The Overnight Guest

by Heather Gudenkauf

discovered that the remote farmhouse where the twenty-year-old crime took place was currently unoccupied, and decided to make the trip.

girl.....

her 9 mm handgun

slayyyy

the state park where three young women’s bodies were discovered and who were the subjects of Wylie’s first true crime book.

i dont like that

blood branched out around its head. What lay before them was no animal. It was a little boy, frozen to the ground.

HUH??!!

😟🤨🤨🤨🤨

Facing the wall, she unwrapped another piece of gum and poked it into her mouth and tried to ignore the squeak of the bed and her father’s sighs and grunts.

IS SHES IN THE ROOM WITH THEM ?!!!?

Later, after her father climbed the steps and locked the door behind him,

i dont like him

It’s from the Easter Bunny, not your dad.”

oh i definitely dont like him

Ethan flinched as if about to be struck.

😔

a shotgun in one hand and the pie to be delivered to their grandparents balanced on the other.

😱😱😱😱😱

Let’s go see where he’s going,”

yeah lets not

“Yeah, he’ll never hear the gunshots. Good plan there, Ethan,”

girl hes fr gonna shoot you

“You must really like fresh breath,” Becky said with a laugh. Ethan blushed.

🤔🤔🤔🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨

She said a hurried goodbye, and when she returned to the truck, she saw that Becky had moved so close to Ethan that their legs were touching.

HUH ????? shes like 12and hes at least like 16 or 17 or something right ??? wtf

Josie and Becky ignored him and climbed from the truck.

theyre getting in my nerves

“Why’d you bring them?” Cutter asked, nodding toward Josie and Becky.

dont like him

“No, I want to try it,” Becky said. A flash of jealousy rippled through Josie. Becky was her best friend.

becky your ass is not going to the state fair !! get out of there !!!

“Yeah,” Cutter interjected. “Little girls shouldn’t be playing with such big weapons.” He held the shotgun at crotch level and waggled his tongue suggestively.

🤢🤢🤢🤮

“I’m not,” Becky piped up. “Can I try?”

🙄🙄🙄🙄

“Go ahead,” Josie said, “shoot your foot off. I don’t care.”

Less than eight hours later, William and Lynne Doyle were dead, and Ethan and Becky were missing.

WHAT THEFUCK

he asked, plucking the bread from the toaster and taking a bite.

bitch thats not your food

“Pregnant?” her father asked when her mother told him the news. “How is that even possible?” He

fym how is that possible???

“It’s probably nothing.

girl....... thats why you end up dead

Josie wished that she would have given her mother a long embrace. That she would have taken the time to remember the tickle of her mother’s curtain of hair tumbling over her as she pulled Josie close. But she didn’t.

:((

“G’night,” he called groggily.

bitch

Becky asked if Ethan had a girlfriend.

can i PLEASE get clarification on the age this is so weird whats happening

“I’m sorry,” Josie whispered. “That’s okay,” Becky said. “My parents fight too.”

:(((

“Sisters forever,” Josie called out as they jumped higher and higher until the rest of the world fell away.

okay thats really sweet 🙄

It was as if they were little again when nothing mattered except for that very moment when being with your best friend was enough. There were no worries about boys and family arguments and growing up.

🥺🥺🥺🥺

“Probably just a truck backfiring.”

yeah its never a vehicle backfiring 💀

brief flare of light filled her parents’ window like the flash of a camera.

oh shit

The figure raised his hands and took aim.

NOO

The crack of the shotgun exploded in her ears and searing pain ripped through her arm. He shot me, she thought in disbelief. I’ve been shot.

no fucking way

It couldn’t be her once-sweet brother who taught her how to bait a hook and how to ride a bike.

:((

“You have to get her to eat and drink something,” her father said one evening when he stopped by.

bitch shut up also stopped by ???

“Come on,” her father would snap in frustration. “Keep trying.”

hes getting on my fucking nerves

“Don’t you care about her?” he asked, flicking a hand toward the girl. “Don’t you care about the baby?”

HES MAKING ME SO MAD UGGHTCFXCB

Hours passed. Her mother slept. The pain in her stomach came fast and hard.

NO FUCKING WAY

She fell into an uneasy sleep until her mother gently shook her awake and led her back to the bed.

ok nvm i thought the dad drugged or poisoned (?) them

She figured she had no more than twenty-five minutes to get to the barn and back to the accident site before the woman was seriously in danger of hypothermia.

call 911 ??? hello ?!?

Before Levi could speak, the truck door opened.

is it ethan ??!?$

Levi noted that the boy’s name was Brock Cutter. There were a lot of Cutters in the county. Big family of farmers.

BOOOOOO!!!!!!' 👎👎👎

Dr Pepper.

😍😍😍😍😍😍

going eighty mph in a fifty-five zone.

sounds familiar 🙄

but she couldn’t stop her hand from pushing open her parents’ bedroom door and stepping over the threshold.

oh shit

Matthew asked, using the nickname he had given Josie as a toddler when she would follow him around everywhere. “Shoo fly, shoo,” he’d tease, and Josie would giggle and buzz after him.

thats so cute :(

The girl liked hearing stories about when her mother was young, but it was a rare occurrence. Her mother’s parents were dead,

is this josie ?!??

A bright red stain bloomed between her legs and blood oozed down her thighs.

😔

“It’s too soon,” her mother cried as she peeled off her shorts and then shut the bathroom door.

WAS THIS BC OF THE DAD ???!!?! UGGHDICUDBEKDJ