by Taylor Hale
This can’t be happening. “What are you going to do, Dean?”
“First”—he sharpens his knife against a block—“I’m going to kill you. Then I’m going to kill Keely.”
“No, please, you can’t. Please let me go. Please.” I’m already a crying, sputtering mess. I wish I could wake up, or know this was one of my nightmares, but no matter how hard I bite on my lip or kick and tremble, I’m still trapped in this cabin with him.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Dean says. “No one’s coming for you, so you should probably just make peace with yourself.”
My body shakes against the restraints. I want to cry more, scream, beg for my life. But an awareness solidifies like a layer of ice around me: it won’t change anything. Dean’s knife glimmers in the swaying light.
“I think West should be the one to find you,” he says. “I’d pay to see the look on his face, but no, I can’t go down for this. I need to be careful. I think I’ll dump you in the river, let you wash up somewhere far from here. They’ll try to find you, but no one ever will. Then, someday, weeks from now, someone in another town will report a body, and it’ll be ID’d as you. Honestly, I think I’ll enjoy watching West suffer for it. He’s such a control freak, but he couldn’t even stop me from taking you. You know him pretty well, how do you think that’ll make him feel?”
“Dean, please, you don’t have to do this. Just let me go. I won’t tell anyone. Please let me go.”
“Answer the question! How will it make him feel?”
“Devastated.”
Dean smirks. I hate that I’ve told him what he wants to hear. I hate that he’s getting pleasure out of the idea of hurting me, hurting the people I love.
“Honestly, I always liked you, Olivia.” He drags the knife along the arm of the chair. “You react to things. You’re skittish, like a squirrel.”
A pain like I’ve never experienced pierces my thigh. It consumes my whole body and lights my nerves on fire. I scream, and the knife makes a slicking sound as Dean pulls it from my thigh, covered in blood. My head becomes light as he holds it over his face and observes the blood dripping down the blade. Warm red leaks through my gray sweatpants, but the pain subsides enough for me to cry uncontrollably. If I focus on the tears, it’s easier to push through the pain.
“Hey, it’s all right,” Dean says, and the feigned emotion in his voice makes me sick. I choke on my own cries. This can’t be the last place I see, the last voice I hear. When Dean rounds the chair and brings his hot, sour breath to my ear, it isn’t his voice—it’s Miles’s.
“I tried to warn you, Liv.”
Then Dean says, “Shh, it’s okay. Miles is dead, too, at least you’re not the only one. Does that make you feel better?”
“Why are you saying this? Please—just let me go. I won’t tell anyone I saw you, I promise.”
“You and I both know that’s bullshit.” The cold edge of a blade presses softly against my throat.
Stall him. Stall him. Stall him.
“Wait!”
The knife lifts.
“What about Miles, Dean? Was he really onto you? Is that why you crashed?”
He laughs once and lowers the knife. I watch it as he paces around. “Smart girl. Miles didn’t know shit, really, but he’d figured out that Shawn had lied about where I was the night someone went to Keely’s house, so he was suspicious. But the guy had something against me since I started dating his sister.”
How could I ever think Miles didn’t care about his sister being abused? I didn’t know him at all. I never did.
“Anyway,” Dean says, “that was me outside of Keely’s that night, and it wasn’t the first time I’d come around. I wanted to get rid of her, but I didn’t want to get caught. Then Miles started running his mouth in the van. How pathetic is that? He cared so much about your opinion that he was going to try to sell me out right there, even though I was the one driving.”
“He probably didn’t think you would crash just to stop him.”
“Clearly he was wrong.”
“But do you feel anything at all? For killing him?”
“What do you want me to say? That I’m torn up with guilt? Hendricks had his perks. I wanted to shut him up, but I didn’t want him dead. But I’m not sorry I killed him. Just sucks that Faye is so mad at me—I really do like her. Something tells me she’ll get over it.”
It’s almost like he’s gloating, like he’s proud of what he’s done. Every second I keep him talking is another second I have breathing. Another second someone has to find me.
