by Bella Jewel
“There were no signs of it.”
She’s right, there were no signs of it. Nothing to show the two of them had any sort of connection.
We both fall silent.
“Maybe he had something on her and was using it against her. She found out and they got into a squabble,” I suggest.
“It’s possible, but what would Emily be hiding that would make her want to hurt him?”
“Maybe she didn’t mean to, it could have been an accident.”
“But why not just come forward and say something?” Kara goes on. “She could have said it was an accident.”
“Either way, we need to do a bit more digging. Let’s ask her about the phone and go from there. We better go back; it’s going to get dark soon.”
We both stand and turn, coming to a halt when we see Emily standing behind us, gun pointed in our direction. For a minute, it feels like a dream, like there’s just no way this is actually happening. I didn’t hear her approach. How long was she there? I focus on the look on her face, and suddenly, I know it’s not a dream. Not even close. This is happening, and we have just gotten our answer. It’s written in her eyes. It’s written in her stance. It’s written all over the gun she’s pointing at us.
Emily killed Taj.
But why?
20
“Emily,” Kara says, putting her hands up shakily. “What are you doing? Why are you pointing that gun at us?”
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Emily says. “That’s not what I’m doing here. But you are going to walk, without hesitation. If you hesitate, I’ll have to do something I really don’t want to do, so please just do as I’m asking.”
Her voice is shaky, low, almost scared.
“What is going on?” I say, carefully. “Emily, what happened?”
Her eyes move to mine. “I figured out you two were onto me when I went back to my room and the door was unlocked, things weren’t as I left them. I knew you were getting close, when I found my phone on your patio, I started to get nervous. I asked Rick where you were, and he said he saw you two walking down here. This was my only chance. You’ve left me no choice.”
“Chance to do what?”
I’m very careful with my words, I know anything could tip her over the edge right now.
“To stop you two from talking, because I know you’re going to. I know you’re going to go to the police and ruin my entire life.”
“Just tell us what happened to Taj. Maybe we can help?” Kara suggests. “We know you’re not a bad person, just talk to us.”
She’s smart, she’s making it seem like we’re on her side when we both know that as soon as we get out of here, we’re going to dob Emily in. Of course we are, Taj was our friend and whatever happened, it resulted in the end of his life.
“It was an accident,” Emily says, her hands shaking, the gun making me nervous as it points right at me. “I went to talk to him that night. He had been pressuring me to make a choice about first chair, he said it would be favoritism if I picked Kara, because we’re all close and she’s a girl. He said he deserved it. We got into an argument, and I told him he wouldn’t blackmail me into giving him what he wanted. He told me...he told me he was going above my head to tell someone about this one night we had...it was a mistake...we were both drunk and...”
I shake my head, shocked by what I’m hearing. “You and Taj slept together?”
Damn.
“It was once, and it never happened again. But he was going to use it against me. I’m the conductor, I shouldn’t be doing those kinds of things, it would cost me my job. He went to walk out and I grabbed him, telling him I wasn’t going to let him tell lies about me, or cause me to lose everything I’ve worked for. He was drunk and he jerked his arm out of my grasp, really hard, and he lost his footing. He just fell backwards and hit that rock. It was over so fast...I thought he was just pretending...”
Oh god.
I feel bad for her, because it was an accident and now she has to live with that. But at the same time, she made a choice not to tell the police, to let his family believe it was an accident. She chose to cover it up and lie. That she could have changed.
“Why didn’t you tell the police?” Kara asks. “If it was an accident...”
“I’d still go to prison,” Emily yells, the gun waving a little too frantically for my liking. “I’d lose my job, I’d lose my career, I’d lose everything. I can’t let that happen. Which is why I can’t let you two girls call the police.”
Oh.
Well, that doesn’t sound good.
“You know they’re going to find out,” I say, my voice hesitant. “You can’t hide forever.”
“They think it was a self-inflicted accident, they won’t find out. I’m sorry, I’m doing what I have to do. I don’t want to hurt either of you, but we’re going to walk. Give me your phones.”
I hesitate, not wanting to hand over my phone.
She waves the gun. “Now, girls.”
I pull my phone out of my pocket and hand it to her, Kara does the same. She waves the gun again. “Now walk.”
“Where to?” Kara asks, glancing at me, her eyes a little worried.
“Far enough away that it’ll take them all night to find you. By then, I’ll be gone.”
She’s going to do a runner.
My heart thumps against my chest, but when she waves the gun and tells us to walk again, we do as she asks. We both turn and begin walking off the beaten path, into the thick woods behind us. Emily follows the entire time, until the sun begins to set and night falls. She doesn’t say anything. When Kara asks to stop and pee, she lets her. Kara gives me a look, one that says she wants to fight back, but it’s not worth the risk.
If Emily is even slightly willing to shoot us, then we’re better off doing as she asks. Rhett will find us, I’m sure of it, but if we’re injured this will be so much worse. I look to her and shake my head, unless I see a chance where we can overpower her without getting hurt, then I’m not going to risk it. I don’t want to believe she would hurt us, but I can’t be sure she wouldn’t.
