The Inmate

by Freida McFadden

Then my eyes drop to the prisoner’s face. Oh. Oh no. No, no, no… It’s Shane.

The second spoke on the snowflake is missing a diamond from the edge. Exactly like the one I used to wear.

Maybe because this isn’t the first girl he’s gone out with who suddenly vanished.

Tim sent me down here to get wine. He wanted me to see that dead body wrapped in the tarp. And now he has trapped me down here.

It can’t be Marcus Hunt. It can’t.

There was another killer in the house that night. Out of the three survivors, there was only one other person it could have been. Oh my God.

Tim and Shane did it together.

NO why did bro thinks abt thjs 11yrs after

“I wonder,” he says, “if you’ll scream louder than Tracy Gifford did.” My mouth drops open. I try to speak but no words come out.

I never told Margie that Shane was Josh’s father. I never even told her I was with Shane. And I certainly never told her where I was today. Even though she doesn’t look the slightest bit surprised to see me here. “Margie?” I say. Her lips curl slightly. “That’s not actually my name. We have met before, and you do know me by my real name, but I doubt you would remember it. Of course you wouldn’t.” She titters. “In fact, I’ll tell you what, Brooke. If you can tell me my real first name, I’ll take you right to Shane and Josh.” I stare at her wrinkled face, trying desperately to place her. While I’m trying to figure it out, she sifts around in her purse again. But this time, instead of her phone, she pulls out a gun. And she points it right at me.

“Friends!” Margie throws back her head and laughs until her jowls shake. “No. We weren’t friends. I only tolerated you so that I could spend time with my grandson. That’s the only reason I didn’t spit in your face.”

“Yes, I do.” She shakes the gun at me. “Because I’m the one who stabbed Chelsea.” My whole body goes numb. What?

He doesn’t know that the man lying in front of us in the snow is his father—the one he has been desperate to meet all these years. He doesn’t even know Shane is dead.

So when Shane took me out into the woods to make that snowman, I noticed that all the trees had a lot of icicles. They looked really heavy and pointy. Shane was a lot bigger than me, so I figured if I wanted to protect my mom, this was my only chance.

And I swung it again. And again. And again.