“What about the animals?” I ask. “Did they annoy you like Keely did?”
“Right, you were pretty interested in who was doing it. It was hilarious watching you wonder. Honestly, I just did that to see people’s reactions, but the thrill of it faded. This, on the other hand . . .” He runs the knife up my arm. “Are you scared?”
“Aren’t you? Of going to jail?”
“Yeah, I do like being free. What does it feel like? To know you’re about to die?”
Please, West, Mom, Dad, someone.
“I asked you a question,” Dean says, and the knife is on my throat again.
“Don’t,” I beg. “Please—don’t. This can’t be happening. I—I recovered. I swam again. I was going to be okay. Please don’t do this.”
“That’s it. Let it all out.”
A phone vibrates on the desk, and the knife is off me again. Hope leaps inside me, because we’re close enough to town to have a signal.
“Is that mine?” I ask.
“You really think I’d bring your phone? It has a GPS on it. Yeah, that’s right. No one’s coming for you, Olivia. Let that sink in.”
It does sink in. The same way the blood from my thigh soaks into the wooden floor.
“Say a word and I’ll kill you,” Dean says to me before he answers the phone. “What, Shawn? I’m busy, why aren’t you asleep?”
Shawn. If he’s calling, maybe he woke up, and maybe the others did too. Maybe West noticed I never came back to bed, and now they’re all looking for me. I tug and tug at my restraints until something cracks, and the pain shocks me.
“Man, I’m at home,” Dean says. The way he’s slipped back into his usual demeanor terrifies me. “How are you calling me? I thought you were at Hendricks’s cabin. Why’d you go back to town?” Pause. “She’s probably wandered off again into the woods and having one of her meltdowns. That chick is nuts.”
The sudden hope that they’re looking for me gives me strength, and I scream as loud as I can. “We’re in the woods! A cabin!”
Dean hangs up immediately and storms toward me. “What the fuck!” His shout scrapes my ears, and he picks up the knife. A scream cuts my throat as I shove him into the wall with the chair. My hand breaks free from the zip tie, and I run. Tearing through the front door, into the dark woods, the throbbing pain from the stab wound in my thigh causes me to buckle, and the forest floor cuts into the bare soles of my feet. I land in the ground and dare to look back.
This is the same cabin we found in the woods the day Keely went missing.
Follow the river. The river leads to the ocean. The ocean leads to freedom.
He’s going to kill me, so I bolt. I don’t get far into the brush before Dean slams into me and hurls me to the ground. Another scream and fire-hot pain stabs my shoulder. Dean’s knife. The pain is excruciating, like he’s snapped the muscle in my shoulder right in half, but I kick him hard in the groin. He winces and drops the knife. Scrambling to my feet, I tear through the forest the same way I did the night of the crash.
This time, it is real.
“Get back here!” Dean yells, but I don’t stop.
The overcast sky has veiled the moon, so the forest morphs into one black, menacing object. But that means Dean can’t see either. Instead of going straight, I veer on a sharp angle
and run until my foot catches a branch, and I fall.
Crumpling up against a tree, I ration what little breath I have left. Time ticks by slowly, and I can’t hear Dean anymore. Both my thigh and my shoulder are bleeding, and the darkness around me becomes white. I’m losing too much blood. If Dean doesn’t kill me, this will.
No, I can’t give up. I have to live—for West, for my parents, for myself. I need to stop the bleeding, so I shred a piece of my shirt and tie it tightly around my thigh before pressing my hand over my shoulder wound. When I conjure the strength, I keep limping through the forest.
Something flashes through the woods. All my pain is defeated by the hope of being found. If I scream, Dean will hear me—but so will the police. I have to risk it.
“Help! Help me!”
My body slams into the ground, and my back cracks against a log. I whimper as Dean’s hands wrap around my throat, eyes narrowed on mine like silver slits in the night.
“Stop,” I say, weakly hitting his arm. “Please, stop.”
