77
LORI WOKE LAYING facedown, a rough wooden floor underneath her. All around was dark. She blinked and opened her eyes as wide as she could, but she couldn’t see anything, or make out where she was. Holding her hand right in front of her eyes, she sensed rather than saw it.
She ran her fingers through her hair, searching. There was a sore point just behind her temple, her hair matted with dried blood. She swept a hand across the floor, finding the solid skirting of a wall to her right, and nothing to her left but cold air seeping up through the gaps between the boards.
She tried to push herself up off the floor and only got halfway. She rolled over onto her side, butting up against the wall, head throbbing and the darkness broken by flashes of light swimming through her vision. The movement drained her, made it hard to hold her head up. She let it fall, an aching boom ripping through her skull as her head found the floor.
It was cold. And dark. And it reminded her of all those long nights as a kid, curled up on the floor in the closet, just waiting for daylight.
There was a rustling outside. All around, it seemed, the crunch of boots on snow, getting closer. Two sharp steps and then the door opened. Through half-open eyes and past the dark figure of Em in the doorway, Lori saw the glow of moonlight on the ground outside, a quick flash of tree trunks and a rock-edged path half hidden under bright snow. And then the door closed. It wasn’t much, but she at least knew they weren’t at Em’s anymore.
Sounds shuffled around the space. At the pop of Em’s knee cracking, Lori could see in her mind that she was crouching. Then she heard a match strike. Bundles of scrunched up newspapers caught fire, sending out shadows and shimmering light.
Opposite Lori was a fireplace, framed by a stone mantle. To the left of it was a door, not fully closed. It wasn’t the door Em had come through. The light of the fire grew and she could see the walls weren’t normal walls. There were wood slats running horizontally. Familiar. But Lori couldn’t place them.
Em was crouched in front of the fireplace, poking at the kindling as it burned. Beside her, on the ground, was a knife, its blade glowing orange. Lori tried to speak but only a groan escaped. Enough to get Em’s attention. Lori tried again to lift her head. The room swam and spun. Her vision blurred and went black and she passed out, sinking back into the darkness before her head touched the ground.
78
THE NEXT TIME Lori came to, she was sitting on a chair in the middle of the room. The fire was close in front of her, sweat beading on her brow. Em sat on the floor in the corner, firelight flickering over her. She had her legs pulled up, elbows resting on her knees. Her gaze soft and unfocused, staring at her fingers as each one picked at the tip of the knife gripped tightly in her hand.
‘Where are we?’
Em snapped out of her trance and stood, flinging open the curtains. All Lori could see was the dark sky. Her body felt like it weighed a tonne but she strained her neck, straightened her spine, lifting high enough to see shadows and shapes that morphed into the trunks and branches of trees, and then the moonlit corner of another building. Far off, a strong light flooded over a familiar sign. In an instant, Lori knew what it said. Herald’s Maze.
Lori’s mind moved sluggishly from one thought to the next. They were in a cabin behind the amusement park, in the camping area. Where Em’s family used to go for summer holidays every year. Where teenaged Em and Lori had raced through the maze to see who got top bunk. She’d been to the amusement park not long ago, right? With Marina. Why would Em bring her there?
Because no one would be there this time of year.
Lori slumped down in the chair. ‘What’re we doing here?’
‘I wanted to show you something.’ Em crossed the room to the door next to the fireplace and nudged it open with her boot.
The only light in the cabin came from the fire, but as the door swung wider it expanded, creeping into the room and showing a rumpled form on the bottom bunk. It looked like a pile of clothes, but then in the flickering light Lori made out the shape of a face. Addy’s face. Her eyes were closed and when Lori called out, there was no response, not even the slightest movement. She looked like she was asleep. Her eyelids translucent under the firelight, her skin paled and bruised, lifeless. Lori tried to count the days since Addy had disappeared from campus. How many days should she have been out there looking for her? How long had Addy been in there? Alone, cold. How many days was she too late? What had she been doing when Addy died?
