It was just a stop on the way. Rimrock, the sign said. A lookout.

Ben almost drove past it, tapping the brakes so hard I had to clamp onto the grab bars and brace my feet against the floorboards. The bike brapped down through the gears in a progression of growls.

We wound around a two-lane park road for what seemed like two miles, dipping through the trees, curling around boulders. We were on a day ride to Lake Erie through the Allegheny National Forest. As with any long motorcycle trip, we stopped to awaken our butts and stretch our legs.

We found the parking lot in a clearing. There was no lookout we could see. Just hikers shifting backpacks. A toilet house. And one little boy who kept waving at us while we parked.

I waved back.

Given how remote we were, I was surprised to see many people in the parking lot.

“I’ve gotta pee,” Ben said.

The restrooms were a cabin-like little box with long eves. I could smell it before I even opened the door. A composting toilet. As I squatted above the seat, I ran through a list of all the “adventures” riding around on the back of my boyfriend’s bike had gotten me into. A stinky toilet in the woods was the least of them.

Ben stood waiting for me when I came out. He tapped my butt as I joined him, and we turned toward the parking lot, looking for the map of wherever this overlook was located.

Two newcomers stood at the end of the lot. One was a paunchy, middle-aged man, the other a slim-hipped, Insta-perfect blond. The blond caught my eye and moved toward me like she was drawn by a magnet.

“Hi. How are you guys?” her eyes were mesmerizing.

“Good, thanks,” I said.

“Have you been keeping up with the story?” She reminded me of a mental patient without a fear quotient. She never blinked, and her eyes reeled me toward their depths.

“The story?”

“The convict who escaped.”

“Really?” said Ben.

“Yes. He escaped from prison and disappeared into the forest.”

Ben and I looked at each other.

“We hadn’t heard.”

Blond’s eyes grew wider, if possible. “Well, we’re here interviewing parkgoers to see how they feel. To see if they’re nervous to go into the park with this guy at large.”

Ben cocked his head. “What did he do?”

“Killed two women. Raped another. Kidnapped an older couple. Set another ex’s car on fire.” She listed the things off from rote; obviously, she’d said this many times.

“That’s awful,” I said.

“Sorry we couldn’t help you,” Ben added.

We continued toward the map, but I could still feel the reporter’s eyes on the back of my head.

The lookout was down the path a little way. I could just see the slanted hint of open sky through the pinstriped pattern of the trees. We strolled down the paved pathway, descended a thick wooden stair, and emerged onto a stone parapet. This looked down into a steep, bowled valley filled with a reservoir. Powerboats made gentle arcs of white across the water. People skipped like ants through beach access on the other side.

A sudden breeze lifted the hair on the back of my neck. It felt like someone blowing against me. I turned with a start. My heart jumped toward my throat.

The back of the parapet was empty. In fact, the whole forest lay under an eerie silence. I hadn’t thought much about what the reporter had said; however, a shiver ran up my spine.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Ben said, putting his hands on his hips.

The sun warmed the hills. A few cotton clouds meandered across the sky, but the sounds of the forest disappeared.

“It is,” but it was also frightening. Somewhere in that green wild hid a man entirely given to his baser desires. The lines of civilization and better thought had been withdrawn, and nothing could hold him back from hurting another.

The Allegheny Forest was huge, right? Look at the sweep of those hills, the drop beneath us. He could be anywhere.

But he could— he just could— be here.

I studied the forest above me, tree by tree.

“Hey! Look at this.” Ben had followed the parapet wall around to a small gap.

I blinked out of my trance and joined him.

In the tiny gap, a narrow set of stairs had been carved. They curved between and under the boulders, spiraling down into the forest-floor dusk. The steps were, in places, a foot-width and a half wide.

Ben brought twinkling eyes up to mine. “I kinda wanna see where it goes.”

He stepped down into the cleft, touching the handrail lightly.

“Ben, if you go down, you gotta come back up.”

He turned back to me and grinned. “I don’t think it’s that far.”

He drifted farther down the stairs. “All right.” I followed, placing each foot carefully on the narrow steps and holding tight to the handrail.

Ben’s shoulders spanned boulder to boulder.

I looked down at him as we curved and twisted along the narrow stairs. Smaller boulders and pebbles were wedged between the rocks above us. I pictured one of them falling loose, pelting down, and taking us out like a bowling ball. Making a broken puddle of us once we careened to the bottom.

How easy it would be.

To kill someone else.

I thought of the reporter’s flat recitation of the facts. Murderer. Rapist. Arson.

What does it take for an average person to snap and do those things? Are you normal if you do? Is the urge to just reach out and shove someone down a deathtrap something that festers inside a sane person’s brain?

My fingers itched against the handrail. I could do it to Ben so easily. Just reach out and give him a quick shove. Say it was an accident. After all, today was a good day, but they weren’t all good days. I’d seen the way he looked at Heather…

I shook my head. That was insane. We drove each other crazy sometimes, but to do that…? You really had to hate someone.

The stairs deposited us at the base of the boulder wall. A leaf-strewn fairy forest glowed green from the hidden sun. You would never know you stood at the edge of such a vista. I looked around. The birds were hushed. None of the little animals scurried in the trees. It was almost like the whole forest was hiding from this convict.

“I’ll be right back,” Ben said, dashing down the narrow trail in the boulder’s shadow.

I listened as he disappeared around the corner. The forest swallowed the sound of his footsteps. Above me, pebbles skittered across rocks, and my heart leaped up. I turned, but there was no one. The stairwell stood dark and empty.

Suddenly, the forest didn’t seem so significant anymore. It felt close and oppressive. Far too small for one man to hide. And now, I was alone. My throat began to close. I looked up at the boulder face. Their heights were obscured by tree limbs and hanging branches.

“Boo!”

I screamed.

Ben laughed.

“It follows the base around,” he said. “Looks like there’s quite the drop in that direction, but we probably shouldn’t explore too much. We should get back to the bike.”

I found it hard to concentrate on what he was saying. My heart galloped, and I felt like I was sucking in air thick with the musk of decay.

We climbed the stairs slowly, and every so often, I thought I heard the slip of something— a pebble, a foot, a twig— behind me. When I turned to look, there was nothing there.

The air smelled clean and fresh on top of the parapet. Ben grabbed my arm. “Come here. Let’s take a picture.”

Ben led me around the small parapet until we reached the wall’s end. The top of the boulder jutted out over the trees below, a sharp promontory. We walked up toward the edge and looked down. On this side, the boulders sat on top of a rocky gorge that dropped sheer toward the base of the mountains. A small trickle of water cascaded down the cleft. Farther away, the motorboats continued to draw their lazy arcs upon the water.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Ben said.

The grandeur, the enormity of it all, returned to me with a whoosh. I felt silly for having been so scared. All these miles and mountains, the nooks and crannies inside this park, somehow, I spun away into the fantasy that a murderer was dogging my steps.

How absurd.

“Say cheese,” said Ben.

I turned and smiled, instinctively posing.

But Ben wasn’t holding his phone. I frowned, cocking my head. His eyes were dark, his face a mask unlike his own.

In a flash, I knew. It’s not the unknown murderer you should fear.

Ben reached out, and with a shove, the world fell away into streaks of gray and green and brown. And darkness in the end.

© Katie Baker in 2023.