Adam
But he was surfacing. His head breached the choppy water. At first he couldn’t take a breath, the cold was so fierce. But his body was intact, the pain caused by the frigid water.
He kept moving with forward strokes until an image of Hayden’s lifeless body flashed in his mind.
Then the panic rose again, and his limbs flailed.
“Sage!” he screamed without sparing a glance up at the bridge.
He hoped and prayed that she was on the phone with neighbors and an ambulance. That help was on its way.
The waterfall.
If Hayden had drifted through this next section of deep water, she would either get snagged in the shallow rocks beyond it, or the current would carry her through to a fifty-foot drop.
Adam started to run, forcing his legs through the water like paddles, forcing his burning lungs to work. When the shallows gave way to deeper water, he took a leaping dive and swam with everything in him.
Adam’s strokes were long, his feet kicking to the point of numbness. As his arm cut through the water on the next stroke, his bad hand hit rock. Pain radiated through the already-paper-thin skin.
And the water was getting deeper. Just as Adam’s vision became fuzzy around the edges, he saw it: Hayden’s head rising to the surface.
Only she was face down.
Adam couldn’t stop, even though his hand throbbed and the burning in his lungs brought him back to the days after the car explosion. He swam until he reached her, turning her over and looking into her lifeless face.
Adam dragged her to the nearest bank, pulling her onto the thin stretch of sand at the base of the ravine.
“Hayden,” Adam said, trying to shake her awake.
There was blood in her hair, and her skin was scraped and cut from when she’d been thrashed against the rocks.
He couldn’t tell if the gash in her scalp was serious.
He glanced up at the bridge, but the sunlight was blinding. “Did you call?” he yelled out to Sage.
There was no answer. Adam retrieved his own phone from his pocket, but of course it was waterlogged. He couldn’t even turn it on.
With his eyes better adjusted, Adam squinted up at the bridge again. He spotted Sage with her phone, only she wasn’t calling anyone. Instead, she appeared to be filming.
Adam’s frigid blood went warm. Sage was filming him and the unmoving body on the shore. Hayden’s body.
“What the hell are you doing?” Adam shouted up at her.
“I’ve got it all on film!” she called over the rushing creek. “You pushing Hayden face down in the water. Drowning her to keep her quiet about your brothers’ crimes.”
Adam couldn’t process Sage’s words. Hayden still hadn’t taken a breath in far too long.
“Please, Hayden,” Adam begged. “Wake up.” He pictured Henry’s and Bram’s faces when they discovered that their closest friend was gone, and a piercing agony tore through his chest. Adam’s extremities shook with fatigue, but he racked his brain for what he’d learned about CPR in health class.
He pressed his palms to Hayden’s chest, leaning his full weight as he gave compressions to the beat of “Stayin’ Alive.” Only he couldn’t remember how many to give and the worries over whether he was pressing hard enough or too hard clogged his mind.
Having lost count, Adam pinched Hayden’s nose and tilted her head back. Forcing a breath into his raw lungs, he leaned down to put his mouth to hers. He tried giving air, but her chest failed to rise.
When Adam moved to pump on her chest again, tears streamed down his cheeks. He’d lost her. He hadn’t reached her in time, and now she couldn’t be revived.
In Adam’s fire-damaged peripheral vision, he spotted Sage carefully descending the ravine.
Had she finally decided to help? He continued compressions, water and tears dripping down onto Hayden’s lifeless face.
The horror and anguish mingled. Like ingredients in a potion, they conjured up a memory so vivid, it felt as if it were taking place right now.
Mariana sat in the driver’s seat of her car, making eye contact with Adam through the windshield. A little nod—she’d done it. She’d broken up with Bram. Adam felt hope and guilt hit him in equal doses. The car continued several yards down the driveway when suddenly, Adam smelled smoke.
The car was halted now. But the engine was in flames, smoke billowing up into the air.
Mariana was still inside.
Adam never thought about what to do. He charged straight up to the burning car, shouting at Mariana to get out. She blinked, clearly in shock, then tried to move, only her seat belt stuck, the retractor having locked with the force of her braking. She started yanking on it, fighting to release it.
As the flames leapt from the engine, Adam called to her to ease the belt out. But in her panic, she only tugged harder, more frantically. The fire grew, creating an oven of the entire car. The smoke thickened, and she was coughing and choking.
Adam pulled the door open and reached over Mariana in an attempt to free her, holding his breath. His eyes stung from the smoke, so bad he could barely see as he fought with it. Mariana was losing consciousness, fading as the smoke spread and the flames lapped.
Then came the bang, sending Adam flying through the air. Everything went black..
The vision melted away, along with the freshly awakened sense of suffering and loss, leaving with it only a stark realization: Adam had tried to save Mariana, just like his brothers and Hayden claimed.
Sage’s words from up on the bridge finally echoed back into his ears. She was going to make this look like murder. Adam had tried to save Hayden’s life, but Sage was going to twist it, painting Adam as a monster. Just like she and the rest of the town had done with Mariana’s death.
When he tilted Hayden’s head again, leaning down to place his mouth on hers, he’d already given up hope. His friend’s face was deathly pale, lips blue. He gave her a slow breath anyway, doing what little he’d been trained to do until the ambulance arrived.
But of course, no ambulance was coming. Even if Sage had actually called, the hospital was an hour away. In desperation, he tried shouting to her again, but there was no response. It wasn’t until he heard the splash that he realized Sage was in the water.
At first, Adam thought she’d gone completely mad.
But when she ducked her head beneath the surface, it all made sickening sense.
She had only filmed Adam holding Hayden face down in the water.
