I navigate to the photo album labeled as “Favorites.” I expect it to be more of the same, but as I open it, my muscles freeze in shock. These are all grainy photos, clearly older than those in her recent gallery, but I recognize them instantly. Every photo in here is from our time in Australia. And most of them are photos of Ellery with Tomas or Phoebe.
Why would she keep all of these? Especially given the memories they hold. And why save them as her favorites?
Another sound erupts from downstairs. The creak of a chair sliding against the floor. I’m almost out of time.
Desperately, I shift gears, heading to Ellery’s text messages. Nothing appears out of the ordinary at first—an ongoing message chain to someone named Grace, who I can only guess is her fiancé, one to Mom—and then my eyes alight on the fifth name in the list. A message chain with a contact marked by only one letter. P.
The sight of it burns my eyes. P? As in Phoebe?
I shrug the idea away. Phoebe’s been dead for years. Ellery hasn’t been talking with her. But still, hope alights like a fire in me, one that demolishes everything in its path.
I think of how I left Phoebe that night. The words she said tome as the tears dripped from my cheeks onto the earth, deepening the redness of the dirt.I’m getting out.
Maybe she did. Maybe Phoebe really did make a new life for herself. Maybe the remains the police found belonged to someone else. Someone no one even thought was missing.
And then I hear the sound I’ve been dreading. The soft fall of footsteps on the staircase.
I need to move, to get out of here before Ellery or Adrien come back, but I’m frozen, my eyes still locked on that one letter hovering above the text chain:P.My body so consumed with clinging to this string of hope that it can’t engage in any other function. One thought revolves around my mind like a loop, the words repeating, over and over.
Phoebe could still be alive.
39
Phoebe
Then
As soon as Claire turns back to the Inn, I trudge onwards, using an old compass I picked up at one of the side-of-the-road tourist shops we stopped at during our drive to Jagged Rock to make sure I’m heading in the right direction. Ten miles north, five miles west. I’ve pretty much engrained the Google Maps directions into my memory.
I think of what Claire said as I walk.I can’t just let you go.But she did, and it really didn’t take much convincing.
Suddenly, I feel more alone than I have in all the months I’ve been out here. Even when I thought I didn’t have Claire, she was always there, on the periphery. And I had Declan. I even had Ellery. And now all of them are gone.
A crack in the ground sends my sneaker twisting, and a shriek of pain explodes from my ankle.
“Shit!” The word echoes through the night, and for the first timeI realize just how silent it is in the darkness.
But as I listen, waiting for the pain in my ankle to subside, I realize I was wrong. It’s not silent out here. Sounds begin to hit me from every direction. A rustle in the brush on my left, the scampering of light paws on the ground further ahead, a slight hiss from the right that has me lifting my feet just an inch higher as I walk.
You’re imagining it, I try to tell myself. But it’s too late.
I turn back in the direction I came, but I’ve walked so far that the Inn is no longer visible. I’m disoriented.
I force myself to take a breath, to look once again at where my compass is guiding me, to ignore the sounds of the Outback like I had minutes ago, even though they now seem to be screaming in my ears. I take a tentative step forward, testing out my ankle.
It holds, and I take another, but something else hits me. The surge of panic deteriorates into an almost all-consuming fatigue.
I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in days. And I’ve been so consumed with this plan that I’ve barely eaten. The only thing I had today was a bowl of cereal at breakfast.
As if on cue, my stomach growls, a low, dull roar. I clasp my arms over it, trying to prevent it from drawing the attention of whatever animals are out here.
God, how freaking stupid could I be? I’ve eaten, what, a total of four hundred calories today? And I never even thought to throw snacks in my backpack. There’s no way my legs are going to carry me one mile, let alone fifteen, and I’m sure as hell not going to lie down and nap with God knows what insects and reptiles are out here.
This whole idea has been ridiculous.
The only person I’ve told about my plan is Claire. She’ll understand if I change my mind. In fact, I almost laugh imagining the sheer relief on her face when I enter our room.
And suddenly I want nothing more than to be back there. To have a friend who can look past all the hurt I’ve caused.
