One by One

by Freida McFadden

“Are you okay, Michelle?” I ask. “Do I look okay?” she snaps at me.

“You don’t get it. I do not have time for this. I don’t have time for any of this.” She lowers herself down to the ground. “I should never have come on this stupid trip. I only came because…”

“I think we should stay here for the night,” I speak up. “Me too,” Noah says. Warner’s face twists into a grimace. He folds his muscular arms

across his chest. “You know,” he says, “I’m the one with the map.”

“You don’t have any memories of Lindsay?” I say. That probably came out a bit more confrontational than I meant it to. “None at all?” “Not really. Nothing that stands out.”

“I have memories of her,” Warner says patiently. “I just don’t think any of them are worth mentioning.”

“She told me you were going to propose this week.”

“Well, I’m afraid she would have been very disappointed.”

I want to jump off the ground and strangle Warner with my bare hands. My hands ball into fists, but before I can do anything stupid, I feel Noah’s palm on my leg. I look over at him and he shakes his head. “Not worth it,” he says under his breath.

I stared at the can. I imagined my mom’s face in the center. I took a breath, then I squeezed the trigger. I heard the ping of the bullet penetrating the metal.

I still had the rifle in my hand. As I looked at my mother, I imagined a tin can where her face was. I had gotten to be a decent

shot in the last hour. If I aimed the rifle at her, would I make the shot? I could always say it was an accident. I was a beginner, after all.

hear the sharp inhale of my mother’s breath. She knew what I wanted to do. And if my father hadn’t stopped me, I would’ve done it.

“We need to start looking for a water source.”

“Michelle is missing. We have to find her.”

“Look at how much blood there is here. It’s too late for her.”

Then I look at the tree next to that one. That tree also has deep gashes in the wood. And at the base of the tree is more blood. As I stare down at the blood, I feel this prickling sensation in the back of my neck. Like something is watching me. Hunting me.

“I’m just trying to be polite here. I don’t have the time to plan a big sad event for some girl I was going to break up with in a few weeks anyway.” He grits his teeth. “I’m sure you’ve got plenty of time to plan this, between driving your kids to soccer practice and your yoga classes.”

“I work full-time, you know. Just like you do.” Warner snorts. “As a teacher. I’m a surgeon, Claire. There’s no comparison.”

“I promise I will get you home.” I wish I could believe him.

Whatever happened to Michelle has now happened to Warner. He’s gone. And we may never know what happened to him.

“Are you asking me if I think Jack killed Warner?”

“I’m not saying anything. I just think this whole setup was sort of convenient. He packs this rifle. Michelle gets lost in the woods, even though she had a sprained ankle. I mean, if Michelle disappeared forever, it’s not like it would be a bad thing for him.”

“Warner saw him go into the forest with Michelle.”

Maybe he was hoping Michelle might eat the poison berries.

I reached out and slowly turned the doorknob. The first thing I saw was the body sprawled out on the floor. My mom, right next to the bed. Passed out on the carpet, a trail of drool leaking from her lips. I stared at her a moment. Why was she asleep on the carpet? And then I saw the pill bottles on the nightstand. Four of them.

“A phone jack!” Noah calls out.

“Maybe it’s all a game he’s playing,” Jack says. “He’s torturing us as he gets rid of us one by one.”

“Because of us. Because he knows what’s been going on between the two of us.” “He doesn’t know…” “I think he does.”

It turns out that I might’ve been right about us being hunted. But it wasn’t an animal hunting us.

He slowly lowers his lips onto mine, and my whole body tingles the way it did when he first kissed me all those years ago. A second later, he’s tugging me into the bed. This trip has been one of the worst experiences of my life, but I think it may have saved my marriage. As long as we make it home alive.

After my mother killed herself, my father finally cut back on his time on the road. He was shaken by the whole thing. He wasn’t the same guy he used to be.

I took a step back as I watched my father kiss my mother’s sister.

It was exactly what my mom had accused him of that night she killed herself. She said he was fooling around with her sister.

He tortured my mother. She already had a tenuous grip on reality, and he made it worse. She was always paranoid about losing him, and now I could see why. And he didn’t care that she took it out on me. He just let it all happen. His secret life was too important to him.

“That was an accident.” “Bullshit.” He sneered at me. “That poor kid lost his eye because of you. That was no accident.”

“They always did, didn’t they?” He snorted. “I suppose Snowball also deserved what you did to her.”

“I think you ought to leave. I won’t call the cops on you, but I want you out of here. For good. I don’t want to see you again.”

I reached out and shoved my dad as hard as I could.

I raced down the flight of stairs. My father was lying at the bottom, facedown, his head at an odd angle. I watched as a puddle of blood slowly grew beneath him. I stood there for a moment, staring at his body.

My thoughts were racing. If I called the police, what were the chances they would believe it was an accident? Especially when my mother died here only two years earlier.

I had been so angry at him a minute ago, but now I was numb. Yes, he had done something awful. But he paid the price.

“The thing is…” I bite down on the inside of my cheek. Hard. “For the last few months, Jack and I have… well, we…” “Oh.” Noah lets out a sigh. “I know.”

“I was mad at you. I wanted to get back at you. But all I could think of when it was happening was that she wasn’t you. And… I wanted to do whatever it took to get you back. Anything.”

We’ll grow old together, just like we planned to. Everything is going to be okay.

There were six of us when we started. And one by one, each of us has disappeared. And now there’s just me and Noah.

I go to the front door and push it open. And that’s when I see it. Blood. All over the doorstep to the cabin. So much blood. So much blood.

There were six of us in the beginning. Now there are only two. And I haven’t done this.

He planned this whole thing. This is his revenge. He set us up. He’s been killing us one by one. And now I’m the last one left. I’ve got to run. But where? I’ve got nothing but the clothes on my back. No food, no water. I don’t even have my purse with my phone anymore. If I run away from him, what are the chances I’ll ever find help in time? If I leave this cabin, I’m dead for sure. Noah takes another step towards me. “Claire…” But if I stay, I’m dead for sure.

I hold onto the side of the truck, attempting to keep my balance, and I wince at the pain in my right ankle. Jack will know what to do. He’s been my rock for the last several months. He’s going to get us out of here. Thank God for Jack. “Jack!” I cry. I wrench open the passenger side door to the truck with my right hand. It takes me a split second to realize Jack is not attempting to hotwire the truck. He’s not attempting to do anything. He’s just sitting there in the passenger seat, a bullet hole in his forehead.