Five Survive

by Holly Jackson

Pretending was half the game, and she should know. Her life depended on it.

Escape was a strange word, wasn’t it? One of those ones that tripped Red up. Funny like resource but not in the same way. A word that, if you thought it too much, grew spiky and nonsensical in your head. Please someone say something else. Escape. Eeescape. ESCAPÉ.

“A plan must have two parts, and you have to make sure either way plays out in your favor.” “That’s win-win,”

Red herself preferred the lose-lose system: no plan at all and no backups.

Was that what made these smaller moments funnier, because they might not get any more?

She was always fine, when people asked. Of course she was fine, thanks, yes, she and Dad were doing just great, thank you. Fine, okay, fine. An elaborate lie squeezed into those two tiny words, the greatest gifts to a liar like her. No one asked for more detail if you were fine.

“Occam’s razor, Reyna,” Oliver said, shaking his head. “The simplest solution is usually the correct one.”

lifetimes of regret and guilt and anger and hate in those last few seconds of life. No one’s world would fall apart without her, though, at least that was one good thing. Would it hurt, or would it feel like relief,