One by One(55)

I need my refuge. I need to be able to close the door behind me. The idea of spending the night on a mattress on Tiger’s floor, listening to her soft breathing, and Ani shifting in her sleep—it makes me want to shudder.

I push a chair under the handle of the door, then get into bed, fully dressed. It is too cold to change. I am lying there, with my eyes closed, trying to relax my stiff muscles, trying to tell myself it’s safe to fall into unconsciousness, when there is a noise at the door. I raise my head. Instantly my heart is racing at 150 beats a minute.

“Wh-who is it?” My voice is shaky with adrenaline.

I can barely hear the whisper through the thick wood.

“It’s me, Ani.”

“Hang on.” I swing my legs out of bed and make my way over to the door, pulling away the chair. Then I open it cautiously.

Ani is standing outside. She is dressed in a thick pink sweater that comes down almost to her knees. Her eyes are huge in the darkness.

“Ani, what are you doing? You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I couldn’t sleep, you know? I kept worrying about you, and I think Erin’s right. We should, like, stick together? Please come in with me and Tiger.”

“No, honestly, I’m fine,” I say. Ani stands there in the dark corridor, twisting her fingers together. She is looking at me in a way I don’t like. Her eyes are very wide and very worried. “I’m fine,” I say more forcefully. “Go, Tiger will be wondering where you are.”

“Tiger’s already asleep,” she says with a tremulous little laugh. “Out like a light and snoring. I don’t know how she does it—she’s so zen. And I just kept thinking about things, turning stuff over in my mind.”

“I think she took a pill,” I say. “She was talking about it at breakfast. But—what do you mean, thinking about stuff?”

“Oh… nothing.” She gives that little shaky laugh again, but there is something in her eyes. It is pleading and concerned. I get a sudden lurch of apprehension.

“Ani, do you know something you’ve not told anyone?”

She shakes her head, but it’s not really a decisive shake, it’s more of a worried Don’t know.

“Listen to me,” I say. My voice is an urgent whisper. It is not like me to be so forceful, but I am very worried. “You heard what Erin said, if you know something, tell someone. Keeping secrets is the most dangerous thing you can do. Did you see something? Was it when Elliot came to Topher’s room? Something about Inigo?”

“No, I didn’t—” she says, with a catch in her voice. “I just—I keep feeling like there’s something wrong… something I saw… I just—like, can’t put my finger on it.”

Oh God. My stomach is churning with unease. I have a horrible feeling that what Ani can’t remember might be very, very important. It might be the clue to the killer’s identity. It might be the one thing that gives them away.

“Ani, tell me,” I plead. “Don’t keep this to yourself.”

Our eyes lock, and I see something there. Something that she knows. And suddenly I am very, very frightened.

“Ani, please,” I say. I am begging, I know I am, and I no longer care. But she just shakes her head, her eyes as wide and as scared as I feel.

“I can’t,” she whispers. “I have to… I have to think…”

Then she disappears into the shadows, leaving me standing in the corridor, watching with foreboding as Tiger’s door closes softly behind her. I wait, just to make sure, and then I hear the click as she turns the key in the lock, and I turn back to my room. There is nothing else I can do.





ERIN


Snoop ID: LITTLEMY

Listening to: Offline

Snoopers: 5

Snoopscribers: 10

“Shit.” Danny is lying on a mattress he’s dragged into my room, his hands over his face. “Why did I say that about the bloody funeral? I’m so bleeding tactless! Their mates have just died and they probably think I’m making cracks about it.”

“Honestly, Danny, I truly think that’s the last thing anyone is worrying about.”

I am so tired my eyes are scratching with it, and I’m sure Danny must feel the same, but I also know that there’s no way I’m going to be able to fall asleep. Everything is too wrong. Danny’s presence, comforting as it is, is too strange. The room is too cold. The situation is too dire. And I’m worried that if I do fall asleep, I’m going to have my recurring dream about digging through snow, that I’ll wake up Danny, that he’ll ask questions I can’t answer.

Most of all I just feel incredibly scared.

It doesn’t help that my foot is hurting again. A lot. I am starting to worry that maybe something is broken after all.

“Someone should have come,” Danny says, into the silence, and I know what he’s talking about.

“We don’t know Inigo didn’t phone.”

“What did he mean then, about making a huge mistake?”

“I don’t know, but it makes no sense, Danny. Why on earth wouldn’t he phone? The only reason would be if he’d killed Eva, and if that’s the case, we’re safer without him, aren’t we?”