She’d stopped the camera before the rest of it: Adam turning Hayden over, carrying her to shore.
Attempting CPR. Of course she’d stopped filming.
Now, Sage was trying to make it look like she was the one who’d jumped in to try and rescue Hayden.
Like she was the one who’d dragged Hayden’s body to shore.
With Hayden gone, no one would be able to refute Sage’s version of events. No one but Adam, whose word was as worthless as his CPR skills.
Adam barely cared about Sage’s plan. Once again, he’d failed a girl. Another girl who meant so much to him. Going through the motions, he pushed a hopeless breath between Hayden’s blue lips.
And she coughed.
Adam flinched, wondering if he was the one who’d gone mad. But he watched as her chest moved, and water bubbled up through her lips.
He snapped to, sliding his hand under her back, folding her upper half forward as she expelled a river full of water, then took her first gurgling breath. He patted her back, called her name, and listened to the blessed sound of her wheezing breaths.
Adam held her, supporting her flaccid body, checking her for a phone and finding nothing. As he did, he spotted Sage emerging from the water, clothes soaked and hair dripping.
She scanned the bank for a moment, and Adam’s attention diverted back to Hayden, who coughed in his arms. He listened and found that she was still breathing. “Are you okay?” he rasped, his own breathing shallow.
Hayden worked up a nod, opening her eyes for the first time, blinking away the water. And then her eyes widened in terror. Adam followed her gaze to the bank, where Sage now charged at them, a large rock in her hands. She raised it high, aiming at Hayden’s skull.
Adam whipped his body around to shield his friend, taking the blow in the shoulder. He grunted, agony rocketing through his arm.
His sight blurred by the pain, he glanced back to where Sage was stumbling, her clothes squelching. The rock had slipped from her grasp. She clutched her hand for a moment, like it might be injured, then quickly bent to retrieve the rock.
Adam had only seconds to lay Hayden down in the sand and struggle to his feet. But his weary body swayed, and Sage was already skirting past him. She wound up her arm, hand gripping the rock, and let out a guttural roar.
Adam clenched his jaw and lunged forward, knocking the girl’s feet out from under her. Sage screamed, the rock falling as they both toppled into the sand.
Adam lifted his head, blinking away the dizziness.
He was weak, but he had to get Hayden away from here.
Mustering all the grit he could—the kind he needed at the end of the second practice of the day during hell week, when nausea struck and his muscles felt like they’d melted off his bones—Adam stooped to lift Hayden.
Beside them in the sand, Sage groaned and tried to get up.
She looked disoriented, and Adam could only hope it would last. He lifted Hayden in his arms and forced his tired legs to move in the direction of the road.
He craned his neck enough to check behind him, where Sage was still gathering her bearings.
Adam hurried on, his bare feet stinging the more they warmed up. His injured shoulder cried out. Don’t come after us, he silently pleaded with Sage. He would do whatever it took to keep Hayden safe, but he hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
When the sound of the creek died out, he left the path, clomping straight through the trees. His phone still useless, he forced a deep breath into his lungs and screamed, “Help! Someone, call 911!”
But the area was vacant. When he made it through the trees and onto the road, Adam screamed again.
He panted, eyes panning in both directions.
Hayden was alive in his arms, but he couldn’t hear the sound of her breath over his own laborious huffing.
Her skin was cold, and her eyes had fallen shut again. She needed medical care.
It was a mile to town, and Adam knew he didn’t have that sort of trek in him.
He started downhill toward it anyway, calling for help with what little breath remained in his lungs.
The adrenaline that had fueled him was dwindling, and his legs began to give way.
Thorns, twigs, and rocks had ripped his feet to shreds, and every step on the rough pavement was torturous.
But he had to stick to the road, to keep out in the open until someone found him.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered to Hayden as his legs shook and faltered.
She was turning blue again. There must’ve been some water still trapped in her lungs.
He was losing her. He remembered the lone farmhouse off the beaten path.
Lydia Costas’s house, though he’d never given it a thought before.
He had no idea what her parents did for a living, but he hoped one of them would be home.
He trundled along up the narrow dirt road, Hayden’s wet body slick in his hands. The farmhouse was in view, but there was no car out front. Adam’s hopes fell.
Then he thought of breaking in. Maybe the Costas family had a landline. He’d call for help and deal with the consequences later.
When he reached the corner of the property, Adam set Hayden down beneath the shade of a sycamore. He noticed the dirt below him, painted red by his bloodied feet. “I’m going to get you help,” he told Hayden, even though he doubted she could hear him. Then he hurried up the driveway.
At the sound of a car approaching the property, Adam’s hopes lifted again.
But when it turned into the driveway, he peered through the windshield, finding Lydia’s terrified eyes on him.
Adam knew how he looked, wet and bloodied, like some sort of swamp monster.
He folded his hands in front of his chest and mouthed, “Please.”
Lydia stopped the car and squinted at him through the windshield.
Having her attention, Adam gestured over to the sycamore. “Please!” he shouted now. “It’s Hayden!”
Lydia glanced over in the direction he’d pointed, stretching her neck for a glimpse. She quickly trained her eyes back on Adam, who knew that out of view, somewhere on the dash, her hands were moving to her phone.
The passenger’s side window rolled down the faintest crack.
“Please!” Adam shouted. “Call 911! Have them send an ambulance!”
Lydia hesitated, licking her lips, and when her hand darted forward, Adam felt despair come over him like a black cloud. She was going to drive off. She wanted to be as far away from Adam as possible.
But Lydia brought the phone to her ear, and the car engine shut off.
Adam collapsed to his knees.