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“Guys, we aren’t waiting,” Paulette says, already almost too far away to hear. I look over my shoulder to see her and Logan running down the road. I don’t want to split up, but it seems I’m being given no choice. I check with Memphis, who looks like he’d rather be doing anything but this, though he doesn’t budge.
Mara helps Austin pull the door to the cellar open, and the second he does, I know what we’ll find.
The scent reaches my nose even from where I stand—rotting flesh. Decay. Death.
Mara covers her mouth, coughing, and Austin turns away, fanning his face.
“Oh god,” Mara whines.
My knees are suddenly weak. “We need to call the police.”
“Did they kill them?” Mara asks, refusing to look. “They killed them, didn’t they?”
I step toward the cellar, my nose and mouth tucked into the elbow of my shirt. I try to look inside, but the smell is so strong it burns my eyes. I can’t breathe. Can’t think.
“It can’t be them,” I say softly, so low I’m not sure anyone heard me.
Whatever this smell is, there’s no way this is from just the last few hours. I don’t know much about dead bodies, but I know enough to know this has been here for at least a day. Maybe it’s only a dead animal.
Even as I try to force my brain to believe it, I know I can’t.
The sight of her bloody shirt in the window flashes in my mind.
Is she a twin? Did he somehow trick me into believing she was alive? Was her body here all this time? Did I fail her?
I suck in a sharp breath and flip on the light on my phone, leaning down into the cellar and searching for the source of the smell.
Sources.
I scramble backward, my body going numb as my vision lands on the three sets of eyes staring back at me. Lifeless and empty, but haunting nonetheless.
“What is it?” Austin asks from where he stands at a safe distance.
Memphis is right behind me, catching me when I stumble. He takes the phone and looks inside. I hope he’ll say I’m seeing things. That the police were right. That I’ve lost my mind.
Anything would be better than this. Insanity included.
But when he turns around, I know he’s going to confirm my worst fear.
He runs a hand over his face and turns off my flashlight, looking down.
“What?” Mara demands in hysterics.
“No,” I beg him. “It’s not possible. Please, no.”
He shakes his head, pulling out his phone and lifting it to his ear. He passes my phone back to me. “I’m calling the police. You should go to the car, Lena. Run and catch up with Paulette. I’ll wait here.”
“Calling the police? What? Why? What did you see? Is it them? What’s down there?” Austin asks, stepping forward.
“It’s the couple from this morning.” Memphis swallows, then lifts his head to meet Austin’s eyes. “And…and Ethan.”
CHAPTERTWENTY
“What? No!” Mara cries, covering her mouth. “No, it can’t be him. It can’t be Ethan. He was supposed to be here. He was supposed to be okay.”
From where he stands, Austin staggers. “How? Is this a joke? Is this some shitty joke?” He shoves past Memphis to look for himself, and I know the moment he sees him because his knees buckle, and he falls to the ground. He’s on his hands and knees, wailing and banging his fists on the ground.
Everything seems to be happening in slow motion but also at warp speed. My knees give out, and I fall to the ground, just like Austin did, bile filling my throat. As I listen to Memphis on the phone with 911, I hyperventilate, sure I’m going to pass out at any moment. When he ends the call, I bend at the waist, puking up the contents of my stomach.
