After the police and EMTs had arrived, Zoey and Addie were taken away on stretchers and I’d been questioned by an officer about what had brought me to the cabin of horrors. I told them everything through a curtain of tears, including my meetings with Hannigan and Beck. They walked me back to my car and told me they’d be in touch. Cris had been led away somewhere else, I assumed to be questioned, so I wasn’t able to talk to him myself. When I climbed into the driver’s seat, I picked up my phone from the charger, forgotten in my rush to enter the cabin. I had several missed calls and text messages, which wasn’t surprising given the last text I’d sent Andie. I navigated to her most recent voicemail first.

‘Liz! Answer your phone. Okay you know what, this is crazy! I can’t believe you went up there alone. I’m not waiting an hour to notify someone if you might be in trouble! I’m calling Hannigan and Beck right now.’

I looked at the next voicemail above hers, an unsaved number. I had a pretty good idea of who that was from but I hit play anyway. As I suspected it was Hannigan, saying they were on their way and urging me not to go inside the cabin.

Oops, I’d thought wryly, too late. Knowing they were probably fairly close at that point, I waited in my car until they got to the scene. The first thing I said, at a loss of how to even begin to justify my actions, was, ‘I kinda went inside.’

I gave them the photo I’d found in the cabin and they admonished me for my risky behavior, but in the end, were grateful I was okay and that Zoey and Addie had been rescued. It took some time before my hands stopped shaking enough to drive back to the city, the sky darkening around me. I called my parents on the way, who met me back in Brooklyn and took me home to New Jersey the second I returned Travis’s car. All I had time to do was quickly drop his keys off at our apartment and shove a few of my things into a duffel bag. I’d shot off a text to Andie, asking her to FaceTime me when she got home from her shift, promising I was alright and apologizing for the anxiety I’d caused her. But I was relieved to be back with my parents now, far away from everything that had happened.