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I pause, not wanting to tell him that everyone is camping by the old barn. I’m not certain that we’d get into any trouble because of it, but I can’t be sure either and I don’t want to risk it so I say nothing.
“Go for a walk.”
I finish my sentence with a raise of my shoulders, and then look to Diablo. “Good morning, my angry prince.”
He snorts at me.
I reach out my hand.
He snaps at it.
“I will win you over,” I mutter, pulling my hand away. “How do you saddle him up when he’s so damned feisty?”
Rhett looks down at me, a slight grin on his face. “He knows better than to mess with me, he don’t know that when it comes to you so don’t be tryin’ to pat him when I’m not around.”
“He’s a horse, they’re flight animals. They’re not aggressive by nature, I refuse to believe he’s going to hate me forever.”
Rhett grunts. “You’re goin’ to be sadly mistaken.”
“We’ll see. Anyway, I was coming to find you to ask if we could give the hike a miss today, everyone drank way too much last night and want a rest day.”
Rhett shrugs. “Your retreat, you do what you want. I’ve got a shit load of work to do today anyway, I’ll be in town for most of the day. Got business to take care of.”
Business involving the man they were trying to remove the kneecaps of last night?
That dude?
I wish I could say something, but I don’t.
I open my mouth to ask him if I can come along when I hear a scream.
It’s a shrill scream, one that I’ll hear for the rest of my days.
Rhett’s head whips in the direction of the barn and I turn that way, too.
I just came from there. Everything was fine.
“Someone down there?”
“Ah,” I say, hesitantly. “They may or may not have done a dare last night that the guys could stay in the barn. I just checked them all, they were fine. It must be a snake or something.”
The screaming intensifies.
That doesn’t sound good.
“Catch up,” Rhett calls and kicks Diablo forward.
The horse gallops in the direction of the barn.
Great. Thanks for the lift, buddy.
I guess I’ll run.
I take a deep breath and then jog toward the barn.
When I get there, Grace and Maria are both on the ground, hanging onto each other. Rick and Nathan are both pale, staring at the barn where I’m assuming Rhett is because he’s not on his horse. I rush over to the girls, confused. What the hell is going on?
“What’s happening?” I ask Grace, taking her shoulder in my hand and shaking her a little.
She’s crying a lot.
“It happened. It happened. It was only meant to be a dare and it happened ... it wasn’t supposed to be real,” she wails.
My heart feels like it lodges in my throat. “What isn’t meant to be real?”
“Taj ... he’s ... he’s ... dead.”
Everything stops.
Rhett walks out of the barn, phone pressed to his ear, frantically talking to someone.
I stare in horror as his eyes meet mine.
“Is ... is it true?” I whisper.
He nods. “He’s gone.”
No.
This can’t be happening.
It can’t be real.
Oh god.
It was only meant to be a joke. It wasn’t real.
Right?
Someone tell me it wasn’t real.
WE ALL STAND IN A ROW as the police carry Taj’s body out of the barn in a black body bag. I’ve seen that a thousand times in the movies, but never in my wildest nightmare did I ever expect to see it in real life. I’m standing beside Emily, holding her hand, and we’ve all been crying so much there is nothing left to do but just stare blankly.
All the guys are here, they were forced to call the police. This could ruin everything they’ve created here, all because we decided to do something stupid, but we didn’t think it was real, we didn’t think anything would actually happen. If we believed it, we never would have come here. I don’t understand what happened, nobody has told us how Taj died or why. All we know is he’s gone.
“He was okay when I went to sleep last night,” Grace sobs. “He was okay, I said goodnight to him, we made a joke about all the ghosts. He was okay.”
The police officers speak with Rhett, and when they’re done, Rhett walks over to us. “You’re all goin’ to have to answer some questions. Taj has a head wound, a bad one, that’s what killed him. It’s likely he fell, hit a rock, but you gotta know they’re goin’ to ask questions so if anyone did this ...”
“We didn’t do anything!” Maria cries. “We only sent him in there as a joke.”
“Was he drinkin’?” Rhett asks.
“Yes,” Nathan answers, his voice somber. “He was drunk. We all were.”
“Then there’s a solid chance he might have passed out and hit his head.”