He squeezes, and pressure builds inside my temples. The blackness of the forest fades to white.
“You’re done. You hear me? You’re done.”
Maybe I am. I fought, I really did, but it hurts too much. I’m sorry, Miles. I should have listened. I’ll see you soon.
The pressure lifts, but the light stays. Then my lungs fill with air, and my eyes adjust to cops surrounding me with flashlights, their guns pointed right at Dean, who stands with his hands up. They made it. I’m alive.
My head gets woozy and warm liquid leaks through my fingers, gripped to my shoulder. Someone scoops me into their arms.
“It’s okay, Olivia. You’re going to be okay.”
Roger has saved me yet again.
Somewhere on the walk out of the forest, I passed out. When I come to, an ambulance and several cop cars wait for us on the road. Handcuffed, Dean is shoved into the back of a cruiser as a paramedic bandages my wounds.
“The good news is, it isn’t bad,” she tells me and smiles warmly. “You didn’t lose that much blood—it was the shock that made you faint. You’re a really tough girl, Olivia.”
“Thank you,” I say with a slight laugh, still in disbelief.
Roger places his hands on his hips. “Olivia, your parents are on their way. We’ll need to get an official statement from you, but Keely and the others are over there waiting, if you want to see them.”
Back in that cabin, I believed I’d never see anyone I love ever again. So when the paramedic is done patching up, I hurry around the side of the ambulance, where Keely, Faye, and West wait for me. Keely traps me in a hug even before West can, but as soon as we pull away, I’m in West’s arms.
“I’m so sorry, Olive,” he says, smoothing down my hair. “I wasn’t there to protect you. I’m sorry.”
I say nothing, just bury my face in his shirt and cry. Composing myself, I pull away and wipe my eyes.
“I’m really sorry, Liv,” Faye says. “I knew Dean was screwed in the head, but I had no idea he was capable of this.”
“It’s not your fault . . . but I still don’t understand how you all got to me so fast.”
“Hey guys,” someone cuts in. We all turn to Shawn, who has a cop with him. He averts his stare like a guilty dog.
“Stay away from me, Shawn,” Keely spits.
He holds his hands up. “Keely, I’m sorry. Just let me explain my side to Olivia.”
“You’ve got five minutes,” the cop tells him. “Then you’re coming to the station with us.”
Shawn nods. He doesn’t need to say it.
“You knew, didn’t you?” I ask.
“Of course he knew,” West says. “He’s been covering Dean’s ass this whole time.”
“It’s not like that,” Shawn says. “Okay, it sort of is, but . . . I didn’t know he’d go this far. Please, Olivia. Let me explain. I feel horrible.”
I glance at the others before stepping away with Shawn.
“When West said you were missing from bed,” Shawn says, “I had this sinking in my gut, and I just knew Dean was responsible. He’d been threatening toward Keely before, but . . . anyway, when I heard you scream in the background of the call about a cabin and the woods, I knew exactly where you were.”
I never want to think about that horrible place again.
Shawn continues, “We found that place when we were kids. It started out as us playing a game—like, pretending to be real hunters. But then Dean started killing animals for real. It began with BB guns, but then he learned how to build traps, and he killed them by hand from there. It freaked me the hell out, so I told him he’d get in trouble if he kept doing it, and for years, I thought he’d stopped . . . but when the dead animals started showing up in town, I knew. I didn’t have the balls to go back to that cabin, but I don’t think he ever stopped killing there. It was where he wanted to bring Keely the night . . .”
“He told me,” I say. “He’d planned on bringing her to the cabin the night she went missing.”
Dean was the footprint, the unknown man in the woods. He was the one who’d spied on Keely’s house that night—he really was there for her, not me. It was all part of his sick plot to kill her. Everything leads back to him.
“Yeah, but I was there too,” Shawn says. “Dean said she was too drunk and that he was going to drive her home, so I insisted on coming with him. But then he told me he wanted to take her to the hunting cabin, and I totally freaked. I had to beg him to let Keely go. I promised I’d break up with her, but . . . somehow, Keely and I just kept talking.”
