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There’s a warmth hovering over us, light flickering from the fire. But even so, a familiar longing blooms in my chest. A feeling of wanting more, like my basic needs aren’t satisfied.

I take another swig from the bottle before passing it to Declan. I close my eyes, feeling the liquor course through my chest, eradicating the gaping hole that’s ballooned there.

“So,” Ellery says at one point, “I suppose this whole camping experience doesn’t come with public bathrooms?”

“I think you’re looking at ’em, El,” Josh says, gesturing around.

Ellery rolls her eyes. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

“I will go with you,” Tomas says. “To keep watch.”

The two of them head off, and a brief lull falls over the rest of us.

“Truth or dare?” Adrien proposes, a twinkle in her eye. “We haven’t played in a while.”

A faint chill blows up my arms, the desert temperature falling rapidly.

“So, how about it?’ Adrien asks. “Claire, truth or dare?”

Claire’s head darts up from where it’s been resting on Declan’s shoulder.

“Oh, uh, truth.”

Of course, she always chooses truth.

“Fuck, marry, kill. Out of our group.”

“What?” Claire asks, eyes wide.

Adrien laughs. “You need to choose one person you’d like to sleep with, one you’d like to marry, and one you’d like to kill.”

Claire’s face turns redder than I’ve ever seen it, which is saying something.

“Um okay. Well, marry Declan, I guess.”

Declan winks at everyone else, and a few people—Hari and Ellery, specifically—laugh.

“Sleep with Josh.” Claire ducks her head, and Josh lifts up his fist.

“Better watch your girl, Dec,” he says jokingly, and I notice something—jealousy maybe?—flicker across Declan’s face. But I’m too distracted to dwell on it, too busy wondering who Claire is going to choose to kill. Adrien, hopefully. Or maybe Tomas? It didn’t seem like they ever really connected.

“And kill…Phoebe.”

My name out of her mouth strikes me like a bullet.

A few hours ago I would have said it was a possibility…maybe. But after the time we just spent out in the dunes? We reconnected, or so I thought.

“Good choice,” Adrien says proudly.

Claire refuses to meet my eye. Disappointment curdles in my throat, hardening into anger.

Smart girl , the voice says.

I try to contort my face into something resembling apathy, but based on Declan and Josh’s embarrassed reaction, I can tell I’ve failed. The bottle reaches me again. Not a moment too soon.

They hate you.

The idea comes to me as soon as the whiskey hits my throat. A way to change everyone’s minds. To remind them of who I am—or who they should think I am. A way to get back to the Phoebe I was at the beginning of this trip.

“I’ve got a dare,” I say once I swallow.

“Isn’t it Claire’s turn?” Hari asks.

“I don’t mind,” Claire says sheepishly. “You can take this one, Phoebe. I don’t have any ideas anyway.”

I know this is her attempt to try to smooth things over, but I ignore her, scanning the group to determine who to pick.

I would choose Adrien, but I can’t run the risk that she would accept and upstage me.

God, that’s the last thing I need. No, I need to pick someone much less risk averse. Someone with nothing to prove.

At that precise moment, Ellery and Tomas return, giggling about something, before dropping cross-legged next to Claire. Perfect.

“I choose Tomas.”

He raises his head towards me, his pupils big in the glow from the fire.

“I dare you to go skinny-dipping in the lake.”

“Oh, come on Phoebe, that’s not even funny,” Adrien chides. “You heard Birrani.”

“I’ll go with you,” I say.

“No one’s going in the water,” Josh proclaims.

“I will go,” says Tomas.

I feel my jaw drop. No. That is not the plan. Tomas wasn’t supposed to accept. But what am I supposed to do now? I can’t change my mind once I’ve thrown down the gauntlet.

“I don’t think—” Ellery starts

“It will be fun,” Tomas says, his voice higher than usual. “Like Mad Max.”

I pull up next to him, lower my voice so only he can hear. “Tomas, it was a joke; you don’t need to—”

“I want to,” he responds with a big smile.

And before I have a chance to protest, he’s stripping off his pants, pulling his shirt over his head. I join, discarding my clothes near the fire, and stand there in my bra and underwear. I see Claire divert her eyes, but the others’—including Kyan’s, I notice with relish—stay glued on my body.

And then we’re off, my hand laced in Tomas’s, our feet sinking in the red dirt, running until the lukewarm water skirts our toes. We rush in fast, droplets spraying everywhere, until the water reaches our waists, shoulders, necks.

The lake is deeper than I expected. After a few steps, my feet no longer touch the bottom, my toes only brushing silt. As the water rushes over my head, my hand still locked in Tomas’s, I feel a sense of relief, of freedom. And a silence.

For once, I don’t hear his voice, the insults he levels at me. Just quiet.

Until I feel something slimy brush my foot.

With a jolt, I surface, pulling Tomas with me. I release his hand as I start back towards the shore, running from whatever I felt below the water. But even so, a smile spreads across my face, the freedom from that moment lodging in my bones.

I collapse into the dirt, not minding the red mud clinging to my hands and knees, and someone—Claire?—throws me my clothes. It’s only once I start pulling them on over my wet skin that I hear it.

“Where is he?” Ellery’s voice is loud, panicked. “Where’s Tomas?”

And then the sound comes, inhuman and piercing. A scream that shakes the world around us.