CHAPTER ELEVEN

I barely got my zipper unstuck when Liza’s sharp voice rang out from the living room. I abandoned my suitcase and rushed to find her standing by the couch, her face paler than usual, her purse dumped open in front of her.

“My keys are gone.”

“Shit,” Cherish rasped. She crouched down, ripping open her own bag open and shaking its contents onto the floor. Makeup, receipts, and random knickknacks scattered across the rug. Her hands sifted through the mess, her movements growing more frantic. “Fuck! My fobs gone too!”

Gabe ran a hand down his face, his expression grim. “How could someone come in here and do this bullshit right under our noses?”

Daniella let out a harsh laugh, though there was nothing funny about it.

“We were drunk off our asses, and then we all passed out cold. If someone wanted to pull this shit, it wouldn’t have been hard.”

"How... how did someone get in, to begin with though?" I asked. "I’ve only seen the two doors, and I know they were locked."

“The person who owns this house?” Liza suggested hesitantly. “They would have a key.”

Cherish’s brow furrowed. “So the homeowner is fucking with us?”

Daniella scoffed. “I’m almost positive this place belongs to an older couple, based on the bio.”

Gabe ran his hands over his face. “I think the who is the least of our problems right now. If we can’t drive out of here, and we can’t call anyone, then what the hell do we do?”

“There’s got to be a way to get to town. We stick together, and we figure it out,” Ryan stressed.

“And then what?” Naija snapped, panic slipping into her tone. “Walk ten miles through the damn woods? In the middle of nowhere?”

A thud reverberated against the front door, cutting off our conversation. Without hesitation, Jason took off to the door.

"Jason, no!" Liza called after him, but it was too late.

He flung it open and relief washed through the room when the porch revealed nothing—no intruder, no looming figure, just the empty, quiet expanse of the property.

“What the fuck is this?” He bent over and lifted something up. When he turned around there was a square brown box in his hands. “Mint?”

My stomach dropped. It felt like the world had tilted sideways.

"Isn’t that... you?” He looked at me, his eyes narrowing, oblivious to the immediate turmoil that one word had caused in me.

"Yes," I replied quietly.

Gabe strode forward, yanking him further inside and slamming the door shut with a curse. "Are you insane? Don’t just open the damn door like that."

Jason ignored him, shaking the box gently. Something rattled inside, the sound both light and solid. His gaze shifted to me. “Well, this is for you.”

Feeling eyes on me, I shifted and looked at Daniella. “I…I didn’t tell him about this trip.”

“I know,” she replied softly.

Taking the box from Jason’s hands, I swallowed and carried it into the kitchen. I placed it on the island and stared down at it. How did he know where I was? Was he the one doing all of this? That didn’t make much sense to me if he wanted us to get back together. This would have the opposite effect.

Everyone crowded around me, the room deathly silent except for the faint hum of the refrigerator.

“Autumn,” Cherish prompted softly.

Naija tilted her head, her curiosity evident as she eyed the box. "So… why did you and Wilder break up, exactly?"

“Long story.” I could feel their eyes on me, and a plethora of unspoken questions. I knew Daniella had already told them we weren’t together anymore, but she hadn’t shared the details. For that, I was grateful.

I grabbed a knife from the cutlery drawer and sliced through the packaging tape. The lid popped open, revealing layers of tissue paper, neatly folded and pristine white. An elegant card sat on top. If I had any doubts about this being Wilder, they were gone.

“Fixing our forever.”

The card slipped from my hands, fluttering onto the counter like the punchline to a macabre joke. I dug through the excessive layers of tissue paper. The rustling was deafening. My fingers brushed against something gritty and I paused.

I carefully peeled back another layer of tissue paper. Seeing what I had just touched, I recoiled with a curse, knocking the box onto its side. Amber's head hit the island with a grotesque thud and the room erupted into chaos.

