Chapter 16 #4
“Well…” Caitlin’s voice had lost some of its earlier steadiness. “Maybe they slept in this morning, so they’re still walking. Or maybe they made it and they’re still talking to the police. Explaining everything.”
“Yeah,” Garrett said quickly, like he needed it to be true. “They could show up any minute now. So we just need to stay calm.”
Grace, who’d been sitting unnaturally still, slowly shook her head.
“I have a really bad feeling about this,” she said. “Something’s happened to them. I know it.”
“Stop.” Sutton’s voice cut through the room. “They’re fine. They’ll be here any minute, like Garrett said.”
“No, they won’t!” Grace’s head snapped up, her eyes glassy now. Her voice wavered, then rose, cracking at the edges. “Do you really believe they’re still walking? After all this time?”
Tamsin lifted a hand. “Grace, we’ve been over this. It’s nearly forty-five miles to Millhaven, so—”
“I know how far it is!” Grace snapped. Her hands came up, fingers tangling in her hair for a second before dropping again.
“But the camp road is only twenty miles,” she went on.
“They should’ve finished that yesterday.
And once they hit Route 30, there would’ve been cars.
There are always cars there. So they would’ve flagged someone down. Right?”
She looked around the circle, eyes wide.
“Are we seriously supposed to believe they didn’t see a single car in twenty hours?” she demanded. “Or that no one stopped to help them?”
“Grace…” Maren reached for her, but there was something uneasy in her expression. Something that said she’d had the same thought and hadn’t wanted to say it out loud.
Grace shook her off, tears spilling over now, her composure finally cracking.
“He got them,” she said, her voice breaking completely. “He was waiting for them on the road and he got them!”
A sob tore out of her, sudden and raw, her shoulders folding in on themselves as she pressed a hand to her mouth.
“He’s picking us off,” she choked out. “One by one. And we’re all just sitting here, waiting for our turn.”
“Hey, hey.” Caitlin moved quickly then, crossing the space to crouch in front of her chair. “Grace, look at me.”
But Grace was crying in earnest now, her breath coming in uneven pulls as the fear she’d been holding back finally spilled over.
“Grace.” Caitlin caught her hands before they could twist any tighter. “Look at me.”
Grace’s gaze dragged up, unfocused and wet.
“Breathe,” Caitlin said. “Just breathe for a second.”
Grace tried, but her inhale stuttered.
“I know this feels horrible,” Caitlin went on. “But we don’t actually know if anything’s happened to Brad and Olivia. We’re just filling in blanks with the worst possible version of events right now.”
Grace shook her head weakly. “But it doesn’t make sense. They should’ve—”
“I know,” Caitlin cut in gently. “I know. But listen… remember what Sutton said the other night? At the fire?”
Grace blinked. “What?”
“About Piper,” Caitlin said. “She told everyone she’d be back to visit in a few days. With her boyfriend.”
A flicker of recognition passed across Grace’s face.
“That could still be today,” Caitlin continued. “Or tomorrow. Or the day after. I mean, ‘a few days’ is vague, right? But the point is… people are coming. We’re not just stuck here forever with no one looking for us.”
Grace’s breathing started to slow, just a fraction.
“So even if Brad and Olivia are delayed, or something’s holding them up, help is still coming,” Caitlin said. “It is. We just have to hold out. Stay together. Be smart.”
“Yup,” Jesse muttered.
Caitlin squeezed Grace’s hands lightly. Then she looked at the rest of us again. “No one goes anywhere alone. No wandering off. We stay in pairs or groups at all times, and we wait this out. Okay?”
“Okay,” Grace whispered.
After that, the circle fractured into smaller groups.
Marlowe and Stevie headed for the control panel at the front of the hall, lowering the wide projector screen that usually stayed tucked up against the ceiling.
The soft whir of the mechanism filled the space for a few seconds before the screen settled into place against the wall, and a moment later, the projector flickered to life, casting a clean, high-definition image across it.
Stevie scrolled through the media system for a while before landing on a movie that didn’t require much focus but filled the silence well enough.
Most people stayed in the hall to watch. A few others drifted back to their cabins in pairs or groups, saying they needed a nap or a breather, though no one went alone.
By the time six o’clock rolled around, my stomach was rumbling, reminding me that my body was currently running on nothing but the two coffees and single piece of toast with peanut butter that I’d eaten almost twelve hours ago.
Jasmine heard the rumble and pushed to her feet. “We should probably go and start dinner before everyone loses their minds again,” she said.
I nodded, rising with her. Jesse, Tamsin, and Wren followed suit.