“We’re OK. We were drugged. There’s been weird stuff, but…” Jude trails off, gazing at Hayley. Because the four of us are alive. I’ve got an infected hand, and Emily is limping, but we’re all basically intact. More than we can say for Hayley.
“We thought for sure he got you,” Madison says, the words rippling across a sigh.
“Wait.” I look up, my mind catching on that. “Wait. You keep saying he.”
Lucas gets it at once, slipping up next to me with a steely expression. “Madison, do you know who killed Ms. Brighton?”
“Who?” She laughs then, and her serene expression splits like an overripe tomato. “Mr. Walker, who else?”
Something in me cracks. This shouldn’t be a shock. It shouldn’t be, but the world has turned to quicksand beneath my feet.
“You saw him?” Jude asks. “You saw Mr. Walker do this?”
“Mr. Walker is with us,” Emily says, playing her hand closer to the vest. “He’s very ill.”
Madison’s nostrils are flaring with every breath. She makes me think of frightened horses. “He’s the only one who could have done it.”
“Why?” Emily asks. She seems genuinely curious.
“Because he knows the land. Because he brought us out here. He left us on the other side of that river. He planned all of this.”
Behind us, Hayley’s soft groan rises in volume, turns to a scream that hooks through my middle. Madison’s mouth forms a small O, but she doesn’t move to help. Doesn’t move at all.
Hayley’s eyes pop open, and she scans our faces blearily, breathing hard, as if even moving her eyes hurts. It looks like it hurts. I feel a phantom ache just watching her.
“Thank God,” she croaks. “Help me. Help me.”
Emily eases forward with soft, hushing noises, but then Hayley’s eyes lock onto Madison behind her, and her face goes impossibly paler.
“No,” she whispers, her eyes still on Madison. “No more! Please, noooo!”
She draws out the last word until it is a scream, a wail, a sound that goes on and on, turning me to ice and then to stone. I want to run or cover my ears. I want to bury myself down into the leaves and dirt and rot beneath my feet because anything is better than that sound.
Hayley struggles wildly, like she’s going to try to get up. She passes out suddenly, her ragged breath the only thing left to puncture the quiet her scream left behind. I recoil, backing right into Lucas’s chest. He wraps an arm around my middle, and I hold it there, pushing my fingers into his wrist until I know I’m leaving nail marks.
But my eyes never leave Madison. Hayley was terrified when she saw her. She was afraid of Madison.
Chapter 21
My vision has tunneled, narrowing to a thin point of focus somewhere across the stream. Night has given way to a pink-tinted morning. I can see a squirrel on the opposite bank. Smooth pebbles. Muddy water. Trees.
“Sera?”
Lucas. He’s right behind me, squeezing my shoulder and pulling me away from that far-off place in my mind. I don’t want to come back, but I do.
Their little makeshift camp is silent chaos. On the surface, we are soft words and polite conversation. Madison tells us that putting the sling on was very painful for Hayley, that she’s in shock, associating Madison with that pain. We pretend all morning that we believe her, but I don’t think we know what to believe.
The only thing I’m sure of is that we need to get out of these woods, and yesterday is not soon enough. We haven’t figured out a strategy yet, and running isn’t going to be a good enough plan. Hayley needs us, and Madison…I just don’t know what to think about Madison.
My eyes drag to Emily and stick. She’s still limping around—apparently, she twisted her ankle pretty good. Running, maybe even walking, is out for her.
Lucas offers me a water and leans in until his hair brushes my jaw. “I think we need to get the hell away from here.”
I shiver and look to where Jude is pressed to a tree, eyes scanning the forest, his mouth a thin, hard line when he looks at Madison. I feel it too, but could she really be involved in this? It seems crazy. Until I remember the way Hayley looked at her.
“I think we should go,” Lucas whispers, probably thinking I didn’t hear him the first time.
“Jude and Emily,” I breathe. Once, we were all one big school group. Now it is us and them, even though I know that’s probably not fair.
Jude is not the problem. He’s so ready to bolt, it’s a wonder I can’t see turbines spinning behind his brown eyes. We’ve got to do something about Emily though. I don’t think either of the boys is strong enough to carry her for very long. And then there’s Hayley. Pale and sick and in and out of consciousness. No way can we move her.
I look at Hayley now, and a lump grows in my throat. Emily and Madison are sitting near her, and I can tell Emily’s scared to death. Her smile’s stretched so tight that I’m sure it will snap.
Lucas pulls me to his chest again. I lean into him and listen as he picks at the bark on the maple behind us.