Nina

Nina! Nina, you need to wake up! 

Carly?

Nina, you have to fight. Be careful.

I can hear noise, it’s muffled but it sounds like TV. I think I hear someone crying too. My mind is so fuzzy, and my head is pounding. Where am I? The last thing I remember is getting the popcorn out of the microwave. I try to force my eyes open, and the sunlight blinds me. I blink a few times before things start to come into focus. I’m on a couch, and the TV is on. Cartoons are playing. I turn my head wincing at the pain. I can hear crying coming from next to me. Grace is sitting on the floor at the other end of the couch. Her legs are pulled up to her chest, and her arms are wrapped around them.

The walls are all wooden and outside I can see trees. Where are we? Grace looks over at me; her eyes grow wide when she realizes I’m awake.

“Nina! I wa-want to go home. I don’t want to be h-here. I don’t want to be Cindy.” Cindy? Who is she talking about? The pounding in my head is making it hard to focus on anything. “I just want my daddy and Unkey Jake.”

“What—” I grab my head. Even talking hurts. I decide to whisper hoping it will be easier. “What are you talking about, Grace?”

“The bad man. He keeps calling me Cindy.” The bad man? I try to sit up groaning as my body fights me. I can’t see anyone else in the room. If no one is here, we should run while we can. That’s when I hear them, footsteps. They are coming from outside. They are coming inside. “He’s back!” Grace climbs onto the couch with me. The door opens, and I hold my breath.

Camden.

“You’re awake.” He smiles at me, and I’m utterly confused. “I was starting to get worried about you, Carly.” Carly?

“Camden, what’s going on? Why are we here? And why are you calling me Carly? You know we lost her years ago.” I hold my head in an attempt to ease the pain.

“NO!” His scream causes me to whimper from the pain. “See, that’s what you wanted me to think. You looked so peaceful like you were just asleep. I never knew you fooled me and then ran away with Cindy here.” He looks at Grace. “Come to Daddy, Cindy.”

“No! You’re not my daddy!” She clutches onto my shirt, and I can feel her shaking.

Camden’s face twists in anger. “What have I told you about that? Carly, you better teach our girl some manners, or I’ll have to.” He disappears around a corner.

What the hell is going on? Why does he think I’m Carly? What the hell did he mean by saying she looked like she was asleep? Then it hits me. The night she died. I thought she was asleep. Did he see her that night? He was on campus when Carly died.

I wrap my arms around Grace and pray that someone finds us. All I can picture is Jake coming home and us not being there. Please save me. I need your help, Jake.

I can hear Camden in what I assume is the kitchen. The rustling of dishes clues me in that he may be making something to eat. I know in the state I’m in that if we tried to run he would catch us no problem. I need to buy us some time.

He walks back into the room with some sandwiches on plates. When he places them on the coffee table, neither Grace nor I make a move to eat one.

“Don’t be like that, Carly. He wasn’t good for you. You and Cindy belong here with me. I’m so happy you didn’t hurt her like I thought you did.” I can’t make any sense of what he is saying.

“What do you mean ‘hurt her’?” Carly and I never even knew any girls named Cindy.

“You know what I mean, Carly, don’t play dumb. It makes me angry.” His brows furrow and I decide not to pry into what he is saying. As much as I want to know, I need to keep him calm. “Now you two need to eat your lunch.” I have no intention of touching that shit. What if he drugged it? I nod at him before he gets up.

Grace goes to reach for the food, but I grab her hand. “We aren’t going to eat these okay. They might make us sick.” I grab both sandwiches and put them under the couch, leaving just the empty plates.

“I’m hungry, Nina.” Her voice is weak.

“I know, baby.” I pull her close to me. “I’m going to get us out of here, okay?”

She nods against my chest, my shirt begins to feel wet, and I realize that she is crying. “Do you want to lie down?”

She nods once more.

“Camden?” I call his name feeling sick as he walks into the room. “Can Gr…Cindy and I go lie down?”

“Yes, but not too long. I have to catch up on lost time with my girls. The bedroom is right there.” He points to a door at the other end of the cabin. I nod before holding Grace’s hand and having her stand up. When it’s my turn to stand it takes a while. My head feels so heavy like it might topple and bring the rest of me down. My stomach is turning with each agonizing step that I take. I make it to the bedroom by holding onto the wall.

Grace and I climb onto the bed, and I hold her close to me. I slowly stroke her hair, trying to calm her down. She eventually falls asleep. I didn’t come in here to sleep, but more to get her away from him and to try to work through all of this in my head.

No matter how much I try to work it out, none of this makes sense. I can feel my eyes trying to close, but I will them to stay open. I need to come up with a plan. I need to figure out what is going on.

I’m at our old high school. Carly is standing by her locker. “Hey, sis.” I greet her, but she doesn’t even look at me. “Car?”

“Yeah?” Her voice is a whisper.

“What’s wrong? It’s senior year! Homecoming is tomorrow! Put a smile on your face, this is the time of your life.” I nudge her shoulder trying to make her snap out of this. “I’m heading to get shoes after school today, want to come?”

“I can’t. I have a doctor’s appointment.”

“We just went at the beginning of the year together. You sick?” She just shakes her head. “What’s up then?”

“Nothing, Nina. Don’t worry about me. Just go have fun with your friends. I’ll be okay. Everything will be okay after today.” Her voice is so low it’s almost hard to understand what she is saying. She closes her locker, and I see a tear run down her face.

What is going on with her? She’s been really out of it for the last two months.

“I’ll see you later.”

She walks away from me. I want to call out to her. To tell her I’ll go with her. I don’t though; I hear people call my name from the other direction. Chelsea and Leah are waiting for me to go to the shoe store. I shrug my shoulders and tell myself I’ll talk to her tomorrow.

I jolt awake. I hate that damn dream. I haven’t had it for the longest time. That was the last time I saw Carly alive. I would find her later that night.

What has always bothered me is that she had said everything would be better after that day. What doctor was she going to see? She wasn’t sick. The month before she had been really sick and throwing up all the time. That’s when it hits me like a train.

How sick she was.

The unexplained doctor’s appointment.

Camden thinking Grace is his daughter.

Carly was pregnant.

Chapter Twenty Six

Nina

Carly and Camden were sleeping together?

There is no way. She was more of a goody two shoes than I was. If they were sleeping together, and she got pregnant, would she have killed herself over it? I mean the family would have flipped, but we would have still been there for her. Was that what made her so depressed? Did she think that being pregnant meant we would shun her? Or that her life was over?

I try to go over in my head what information Camden has given me. He said that Carly fooled him and ran away with Cindy. Is Cindy the baby she was pregnant with? There is no way they would have known the sex. How did she fool him? He said she looked like she was sleeping. If he was there that night why wouldn’t he have called 911?