Page 134 of Pretty Nightmare

And that’s when I see him.

A bare-chested man carrying someone small in his arms as he makes his way through the woods in the direction of the firefly treehouse I built for Indie’s first kiss all those years ago.

When I look back towards Old Home, Indie has disappeared inside the dark, swampy woods.

CHAPTER THIRTY - McKAY

I roll over and sit straight up in bed, knowing something is wrong.

“What the fuck?” Adam turns over on his back. “What are you doing?”

“Shhh.” We’re both silent for a moment.

“What?” Adam whispers.

“Do you feel that?”

“Feel what?”

“Warm air.” I look up at the AC vent. I can hear it. And I feel the cold air too. But there’s another current in the house coming from the partly open door that leads to the breezeway. It’s hot and humid.

“Shit.” Adam and I do everything in sync. We say this word. We jump out of bed. I push the door open because I get there first, and we stand there, naked, in the breezeway.

Adam yells, “Where the fuck are my clothes?”

And then everything about him goes fast and everything about me slows down.

He’s already in the great room as I stare down the breezeway at the open door that leads to the living room. The front door is open. That’s where the heat is coming from.

Adam comes back wearing shorts. He thrusts mine at me, then pushes past. Heading towards the living room.

And that’s when I see Nathan St. James running into our woods through the breezeway windows. It’s like a bad case of Groundhog Day. Indie’s twentieth birthday. Nathan St. James looking down at us with nothing but disgust on his face. Our worlds colliding and then spinning out of control.

No. Fuck that. No way. I’m not doing this again. I just got all my people back where I need them. Right here, next to me. And just… fuck that!

“Maggie!” I yell. “Find Maggie!”

I pull my shorts on and by the time I make it to the stairs, Adam is already standing at the top, looking down at me. “She’s gone.”

“Nathan has her! I saw him running into the woods!”

Adam practically jumps down the entire flight of stairs. Then he swings on the bannister to go around the little curve at the bottom and lands next to me as I reach for the gun we hide on the top shelf of the hallway closet.

It’s not there.

“Fuck the gun. I’m gonna kill that little fucker with my bare hands right now.”

We go outside together, jump down the porch steps barefoot, and then take off into the woods.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE - INDIE

The sound of Carter’s far-off laughter wakes me. I don’t move. Just lie real still and wait for the screams. Because anytime anyone laughs on the island, screams always come next.

There they are, I say to myself when the screams echo through the jungle. And this makes me feel smart, even though they tell me every day that I’m too stupid to live.

But who’s the stupid one now? Hmm? Not me. I’m smart because I’m still alive.

Then I remember the boy with the blond-blond hair and the light-light eyes and I lift my head up a little to look for him but all I see are blinking dots. It takes me a moment to realize they are fireflies. And then I allow myself a few more seconds to wonder how such pretty things could live in my nightmares.