Jason ran to the sink and threw up. Cherish grabbed me, her nails digging into my arm as I stumbled back, my legs barely holding me upright. Her face was almost unrecognizable except for one side. One side was flattened, covered in dried blood. A single glassy eye stared lifelessly, the other lost missing entirely.

Gabe’s expression was a mix of horror and disbelief, his eyes glued to the head on the counter. Naija let out a choked sob, backing away until her shoulder hit the wall. “Who the fuck… who would even…?” she trailed off, her hands trembling as she covered her mouth. Daniella had her hand pressed over her stomach as if she were going to be sick.

My heart raced, my mind spiraling as I stared at her disfigured face.

My sister shook her head. “No. No, he’s not this unhinged.”

Ryan stepped closer to the kitchen island. “Who?”

I couldn’t bring myself to say his name. Of course, Naija sharp as ever, was already piecing it together.

“Is this… is this about Wilder?”

Gabe’s brows shot up, his expression shifting from confusion to alarm. “Holy shit.”

Jason turned the tap on and rinsed his mouth, not quite keeping up but getting the gist. When he turned back around, he glanced between all of us, his brow furrowed. “Wilder Carson? Your boyfriend?”

Cherish corrected him immediately. “ Ex -boyfriend.”

Liza shook her head. “Wait, he’s the one doing all of this?”

“It’s clearly not just him. I’ve never seen that freak from the gas station a day in my life,” Daniella replied.

“When did you two break up?” Ryan asked.

I stared down at my hands, trying to summon some kind of strength to explain. My heart pounded as memories of Wilder’s intensity, his obsessive nature, and the look in his eyes the last time I saw him rushed back all at once.

“Two weeks ago,” Cherish answered for me.

“Two weeks?” Ryan repeated, incredulously.

I finally looked up. “It can’t be him. He… he’s not this…”

“Unhinged?” Daniella finished, using my sister’s adjective, but with bitter sarcasm.

“No,” I snapped. “He might be obsessive, possessive, sure, but this… this is different.”

“Do you guys think someone is still inside? Watching?” Liza whispered just loud enough for us to hear.

“We just searched this place top to bottom for our phones. There’s no one here,” Cherish replied.

“That was before we got that .” Daniella gestured to Amber’s head. “Who’s to say they didn’t sneak back in? Or that they don’t already have a way in we haven’t found?”

I instinctively glanced at the windows. Most were still uncovered, the curtains pushed to the side, leaving us exposed. “We should close all the curtains, and double-check the windows are all locked. If we can’t go out there, then we sure as hell can’t let them or whoever get back in here.”

Ryan glanced at me. “I’ll start with the back windows. You coming?”

I nodded mutely and followed behind him, pulling my sister along.

The others spread out and followed our lead. Every movement felt too loud, too slow, like we were racing against an invisible clock.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Daniella and Jason, their tense whispers barely audible over the pounding of my heartbeat. As we moved from room to room. A sudden memory surfaced, nearly making me stumble. The necklace. The delicate gold chain with the diamond A .

“Fuck,” I whispered, realization crashing down on me like a wave.

Ryan and my sister both looked at me.

“What is it?”

I looked at Cherish. “I think he’s been here. The whole time.”

She understood straight away, but Ryan didn’t.

“What are you talking about? Who?”

“The necklace,” I stammered. “I found a necklace in the upstairs bathroom last night. It wasn’t mine. It’s the same one Amber always wore.”

His jaw clenched, tension radiating off him. “Are you sure?”

“She can’t exactly message the bitch and ask if it’s missing, so I think it’s safe to assume she’s sure,” Daniella interjected.

My sister tugged at her hair, exhaling heavily. “Are you saying Wilder’s been in the house with us this entire time?”

“I’m saying someone put Amber’s necklace here last night. Was it Wilder? I don’t know.”

Ryan cursed under his breath. “Okay. We need to tell the others, now.”

“No,” Daniella whispered harshly, grabbing his arm. “We need to stay calm and figure out what the hell to do next.”

Ryan studied her for a moment, his lips pressing into a grim line. “Fine,” he said, his voice tight.

