“Of course. And I told them it had to be one of the Lewis boys, but they checked their phones and there are no messages to Nicole. They must have deleted them, or got another phone,” Mr. Wallace says. “So the police think she’s just run off and she hasn’t. She’s seventeen, they keep saying. She’ll come home when she’s ready. There’s no evidence anything’s happened to her.”

“They could be right.”

“No. She would have texted one of her friends—Bella or Caitlin—even if she didn’t want to talk to me or Liz. But no one’s heard from her. Something’s wrong. Something bad has happened, I know it.” His voice rises. “What if she hasn’t run off with Jack Lewis, Leo? What if whoever killed that other girl has got her?”

Bella won’t come out of her room. She’s been out with Caitlin all the time since Nicole went missing, searching their local haunts, asking everyone they know if they’ve seen her. But today…the news has been on nonstop since we got home from school, the same story repeated by all the local channels. A body has been found in the woods. Not our woods—a few miles away, but close enough. No identity yet, but enough of the reporters have said it’s a woman to convince Bella it’s Nicole. Nicole Wallace, queen bitch, dead in the woods. I know I couldn’t have wished this into happening with my wicked thoughts, but it feels like I did. I never said the words out loud, but I think Bella heard them anyway. I went up to her room to say…I don’t know what I was going to say, but I didn’t get chance anyway. Bella just stared at me and her face was cold and blank. A million unsaid words passed between us and then she slammed the door in my face.

The village is alight with rumor and the rumors all say the same thing. Nicole Wallace was murdered like that other girl.

I didn’t wish this into happening. I didn’t. I wouldn’t.

NOW

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

The house is different at night. During the day, it’s cozy and warm, cradled in the encroaching trees. At night, there’s nothing to see out of the windows but blackness. Creaks that go unnoticed during daylight become sinister and my breath comes out in white plumes. I sit up in bed. It’s barely ten o’clock, but I haven’t slept for three nights, not since I got back from the hospital. I’ve tried, but my eyes keep snapping open, staring into the dark. The creak of a floorboard sounds like a groan. I can hear voices downstairs but I don’t want to be around Jack and the others.