Page 22 of Wrong Turn

“Okay... What makes you think it wasn't a dream?” Amber asks.

I can't believe we’re even having this conversation. Nor can I believe that I’m about to say any of this out loud. Giving myself a pep talk,‘just say it, Sav. They're your friends, they’ll believe you’. I square my shoulders and stand a little straighter, despite the flaming pain in my nether regions. With as little emotion as I can muster, I say, “I woke up this morning and I was sore.”

Summer lets out a small giggle before slapping her hand over her mouth.

“UGH! SEE! This is why I didn't want to tell any of you anything! There’s someone or something messing with us, and you fucking bitches think it’s a joke. The longer we stay here, the more I come to terms with the fact that we all should have left with Bridget!”

“Savannah, calm down. I shouldn't have laughed,” Summer states as she takes a step closer to me.

“No! Don't tell me to calm down.” I shove past them and stomp my way to the back deck that was covered in the carcasses of dead animals not even twenty-four hours ago.

“Did this look like a joke to you Summer?” I snap, gesturing to the now clean porch that still reeks of decay.

Of course, she doesn't reply, giving me her signature death stare. I swear she has the ability to shut off her emotions in the blink of an eye, and when you blink again, they’re back. Like it never happened at all.

“No. It didn’t look like a joke yesterday. But I still don't think there’s anything truly sinister at play here. I’m sorry for laughing, but you have to understand how mentally disordered you sound.”

“Oo, not Summer using big words.”

“Go fuck yourself. Better yet, let’s call your new boyfriend, Bigfoot, to do it for you.”

“Woah, let's not do this shit again. I don’t want a repeat of last night,” Fallon finally steps in.

I'm kind of surprised it's not Amber jumping to her best friend’s rescue.

I let out a frustrated laugh. “Actually, let's talk about last night. Do any of you remember anything much after Bridget left?”

That shut them up.

“SEE! Again, someone is fucking with us. For all we know they’re watching us right now.” I turn away from the girls, walkoff the back porch, and yell into the forest. “Is this what you wanted?! To turn us against each other, and pull us apart?” I pause, waiting for a reply I know won’t come. “Answer me you crazy fuck!” I scream. Circling in place, arms outstretched, I scream loud enough to wake the dead. “What do you want?! Huh? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?!”

Still no response comes, and my behaviour is making the other girls uncomfortable. Maybe I am mentally unstable, and the nightmare is just a manifestation of that. Panting and out of breath, I ask, “Have any of you heard from Bridget?”

21

DO YOU HEAR THAT?

FALLON

Iwatch as both Amber and Summer shake their heads. None of us have heard from Bridget, and that’s concerning. I’ve been friends with her for years, and there’s no doubt in my mind she would contact one of us. Either to rub it in our face that the hotel she’s in is swanky as hell, or to lay the guilt on super thick that she got there with no help from us. It’s always the same manipulative bullshit with her, but at least I’d know she’s safe. Right now, I don’t, and nausea swirls in my gut because of it. “I’m going to call her,” I say. The other girls nod in agreement.

A few clicks later, I raise the phone to my ear, and wait. It rings, and I hear an answering phone ring off to the left, toward the front of the house. All our eyes lock.She’s here.

“I knew she wouldn’t actually leave. She’s probably camped out just like my cousin used to do,” Summer reminds us.

“Come on out, Bridget. We know you’re here. We heard your phone!” Savannah yells again, with no response.

“Let me call her again.” This time it goes straight to voicemail. “Obviously she’s around here somewhere. We might as well go and find her.”

Making our way around the side of the cabin, moving towards where we assumed the ringing came from, not a single one of us say a word. The only thing you can hear is the leaves crunching with each step we take, and a slight breeze flowing through the trees.

The only one of us who seems to not be lost in some sort of thought is Amber, who keeps looking at Summer as she picks at the skin around her finger nails. It's a nasty habit she’s had since she was younger when her anxiety gets the best of her. “Stop that,” she hisses, slapping Summer’s hand away from her mouth. Summer’s eyes glare daggers at Amber as they stare each other down, having another one of those telepathic conversations no one can seem to understand. It’s usually cool to witness, but with how this trip is unfolding, watching them causes more unease to unfurl in my guts. I feel like I’m going to shit myself from anxiety.

You know the saying,fool me once shame on you; fool me twice, shame one me? I feel like we’re living it.

The first time something weird happened we should have left instead of shrugging it off. Someone messing with Bridget's stuff should really have scared us more than it did. The calmness of the forest, and being one with the energies here, really separated us from the danger-awareness part of our brains. It was too easy for us to displace our worry, and come up with some sort of theory as to what happened.

But then, the dead things showed up. Carcasses and guts spread across the porch, maggots everywhere, I still don’t know how we managed to get it all cleaned up. Was the divide it cracked in our friend group worth it? I don’t know. But I doknow we’re supposed to be leaving today if Amber hears back from the cabin’s owner.

---