“It’s going to be okay now. You did so good. You didn’t even need to see better than he could to take him down.”
“I . . . I followed his cries and his voice. I used my other senses.”
“And you did amazing. You’re amazing. You saved us.”
He smiles into my shoulder. “I kind of think we owe it to Huey causing all the distractions, but sure, I’ll take the credit for now.”
I laugh. “I’m sorry about all this. I’m sorry I brought them here.”
He pulls away from me, eyes lifting. “They were here for you?”
“Yeah. I know them—knew them,” I correct. “Or at least, I thought I did.”
He nods. “It sucks thinking you know someone only to realize later how wrong you are.”
“It does,” I agree. “I should call the cops.”
He grabs my arm, stopping me from getting too far. “You sure?”
“Yeah.”
He bites his bottom lip. “They won’t find anything else if they come here?”
“Like?”
He lowers his face, shuffling his hands. “I know what you did to that robber.”
“What?” My throat goes dry.
“It’s okay,” he assures me, taking my hand. “You had to. Just like we both had to now.”
I open my mouth to speak and stop when sirens blare in the background. “The cops are already coming. I didn’t call them.”
“Someone must have,” Henry says, stepping back and then lifting his foot when he lands in a puddle of blood. His face winces.
“Let’s get sone clothes on you before they get here.”
“Yeah. Good thinking.” I lead him to the bathroom, clean him up, and get him a fresh set of clothes. As he’s dressing, I go through Lucky’s and Hunter’s phones, making sure there isn’t anything on them that can tie me to the other murders. I’m disgusted by what I find instead. Videos of men and women of all ages. Tied up. Some bleeding, most begging, while others are passed out not knowing they’re being violated.
Snuff films. The sick sons of bitches were making them and profiting from the twisted, fucked-up shit they were doing. Rory’s in some of them. It’s not his videos that stop me in my tracks, though. It’s mine. I’m the very first one. For the first time, I’m seeing the truth. I didn’t do anything bad that night. They did. My subconscious remembered and I was slowly hunting them down, and now they’ve been stopped for good. I leave the videos. Every single one. Other than the video they made of me, nothing else has my name on it. No texts or anything. I really wasn’t trying to hurt Rory when I snuck into his room that night with a knife. I was there for Hunter. Rory pushed the wrong guy away and all this time I thought he did the right thing choosing someone else, Someone better. I was wrong, and man, do I hate how wrong I was. I hate it because it put Rory’s life more at risk and led to them almost hurting Henry.
I gawk at the screen a little longer, my stomach plummeting as I watch myself attempting to shove them away in my sleep. Knots form in my chest and Henry places his hand on mine, his eyes watering all over again.
“It was never you. You were never the monster. They were.”
“I still don’t know if I can be trusted.”
“I do,” he says with conviction strong in his voice. “The man in that video believed the wrong people, but I won’t make the same mistake, because to me you could never be the wrong anything.”
I stop the video and toss the phone on the floor before pulling him into my arms. Sirens grow louder around us, lights flashing brightly through the windows. I never started what they accused me of. What they made me think I did. But I was the one who helped put an end to it, and if there’s anyone else who took part in this, I’ll find them too. I lost trust in myself while awake, so another part of me took over. Another part of me made it right for both of us.
Thirty-one
Henry
With my cabin covered in yellow tape and dead bodies, Rafael and I are given no choice but to move to another cabin for the remainder of the time we’re out here. I thought I’d be sadder, but then he goes and sneaks out in the middle of our first night at the new place to smuggle in my Christmas tree along with some other Christmas decor.
“If my Honey wants his Christmas in a cabin, he’s gonna get his Christmas in a cabin,” he says, clicking buttons on the remote, and the TV rats him out by saying out loud what he’s searching for on YouTube. A fireplace.
