Chapter Twenty-Four Evie #2
But I’m not. Standing in each of the spotlights is a man dressed in all black, wearing a matching hoodie. I hear Goldie’s stuttered breath and Noah’s motherfucker somewhere around me, but I’m focused on the blocked pathways.
This is how he’s fucking with me. It was never the dark . . . That was just the foreplay before he tortured me.
Because behind the hoodie, each of the figures is wearing a grotesquely distorted prosthetic mask . . .
Of Remus’s face.
I feel sick. As if bile is crawling up my throat, because they all have a fake slit on the neck. Like the one we thought was real when blood spilled out over the floor.
It’s like they skinned him to wear him.
Goldie starts to cry, and it’s not unlike the first time when it was me who was spiraling. Noah tries to comfort her. But I take a step out alone.
I stare at each of them.
“He’s literally re-creating the whole night,” I level. “He wanted us back in the most horrifying moment of our lives.”
My eyes narrow as the handle of Chase’s knife circles around in my hand. Over and over, as I keep staring between them, feeling two years ago so viscerally that it’s hard to breathe.
But maybe that’s okay.
Maybe this is what it means to overcome something. You don’t forget the fear, or stop feeling it, you just figure out a way to use it.
I take a deep breath, thinking about what’s happening—time’s a-wasting.
Fuck that. You don’t get him.
Remus may have faked his death the first time, but I’m going to help him live more authentically this time.
“If this is like last time, that means only one of these is the real guy,” Noah grits out.
“But which one?” my sister whispers.
My eyes close, letting the memory take over. Not fighting it. Using it.
“Can you tell which ones are fake?” Goldie whispers.
I shake my head with both hands on the sides of my face as I look to the masked men and blow out a harsh breath.
“Do you have a designer tell? Look for that?” Noah urges.
“No,” I draw out. “I can’t tell. Fuck.”
“Come on, there’s gotta be something,” Chase adds.
But I start to cry again. “I don’t . . . oh my god.” My breathing starts picking up pace as I keep looking between the paths. I’m panicking. I’ve never felt like this. Like I can’t stop the fear from getting the best of me. But it’s taking me under.
“I can’t tell. Oh my god. I just don’t . . . I just don’t know.”
Chase pulls me close, wrapping his arms around me, whispering into my ear.
“You don’t have to know. I promise you I’ll save you and Noah and Goldie. If it’s the last thing I do, I will save the people you love. Do you hear me?”
I’m saying I’m sorry over and over, but Chase isn’t listening.
“Promise me, you will only think about yourself and live. Just live, Evie. For me.”
A smile blooms over my face as I shake my head, and my eyes glisten. I was thinking about everyone else, and he was only thinking about me. Even back then.
It’s my turn to save you.
“Evie,” Goldie presses, so I look at her.
“No,” I level calmly. “I can’t tell which one’s real . . . but I know what can . . .”
I lift the crossbow and fire to the north.
She shrieks as the sound clicks and whizzes, her shoulders jumping. Noah pulls her face to his chest, but I’m staring straight at my arrow.
A loud thud, followed by a white fog that dusts the air, giving away that it’s fake. The dummy falls to the ground.
“Boathouse, now.”
We run. The all-too-familiar sound of our feet pounding the ground echoes around the false night. Our labored breaths mingle as we race down over the dirt and grass.
Noah yells “Four minutes” behind me, but I can’t move any faster, so I stretch my arm out, giving him my crossbow like a baton, letting him pass me.
Someone has to get there.
The sound of my panted breaths echoes inside my head, the only thought being Please, god, be there.
My feet are slowing on their own as I watch Noah sprint. But suddenly my eyes shutter, everything happening in slow motion as my mind tries to process and act at the same time.
There’s a click in the distance, followed by a sharp explosive sound. And it sounds like it’s slicing through the air.
My mouth falls open, eyes growing wide as terror takes over my body, because my sister screams.
Noah looks back, screaming her name. But I can’t move as my entire body shakes, trembling and in shock.
Because Goldie drops to the ground.
Noah scrambles over the ground, back to her side, dropping the crossbow. As he immediately presses a hand to her shoulder.
I can’t make out what he’s saying, because he’s sobbing through his words. Screaming for her to keep her eyes open.
I’m trying to say her name but I can’t.
Red begins to bleed through her shirt and my eyes fix to it.
She’s been shot. The thought is chanted in my head as time begins to speed up along with my breath as reality kicks back in.
Noah cradles her in his arms. “Baby,” he shouts, but she’s limp.
My hands cover my cries as I fall to my knees, digging my hands and nails into the dirt to crawl to her, but Noah looks at me, bellowing, “Evie . . . go! Go, go, go . . .”
I don’t want to leave her.
“No,” I rush out, crying as I reach for her, but her tearstained face lifts, her voice weak.
“Evie, get Chase.”
I’m immediately nodding. Listening to what she’s told me to do. Because Noah has her. He has her. He’ll take care of her.
Her eyes stay on mine as I stand, walking backward a few steps, and I watch Noah pick her up to run her to safety. Then I turn and run toward danger.
And I run like the goddamn wind straight toward the boathouse. Without worry for myself, praying with every step that he’s there.
Also knowing that without a shadow of a doubt, this is part of Remus’s plan.
The boathouse was where Billy was tortured and almost drowned. This is where he wants me to find him.
Because in the end, it was always going to be brother versus sister.
The moment I hit the door, all the fear over the last two years settles inside my bones, mutating, turning into rage as I bust through, locking eyes with him.