Lori wanted to go to her, hold her, even if she was gone. She fought with her body, trying to gather the strength. But as she went to push herself up from the chair, she realised she couldn’t move her arms. She pulled and tugged, straining the muscles in her shoulders, twisting her elbows. She felt the hardness of chair legs pressing against the backs of her hands. The scratch of something biting into her wrists. Rope. She struggled and pulled, but only rubbed her skin raw.
Her heart raced and her head ached, energy draining away with the pain. She closed her eyes and took a breath. ‘Why are you doing this? Why make me think it was Addy? Why…’
‘You still think Addy was innocent in all this?… She was the reason for all of it.’ Em was leaning in the doorway, arms crossed and the knife clenched in her fist.
Lori hadn’t realised how long the blade was. Not an average kitchen knife. Just like the one…
It was Em; the knife in the table; the scratches. Because she thought Lori was out with Addy. Em had warned her not to get involved, and what did she do?
Lori pulled against the ropes. ‘It’s my fault. Not hers. I should have listened to you, I shouldn’t have let my feelings—’
A sharp laugh cut her off. Em pushed away from the door and began pacing around the room, measuring her steps. ‘You got fooled, just like I did. She fooled you like she fooled me. And then she ruined my life, just like she did yours. Trust me, she had all this coming—’
‘Seems to me like you ruined her life, not the other way around.’
But Em wasn’t listening. ‘—Lena. Lena wasn’t fooled. She knew. You thought it was Josie, but Lena, she knew who it was. Addison Brooke, swim team champion… And she was going to leave me. Just like you were…’ Em had been moving faster and faster, hitting at her chest with her fist holding tight to the knife. She stopped, stood at the fireplace, staring down at the flames, her arms hanging by her side.
The growl that had filled her voice vanished. Suddenly her words were gentle, quiet. ‘It was an accident. She was gonna leave me. I was only trying to stop her.’
‘What happened?’
Em didn’t move, didn’t speak.
Lori tried to keep the panic and dread out of her voice. ‘Emmie, what did you do? Where’s Lena?’
Em turned, tears trailing down her cheeks. She swiped at them with her free hand. ‘It was an accident.’
‘Em, where’s Lena?’
‘She’s at the house.’ Em slid down onto the floor in the corner, curling into a ball. ‘She never left.’
‘Where is she?’
Em stared at the knife in her hand. ‘Backyard, next to the trees she planted when we first moved in. She always loved when autumn came, seeing the leaves change. Now, she’ll see them every year, and she’ll never leave me.’
The backyard. Lena was dead. Lori had sat at Em’s kitchen bench staring out at that backyard, at those trees, so much like her own. And Lena had been there, buried. Lori fought the nausea rising, fought with her lungs, forgetting how to breathe.
Em looked up, eyes cutting through the dim light. They were wild, hard. ‘I didn’t lose her and I won’t lose you.’
In that moment, everything left Lori. Her fight, her anger. She no longer cared what would happen, or why. Lena was dead. Addy was dead. Em was no longer the person she’d known her whole life. The tough-shelled, kind-hearted girl was no longer there. Even if Lori got out of there and away, nothing could ever be the same.
‘Kill me or let me go. Either way, y
ou’ve already lost me.’
A look of confusion came over Em. ‘I’m not going to kill you, Lori. Why would I kill you?’
‘You killed Lena, Emmie…’ The words caught in her throat. ‘And Addy. For what?’
Em dragged herself up off the floor, fingers scrabbling at the wall for support. Her hand tracked along the mantle as she crossed the room. She pointed through the open door with the knife. ‘Lena’s dead, yes. But Addy’s alive. Barely, but she’s alive.’
Lori had felt nothing compared to the relief that flooded through her when Addy groaned at Em pulling her off the bed, dragging her out and dumping her in front of the fireplace. There was a piece of fabric shoved in her mouth, and her hands and feet were tied, but Lori couldn’t see any blood, no sign of major injury.
