“If you want to help you can look separately, because it doesn’t make any sense for you to come with me. We should spread out.”
“I don’t want you in the woods by yourself.”
“I won’t get lost. It’s an island.”
“Look. Just wait for me and we’ll search together, okay?”
She made a noncommittal sound, and he said, “We’ll go together.”
After Bruce left, Abigail quickly finished packing her things, then changed into her walking shoes. She had already decided to search the woods herself—she’d seen a bleeding woman enter them the previous night, and she needed to at least go look for her. Bruce might be upset, but she didn’t care. It was increasingly clear he thought she’d dreamt the whole thing. They all thought she’d dreamt it. The thought almost enraged her, but she told herself to calm down. Maybe it was possible that she’d had a dream. Maybe it had been triggered by the stress of having Eric Newman on the island. Her subconscious had projected all those anxieties onto the image of Jill, bleeding and running away. Abigail moved her head rapidly back and forth and shook out her limbs, just to get blood moving through them. Either way, whether there was something terrible happening on this island or she really was losing her mind, she needed to look in the woods.
The day had warmed up even more and two staff members were carrying archery targets out onto the lawn. She walked along the row of bunks, her eyes raking over the bunks’ names, looking for the one that Eric Newman was staying in. What name had he given her? Pinehaven, she thought. She spotted it, the second-to-last along the row, and walked rapidly past, not looking toward its windows, hoping that he wasn’t inside, looking out.
Somehow, the threat from Eric Newman had lessened in her mind. It was partly due to the Jill incident from the night before, and partly due to the way he had acted down at the cove with her and Bruce. She was now convinced he was just a sad, obsessive creep, more bark than bite. But what if he had seen her walk past his bunk? What if he followed her into the woods? Well, let him. It was far less terrifying than what she’d seen the night before. Besides, if he followed her it would give her someone to yell at, maybe even punch. Somehow, she’d stopped being particularly frightened of her stalker.
After finding the place where she was pretty sure Jill, or whoever she was, had entered the woods, Abigail saw that there was actually a path, poorly marked, that led into the scrubby woodland. She took a few steps in, then pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. She’d brought it with her because the compass still worked, even without service. And the flashlight would work, too, if she needed it. She was pointed east, and figured she’d walk straight ahead for a while, then turn back, going directly west. That way she wouldn’t get too lost and wouldn’t spend time searching the same area again and again. She began to walk, keeping an eye out for any signs of footprints or drops of blood. In the woods, the ground was almost a luminescent green at times, its mossy surface broken by complex patterns of emerging tree roots. Once she’d gone about a hundred yards she began to occasionally call out, “Hello,” but her voice sounded strange and lonely, so she stopped.
Something moved high up in the trees and Abigail looked up to see a large bird, maybe the eagle she’d seen earlier with Bruce, wheeling away against the blue of the sky. She was suddenly exhausted, and overtly aware that what she was doing was not only futile but maybe dangerous. Even if she’d been imagining things, she was still alone in the woods. And it had grown congested the farther she’d walked, the ground thick with bushes she couldn’t identify, some with clusters of dark, poisonous-looking berries, some with sharp leaves.
She went a little bit farther, spotting a break in the trees marked by a pool of light, and went to it, stood in the sun, letting it warm her skin. The ground was blanketed in the strange green moss, and she sat for a moment, leaned her back against the crook of a tree. It was time to