Page 22

DO YOU HEAR THAT?

FALLON

I watch as both Amber and Summer shake their heads.

None of us have heard from Bridget, and that’s concerning.

I’ve been friends with her for years, and there’s no doubt in my mind she would contact one of us.

Either to rub it in our face that the hotel she’s in is swanky as hell, or to lay the guilt on super thick that she got there with no help from us.

It’s always the same manipulative bullshit with her, but at least I’d know she’s safe.

Right now, I don’t, and nausea swirls in my gut because of it.

“I’m going to call her,” I say. The other girls nod in agreement.

A few clicks later, I raise the phone to my ear, and wait. It rings, and I hear an answering phone ring off to the left, toward the front of the house. All our eyes lock. She’s here.

“I knew she wouldn’t actually leave. She’s probably camped out just like my cousin used to do,” Summer reminds us.

“Come on out, Bridget. We know you’re here. We heard your phone!” Savannah yells again, with no response.

“Let me call her again.” This time it goes straight to voicemail. “Obviously she’s around here somewhere. We might as well go and find her.”

Making our way around the side of the cabin, moving towards where we assumed the ringing came from, not a single one of us say a word. The only thing you can hear is the leaves crunching with each step we take, and a slight breeze flowing through the trees.

The only one of us who seems to not be lost in some sort of thought is Amber, who keeps looking at Summer as she picks at the skin around her finger nails.

It's a nasty habit she’s had since she was younger when her anxiety gets the best of her.

“Stop that,” she hisses, slapping Summer’s hand away from her mouth.

Summer’s eyes glare daggers at Amber as they stare each other down, having another one of those telepathic conversations no one can seem to understand.

It’s usually cool to witness, but with how this trip is unfolding, watching them causes more unease to unfurl in my guts.

I feel like I’m going to shit myself from anxiety.

You know the saying, fool me once shame on you; fool me twice, shame one me ? I feel like we’re living it.

The first time something weird happened we should have left instead of shrugging it off.

Someone messing with Bridget's stuff should really have scared us more than it did.

The calmness of the forest, and being one with the energies here, really separated us from the danger-awareness part of our brains.

It was too easy for us to displace our worry, and come up with some sort of theory as to what happened.

But then, the dead things showed up. Carcasses and guts spread across the porch, maggots everywhere, I still don’t know how we managed to get it all cleaned up.

Was the divide it cracked in our friend group worth it?

I don’t know. But I do know we’re supposed to be leaving today if Amber hears back from the cabin’s owner.

I still can’t wrap my head around whatever the hell happened to Sav last night, or the fact that none of us can really remember much after we sat around the fire.

I’m not saying Bigfoot actually broke inside the house and ass-fucked Savannah, no matter how badly the bitch wishes that was true, but I do believe her to a certain extent.

Something is seriously wrong with this cabin, these woods, and the entire atmosphere that surrounds the area.

“Hold on, pause. Do ya'll hear that?” Everyone turns to look at me, waiting for me to explain further. “Listen…it almost sounds like…scratching.” The breeze blows around our group again, then we all collectively hear it. A creaking of tree branches, and then a distinct scraping sound.

I watch as Amber's face turns three different shades of red. “If that bitch is keying my car, I have no issues with taking that same key, and shoving it into her eyeball.” She storms around the corner of the cabin, and we all follow behind her.

Amber stops dead in her tracks, frozen solid, causing Summer to crash into her back from following so closely behind. Terror like I’ve never known ensnares me, turning the blood in my veins to ice as Savannah lets out a blood-curdling scream.