That was all she needed. A reason to fight and get out of there. A sliver of hope.
But it vanished the moment Em pointed the knife at Addy’s throat. ‘And you’re gonna watch her pay for everything she’s done.’
79
SHE HAD TO get Em away from Addy. Lori tugged at the ropes around her wrists. There was a little give in them, maybe enough to slip through if she could just loosen them a little more.
Time. She needed time, needed to keep Em’s attention away from Addy, needed to keep Em talking. And she had to figure out what to do after she got her hands free.
‘You knew I’d ended things with Addy. After the table, the knife. I told you I was with Marina… Why did you keep going? Why do all of this?’
‘Because I did everything for you. Pulled you out of that car and gave you a home. And you choose her over me?’ Em pointed the knife at Addy, the tip hovering close to her throat.
‘Don’t.’ Lori pulled forward in the chair and Addy groaned at the sound of it grating along the floorboards. Her eyes were closed but her body curled in on itself, the rope around her feet loose and unravelling. Lori held her breath. But Em didn’t notice. She was standing up, the knife pointed at Lori now. ‘And then everything goes to shit and someone tries to drown you and you lean on Marina?’ The knife tip pressed into Lori’s shoulder, Em’s face an inch away. ‘You were supposed to come to me for help. I did everything for you, always have… and you choose them over me?’
Em lowered the knife, and Lori bucked forward, her forehead connecting with Em’s chin. Em stumbled back and Lori’s vision burst into dark and bright, her head too heavy to hold up.
The cold blade lifted Lori’s chin, now eye to eye. There was blood on Em’s lips, her mouth a tight line, her jaw pulsing. Lori could feel the blood spray on her face as Em yelled, ‘I was the one who got you out of that shitty little existence and gave you a life.’
Lori shrank away, her chin lifting off the blade, her head turning. But Em’s voice was still loud in her ear, her eyes squeezed shut, trying to keep her focus on working her wrists out of the rope.
When she opened her eyes, she saw the maze sign, the bright light. Little pieces, snapshots of images floated through her mind.
Marina. Vanished. Beanie. The blood in the snow. Unanswered phone calls.
‘Marina.’ It was a whisper.
Em stepped back, suddenly calm, like the eye of a storm. ‘What?’
‘Marina. What did you do to Marina?’
‘Marina got too involved.’
‘What does that mean? What did you do?’ Lori wriggled her wrists, breathing through the scorching pain as the rope rubbed deeper into her already raw skin.
She’d been trying to do it subtly, but Em must have seen the pain on her face or noticed her struggling against the ropes. She walked around behind the chair, sliding a finger in the gap Lori had made. Em’s fingernail ran across where the rope had rubbed and sent a needle of pain up Lori’s arm, all the way up through her shoulder and neck, piercing through the back of her eye.
Crouching behind the chair, Em rested her chin on Lori’s shoulder, speaking as she tightened the rope. ‘She was never meant to fall for you. That wasn’t the deal.’
‘The deal?’
Em laughed. ‘Who set you up? Who pushed you to call her? You think any of it was just a coincidence? The supermarket? I mean, come on. It wasn’t even in her suburb.’ One last tug on the rope to be sure and Em stood, walking back around. ‘Me! I did it.’
Lori let out a long breath, defeat sinking back in. At least now Em was pointing the knife at her own chest, proud. ‘She was only meant to get you to fall for her and then break your heart… But the stupid girl grew a conscious. Tried to get me to stop, but she didn’t understand—’
‘She knew? Everything you were doing?’
Em grinned, her chin lifting. ‘The whole time.’
Lori thought back to when Marina had stood in her bedroom doorway just hours after someone had tried to drown her. She had asked if Lori was okay, when she had known what had happened, who had done it, and she’d said nothing.
She’d even made Lori feel guilty for not doing anything to stop what was happening.
But then it occurred to her; Marina was the one who wanted to go to Herald’s Maze, because no one would be there.
