by Kieran Scott
Jacob chewed on his lip. “You’re my best friend, you know?”
Hannah’s heart felt full. “I know.”
Together they turned and started to follow the path the others had taken. Jacob bumped her arm with his and she bumped him right back. Before long they hit a sharp incline and Hannah’s quads began to burn.
“Up here!” Colin called out.
Hannah and Jacob exchanged resigned glances, then slowly followed. As soon as Hannah stepped out onto the flat rock surface of the cliff, her stomach flip-flopped. The cliff loomed so high over the lake she could see the tops of some of the trees on the other side, which made her dizzy.
Colin and Katie stood right at the edge, and it was all she could do to keep from begging them to come back. There was a reason she’d never taken to diving, even though she spent so much time in the pool and hanging out with the diving team. And that reason was, she hated heights. Hated planes, hated Ferris wheels—she even hated looking out the fifth-story windows at her high school.
“See? It isn’t so bad.” Colin leaned over the edge and Katie turned her back on him, shuddering.
“You going for it, man?” Jacob joked.
“I will if you will,” Colin challenged.
There was a charge in the air that Hannah didn’t like. “We didn’t come up here to jump,” she reminded them. Sure enough, she could see the glowing lights of Prandya’s house down below.
“So?” Colin lifted one shoulder and dropped the duffel on the ground. He seemed puffed up suddenly, as if his chest had widened. He looked Jacob in the eye. “No one said we can’t.”
Jacob walked up to the edge and peered over.
“Think you can handle it, Faber?” Colin said.
Hannah’s heart fluttered uncomfortably.
“Guys. Come on,” Katie said. “Let’s just light the fire and get the heck out of here.”
“She’s right, man. Let’s just do this.” Jacob bent at the waist to reach for the duffel bag.
“Why? You scared?”
Everyone froze. Hannah’s mouth went clammy as the wind whistled through the trees. Slowly, Jacob stood up straight. He and Colin stared each other down.
“What’s your problem all of a sudden?” Jacob asked.
Colin stepped around the duffel bag to go toe-to-toe with Jacob. “I don’t have a problem. Do you have a problem?” he asked, perfectly calm.
Hannah and Katie locked eyes. What the heck was happening here?
“My problem is that you suddenly seem to have a problem,” Jacob said, his eyes aflame. “What is it? You jealous?”
“Jealous?” Colin spat, bumping Jacob slightly with his chest. Jacob backed up a step—backed up closer to the edge. “Of what?”
Katie took in a sharp breath. “You guys—”
“Of me and Hannah? Because we had five seconds to ourselves back there?” Jacob threw out a hand. “She’s my best friend, dude. You knew that going in.”
He bumped Colin right back, but Colin didn’t move. Hannah’s pulse thrummed like crazy.
“Check yourself, Faber,” Colin said, bumping Jacob again. A few pebbles bounced off the rocky shelf.
“Jacob!” Hannah shouted.
“No. You know what? I’m sick of your attitude, Barnes,” Jacob said, giving Colin’s shoulder a shove. “Back off or I’m gonna—”
“No. You back off,” Colin said, and he shoved Jacob clear off the cliff.
Hannah’s scream nearly ripped her throat out.
“Jacob!” Katie screeched.
Down below, the splash was just starting to froth, and then it disappeared.
“Oh my God,” Colin said, his hands to his head. “Oh my God, what did I do? What did I do?”
“You shoved him off a cliff, that’s what you did!” Katie shouted, her eyes wild.
“I don’t see him.” Hannah stood as close to the cliff as she dared. “He hasn’t come up, you guys. Where is he?” Her throat closed and tears began to course down her face.
It’s not the height that’ll kill you, it’s the rocks down below, Colin had said earlier. You’ve gotta know exactly where to jump or you’ll break your skull.
“We have to help him,” Katie said frantically. “Hannah! We have to get down there!”
Hannah whirled on Colin. “Which way?” she barked.
Colin didn’t even look at her. It was like he couldn’t focus. Hannah grabbed his arms and squeezed.
“Colin! How do we get down there?” she said, giving him a shake.