“We won’t say anything,” Kara tries, as the night falls upon us, and the cool begins to creep in. “We’ll let you go.”
“I know that’s not true,” Emily says, her voice sharp. “I know both of you, you’re not going to let me just run. Taj was your friend.”
“I’m sure there is another way,” I say.
“There isn’t. This is it. I’m leaving. I’ll find a way, you two are going to stay here until I can do that. I don’t want to hurt you, but if you try to fight me or change my mind, I will. I swear it, I will. My life matters to me. I’m not going to prison. I won’t.”
“So you’ll run forever?” Kara goes on. “Where is that going to get you? You’ll get caught eventually, and the punishment will be so much worse.”
“I know people, I’ve got help. A new name, a fake passport, I’ll get away without them ever finding where I went.”
God, is that what she’s been doing these last few weeks? Creating a backup plan just incase she needs it.
And who would help her?
Who could she possibly know that would do that for her?
One of the guys?
Oh god, surely not?
“That’s not a foolproof plan, Emily,” I say as she stops us at a large tree and then drops her pack onto the ground.
I didn’t even notice her carrying one until now, I guess the gun pointed at us was enough to take my attention away.
Oh, and the crazy woman waving it around.
“It’ll work. I’ll start somewhere new. I can’t go to prison, you don’t understand, that’s my biggest fear.”
“They might cut you a deal if you come forward,” Kara tries again. “Maybe it’ll only be a few years and you can start again.”
Emily laughs bitterly as she pulls out a rope. “You think that a few years is the problem? It isn’t. It’s what comes after it. Nobody will hire me to condu
ct when I’ve been in prison for murder.”
I swallow. We need to keep her talking, distracted, because right now...I can see a chance for escape. She is frantic, and she’s clearly not thinking straight because she’s waving things around and dropping items from her pack. Her mind isn’t where it should be.
“Did you wear my shoes that night?” I ask her.
She keeps rummaging but pauses and thinks for a second. “Yes, mine were wet and I borrowed yours.”
I look to Kara, but I can’t really see her face. Emily has a flashlight, but it’s dark out, I can only see the pack that she’s shining it on and a few things in the close vicinity of its light.
But...I do notice she doesn’t have the gun pointed at us right now.
It’s currently on the ground as she uses the flashlight to rummage through her bag.
Now is our only chance.
I act without thought.
Praying I’ve made the right decision.
EMILY LANDS WITH A thump when I throw myself at her.
It’s a decision I made very quickly, but I’m hoping it’s the right one.
Her body falls backwards, and I land overtop of her, grasping in the darkness at anything I can. Her hand, her arm, her hair, whatever falls into my grips. Kara moves quite quickly, diving for the flashlight and picking it up, along with the gun. She aims the flashlight at us, and I see Emily’s hand flying towards my face.
She hits me with her palm, sending me flying backwards.
I land in the dirt with a thump that knocks the wind right out of me. It takes me a moment to pull myself up, and thankfully, Kara has taken over by then.
“Do not move another step, Emily,” Kara says, pointing the gun at her.
Emily gets to her feet, covered in dirt. I rub my hands over my face. My god, that hit was a good one. It takes me a few minutes to gather myself.
“I can’t let you take me down for this,” Emily says, putting her hands up as she takes a shaky step back.
She’s going to run.
I can see it in her body langue.
“I’ll shoot,” Kara warns.
Emily smiles at her, a small, broken smile. “Honey, you won’t. That’s why I love you. I hope you two girls know...you were my favorite.”
Then she leans down, snatching up her pack before turning and running off into the darkness. I call out after her, lunging and rushing in her general direction, but as soon as the darkness hits, I no longer know where I’m going. I pause, panting and trying to listen for her footsteps, but I can’t hear a damned thing.
“Lei,” Kara calls.
“I’m here,” I yell back.
We call out until she finally manages to locate me. She flashes the light around the area I’m standing in, but Emily isn’t anywhere. She managed to outrun me in the dark and unless she’s standing very still and hiding, then it’s safe to say she’s now gone.
“She’s gone,” I say, exhaling as I try to look for signs of anything.
But I can’t see a damned thing.
“She has no flashlight, she couldn’t have gone far,” Kara says. “Come on.”
“She took her pack, she would have more in there. She’s gone, Kara.”
“We can keep looking...”
“We don’t even know which direction she ran in. If we get even more lost right now...”
Kara’s shoulders drop and she stares off into the distance. “I don’t know where we are. I’m scared, Lei.”
“It’s okay,” I say, stepping closer to her. “Rhett will have figured out we’re gone by now, he’ll come looking. They’ll find us, but if we keep moving around, we’ll get lost.”
“She’s going to get away.”
“She won’t. Emily thinks she has a plan, but she’ll get caught. You have to believe she’ll get caught. We’ll call the police as soon as we can.”
“Do you think she dropped our phones when she was rummaging through that pack?”
I hope so. “Let’s go back and have a look.”