“Somehow? You should have told the police, Shawn. What is wrong with you?”
“I’m a coward, okay? I was terrified. I had no idea what he was going to do. We’re family, and he’s always freaked me out, but I’ve never betrayed him. I thought if I did, he’d kill me first.” Shivering, Shawn hugs himself. “Part of me knew what he was really capable of, but I just wanted to ignore it, you know?”
“You are a coward, Shawn.” I pause. “But at least you eventually helped.”
He nods, face pale, before the officer takes him away.
All of the blame isn’t on Shawn.
Miles tried to warn me something was up with Dean, but I wouldn’t listen. And maybe if I had just gone inside the cabin that day in the forest, they would have caught Dean sooner, and Miles wouldn’t be dead.
But it doesn’t matter what I could have, should have, or would have done. What matters is what I did, and what happened because of it, and how I’ll move on from here.
Miles might be gone, but at least Dean Bowman won’t be able to hurt anyone else.
28
It’s hard not to itch underneath the bandages wrapped around my shoulder and thigh. It hurts less now that it’s healing, but stab wounds are a lot more intense than scrapes.
My parents and West stand in a circle with Keely’s parents in the carpool lot, and the wind blows sand all around us. The midday sun beats down on us. By nightfall, I’ll be back in New York. For real this time.
“I’m really sorry,” West says to my mom. “I promised you I’d keep Olivia safe, and I failed.”
Mom touches West’s arm with an empathetic smile. “West, no one could have anticipated that. We don’t blame you.”
Dad nods. “This is on no one but that Dean kid. You still helped get our daughter safe to us, and that’s all we care about now.”
West shakes Dad’s hand and hugs Mom, thanking them.
“What you did was really brave, Olivia,” Roger says. “Stalling him until we could get there was the right move.”
Keely gives me a tight smile, though her skin is still sallow from yesterday’s horror. I recognize the look in her eyes—the confusion, the terror. I see it in the mirror every day.
“I just can’t believe he really wanted to k
ill me,” Keely says. “I never did anything to him!”
“He said it was about Shawn, but I also think he just wanted to kill someone,” I say. “I saw it in his eyes when he had me in the cabin—there was nothing there. Any emotion Dean ever showed us was fake.”
“Still, I majorly have the creeps. I’m so sorry he took you instead, Liv.”
“Don’t. I got away from him, Keel. I’m glad it was me instead of you. I can take it.”
“Yeah . . .” She nudges me teasingly. “You’re way stronger than me. I doubt I would’ve made it out alive.”
“Don’t even joke about that, Keely,” Sun says.
Roger puts his arm around Sun and says, “We do feel for Derek Bowman, Dean’s dad. I really think he had no idea what his son was doing. He’s a single guy, lost his wife a few years back. The good news is, Dean’s being charged with premeditated, aggravated attempted murder, so he’s facing hard time in prison. We’re lucky the guy just turned eighteen. Your testimony will be crucial, Olivia.”
The thought of returning and facing Dean sickens me, but I nod. Thankfully there’s no courthouse in Caldwell Beach, so we’ll be going to a different town when I need to testify against Dean.
My heart hurts. I step away from the circle, and West puts his hand on the small of my back. “You know, you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for.”
“Not really.” I almost laugh. “Apparently I didn’t lose as much blood as I thought, but I still fainted.”
“Yeah, but it’s got to hurt. I mean, I’ve never been stabbed before. You’re badass as hell for surviving that.”
“Olivia,” Dad says, “come on, it’s time to go.”
I meet West’s eyes, then lift up on the tips of my toes and kiss him on the cheek one last time. He inhales a sharp breath as I pull away. I’ll miss his smell, how safe he makes me feel, how his arms are like an island while I’m lost at sea. But this was bound to happen. I have to keep swimming on my own, and I can’t do that if West is always carrying me.
So, I let him go. “Goodbye, West.”
His smile is broken. “Bye, Olive.”