Suddenly his eyes seemed to snap. “Follow me,” he said. And he was off.
Katie ran after him and Hannah brought up the rear, shoving aside branches and crashing through the brush. Something nicked her face. Her lungs burned. But all she could think about was Jacob.
What if he had hit his head? Or broken his neck? Or what if he was totally fine, but that … thing—that thing that had attacked Alessandra—was now after him?
Hannah’s toe jammed against something and she went airborne, then landed sprawled in the dirt, her face scraping against a jagged rock. Pain seared through her cheekbone and skull. When she sat up, the woods seemed to pulsate around her. Where was Colin? Where was Katie? She touched her cheek and winced. When she put her hand down to shove herself up, it scraped against something sharp and she saw that she was sitting next to a circle of rocks with a pile of old black ash at its center. Someone had set a fire in this clearing at some point. More than one fire, from the look of how much ash there was. Slowly, she dragged herself to her feet. She was facing an etching on a tree: N.F. + C.C. with a heart carved around it. The letters blurred as she stared at them.
N.F. + C.C. Nick Freeman + Claudia Caldwell. Was this the “special place” Claudia had talked about in her journal?
A branch snapped nearby.
“You guys!” Hannah shouted. “Where—”
She screamed when someone grabbed her arm.
“Shhhhh! It’s just me!”
Blue eyes. Shaggy hair. Hannah blinked, disoriented. “Nick?”
Murderer. The word came to her out of the darkness. Hannah staggered back several steps. What was Nick doing here? How had he found them? He reached for her again—too fast for her to get away.
“Let go of me!” she shouted, ripping her arm out of his grasp.
Nick looked confused. “Hannah. Calm down. I have to talk to you.”
This made no sense. How had he even gotten here? They were at least two miles from Jacob’s house, in the middle of the freaking woods. Whatever was going on here, Hannah didn’t like it.
“I don’t have time for this,” she said, starting along the path again. “Jacob fell into the water.”
“I know. I saw.” Nick grabbed her again and Hannah almost wailed in desperation. He yanked her elbow, forcing her to look at him. “I saw Colin push him.”
Hannah paused. The last five minutes were a blur in her mind—a blur of panic and adrenaline and fear. “It was an accident,” she said.
Nick shook his head. “I don’t think it was. Hannah, I think he did it on purpose. And I think he killed my girlfriend, too.”
“What?” Hannah breathed. “Nick, what are you talking about?”
“Colin. You can’t trust him.”
Hannah’s heart gave an unpleasant squeeze. She opened her mouth to respond, but then came the sound of crunching gravel.
“There you are!”
Katie ran around a bend in the pathway, and Jacob was right behind her.
“Jacob!” Hannah cried, the relief so acute her knees went weak. “You’re okay!”
She threw her arms around him, not caring that he was soaking wet.
“I’ll live,” he said ruefully. But he was pale as a sheet, and he was shivering.
“We have to get him inside,” Colin was saying as he appeared. “I’m really—”
He stopped in his tracks when he saw Nick standing there.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded.
Nick glanced at Hannah, who clenched her jaw. “Just came to hang out,” he said. “Where’s Alessandra?”
* * *
“Someone should take Nick’s Jet Ski back to town and go to the police,” Hannah said as they rushed back into Jacob’s house. There was a beach towel strewn across one of the chairs on the screened-in porch and she tossed it to Jacob. He wrapped the towel around himself, still shivering—more from fear, Hannah thought, than from anything else. They had told Nick the whole story about Alessandra and the attack on the way back to the house, and he seemed more freaked out than any of the rest of them.
“He should go,” Colin said, lifting his chin in Nick’s direction.
“I still don’t think anyone should go out on that lake,” Katie said.
“Personally, I think the person who just shoved someone off a cliff should be the one to face down the lake monster,” Nick said as he glared at Colin.
“It was an accident.” Colin’s voice was a low rumble.
“Not from where I was standing,” Nick said.
“And where were you standing, exactly?” Colin asked, advancing on Nick. “Anyone else here wondering what this guy was doing stalking us in the woods?”
