I watch, mesmerized by the fire, which seems to burn slowly at first but then spirals out of control. Huge flames roar up to the sky.
The first booth is almost completely gone; a shell of charred wood and metal that I assume was attached to chairs and a desk is all that’s left now. The fire jumps, spreading to the second booth, and then the third. The acrid smell of smoke, not the salty sea air, is all I can smell.
“We shouldn’t stay here long,” Liam says, looking over his shoulder.
“We have to stay close to the jetty when help comes,” Gibson replies.
“Yeah, but we’re just advertising where we are right now.” Liam looks over his shoulder again, anxiety etched into his face.
He looks scared now.
“What’s he going to do while we’re all together in daylight? He only strikes when he has the upper hand.”
Gibson isn’t wrong. Robert has only ever attacked us when we’ve been in a group in darkness. We’re not trapped in a pitch-black room, so what will he do now to split us up and get control?
It shouldn’t be too long before someone notices the fire and realizes we need help.
Will he hide out or try to leave? The cops will search every inch of the island. What’s his escape plan? Or maybe it’s just to take as many of us down with him as possible.
That’s what I would do. It’d really drive his point home. Whatever that point is. He’s going to prison for the rest of his life anyway; he might as well make sure he makes the serial killer hall of fame.
Liam doesn’t have a response for Gibson. What is there to say? We can’t go running off now. Not when help will be coming soon.
The fire roars, growing quickly. I tilt my head up and, for a second, I’m petrified that it will spread beyond the booths.
“Is it getting out of control?” Harper asks nervously. “Does it seem too big to you too?”
“Uh-huh,” I reply.
She’s the only one near me. Gibson, Reeve, and Liam are around the back of the booth and Ava is along the side, only just in view. We’ve covered all areas in case Robert does come.
Heat prickles my skin and I take a step back with wide eyes.
“Seriously. It’s burning up like crazy,” Harper says. “Is that normal, Paisley?”
I block my eyes and take another step back when the flames double in size again.
“I—I don’t…”
Without warning, an explosion bursts from the far booth.
I’m thrown backward by an enormous ball of fire.
Landing heavily on the ground, I curl onto my side. My skin prickles from the heat. Groaning, I try to move, but my body refuses to listen.
What the hell made the explosion?
Although I don’t lose consciousness, my body is heavy like I’ve been up for days without a second of sleep. I don’t know how much time passes, but I push myself onto my elbows and look around.
Groaning, I scan the area.
Someone in black walks in the distance. They’re a dark blur, and for a second I think I’m seeing Ghostface with his long cloak. Am I in a Scream movie? I can’t see the face clear enough to be sure.
The next second, he’s gone and all I see is fire and smoke.
The flames are pretty.
I watch for a minute, mesmerized by the orange flames flickering up to the sky as if they’re trying to burn the clouds. It’s beautiful, like a kaleidoscope.
A thick crackling of fire drags me half back into the real world.
I’m on the island.
Why?
Robert. Murder. Fire. Escape.
“Run!” someone shouts. They sound so far away. “He’s here! Run!”
I rub my forehead and blink away my confusion.
Fire. Robert. He’s here.
Who’s here?
I rub the ache at the back of my head and wonder if that’s what’s making my mind fuzzy. When I withdraw my hand, my skin is clear of blood. Thankfully, I haven’t been seriously hurt. Or I don’t think I have, at least.
Something flammable must have been in that booth to make it go up like that. It wasn’t yet in use; the front window was boarded up. It must have had chemicals or something like that in it.
God, why is my head throbbing so much?
I push myself to my feet, dazed, and search for anyone else.
Sudden realization steals my breath. Gone is the confusion. It’s replaced with ice-cold fear.
The words I heard while on the ground. Robert is here. I clench my fists as the words slot together and make sense.
After a heartbeat my vision comes back into sharp focus, and I can finally see the large fire and absence of my friends.
I look for danger. For Robert.
This would be the perfect time for him to strike.
He must be here—where?—and I seem to be alone.
I breathe, terrified, panting.
There’s no sign of him as I look around and see someone stumbling my way.
“Paisley!” Ava shouts, running unsteadily to me from around the side of the booths. There’s a shard of glass sticking out of her neck. Her hands tremble violently as they hover over the glass.
