CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER ONE
Lookout Point, on one of the few bluffs overlooking Dallas, was the perfect spot for making out.
Or at least, it would’ve been, if Sadie McIntosh hadn’t been utterly alone.
She sucked on her strawberry-flavored e-cigarette, hoping to calm her nerves, and looked down at her cell phone display. No messages.
Why was she vaping? Her mom told her it put holes in her lungs. That’s why she only did it when she was stressed about something. Thinking of her mom, she willed herself to put the cigarette away.
Instead, she took another puff, then she looked down the lane, hoping to see the headlights of his old Jeep, cutting through the darkness. But there was nothing. There were cars parked all around her, but most of them were silent, some rocking slightly, windows steamed.
No one cared that she was there.
Not even Mike. Especially not him.
Sadie sighed. Weren’t all seventeen-year-olds supposed to be desperate for it? And here, she’d been dangling it in front of him. Constantly mentioning, all last week, that she was planning to come here and take in the view. Alone. Hint, hint. All he had to do was reach out and take it.
But did he ever? Nope. They’d been hanging out for almost a month, and she’d never met anyone so cold.
Maybe he’s gay, her friends had said. But she’d told them no, not possible. He was into her. He’d said it, several times. And tonight was supposed to prove it. She told him where she’d be, had Natalie drive her up here on her way to work, and . . . nothing.
Maybe her friends were right.
Sighing, she walked in the darkness for a little while, past the cars, her sneakers filling with stones. He thought he could stand her up? No. She’d break up with him. That would show him. Not that they were together, together. But now, she’d make it known, in no uncertain terms, that it would never happen. She’d make sure there was a big scene at high school on Monday, and he’d beg for forgiveness. And ha—she wouldn’t give it to him.
The thought cemented in her head as she walked, until her phone dinged.
She pulled it up, excited to find the text from him. Sorry, babe. Still want to meet you. Running a little late.
She scowled, then jumped onto the top of an old picnic table and quickly thumbed in: A little late? I’ve been waiting for a half-hour!
A moment later, the text came up: I’m doing the best I can.
She thumbed in: Do better.
His next text came all too quickly: Screw this. I don’t need you on my back. I’m going to hang out with my boys.
She stared at it, the words burning themselves into her retinas, her fingers shaking. Then she punched in: FINE!
Seething, now, she shoved her phone into the pocket of her jeans and hopped down from the table. Off in the distance, the lights of downtown Dallas were shining, bright and colorful, like fireworks. She turned away, facing the full moon, which was drifting higher in the sky. Around her, the rooftops of the cars shone in the pale moonlight. Inside them, people were together, enjoying one another, in love.
And she was alone.
“Michael Masterson, I frigging hate you,” she snarled under her breath, shoving her vaping pen into her bag and taking off in a run.
When she reached the edge of the parking lot, she saw the orange-lit tips of a couple cigarettes. A voice called, “Hey, Sadie, that you?”
Oh, no. It was those losers from her gym class, the ones who always ogled her in her short shorts. What were they doing out here?
She reversed direction and headed straight into the woods, branches and brambles slapping her face and bare legs. She didn’t care. She just wanted to get away from everyone that had anything to do with her high school. One year. One more year, and she could graduate, go to college, and never look back again.
Behind her, she heard a branch c***k.
They were following her.
Hadn’t Natalie told her that this was a stupid idea? She’d ignored her best friend, because she’d wanted Mike so much. She’d played this night over and over again in her mind, imagined him kissing her, touching her, wanting her, fueled by love scenes from her favorite movies. She’d built it up so much in her mind that she felt sure it would be everything she dreamed of. But now, she felt like a total fool.
A total fool who was now in some serious danger.
A male laugh erupted behind her, startlingly close. Swallowing, Sadie picked up the pace and ran into a clearing. The earth underneath her feet was uneven, full of muddy ruts. Her sneakers sank into it.
“Thanks, Mike, you’ve ruined my favorite Vans,” she muttered bitterly, running across the field, wanting to leave everything and everyone behind.
She was running so fast that she didn’t notice what was right in front of her until her foot caught on it. She went flying, face first, to the ground. The mud that she’d been so disgusted by proved to be her saving grace, because it cushioned her fall. Her knees and palms hit it first, sinking in.
For a moment, she just froze there, on her hands and knees, staring at the matted grass and breathing in its earthy smell. She was so preoccupied by the notion that if anyone from school saw her they’d be laughing at her, that at first, she didn’t care what had caused her to trip.
But then, she realized the smell of earth was mixed with something else. Something sickeningly sweet and foul. It smelled like an animal had died.
And her feet were tangled in something stringy and wet that reminded her of her horse Blue’s mane when she rode him in the rain. But this was cold and sticky, a most unpleasant sensation, wrapping around her bare ankles.
Grimacing, she slowly rose to her feet and turned back, reluctant. She expected to see mangled, b****y fur. A poor, dead animal, lying on its side in the mud.
But what she saw was far beyond anything she could have ever imagined.
Blonde hair, pale, green-tinged skin with the pallor of death. A silver cuff on one arm. Not just one body but two, entwined together in some kind of sick love knot, where it was impossible to tell whose arms and legs belonged to whom.
Turning away, she rushed on, trying to put distance between herself and the ghastly sight. Moments later, when her mind fully digested what she’d seen, she finally stopped, heart beating like mad.
And she screamed so loud into the night that all of Lookout Point heard.
