Don't Look Back

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  “What…what happened?”

  “You were in a car accident.” He dragged his hand through his hair. “Dad’s out in the hall, talking to the doctors. The police think you lost control on the highway.”

  I struggled to sit up, too weak to really lift my head. “What about the other driver? Are they okay?”

  “Don’t try to sit up. I got it.” Scott grabbed an extra pillow off the chair and then gently slid his fingers under my head, lifting slowly as he got the pillow under me. “The other driver was clipped. They’re fine.”

  My head protested the movement, as did most of my body. “Your car…oh my god, I’m sorry.”

  Scott settled back down, rolling his eyes as he fixed the thin hospital blanket. “I don’t care about the stupid car. It’s already taken care of. I’ll get a rental in the morning.” His eyes lifted, meeting mine. “How are you feeling?”

  “Like I was in a car accident,” I said, lifting my free hand once I figured out that one wasn’t hooked up to anything. I touched my head gingerly. There was a bandage on my forehead. “How…bad is it?”

  “Nothing too serious. Not like you need your brain anyway, right?”

  I laughed and then groaned. “Ow.”

  “You got a lot of bruises and probably will hurt for a while, but you’ll survive.”

  “That’s good.” I closed my eyes, wanting to move but knowing it wouldn’t be a good idea. Something waited on the fringes of my thoughts. Something I couldn’t quite grasp. A quick peek through the window told me that night had fully fallen. “How long have I been here?”

  He glanced over my shoulder, sighing. “It’s close to five in morning. You’ve slept this entire time.”

  Oh god.

  “I think I heard the doc saying he was going to keep you through today for observation after everything…else.” He smiled again, but there was an edge to it. Wariness. “So you get out of school the rest of the week. Way to go.”

  I wanted to laugh and joke, but his smile nagged at me. “You’ve been here this whole time?”

  Scott nodded. “Del the Dick stopped by before they ended visiting hours. So did Julie.” He paused, a real grin tugging at his lips. “And after I texted Carson, he was here in under ten minutes. Was not happy when they wouldn’t let him stay.”

  “Carson,” I murmured.

  “Yeah, he…was really worried, sis. He and I are going to have to talk about that.” A troubled look eroded the teasing grin. “Sam, the EMTs and police said you were talking when they arrived on the scene. Something about—”

  Dad entered the room, looking every inch the poster child for country club member of the month. Not a single piece of his hair was out of place. He came right to the other side of the bed, smiling down at me.

  “How are you feeling, princess?” he asked, brushing the hair off my bandaged forehead.

  “Okay.” I glanced at my suddenly quiet brother. “Where’s Mom?”

  Dad’s smile faltered. “She was here earlier, but she’s at home…resting.”

  I blinked back the tears that sprang to my eyes. Mom hadn’t stayed. I was in the hospital, hooked up to machines, and my mom was at home resting. I hurt all over, and my mom wasn’t even here. And I wanted her—suddenly needed her—to tell me I was okay.

  Maybe she couldn’t look at me anymore, believing that I’d had something to do with Cassie’s death—it all came rushing back then.

  Going to the cabin, finding the lake and the cliff above the waterfalls, then the man chasing me, the note…the car—my heart started pounding, and the machine matched the beats.

  I struggled again to sit up, but Scott and Dad kept me still. “You don’t understand,” I gasped, head throbbing. “There was someone in the car. He was in the backseat. Did they get him?”

  Dad pushed down on my shoulders lightly, clearing his throat. “Samantha, there was no one in the car.”

  My forehead ached. “No. You don’t understand. He was following me in the woods, and he put this note in my car—”

  “What were you doing up at the summerhouse?” My dad’s eyes met mine.

  I glanced at Scott, swallowing. Who cared why I was there? Didn’t they understand? “I thought if I went up there…I’d remember what happened.” My throat felt like paper. Each sound was like a dry whisper. “Dad, he was chasing me. And then he was in the car. That’s why I wrecked.”

  “Who is he?” Scott asked.

  “Scott,” my father warned.

  My brother’s face darkened. “Sam, who was following you?”

  “I don’t know who he was.” I pressed the palm of my hand to my brow. “I didn’t get a good look at his face, but he’s been leaving me notes.” Recognition flickered in his eyes. “I put the note in my bag—where is my bag?”

  Then Scott looked at our dad, who shook his head. “What?” I demanded.

  “Sweetie, you should get some rest.” Dad grabbed my hand, pulling it away from my face. “You’re getting yourself worked up.”

  I pulled my arm away. Something tightened in my chest. “Is my bag still in the car?”

  “No,” Scott answered, looking away. “Your bag was in your bedroom. You didn’t take it with you.”