Leaping forward, I grab her wrists, preventing her from doing something stupid. “No, don’t pull it. You’ll make it worse. Look, it’ll be okay, but we need to get out of here. Everyone else is gone, I think.”
How long was I on the ground?
“I—I didn’t see where they went,” she says, her voice a couple octaves higher than normal. Her eyes are wide, pupils stealing the green and making her look wild.
Unfortunately, there’s no time to check her over like I want to. We need to get out of the open.
I grip her hand and drag her along with me. We don’t want to go too deep into the park and potentially miss a boat that comes. I want to stay where I can see the horizon, but we need to find someplace safe to hide until then.
“I’m cold,” Ava says.
My heart skips. That’s not a good sign.
“You’re fine,” I tell her over my shoulder and hope that I sound confident enough, so she believes me. I’m surprised that she’s still standing.
We duck behind a park map. We’re on the wrong side of the fence, but I don’t want to cross over back into the park. I’m happier being on the outside of the perimeter. It’ll be quicker to get to the jetty.
“Sit down,” I say, pulling the collar of her sweatshirt to the side.
Up close I can see that the glass isn’t in her neck but in the dip of her collarbone.
“Why is it so cold?” she says.
Her eyes are fixed ahead, and she looks like she might slip into shock at any second.
“Hey, I need you to breathe, Ava. In through your nose and out through your mouth.” She seems to understand me. “Yeah, that’s it,” I tell her, trying to stay calm. “I’m not going to leave you. We just need to wait here until help arrives. Can you do that for me?” I ask in a whisper.
The crackle of the fire is loud even from over here, but I don’t want to risk Robert hearing us.
Ava tries to nod but winces and her hand flies to her neck.
“Don’t touch. It’s all right.”
“I—I want it out. It shouldn’t be in there.”
I’m holding her hand. “We will get it out, but we can’t do that right now. It’s not bleeding, but it will if we remove it. We could do a lot more damage.”
There’s a small amount of blood around the entry but that’s it. She’s incredibly lucky.
“H-how will I get it out?”
“They’ll do that at a hospital. All you have to do is nothing, okay? We’ll sit here together and wait.”
“Where’s everyone else?” she asks.
“I didn’t see anyone. I was on the ground for, well, I don’t know how long. They might have thought I was dead, or they might have just run. That was the plan now, right? We don’t go back because we’ve proved that it’s a real dumb idea.”
“N-no, they wouldn’t all just leave us.”
“It’s okay. We’re all fighting for survival. Me and you are together and we’re going to be all right.”
“You really believe that?”
“Yes, I do. We’ve come this far.” I peer around the side of the map. It’s not the best place. We can be seen from certain angles, I’m sure.
I gasp as I spot someone moving and it makes Ava freeze.
But it’s not Robert I can see through the fence. I sigh in relief.
“It’s not him. It’s not him,” I say to reassure her. “Keep breathing, Ava. It’s okay, it’s just Harper.”
Harper’s crouched on the ground, looking around with wide, terrified eyes. I can see her chest rise and fall heavily as if she’s hyperventilating.
I can’t leave her.
I look around to make sure the coast is clear and then call out quietly, “Harper! Harper, over here.”
She jumps, mouth wide as her head spins our way.
When she sees that it’s just us, she puts her hand on her heart and gives me a nod, telling me she’s coming to us.
We just have to get her here without being seen.
I look back toward the fire and there’s nothing but flames and embers. “Go!” I mouth.
She needs to double back to get through the gate before she can get to us.
Swiping away tears, she nods.
“Go!”
Without a second thought, she leaps up and sprints to the gate. She’s athletic, so it doesn’t take her long at all to run back to the booths and through the gate.
I watch with anxiety curling in my gut as she sprints to us. Robert is nowhere to be seen, but that can all change in a heartbeat.
She makes it to us after just seconds on her feet and drops to the ground in front of us. Lying on the grass, she tilts her head up and says, “You’re alive.”
“You thought I was dead?”
“When I got up and heard shouting, I looked around for you. It took a second, but I saw you on the ground. Your head was on the stone path, and you looked…I thought you were…I should’ve checked, I’m so sorry.”
That explains why I have a raging headache.
“No, you did the right thing by running. Did you see Liam and Gibson and Reeve?” I ask. “I don’t know if they’re okay.”
“Oh my god, there’s glass in her!” Harper says with absolutely zero tact as she stares at Ava’s injury.
