Chapter 22 #3
“If we don’t get her back inside right now, she could die out there,” I said.
“And you could die with her,” she shot back. “You heard what she was doing. She’s literally calling him to her.”
“I know,” I said. “I know it’s stupid.”
“Then why are you even considering it?”
“Because she doesn’t deserve to die!” The words came out sharper than I meant them to. “She’s having a breakdown, and I think that’s actually pretty fucking normal considering the situation we’re stuck in! It doesn’t mean she should be hunted down like an animal!”
Sutton moved a little closer to me, searching my face with her cold blue eyes. “You really think you could make it out there and back without running into the killer?”
I hesitated.
It wasn’t because I didn’t have an answer. I did. But it wasn’t one I could say out loud.
It was exactly what Jasmine had pointed out to me a few minutes before. If Rhys was the killer—and by now, I was pretty damn sure he was—he probably wouldn’t hurt me. Not unless I seriously enraged him.
I could use that twisted advantage to get Grace back to safety.
“Yes. I’m not letting her die out there,” I finally said.
I didn’t give myself time to think about it any further. If I did, I might not move at all.
I ran to grab my ax from where I’d left it earlier. Then I hurried back to the door and stepped past the threshold. The dark swallowed me immediately, the sounds from inside the hall dulling behind me.
“Alissa!” someone called out. “Come on. Don’t do this!”
I didn’t turn around.
“Grace!” I shouted instead, already moving toward the path she’d taken. “Grace, wait!”
I cut myself off after that, jaw tightening. If the killer wasn’t Rhys after all, he wouldn’t be merciful to me, and screaming my head off was a great way to lead him straight to me.
It didn’t take long for my eyes to adjust to the darkness.
With the moon high and the sky clear, the camp was washed in a thin, silvery light that made everything visible enough.
Grace had gone quiet, but I told myself that was a good sign.
That she’d burned through the worst of it and collapsed somewhere nearby, crying into her hands.
She had to be close.
I veered right, heading toward the nearest row of cabins.
Every step I took sounded too loud, my sneakers crunching over gravel and dry leaves like I was announcing myself to the entire campground.
The ax felt heavy in my hand, slick where my palm had started to sweat against the handle, but I kept my grip tight.
I moved between the cabins, checking behind each one, forcing myself to look properly instead of just glancing and moving on.
Grace was nowhere to be seen. I still couldn’t hear her, either. Just the wind shifting through the trees. The faint creak of branches. The occasional call of a nightbird.
But I knew she had to be here somewhere. She couldn’t have gone that far just yet.
I rounded another row, then another, my pulse climbing higher with every empty space, every corner that revealed nothing.
Then… a voice. Faint, but close. For a second, I just listened, my breath held tightly.
“There you are,” a female voice was saying. “Everyone’s going crazy over you.”
I stepped carefully toward the voice, then slowed as I reached the corner of the next cabin. My shoulder brushed the wood as I leaned in just enough to see.
Grace was standing a few feet away, shoulders hunched, chest heaving. Sutton was right in front of her.
“You know, you’re really lucky that dumb bitch Alissa guilted me into coming out here,” Sutton was saying now, her voice sharp. “Now get your shit together and come back inside before we both die.”
“I can’t.” Grace shook her head. “I don’t want to.”
“Don’t be fucking stupid.” Sutton stepped closer, jabbing her friend in the shoulder. “Get. Inside. Now.”
Grace let out a shaky breath, still half-laughing, half-sobbing. “You don’t get it. There’s no point hiding from this anymore,” she said. “He isn’t going to let us go. He isn’t going to stop until he’s made us all pay.”
A cold, creeping feeling slid down my spine.
“Pay for what?” Sutton asked, folding her arms.
“Oh, fuck off, Sutton! Stop pretending like nothing happened!” Grace snapped. “You know why he’s coming after us!”
“Actually, I don’t,” Sutton said. “It’s not like he’s released some sort of manifesto outlining his reasons.”
“Don’t play dumb.” Grace’s voice dipped lower. “You know exactly why he’s doing it. We all know why.”
Sutton sighed, dragging a hand through her hair. “Okay, fine. Maybe it’s because of Carly. But we have no way of knowing that for sure, do we?”
“Yes, we do! What the fuck else would it be?” Grace’s voice pitched higher. “We killed her, Sutton! We killed her and someone saw! And now they’re not going to stop until they’ve punished us all!”