“Back off, Colin,” Nick said, shoving Colin’s chest.
Colin reached back an arm and Hannah gasped as Jacob threw himself forward and grabbed Colin’s fist before Colin could swing. “Everyone chill!” Jacob yelled. “We’re not gonna fight right now!”
There was a long, tense moment in which no one moved or even breathed. Then Colin ripped his arm away and paced to the window. “You know what? Fine. I’ll go.”
“What?” Hannah said, reaching for his shoulder. “Colin, no—”
“It’s fine.” Colin looked at Hannah, took a deep breath, and steeled himself. His brown eyes were pained but determined as he reached up and quickly brushed his thumb down her cheek. “I’ll go for help and be back before you know it.” He looked over at Jacob and shook his head. “I really am sorry, man. I’m glad you’re okay.”
Jacob nodded silently. They all followed Colin back outside to Nick’s Jet Ski. A thick fog clung to the lake now, and Hannah couldn’t see more than a few feet into the distance. Nick tossed Colin the keys and Colin looked like he wanted to say something, but thought the better of it and turned away.
Hannah shivered. She couldn’t believe Colin was leaving, and they were going to be stuck here with Nick. “Colin! Are you sure about this?”
“It’s fine,” he called back. “Just sit tight. This will all be over soon.”
He strapped on a life jacket and climbed onto the Jet Ski. Jacob stood at the shoreline and helped Colin push off. Hannah heard the slurping of the water as the Jet Ski moved away from them, and she couldn’t help thinking she should have kissed Colin good-bye. Or at least given him a hug for good luck. Something. Her throat tightened as he revved the engine. She kept her eyes on his broad back until the mist swallowed him whole.
“We need to talk,” Nick said under his breath to Hannah the second Colin was gone.
Hannah glanced around for Jacob and Katie, but they were already walking into the house. She turned to follow them, hugging herself as tightly as possible. Every fiber of her being told her she wasn’t safe around Nick. His own girlfriend hadn’t trusted him, and now she was gone.
“No. We really don’t,” she said.
She jogged up the steps to the porch, yanked open the screen door, and hurried inside. Jacob and Katie were heading upstairs together. Her heart sliced down the middle. Nice moment to get your alone time, she thought.
“Yeah, we do.” Nick closed the front door behind them and followed her to the center of the room. “Listen, a few months ago, my girlfriend, Claudia, disappeared.”
“I know all about Claudia,” Hannah interjected. Seeing Nick’s confused look, she added, “Alessandra told me.” Just saying Alessandra’s name brought up bile in the back of her throat.
“What did she tell you?” Nick asked.
“That Claudia disappeared a couple months ago without a trace,” Hannah said. “And that you were a suspect.”
Nick reached up and rubbed his face with both hands. “That’s just great. Is that all she told you?”
“Basically,” Hannah said, choosing to ignore the fact that she knew about Nick’s “alibi.” Because she and Nick both knew he’d faked it somehow—that on the last night anyone had seen Claudia, she’d been planning to meet up with him. “But I happen to know a lot more than that.”
“You’re not making any sense. You never even met Claudia.”
“Yeah, but I feel like I did,” Hannah said quietly. She walked over to her bag on the sofa, where she’d stashed Claudia’s journal. Suddenly all she wanted to do was see his face when he showed it to her. His reaction would reveal everything. Making sure not to turn her back on him, she yanked the book out and held it up. “Does this look familiar?”
Nick’s jaw went slack. “You have Claudia’s journal? How did you get that?”
Hannah hesitated. He didn’t look guilty. Or scared. He looked … sad. Intrigued, maybe. His eyes seemed to droop as he gazed at her, waiting for an answer.
“I found it,” she said.
“Where? How did you … ? Did her mother have it?” he asked. Then, before Hannah could answer: “Can I see it?”
He took a step toward her and she held the book back. “No. They’re her private thoughts.”
“So why do you get to read them?” he asked, a glower darkening his features. “You didn’t even know her.”
“Yeah, well, she was afraid of you, did you know that?” Hannah snapped. “So why should you get to read it?”
