She sat up in her bed and reached for the light on her nightstand. This isn’t normal, she told herself. As much as she wanted to forget her doubts, it was something her mind wouldn’t allow her to ignore. It was eating away at her.

She stared across the room at the compasses, sitting atop the desk, catching the bits of light filtering through the curtain, creating an unworldly glow. Each time she looked away, the light would catch and she couldn’t help but look back toward them. And finally her mind itched to take a peek. She moved her body to the edge of the bed and walked across the carpet, until she stood in front of them.

She stared down at them. They were all identical except for one, pointing north when all the rest pointed south—it was the only compass that differed, the one found at the second crime scene. She had known this, but it had always seemed odd to her. It was like looking at a row of perfectly planted bushes around someone’s lawn, and one being significantly shorter than all the rest, making one wonder if it was intentional or not. In a way, it was—that much Tara was sure of because each compass pointed in the direction of the next crime scene.

But what Tara questioned was why the killer went north after killing the first two victims, only to move south again after killing the third. It seemed as if he were creating a pattern, moving south down the trail, but that one murder—that one victim who somehow got away before he shot one final arrow into her back—was a kink in it all. She wondered if it irked him—it had to.

It didn’t make sense why the victim was found north either. After all, she was supposed to be moving south and had already passed through the area where her body was found. Of course, she could’ve gone back up north to visit the waterfalls that she learned from the women at the campsite, but Tara couldn’t help but feel that that was unlikely. She had left the campsite and then hiked south to Hanover, so why after reaching Hanover, would she then make the decision to turn around, prolong her trip, and hike past the campsite? If she wanted to see the waterfalls, wouldn’t she have gone before visiting Hanover?

Tara floated those thoughts in her head until another struck her with full force. What if the killer caught her right after she left Hanover? He had taken all the bodies of his victims, except for hers. Was it possible that he tried taking hers too, and then she got away? Tara rolled it over in her head over and over again as she stared down at the map. That crime scene was the furthest north. If her theory were right, then that would mean the trail killer was bringing the bodies north. And then another thought struck her like a bullet—that would mean he was bringing the third victim back alive.