We killed her.
My pulse stuttered as my mind tried to rearrange those words into something safer.
A figure of speech. Guilt talking.
It had to be.
Grace just meant their negligence had killed her. They’d all gotten wasted that night and forgotten to do cabin checks, so they didn’t notice that Carly was no longer in her bed. Didn’t go looking for her. Didn’t find her floundering in the lake until it was already too late.
“No one saw what we did, Grace,” Sutton said in a low voice. “And even if they did, why wouldn’t they just go to the police and get us charged with murder? Why do all this?”
My stomach dropped so fast it made me feel dizzy.
Oh my god. I was wrong.
The Legacies hadn’t inadvertently killed Carly through drunken negligence.
They’d killed her on purpose.
The ax suddenly felt too heavy in my hand, my fingers damp against the handle. Every instinct in my body was screaming at me to move; to put distance between myself and this conversation before the other two girls realized I was here.
I eased one foot back, trying to retrace my steps without making a sound. If I could just get back to the hall, where there was safety in numbers, I could—
A sharp crack split the quiet as a twig snapped under my shoe.
Fuck.
Sutton and Grace’s heads whipped toward me, and I realized I had no choice but to pretend I’d just arrived.
I forced myself forward, stepping around the corner. “There you are,” I said, letting urgency edge into my voice. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
Grace scrubbed at her face, pulling in a shaky breath. “Thanks for coming for me,” she muttered. “I-I’m okay now.”
Sutton’s gaze was fixed on me, sharp and searching. “What did you hear?” she asked.
I frowned. “What?”
She took a step closer. “How much of our conversation did you hear?”
“Um… none? I literally just arrived.”
“Then why didn’t we hear you coming?” she asked, eyes narrowing.
My stomach twisted. “What?”
“You came around that corner acting like you’d only just walked up here. But I didn’t hear any footsteps in the last minute or so. No leaves crunching. Just a twig snapping two seconds ago.” Her head tilted. “You must’ve been standing there for a while.”
“No.” I shook my head, forcing it to look natural. “Why would I do that?”
She ignored the question. “Even if you were just walking up to us, and we didn’t hear your footsteps, you still must’ve heard some of the conversation. Because Grace wasn’t exactly being quiet, was she?”
I swallowed hard. “I heard voices, but that’s it. They were too faint to make out anything.”
“You’re lying.”
I forced out a shaky laugh. “I honestly didn’t hear your conversation,” I said, lifting my free hand. “So if you’re sleeping with someone’s boyfriend, or addicted to pills, or whatever this is about, your secret is totally safe with me. Because I don’t even know what it is.”
Sutton’s cold, probing expression didn’t shift. “Has anyone ever told you what a horrible fucking actor you are?”
Yes. Today, in fact.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said. “Now look, we really need to get back inside. It’s not safe out here.”
Before she could say anything else, a male voice cut through the cool night air.
“Grace!”
All three of us turned.
Two figures had appeared between the cabins, moving quickly toward us. Jensen was in front, and Chris was right behind him, both of them scanning the shadows like they expected someone to lunge out at any second.
“There you are,” Jensen said as he reached us, relief and irritation tangling in his voice. “Everyone’s freaking out back in the hall. We told you not to go running off alone!”
Chris glanced between us, frowning. “C’mon, let’s get back before something—”
“We can’t go back yet,” Sutton cut in flatly.
Both guys looked at her.
“We’ve got a problem.” She folded her arms, eyes still locked on me. “Grace opened her mouth. And now Alissa knows.”
Jensen’s head snapped toward me. “Knows what?” he demanded.
“She knows,” Sutton said, sharper this time. “What we did to Carly.”
The words seemed to suck the air right out of the space between the cabins.
For a moment, nobody moved or spoke. Jensen kept staring at me, eyes narrowed, something calculating settling in behind them. Then he swore under his breath, dragging a hand over his face. “Fuck.”
My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it might split my ribcage apart.
“I-I really don’t know what you guys are talking about,” I said. “Can we please just go back to the hall?”
“Don’t waste time,” Sutton snapped, stepping forward. “Look at her. She knows.”
Chris’s jaw tightened. “What do we do?” he asked.
Sutton didn’t hesitate. “Get her.”
My stomach dropped, and I took a faltering step backward.
“Get her!”