“She wasn’t afraid of me,” Nick said incredulously. “Does it say that?”
“Yeah, in fact, it does,” Hannah said, hedging the truth. It didn’t really say that—not explicitly. But it was clearly implied.
“Why?” Nick asked, his voice cracking. “Why would she be afraid of me?”
“I would have been, too, if I were her,” Hannah told him, shoving the book back into her bag and clutching the whole thing in her arms. “The behavior she describes in there …” She paused as her heart choked off her air supply, then cleared her throat. “It’s disturbing.”
“Disturbing?” Nick spat, his face screwing up. “What’s disturbing? Me getting angry when she cheated on me? If that’s disturbing, then you better go out and arrest every guy who’s ever had a two-faced girlfriend.”
Hannah held her breath. “Wow. That’s some way to talk about the girl you supposedly loved.”
Nick turned away from her, toward the windows facing the lake, and pushed his hands up into his shaggy hair. Hannah cast a glance toward the stairs, wondering if she could make it up to Jacob and Katie in time if he suddenly whirled on her.
“Did you kill her?” she asked. Because she had to. She had to know.
Nick let out a short laugh. When he faced her again, there were tears in his eyes. “No. Are you kidding me? No.”
“But you think Colin did,” she snapped. “Why would Colin hurt Claudia?”
For a long moment, Nick just stared at her. Hannah could practically see the gears in his head turning as he decided what to say—what to reveal. Finally, he gave her a rueful smile.
“I can’t believe I came out here because I was worried about you.”
“About me?” Hannah asked, incredulous.
“Yeah, about you.” Nick pressed his lips together. “Did anyone tell you how much you look like Claudia?”
Hannah said nothing, but Nick could see the truth in her eyes, apparently, because he smirked.
“After the other night, when it was obvious Colin was into you, I asked around a little and found out about his girlfriend back home,” Nick said. “Did you know he had a girlfriend back home?”
Back home? What was he talking about?
“Her name was Vicki Palecki. Once you guys get the internet back in this place, look h
er up. It’s an interesting read.” He grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch and turned toward the door.
“Where’re you going?” Hannah demanded.
“I’m gonna sleep on the porch,” he said. “I think I feel more welcome with the lake monster than I do in here.”
Then he walked out and slammed the door.
* * *
The rhythm of the floorboards’ creak was mesmerizing. Creak, creak, craaack … creak, creak, creak. Hannah had been pacing the same five-foot tract for what felt like hours, and the repetition had become comforting in a way. She walked toward the screened-in porch—creak, creak, craaack—then she stopped, turned, and walked back toward the window—creak, creak, creak.
Outside, there was nothing but mist. It was so thick now that she couldn’t even see the shoreline, let alone the lake. What if whatever was out there could leave the lake under cover like this? What if it was slithering across the rocky beach right now, pulling its bulbous, misshapen body toward the house, crunching bones between its jaws?
Alessandra … I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry this happened to you.
And meanwhile, what had happened to Prandya? To Colin?
Creak, creak, craaaack. Creak, creak, creak.
Hannah pulled out her phone. There was only 5% battery left. Colin had been gone for two and a half hours and Nick had been on one of the porch rocking chairs for just as long.
Creak, creak, craaack. Creak, creak, creak.
Did Nick really think Colin had something to do with Claudia’s disappearance? Or was he just trying to throw suspicion off himself? If that was the case, there was no reason for him to try to convince Hannah—for him to ride his Jet Ski all the way out here to talk to her. He had no idea she had Claudia’s journal until she told him, which meant he had no idea she suspected him. So maybe he had come here to warn them away from Colin—to save them from the bad guy.
But that was insane. Colin wasn’t the bad guy. Colin was amazing. He liked her. And she liked him. Until that whole shoving-Jacob-off-a-cliff thing, of course. But still. That had been an accident. She knew it had. He’d freaked out when Jacob had gone over the edge.
Hannah stared hard out the window, as if she could make Colin appear. She just wanted to see him again. She wanted to talk to him. But with every second he was gone, she was more and more certain he was never coming back.