  “What?” My head swam in confusion. That made no sense. “That’s not right. I brought it with me, and I put the note in it.”

  Scott shook his head, his voice sad. “Sam, we had to get your bag because you didn’t have ID on you when the police got to the scene. You didn’t take it with you.”

  I felt cold as I stared at him, but I started to sweat. “But there was a guy in the car….”

  “There was no one in the car.” Dad placed his hand over mine.

  No. No. No. “He was in the backseat. And he was following me. I didn’t—” A sour-faced nurse came in, not saying a word as she went to the tubes hooked up to the IV. There was a needle in her hand. Panic curled around my insides. “What is she doing? Dad?”

  “She’s just giving you some pain medication.” He patted my hand. “It’s okay.”

  I watched her press down on the needle. Fluid bubbled in the IV. She left without looking at me or saying a word. I thought nurses were supposed to be nice. “Dad…”

  “You need to rest.”

  I didn’t want to rest. I wanted them to believe me. Turning my head, I met my brother’s troubled eyes. “Scott, someone was following me when I was at the cabin. And someone had been there. There were fresh cigarette butts and—”

  “Honey, that was from me.” Dad thrust a hand over his head. “Sometimes I go up there to smoke. Your mother doesn’t know. I quit years ago, but with everything recently…”

  I stared at him. “But…but someone was in the car. He scared me and that’s why I lost control.”

  Scott’s eyes cast down. “Sam, the car doors were locked when the police got there.” He said his next words slowly, carefully. “He couldn’t have locked the car doors after he left the car. The computer in the car was fried. They had to cut the car door open to get you out.”

  Oh man, his car.

  “The insurance company is already—”

  I cut my dad off. “There was someone in the car.” My voice rose, cracking. All of it had been too real to be a hallucination. And I had a vision—a memory of crawling. How could I have a vision inside of a hallucination? “I didn’t imagine it! I’m not making it up.”

  Dad sat back, looking helpless. “I know you’re not making it up, sweetie. I don’t doubt that you believe someone was in the car.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath, understanding what he wasn’t saying. “I’m not crazy.”

  He made a strange noise, and he looked like he was about to crack—like he was about to crumble into a thousand pieces. “I know, baby. You’re not crazy.”

  And I knew right then, when he looked away and a muscle popped in his jaw, that he didn’t believe what he was saying.

  The doctors let me out of the hospital that evening with a prescription for pain
meds and orders to take it easy over the next couple of days. If it hadn’t been for what had put me in the hospital a couple of weeks ago, they probably wouldn’t have even kept me that long.

  Red roses from Del had been placed on my desk in my bedroom, filling the room with the crisp, fresh scent. A smaller basket of bright pink peonies peeked out from behind the vase. They were from Veronica and the girls.

  My purse was on the chair in front of my desk: house keys, wallet, and phone tucked inside. I dumped everything out on the seat. No note.

  I felt sick.

  How could I have hallucinated all of that? My skin felt numb, thoughts muted. The painkillers were still kicking around in my system. Dragging my feet, I went into the bathroom. Bandage off, the purplish bruise seeped out from my hairline, spreading over my left temple. There were tiny scratches on my arms from the glass. Nothing as bad as what I’d done to myself earlier on Wednesday.

  A lump rose in my throat, and I swallowed it down. My palms were raw. Changing slowly into a tank top and sleep shorts, I saw that my knees hadn’t fared much better. At least the whole falling-down part was real.

  In a daze, I brushed my teeth twice and then crawled into bed. There I stayed, forcing my eyes closed. Mom visited me once. She didn’t say much, but her manicured nails were chewed down to their beds.

  “I’m glad you’re okay,” she said, moving to the door.

  I said nothing.

  “I…I love you, honey.”

  There was nothing for me to say. The words were on the tip of my tongue. Fighting or not, memories or no memories, I still loved her, but nothing came out. She stared at me with weary, sad eyes and then left.

  She thought I was capable of killing someone. No leaps of imagination were required to assume she also thought I was crazy.

  Scott stopped in just before ten, but I didn’t speak to him, either. I pretended to sleep, and then I did sleep. Sleeping didn’t require thinking. Thinking led to questioning my mental state.

  Sometime later, something soft caressed my nose. The scent reminded me of spring and early summer. I pried my eyes open. One of Del’s roses was right in my face, but the tan fingers around the glistening stem didn’t belong to my boyfriend.

  Carson’s cocky grin went up a notch. “Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey.”

  “Are you really here?”

  He lowered the rose. “Yeah, I’m here. Why would you ask that?”

