Page 10 of Dying Flame

Emily must have slept in another room again. I slowly stand up and walk quietly to where I remember plugging my phone in the kitchen. Wave after wave of pain ripples through my head, making it hard to keep my feet moving through the cabin. I make it to the kitchen and turn on the light above the stove.

A phone is sitting on the countertop, face down, but not plugged in. I turn it over and realize it’s not my phone; it’s Emily’s. I remember telling her when we got new phones last year that she should get one in a different color so we wouldn’t confuse them. She laughed and said I was barely home anyway, so it didn’t matter.

Where the fuck is my phone? I look at the time; it's just barely 2:00 am, and there’s a text message from a number that wasn't saved from just a half hour ago. Her phone is unlocked, so I take a look.

Does he know?

There are no other messages from this number and no response. My blood boils. Who the fuck is this? And who are they talking about? It could be a wrong number, but it seems too odd to ignore. Should I question her? She would most likely lie, so what’s the point? It doesn’t matter what she says, but what if she told someone something she shouldn’t have? I need answers. Now.

I spin around looking for my phone. It’s nowhere in sight, and I just remembered she wanted to keep a location tracker active for both our phones, just in case. I made sure to turn it off during my trips, and she never said a thing. I check her phone for my location. I notice it’s not in the cabin; it’s in the campground somewhere, but not where it should be.

I check the rest of the cabin, and Emily is nowhere in sight. Her shoes are gone, and the bed in the room she’s been sleeping in is untouched. I check the location of my phone again, and it hasn’t moved from the spot it was in earlier. I think I know where she is: the hiking trail.

What would she be doing there? It doesn’t matter. Tonight is the night, and I need to gather my special bag to meet her.

TWELVE

EMILY

The temperature really dropped this evening, but the others in the campground have paid no mind to it. I waited for the sun to go down before I put my plan into action. I’ve thought about this for years: how I would confront him, how I would make him suffer.

He’s killed countless people, but I’ve come to learn how he does it. It took me a while to gain the courage to do all the research and place the pieces together in his timeline of absences. A lot of the women found after being missing were strangled, and it took some digging and reaching out to different people to make another big connection: he makes a cut on the inside of their thigh immediately after he kills them.

Most people don’t realize there are extra doses inside of an EpiPen in case of emergencies. Of course, it’s not suggested to take the pen apart, but if you need some extra medicine that doesn't immediately get administered, there are ways of obtaining it. Ever since I learned Devin has an allergy, I made sure to learn everything about how to handle the medicine. For emergencies, of course.

Now, I used that knowledge to my advantage. Instead of throwing out a used auto-injector, I have kept the extra medicine inside of it and injected it intravenously while Devin was asleep. It can cause heart failure, but not in a lower dose. Instead, it’ll make his heart palpitate, will make him dizzy, and should make his movements erratic. He should be feeling the effects by now.

I left the cabin around midnight with his phone and secret bag—there were people running around, playing loud music, lots of drinking, and just partying all around. A few screams were also heard on my walk around. I wonder what that is about, but as long as everyone else is busy, I don’t really care what is happening.

At first I wanted to meet Devin at the lake, maybe take him on a late-night kayaking adventure. Unfortunately, I think if anything happened, his body would be too easy to find. Instead, I don’t want him to be found. At least not right away.

When I took his phone, I figured that eventually he’d wake up and be looking for it. So instead of going to the lake, I came up to the hiking trail. They close it off after sundown, so I know that no one else will be here after dark. The other cabins, and tents are far enough away that no one will notice us here.

I slipped past the closed gate and walked up to the lookout we didn’t make it to yesterday. The glow of fires at the campground below reminds me of how our love was full of fire when we first met. So bright, so hot; unstoppable. Tonight, I’ll extinguish the dying flame of this marriage and put it out for good.

Everything thus far in the past 8 years has led to this moment. Every lie, every trip he took, every fake smile. I know everything, and only one person will leave here alive tonight.

Me.

THIRTEEN

DEVIN

My legs are getting heavier by the minute. I keep the phone open as a tracker, watching if she has moved at all. I looked around the cabin for as long as I could, and my bag was nowhere to be found. I don’t have a flashlight other than the light on this phone.

The campground is busier at night. Everything…seems different. Distorted. Dark. I haven’t paid much attention to those around me while I’m here, but I don’t recognize any of the faces I walk past this evening. Things are different once the sun goes down, I suppose.

Emily hasn’t moved; the phone is still in the same spot as it was before: on the hiking trail somewhere. I don’t remember the trail very well since I was more focused on not falling every other step, so I’ll need the flashlight on the phone to ensure I don’t go off the edge.

No one is around the start of the trail, and there is a small gate closing it off. There is an opening to the side of the gate that I can slip through, so I do. I turn on the dim light and start my trek up the trail. I remember there being an overlook point at the end; she must be there waiting for me. Or someone else.

Every step I take crunches beneath me. The rocks and pebbles skid around as I drag my feet step by step. So much for being quiet; she’s going to hear me coming from a mile away.

Why would she be out here at night? It’s obvious it's dangerous in the dark, and the campground doesn’t want people taking this trail after hours. Is this where she’s gone off to the last few nights we’ve been here?

My chest feels tighter; every breath I take becomes shorter. It’s the altitude, that’s all, I tell myself. The more I think about it, the more my skin becomes itchy and hot too. Sweat starts to collect on the back of my shirt. Why am I so sweaty? It's not even that warm out. It’s actually much cooler than it was the morning we were up here.

I pass by a sign that reads: Halfway Point! Overlook ½ Mile Ahead.