We manage to find the area we just came from, but the only thing on the ground is a few snack bars, a bottle of water and a set of keys. No phones. Kara sits down by the tree, putting the flashlight in an upright position so we can both see. I sit down, too, handing her a snack bar. “At least we have food, right?” I say lightly.
She takes it off me. “I just can’t get over it. Emily. It seems like a nightmare. She’s a good person, I just don’t know why she would ever hurt someone and do a runner. It just doesn’t seem right...”
I shuffle closer to her, taking her hand. “I know. It doesn’t mean that she’s a bad person, she’s a scared person, a person who made a mistake, but she didn’t hurt us just now and she could have.”
“I know,” Kara sighs. “It’s just so sad that she didn’t choose to come forward. I always thought of her as the person who did the right thing, she always had our back, she was always pushing us to do better...”
I squeeze her hand.
The sound wolves howling has me shuffling a whole lot closer to her.
“Were those wolves?” she squeaks. “That sounded really close.”
Another howl.
It does sound super close.
My heart slams against my ribcage as I lean forward and say, “Maybe we should turn this light off.”
“Or climb the tree?” Kara says, her voice shaky. “Can we climb?”
We can climb.
I take the flashlight and shine it around the trees until I see one into which we could potentially get. I point to it and Kara gets to her feet quickly as the sound of another howl echoes through the night. I pick up the bottle of water, the keys and my snack bar and then we both rush over to it.
I hold the light for her as she uses the low lying branches to hoist herself up. When she is high enough that she’s satisfied, she reaches for the flashlight and holds it for me as I climb. When we’re on the thick branch, I do feel a little safer. I get into a comfortable-ish position with my side against the trunk, my feet dangling. Kara squishes in next to me.
“How long do you think it’ll take Rhett to find us?” she asks.
“It’s hard to know, we walked a good long time and I have no idea which direction. It might not be until morning light.”
“We have to stay here all night?”
“It’ll be okay.”
God.
I hope I’m right.
I really hope I’m right.
21
Nobody comes until morning light.
At least, they didn’t come in this direction.
Safe to say it was a long, terrifying night but we got through it.
At one point during the very early hours of the morning, I let Kara lean against me and fall asleep. My body ached and my legs went numb, but I knew how scared she was, and I couldn’t not let her get some rest. By the time she woke up, I thought there was a strong possibility I could lose a leg because it was that dead, it wouldn’t move. It happened to be the leg I have stitches in, too, so the pain is decent.
Still, we made it through the night and at least now, we can find our way back to the ranch.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I fell asleep,” Kara says, rubbing her eyes as she sits up.
“It’s okay, but we should get out of this tree and start trying to find our way back.”
Kara nods, and we make our way down from the tree. There are no signs of life anywhere, which makes me feel a little better because I was starting to get worried about the noises I was hearing out there in the wilderness last night. There were howls, hissing sounds, fighting sounds and don’t even get me started on the things I slapped off my legs. Things that I’m certain I never want to know the name of.
When my feet hit the ground, my legs wobble and I reach out, hanging onto the tree. Kara jumps down after me and hands me the bottle of water. I take it, drinking the cool liquid and then I pause and try to figure out which direction we should take. I have no idea how Emily wou
ld even begin to find her way out of these woods, unless she already had it mapped out.
“Any idea on which direction we should go?” Kara asks.
“I’m thinking we go back to where Emily led us and see if we can maybe find some tracks to follow, at least we might be going in the right direction then.”
“You’re smart,” Kara gives me a weak smile. “If I had to pick anyone to get stranded in the wilderness with, I’m glad it was you.”
I laugh.
We find the tree again, and I manage to pick up a few more things Emily dropped. A pen, a notebook and another snack bar. I give the bar to Kara, who takes it willingly, but breaks it in half to share with me. I peer around on the ground as I eat it and notice a couple of shoe prints going in one direction. “I think these are ours, we seemed to walk in a straight line so I think we should go back this way.”
Kara looks down, and then nods.
We begin our walk and pray we’re going the right way.
We walk for about an hour when we hear voices yelling our names. They’re distant, but they’re clear. My heart skips a beat, and I could cry with relief as I bring my hands up either side of my mouth and call out loudly. Kara does, too. With all our might, we yell, until we get closer and closer to the men calling our names.
When I see Rhett through the trees, being followed by Enzo, Elias and Madden, I could scream with relief. I call out to him, and he turns, his eyes settling on me. I rush towards him, heart racing, legs wobbling, feeling so many things I can’t keep them under control. I throw myself into his arms and he catches me, his grip strong, his hug intense.
“What the fuck happened? Fuck. I thought you were dead.”
I bury my face into his chest, breathing him in. I just need to feel him hanging onto me for a second longer.
“Emily,” Kara says, her voice croaky. “We figured out it was her that killed Taj. She caught onto it and came at us when we were sitting by the river. She had a gun. She made us walk into the woods, hoping we’d get lost so she could run. Lei fought her, and she did a runner into the night. We had no choice but to climb a tree and stay there until morning.”