I rely on the flashlight on my phone to fend off the darkness until it drains nearly all of my battery. And then I’m rendered defenseless, shivering in the cold. My last remaining comfort is Cyrus’s words, echoing through my thoughts. I’ll come find you. It shouldn’t bring me much comfort at all, given his record of getting me in trouble versus getting me out of it. But somehow, he sounded like he meant what he said. Like he was prepared to crawl from one end of the forest to the other if he had to, and if I were stranded in the ocean, he would swim through the icy depths just to search for me and carry me back to shore by himself.

So I swallow the lump in my throat, pray all the wild animals out here have an aversion to human flesh, and I wait.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

At first I think I’m imagining it.

The soft hiss through grass. I’ve imagined plenty of things already, stranded here in the dark; the whisper of voices or the sound of footsteps approaching, only to look up and find nobody there.

Maybe it’s just wind, I think hopefully, helplessly, even as the hissing grows louder, more distinct than anything my brain could create on its own. God, please let it just be wind.

But then the grass rustles, and a long, dim shape slithers closer toward me, and everything in my body boils down into one silent scream. I’m frozen, which feels almost ironic because my heart has never moved so violently inside my chest before, pushing against my rib cage like it’s struggling to break free. Pure, raw fear cuts through my core as the snake stops within a few bare feet of me. A terrible mass of black scales and cold, empty eyes, its body so long I can’t see where its tail ends. If I run, it might strike. If I stay, it might strike too. Every possibility seems to lead to the same horrific outcome: snake fangs piercing through my flesh, my body cold before they can find me.

They always say that your life flashes before your eyes right before you die. I’d figured that they meant the highlights: birthday parties and major coming-of-age events and rite of passages, like kissing your crush or learning to drive or the snowy Christmas you spent with your family at a cabin in the woods.

But the memories that flicker to life in my mind have no logic behind them, just a fast, confusing blur of moments I thought I’d forgotten, hurtling forward to the present …