She’d even been the one to show Lori where to climb in and out.
Had she known what was coming? Known Em would take Lori to the cabin? Why else would she have shown Lori how to escape?
Looking out the window again, Lori saw there was a tinge of purple in the sky, the glow of the moon gone, a hint of dawn coming.
80
LORI DIDN’T WANT to hear any more, but Em was pacing circles around the room, a manic energy in her step and in her constant chatter. But she let her go on, buying time to figure out how to get out of there.
‘She called me, you know? After that photo arrived at your door, asking if it was me that sent it and I just didn’t tell her about it. To make her reaction more real. Authentic. Marina, she wanted to stop, she wanted out. She’d wanted out ever since the fake drowning thing, said it was going too far, but she stuck it out. Until that day, that damn photo. She was gonna tell you everything. Her big mistake was warning me she was gonna do it, guess she thought she was giving me time, a head-start or whatever. I called her back later that night, told her I was outside, that I wanted to talk to her before she went through with it… It was easy, actually. I was waiting down the side of the porch when she came out, she didn’t even see it coming. One hit to the back of the head and she was out. Put her in the trunk, leave her key with the photo and done. Problem solved.’
‘Is she—?’
‘Dead? Yes.’ Em clenched the knife in her hand, waving it around as if she’d forgotten it was even there, pointing with it instead of her finger, an extension of herself. ‘She’s keeping Lena company now. She stayed alive for a little while, though. I was even gonna do a little murder-suicide thing to tie it all up neatly. Make it look like Addison killed Marina and then herself. I would have gotten away with it all. No one the wiser and all that. It would have been just you and me. Still can be. We’ll have to do something about Olly, though. You know I’m surprised she never noticed anything, not much of a head shrinker, is she? You told her about your theories, right? That I said to tell her I thought you were crazy?’
Lori nodded, using it as cover to try again at the rope, but it was too tight and the muscles in her arms were going numb, getting heavy and harder to move. Even the pain where the rope had rubbed was fading to a distant ache.
‘Maybe if she had put you on a psych hold Jeremy would still be alive.’
That caught Lori’s attention, stilled her. She already knew someone had killed him, that he hadn’t done it himself and that it wasn’t Addy. But she would never have thought Em to be capable of something so brutal and callous. Harmless, that was what Em had called him. Then again, she had already killed her wife and Marina, kidnapped Addy.
‘Damn Jeremy and his little creeping obsession. Addy would have gone down for the whole thing if not for him and his damn camera. I had to get rid of him before he ruined everything. Jus
t like her.’
Em crouched over Addy again, holding the knife to her cheek. A drop of blood formed where the point pressed, and Addy’s eyelids fluttered.
Lori yelled at Em to stop, to leave her alone. And she did. Em stood up, weighing the knife in her hand as she walked around and stood behind Lori.
81
LORI COULDN’T SEE Em standing behind her, couldn’t hear her either. Nervous, her mind flooded with images of the knife at her back. Lori did the only thing she could. She asked another question. ‘Why did you set Addy up for it all? I’d ended things with her. I’d moved on. I was—’
‘You never moved on, Lori. Addy wasn't just a student, and she wasn't some mistake or a fling or a friend. She’s in love with you. And for some damn reason you love her back… But you, you were mine first.’
Lori felt the tip of the blade moving lightly down the length of her arm. She tried to turn, pulling and struggling, stopping at the pressure of the knife tip being pressed against the inside of her wrist. A sharp pain and then a dull sensation rushed into her hands, tingling and pins and needles running up her arm. Then the knife was at her other wrist, digging in again. Lori closed her eyes, waiting to feel the pain, to bleed out.
But the rope fell away instead. Her hands were free. She held them out in front of her, weightless and numb, unharmed except where the rope had rubbed.
Em pointed the knife at the door. ‘We can walk out of here together.’ She turned the knife onto Addy. ‘But you have to leave her to die.’
Mine First Page 18