Beck nods voraciously.
I plug the phone into the charger. The Apple logo bursts onto the screen.
I can find the voice note, delete it, and no one ever has to know. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t tell them about the witch, I didn’t send them out to the mining town, I didn’t sacrifice them in some ritual and dump their bodies in a ravine.
But I can’t forget Beck’s face when she confronted Ivy and how angry she was when she saw what Ivy’s part in this was. It doesn’t matter how much we’ve grown to understand each other over the past couple weeks. It doesn’t matter that she keeps saying she hated Paisley. There’s no defending me lying to her and withholding even an inkling of information about what happened that night, even if I don’t think it’s useful information. It wasn’t my prerogative to do so.
She’s going to hate me.
I deserve it either way.
But for now, I shove down the guilt and type in Paisley’s passcode.
And there it is.
A single red notification under her texts, probably the last one she received while she still had service. I imagine there would be so,somany more if we connected to a cell signal, but right now it’s just me and her.
It shines until Beck’s fingers wrap around it.
“What’s this?” Beck says, putting the phone to her face.
The lie forms on my tongue, but I can’t speak. Beck taps open the text app and toggles over to my conversation with Paisley.
The voice note is right there, five minutes long.
And Beck presses play.
“Hey Paisley, why don’t you come out here and face me?” My face goes hot as I listen; I don’t even remember sounding that angry and sarcastic. “So funny, it seems you forgot to invite me. And what a trip to do it on, too! As if you can survive in the woods without me.…”
But her eyes widen. “Did you send this the night everyone died?”
I could make an excuse. I could keep lying.
But what use would it be? Why did I put myself through all this? And let’s be honest. I can’t lie to her face.
“I did,” I say. My voice shakes as my throat thickens with tears. This is so pathetic. I sound like a psychopath in that message, and I’m upset at what I thinkBeck’sreaction will be. “Beck, I need to tell you something.”
Beck lowers herself to the floor, her expression unreadable. But I know it. She thinks I tricked her. She thinks there’s something deeply wrong with me. She’s going to run for the hills, and I wouldn’t blame her. I kneel down, the tiny room feeling smaller and smaller.
“What happened?” Beck asks, her voice edging into something resembling anger. My stomach turns. I look to the front door, my instincts telling me to bolt.
But no. I have to face this. I have to face Beck and what I said about her sister when I thought no one was listening.
“I didn’t stay home that night,” I say. “Once I found out they’d gone without me, I drove out here. I don’t even know what I was thinking, just that I couldn’t stand being helpless and letting them shit all over me and not—” my chest twitches, “not have any consequences.”
She furrows her brow. “What did you do?”
I wipe sweaty palms on my dirty shorts, but it doesn’t help. “I punctured her tire.”
I can’t look at Beck. I can’t even look in her direction anymore. My body’s on fire.
She’s not saying anything. Why isn’t she saying anything?
“I wasn’t trying to hurt them,” I say, the words spilling out. “I just wanted them to be scared. To regret going on the trip so they couldn’t come back to school and act like they’d had a great time excluding me. I wanted them to feel what I was feeling.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “But then I saw this woman in the parking lot. I thought she was just another camper and didn’t—but then I saw her in the road and—I didn’t do anything. You have to know I didn’t have anything to do with their deaths. I was as shocked as you were. But the voice note,” I squeeze my burning eyes shut. “It could be misconstrued. I had to try to find it. Going with you was the only way for…I didn’t want you to go alone either. I wanted you to be safe. I—”
“Emma,” Beck says. “Did you really come here just to try to cover up your stupid mistake? While I’m out here genuinely trying to find out who killed my sister? Your friends?”
I can’t speak.
