What an oddly ominous thing to say. Goose bumps form on my arms as I keep the conversation going. “And how old are you?”
“Nineteen. And you both are what? Sixteen?”
“Eighteen. Adults.” Beck is, anyway. I will be soon.
Beck walks back into the conversation.
Ivy rubs her nose. “Sure, but being a legal adult doesn’t help when you’re dealing with people who go missing in the woods.” She turns, looking right at Beck. “You look a lot like that girl who died here. The daughter of the actress.”
A chill runs through my stomach. Beck’s jaw tenses as she movesever so slightly in front of me. “And?”
“I know why you’re out here. I’m looking for someone too.”
I stop breathing.
All this time, Paisley, Harlow, and Opal’s deaths have been a terrible incident in a vacuum. They were a one-off tragedy. When I’d looked up the national park, there weren’t that many huge deaths in the couple centuries the park has existed.
But now there’s another missing person?
“Is there something you wanna tell us about my sister?” Beck asks.
“Do you want to hang here for a bit?” I ask.
Ivy sits on the ground near our chairs. “Yes.”
I light our fire once again. It rushes to life, desperate and smoky. I cough as the cloud of smoke hits me, but the winds quickly change direction.
When the smoke hits Ivy, she doesn’t even flinch.
“So, I’m a solo traveler. I’ve been driving my van around the country for about a year now. I’m taking a gap year trying to hit up as many national parks as I can.” She exhales. “And this is my second time at this park. I was here in October.”
Beck tenses up like she’s been dropped into freezing cold water. But I feel like I’ve suddenly returned to life.
Holy shit.
“Were you…?” I gasp out.
Ivy picks up a stick and pushes twigs around in the fire. “I was. I met your sister.”
My stomach tightens as her words sink in, but it almost feels like the anticipation of roller coaster. Like there’s something about to be released, a weight off my shoulders. All this time, this was all I wanted. After searching through news articles and second- and third- andfourth-hand accounts of what happened that night, we finally found someone who was there. Someone real who interacted with the real people who were my friends.
This has to be the beginning of the true story.
“All the campsites were occupied that night,” Ivy says. “I rented a spot in the parking lot and there were these college boys, your sister and her friends, and this other solo traveler. She was nineteen too. Her name was Vanessa. The college boys invited all five of us over to their campsite for some drinks. Your friends were into the guys, so Vanessa and I ended up talking. She was a loner and a bit of a free spirit and came from a family who didn’t really care where she went. But she was cool.”
“And she…went missing?” I say.
“Yeah. So, basically, the guys collected us around nine to go to their campfire. Everyone was together for like an hour. I got tired and told everyone I was going to bed. Vanessa said she was going to go night hike to this waterfall deeper in the woods. I told her that was a stupid idea, but she insisted she’d tell the ranger she was going out there. When I woke up, your friends were found dead at the bottom of a ravine, and Vanessa had completely disappeared. When I talked to Natalie and the other ranger, they both said they’d never heard from Vanessa at all.” She squeezes her eyes shut a moment. “I thought that when the ISB went out searching for your sister’s body, they would’ve found Vanessa. But there was no sign of her.”
Somehow, Vanessa’s story feels even more sketchy than Paisley, Harlow, and Opal’s. At least my friends were found. This woman is still missing.
“And you don’t think there’s any chance she just left her shit andditched?” Beck asks. “Maybe she was running from something.”
Ivy shakes her head. “Ordinarily I’d believe you, but she left a whole bag of her shit with me. Family photos, a childhood stuffed animal, photos of her life. She didn’t want to risk it getting exposed to the elements, since there was a chance it was gonna rain that night. She planned to meet back up with me the next morning but never showed. Trust me, something happened to her.”
“Did you go to the police?” I ask.
She gives a dry laugh. “The police around here are useless, and the only white girls cops don’t care about are white trash girls.” She rubs her temples. “And honestly, I don’t even know what I’m gonna do. I guess go search the woods in the daylight. But I thought I’d try to talk to you both when I saw you in the visitors’ center. It felt like fate that we both came here on the same weekend. Your sister and her friends never mentioned Vanessa to you before they…” Ivy frowns. “…went dark.” I cringe even at her attempt at softening the worddied. “Did they?”