Ava blinks heavily. “I’m going to have a scar, aren’t I?”
“No, you won’t. You’ll be fine,” I tell Ava. Who knows if she’ll believe me. “Harper, did you see where the others went?”
She shakes her head. “Not really. I was passed out for a second too. I think I saw Liam and Gibson. They ran in different directions. I don’t know about Reeve. I was so scared and confused.”
“Someone said they saw Robert. Who was that?”
“I don’t know. Everything happened so fast. The explosion, being thrown to the ground, the threat of Robert. The voice was deep, male. That’s all I can remember.”
“There’s no way that our fire was missed on the mainland. Not after that explosion. Right?” Ava asks.
There’s no guarantee that the explosion would have been heard. But a ball of fire and now the thick flames and black smoke will be seen. It’s a giant orange scream for help.
“They’ll come,” I say. “The harbor will try to contact the island and send someone when they don’t get a response.”
“Are you sure?” Harper asks.
“They’ll have to after that.”
“Should we do something about the glass in her?”
Ava has her eyes closed and she’s breathing in and out slowly, controlling herself. Tears roll down her cheeks, leaving a trail of black mascara behind.
“Not much we can do,” I say. “We’ll get her medical help when the boat arrives.”
They might send medics anyway. I watch the horizon for signs of boats or helicopters.
“Please come soon,” Harper whispers, following my line of sight.
I echo her prayer and squeeze Ava’s hand.
For a minute, the island is quiet beside the roar and crackles of the fire.
It’s peaceful and I’m tempted to sleep. Not that I would. I’m just so exhausted.
The calm abruptly ends when Harper falls against my back, screaming.
My face goes cold as it drains of blood. I turn around and see the dark figure approach.
He’s found us.
Robert.
He walks toward us with a cocky confidence that is scarier than the ski mask over his face.
I leap to my feet, tugging Ava with every ounce of strength I possess. She’s almost deadweight. Probably in shock.
“Up,” I order. She lets out a strangled scream when she sees why I suddenly got up, and she cries harder.
“Run,” Harper says, sprinting off.
I’ve been there with the swimming.
We’re on the cliff’s edge and the next opportunity to enter the park is a quarter of the way around where the service entrance is. And that’s only if the gate has been left open.
Gibson and Reeve are the only ones with keys.
We’d have to climb faster than Robert can run.
Robert’s footsteps thud on the dry grass behind us. They sound closer with every second and I don’t know how long we can run for. We can go around and around the island on the outside perimeter but eventually he’ll catch up.
Ava with her injury is slower than usual.
My heart pounds at the same rate as my head.
Harper is a little ahead of us. My arm is stretched behind me as I pull Ava along. Realizing that we’re falling behind, Harper holds her hand for me. For a second, I contemplate not taking it so he can’t get us all. But it’s not just my life I’m playing with.
“Come on!” she says, wiggling her fingers. She doesn’t want to speed off and leave us to die.
Gritting my teeth, I push harder and grab her hand. Together we manage to pick up the pace, running like a badass girl team ready to take on the world. Or in our case, escape a killer.
Ava rasps behind me, her chest rattling. The sound makes my heart squeeze. She’s not just out of breath, she’s finding it hard to breathe. What damage is that glass doing in her collarbone?
I don’t want to think about what would happen if she passed out.
“Ava, keep going,” I say, not daring to look back in case it slows me down or makes me stumble.
She whimpers, and I think she’s trying to say something, but there’s no time to find out what she wants because Robert is right on our heels.
We’re yanked backward, my arms wrenched, the three of us going down like dominoes. Our screams mix together.
I look up and there he is. Tall, wearing black clothing, a short sword at his side. He’s upside down, which seems to make it worse.
His eyes.
Familiar.
Robert raises that sword and the blade glows orange from the distant flames.
I scramble to get up and fall over Harper, who’s rolling. I grab Ava’s hand but it’s too late.
Robert plunges the knife down into her chest.
Her eyes are saucers, her mouth forming a large O.
“No!” I scream.
Robert is frenzied. He retracts the sword and stabs again. Over and over the knife disappears into Ava’s torso all the way down to the handle. Blood splatters with each strike.
I can’t watch. I have to move. I have to survive.
“Go,” I say to Harper, pushing off from the ground like an Olympic sprinter.
