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The bell rings, and I stand only to find Abe and his friends right behind me. He ignores me again–or pretends to–but I feel the lightest of touches at my lower back as he passes by, a fleeting acknowledgment that this weekend was real.
School bully Abe is a fake.
When I get to my next class another text comes through.
Abe: Meet me at the cabin tonight. 6:30. I won’t disappoint.
My heart revs up like an engine just started. My body heats, remembering all his less-than-disappointing skills. I am definitely going to meet him.
Still, I don’t answer.
If he wants to pretend I don’t exist, I’m going to make him suffer.
Abe: You told the whole school you want me to eat you. I just want to give you what you need.
Me: I’ll think about it.
Abe: I’ll be waiting. If you don’t come, punishment will be in order.
After dinner, I tell Lincoln and my dad I’m going to the library, and I drive the Tesla toward the dirt roads that lead toward Abe’s cabin.
The trouble is, the roads aren’t marked or named, and it’s not like I have an address I can plug into the Tesla map system.
I do know the way by foot, though. I end up pulling to the side of the road and parking to hike there. The sun has just set, leaving the mountains glowing a magical pink and purple.
I get a dopamine hit as I walk, knowing what awaits me. For the first time, I actually absorb the beauty my mom saw here–not in an unemotional, flat way, but I feel it in my chest. Like a balloon that expands and makes me feel lighter.
I didn’t wear proper footwear for the hike–I’m in a pair of Manolo Blahnik leather flip-flops, but I shouldn’t be too far from the cabin or the road that leads to the cabin now.
It’s rockier than I remembered, though, and I have to pick my way over the larger stones, avoiding the prickly things. One of the rocks shifts under my feet, and before I even see the danger, a snake curled beneath it strikes my ankle.
I scream and kick, falling on my hands and knees.
The snake slithers back under the rocks.
Oh God. Was it a rattlesnake? Am I in big trouble right now?
I try to climb to my feet, but I only hobble a few steps before I can no longer bear weight on the foot. It swells to twice its size in less than sixty seconds.
My hands shake. My breath is coming in audible sobs. I’m already going into shock. I reach for my phone, but it must have fallen out when I tripped. Darkness is falling fast as I try to crawl back.
Oh fuck.
Please no. Please tell me this isn’t happening. I see my phone sticking out of the same crevice the snake disappeared into.
There’s no way in hell I’m reaching my hand in there.
And if I thought I wasn’t already completely fucked, things get even worse. Because I hear the scrape of rocks behind me.
It’s not another snake.
It’s worse.
A giant grizzly bear barrels toward me on four legs, its giant maw open in a roar.
Abe
She didn’t come.