We continued what we were doing and I had to stop and take a minute to pull myself together.

Ryan approached from the side and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “It will be okay,” he reassured me, pressing a quick kiss to my temple.

Caught off guard, I gave him a tight smile and stepped away just as music began to play from downstairs. We shared a look between us.

“What the fuck is this?” Jason’s voice rang out.

We made our way downstairs and into the living room. I could see Jason standing near the TV, his arms crossed and his expression rife with unease.

“What’s going on?”

He pointed at the TV. “Look at this shit.”

I looked, trying to see what he wanted me to do. There was a music app pulled up. My eyes flicked down to the bottom of the playlist. The Bluetooth device connected was labeled as Gabes.

He and the others trickled into the room.

“What happened now?”

“Your phone’s connected to the TV,” Ryan replied.

Gabe stepped closer. “But I don’t have my phone. I left it in the box.”

Naija stood in the doorway, damn near chewing her lip off. “Do you know how close someone has to be to connect Bluetooth like that?”

Gabe rushed forward and reached behind the flatscreen, yanking at the cord until it came free from the wall. The abrupt silence that followed was louder than any sound.

Jason was the first to speak. “Carson. He’s still close with those other guys?”

I nodded. “Practically brothers. They live together.”

Gabe frowned. “So they could be helping him?”

Naija glanced around, her eyes darting toward the covered windows. “Would they really go this far, though?”

Daniella let out a humorless laugh. “They’re all crazy in one way or another. They just hide it behind wealth, charm, and a perfect smile.”

I crossed my arms, trying to ignore the knot in my stomach. “That’s…accurate.”

Cherish looked at me, her brow furrowed. “But they all loved you, didn’t—”

Liza interrupted her. “Then this is happening because of you?”

“No, it’s not her fault.” Daniella spun toward her. “Why the hell would you say that?”

Liza raised her chin. “I can’t be the only one thinking it. There’s a severed head in the kitchen. A head —of a girl you hated.”

“You hated her too. And how the fuck is that my fault? I don’t recall decapitating anyone recently.”

She kept going as if I hadn’t spoken. “Add that weird ass note to the mix, and it’s not hard to figure out. You’re here with three guys, and if the rumors about Wilder are true, everyone knows he’s obsessed with you. You could’ve warned us that he was an actual psyc—”

Cherish moved before I could intervene, shoving her backward. “Do not blame my sister for the actions of a man who can’t handle rejection.”

Liza stared at her; eyes wide. “I wasn’t blaming her—”

“Yes, you were,” Daniella interrupted.

I should’ve felt relieved and defended, but guilt was already setting in and effectively shutting me up. A severed head and the creepy-ass gas station girl, I refused to take the blame for, but if my ex really did have something to do with this, then it was my fault.

“Liz, you’re entitled to whatever you want to think. You can be as pissed at me as you want, but we can’t fight amongst ourselves right now.”

She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I’m sorry. I just--.”

Music began to play again. The same song that had just been playing on TV.

“Where is that coming from?” my sister asked quietly.

“If that’s his phone…” Jason trailed off, turning so that he was in front of us.

“Someone is in the house,” Liza whispered, her voice shaking.

“No. We just went from room to room. Twice ,” Daniella reminded her.

She shook her head, blonde curls bouncing. “I can’t…I’m not staying in this goddamn house a second longer. I’ll take my chances in the woods.”

“That’s the dumbest thing you could possibly do right now,” Gabe retorted.

She backstepped, damn near shoving Jason across the room to get around him.

“Liza, stop! Don’t be a fucking idiot,” Naija yelled.

I ran after her, grabbing her from behind in a desperate attempt to stop her. “You can’t go out there!”

“Get off me!” She shrieked, twisting in my hold. Her elbow came dangerously close to connecting with my face, and I instinctively let her go before she could land the hit.

The heavy door swung wide, and for a split second, everything seemed to still. Liza didn’t have a chance to react before the person on the other side grabbed her by the throat.