The Creeping

Zoey. I figured Caleb’s whole story had been a lie. An ugly ruse to draw me out here alone. “Caleb, where’s Zoey?” My tone climbs with alarm.

Caleb’s features are slack as he stares at me, a mournful ghoul’s face carved up by long shadows. “I told her to shut her mouth. I warned her. She kept saying, ‘How could you keep this from me?’ She wouldn’t stop asking how. How? How? How?” The word is like the dying caw of a crow. He reaches for me, taking hold of both my arms, shaking me in rhythm to his quivering bottom lip.

I hold myself stiff under his tremulous grip. “Caleb, what happened to Zoey?”

“I—I didn’t mean to hit her, but she wouldn’t stop. In my face, drunk, brought me out back from the party, slapping me.” Caleb releases me, bringing his palm down hard on his cheek. “She said, ‘I know you.’ She said it like she could see my insides. ‘I know what you’re hiding.’?” His nasally pitch imitates Zoey. “?‘I can see the guilt all over your face.’ I didn’t mean to hit her.” He’s on all fours now, crawling away from the lapping water to the tree line. This isn’t the Caleb who baited my fishing line when I was small because I couldn’t stomach touching worms. Not the Caleb whose face is as familiar as a brother’s.

I move to go after Caleb—Caleb, but not Caleb—but Daniel seizes my wagging ponytail and drags me to my feet. “What did you do to Zoey, Daniel?” I whimper.

He grins, turning me around on the sweep of rocky beach so that we’re facing the water. “Nothing. She did it all to herself, and it’s fucking beautiful. That nosy bitch wouldn’t stop asking questions. Caleb hit her and she lost it. But then the most wonderful thing happened.” Daniel pulls me tight to his side. I look down the length of his extended arm. At the center of the lake is a small square dock for swimmers. I know that it’s barely long or wide enough to lie on. Zoey and I sunbathed there freshman year when seniors took over the cove. We’d swim out and sit all breathless and bleary-eyed from the distance.

“She ran from us. Probably meant to run for help, but she was drunk, ran into the woods rather than away from them. I give her credit because the twat was fast,” he whispers the vile words right into my ear. “But then she ran out of land and went thrashing into the lake. Heard her gulping for air most of the way to the dock. Probably choking on her own puke, she was so hammered. Then nothing. She got there and passed the eff out. It won’t take long for her to roll into the water.” He smiles wide and wet, with spit glistening on his chapped lips. “She’ll drown.”





Chapter Twenty-Eight


You’re going to kill us both?” I try to be brave, but my strength crumbles and I sob. I drag my good arm across my face to wipe the snot away.

“No, sweetheart, you’re gonna kill yourself.” Daniel tightens his hold on my ponytail, twisting my neck so I’m looking at him out of the corner of my eye. “It’s simple. Swim to save her.” He exhales in my face, filling my nostrils with rancid breath. Hot, moist lips turning my skin green with their poisonous words. I run my hand over my gash. My hoodie is soaked with blood. I’m woozy on my feet, and I won’t last long in the water. That’s the point, though. That’s why Daniel injured me, isn’t it?

The light flashes in Daniel’s eyes as he smirks. “You know what they’ll say about the two of you? Zoey was a whore, always getting wasted at parties. No one will be surprised she swam out too far. You’re her lackey, so of course you fell in the woods going after her, drowned trying to reach her. You’re lucky that it worked out this way. I wanted to jump you, make it look like that freak show that Caleb’s pissing his pants over got you.” If I wasn’t already shivering violently, I’d start after hearing their twisted plan. What’s worse is that it will work.

“What if I won’t do it?” I bluff.

Daniel raises an eyebrow. “That’s your best friend, isn’t it? All that sisterly love and * power. I tell you what. If you reach her—and it’s a big if, since you’re not looking so hot, princess—I swear we’ll row out to get her,” he says, grinning wickedly, crossing his heart with his free hand.

“And me?”

“You we’ll knock out and throw into the water. You drown no matter what.” He releases my hair and shoves me. I catch myself at the edge of the obsidian water. “Drowning is better than getting eaten or torn up or—what’s your monster do to those little girls, Caleb?” Daniel laughs like it’s all a big joke.