushes, and chunks of trees. All twisted and curved in the night. Once he’d called