This Stays Between Us

Mack jogged back to the main track following the sound, which seemed to be coming from a stand of bushes to the left of the path where a second track speared into the scrub. As she drew near, she saw that the track was blocked by a gate, similar to the one they’d come through at the other end of the town and affixed with a faded sign:

FIRE TRACK!

PARK AND EMERGENCY VEHICLES ONLY.

KEEP GATE CLOSED.

Except this gate was open.

The sound she’d heard was the whine of its hinges as it moved in the breeze. Her heart stumbled with relief and she checked the map. The fire track ran behind their lodge, following the old single-track railway the miners had used to transport the quarried gypsum to Port Rawson, and cutting an alternate route back to the park’s main road. There was also a yellow plastic trail marker nailed to the gatepost, and Mack figured the track must be used by hikers exploring the park on foot. Careless hikers who ignored signs about keeping gates closed. Sure enough, she spotted a dark-clad figure a hundred metres or so up the track, heading away from the town. Their features were blurry and distorted by the heat shimmer, but from their size and gait, she guessed it was a man.

‘Oi!’ she yelled, before she could stop herself. ‘You left the gate open!’

The figure stopped and turned. Definitely a man.

A large man. The sun glanced off the gypsum and the track appeared liquid with the man seeming to hover a breath above the ground. Mack knew it was a mirage – something to do with the angle at which the light hit the earth – but the effect was eerie. And there was something wrong with the man’s eyes. They were too large and too dark against his pale skin.

Shit.

Mack wished she’d kept her mouth shut. Kyle Lynton she could handle. But this man was a stranger. He could hurt her.

‘Never mind!’ she called, the gate wailing again as she pulled it closed and secured the latch. ‘I’ve got it!’

The man tilted his head to the side, as though trying to make out what she was saying, then gave her a wide, easy grin and lifted his hand in a wave.

Mack, uncertain, half-raised her hand in return. The gesture seemed friendly – the man’s way of thanking her for closing the gate – but something about the way he was looking at her made her skin crawl.

‘MACK! MACK!’ Priya called from somewhere behind her.

‘Coming!’ she replied, and, turning, almost crashed into Shelley.

Mack hadn’t heard her approach.

She was standing very still, her gaze intent on the man.

‘Jesus, you scared me.’ Mack touched her shoulder. ‘You okay? How long have you been standing there?’

Shelley blinked at her. ‘He’s in the trees.’

Her voice was low and flat, and Mack thought she must have misheard.

‘Pardon?’

Shelley stared over Mack’s shoulder. ‘He’s in the trees.’

Mack had a sudden vision of the man on the track forcing her up against the trunk of a sturdy pine, though none grew in the area. She felt his greasy hair against her cheek and his breath was hot and sour in her ear. Dread pierced her chest and she whirled back towards the fire track in a panic. But the smiling man was gone.