  Explaining that I was experiencing vivid hallucinations probably wasn’t the route to go. I blinked the sleep out of my eyes, and once my brain caught up with the fact that he was really here, there was a fluttering in my chest. I decided to go with, “What are you doing here?”

  He leaned against the headboard, stretching out his long legs. Shoes were off, revealing plaid socks. “I wanted to see you. You gave us all a scare, Sam. Again.”

  “Sorry,” I mumbled, sitting up. A wave of dizziness rolled through me as I clutched the comforter to my neck. Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was only a little past ten in the morning. “Skipping school?”

  “Yep.” He laid the rose on his thigh and then folded his arms behind his head.

  “How did you get in here?”

  The cocky grin was back, and I had trouble keeping my eyes on anything other than his totally kissable lips. “Dad is working in the game room, installing new floors. I waited until your mom left and snuck in.”

  I stared at him.

  A bit of indecision crawled into his deep azure eyes. “Scott knows I’m here.”

  I didn’t have any words for the rush that was building in me, swelling with each breath I took. Emotions swirled and whipped like soaring birds, thrilling, hopeful, and so, so confusing.

  “I…can leave if you want me to.”

  “No,” I said quickly. “No. You don’t have to leave. I’m just surprised.”

  His eyes met and held mine. “Your parents wouldn’t let anyone see you.” He paused, looking away. Some of the casualness leaked out of his posture, tightening his biceps. “Scott’s worried.”

  My fist dug into the comforter with disappointment. “So that’s why you’re here? Because my brother’s worried?”

  Carson’s head snapped in my direction. His brows were low, expression serious. “Sam, I’m here because I was worried.”

  “Oh.” My cheeks flushed as I lowered my gaze to his lips—damn it. “I’m okay.”

  “Are you?” The serious look was still there as he searched my face intently.

  I nodded.

  Slowly, he lowered his arms and reached out, carefully running his fingers over the nasty bruise on my forehead. “What happened?”

  The brief butterfly touch sent shivers over my skin. “I had a car accident.”

  His look turned droll as he placed his arms back behind his head. “I got that much.”

  I bit my dry lip as I glanced at the seat. The contents of my purse were still there. No note. No guy in the backseat. And there was a good chance there had been no man in the woods.

  Throat dry, I peeked at him. “Stay?”

  Carson arched a brow. “Not going anywhere.”

  My mind was confused by how happy that made my heart and body. Nodding, I threw off the comforter, climbed off the bed, and headed into my bathroom. I brushed my teeth and washed my face quickly. When I walked out of the bathroom, Carson was where I’d left him. I grabbed a bottle of water off the desk and took two aspirins instead of the pain meds. I started to ask if he wanted anything to drink, but he had an energy drink on the floor beside the bed.

  His eyes followed me back to the bed, and just then I realized I was only wearing a pair of tiny sleep shorts and a thin tank top. I had a feeling the old Sammy would’ve slowed down or swayed her hips, but I hurried to the bed and slipped under the quilt instead of the covers, flushing from head to toe.

  Carson chuckled.

  “Shut up,” I muttered.

  He twisted onto his side, facing me, eyes sparkling with mischief. “What? I like the look.”

  I rolled my eyes and snuggled down. “You’re here to talk about my pajamas?”

  “No, but it’s not a bad conversation starter.” Carson scooted down so that he was stretched out beside me. With just the patchwork quilt between us, it felt so strange to be lying in bed beside him. Strange but good. “You going to tell me what happened?”

  “Did my brother tell you anything?”

  Carson smiled faintly. “No.”

  The urge was there, like it had been with Mrs. Messer on Wednesday. I wanted—needed—to tell someone, and there was the level of explicit trust with Carson. And he was here because he cared. Del could’ve snuck in if he was really concerned. That wasn’t fair, and I knew it, but it was the truth.

  Carson was here.

  Here even after I spent a good five or six years being a tool to him. He’d already seen the worst of me. My faults were exposed to him like live wire.

  I drew in a shallow breath. “I think I’m crazy.”

  chapter fourteen

  It seemed as if Carson was expecting me to say a lot of things, but that wasn’t one of them. His eyes narrowed. “You’re not crazy.”

  The sincerity in his voice brought a lump to my throat. “You don’t understand what’s been happening to me.”

  “Then tell me,” he said, eyes locked on mine.

  And so I did. I told him everything—the notes, everything that had happened at the lake and then in the car. I even told him about my mom’s suspicion and—the worst thing of all—the hallucinations. When I finished, so much pressure lifted off me. Nothing was fixed or better, but I felt as if I could finally breathe for the first time since I came to, walking that lonely, unfamiliar road. I expected him to pat me on the head and then run from the house.