Suddenly, a loud boom fil ed the air. Dust whipped across her face and up her nose. A loud whooshing sound roared in her ears. Pebbles pelted Emma’s back and head and ran down her shirt. It’s an avalanche, she thought, covering her head and flattening herself to the bottom of the tunnel.
The noises continued for a few moments more. When they petered out, Emma careful y raised her head and looked around. Dirt swirled everywhere. She squinted in the direction she’d come. The hole she’d climbed through was gone. She was wal ed in.
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
Panic rose in Emma’s chest. “Help!” she screamed, but her voice didn’t seem to carry, bouncing off the close, thick wal s. “Help!” she cried again, but it was no use. No one cal ed out from the other side. Why weren’t Sutton’s friends back by now? Why didn’t they hear her?
She looked into the wider opening again, pricking up her ears for another one of Gabby’s moans. “Gabby?” she whispered, looking right and left. Her heart pounded so loudly in her head she feared its vibrations might cause another landslide. Her eyes began to play tricks on her, forming shapes she knew weren’t there. A chair. A seated figure. A tennis racket propped up against the rocks. Her head spun; she had to be losing oxygen in the sealed space.
And then a cold, strong hand grasped Emma’s wrist. Emma screamed out. She tried to wrench free, but the hand wouldn’t let go. The flicker of a dim flashlight il uminated the lower half of a girl’s face. “G-Gabby?”
Emma stammered.
The figure in front of her smiled. But those weren’t Gabby’s lips. Emma drew in a breath. Was that . . . ?
“Hi, Sutton,” said the girl, fol owed by a maniacal giggle.
“Glad you could drop in.”
The dank air chil ed the back of Emma’s neck. Her free hand dug into dirt and rocks to steady herself. “Lili?” her voice quivered. “W-what are you doing here?” Hadn’t they left her at the Super Stop station? Hadn’t she refused to come?
“Come on, Sutton.” Lili cackled. “You know the answer to that, don’t you?”
The words sliced through Emma’s chest. Al at once, she understood what was going on: Gabby and Lili’s fight, Gabby’s fal , Lili’s moans inside this cave, even the wal s crumbling down around Emma—al of it had been orchestrated by Gabby and Lili as a way to get Emma in here alone. They weren’t mad at each other. Gabby wasn’t hurt. The Twitter Twins knew Emma would crawl into this cave to rescue the girl she’d thought she’d pushed—
because she wasn’t Sutton, because she would feel terrible about what she’d done. And now, they had her right where they wanted her. They had warned Emma, hadn’t they?
Countless times, countless ways. Keep being Sutton. Say nothing. Stop sleuthing. I mean it. Or you’re next. She’d fal en right into their trap.
“Please.” The word spil ed from Emma’s lips. Her body bucked and her head spun; she thought she might throw up.
“Can’t we talk about this?”
“What’s there to talk about?” Lili asked in a low voice.
“Please let me go,” Emma begged, trying to pul away. Lili gripped her tightly. “I screwed up, Lili. I’m sorry. But I won’t do it again. I promise.”
Lili made a tsk noise with her tongue. “I warned you, Sutton. But you didn’t listen.” She shifted on the rocks, edging closer to Emma. With a swift, violent motion, Lili grabbed Emma by Sutton’s necklace, just as she’d done that night in Charlotte’s kitchen. Emma kicked with al her might, banging her knee on the rocks over her head, feeling blood run over her shin. She tried to scream, but Lili had clapped a hand over her mouth, and it only came out as a muffled gurgle. Lili pul ed at the necklace, stretching the chain tight against Emma’s throat. Emma began to cough, flailing her arms and legs, thrashing with al her might. Lili pul ed harder, the chain cutting into Emma’s skin.
“Please!” Emma croaked, barely having enough air to cry out. Her lungs screamed, and she desperately tried to inhale. Lili giggled.
Suddenly, there was a prick of pain at the side of Emma’s neck, and the necklace broke free. The heavy locket released from the chain and dropped down the front of Emma’s shirt, landing in the waistband of her jeans. Lili’s eyes blazed. Her teeth were bared in a crocodile smile. A vein stood out on her forehead, and she leered at Emma with hatred and vengeance. It was the face of a kil er. Sutton’s kil er . . . and hers, too.
I wanted Emma to run. I wanted her to fight. But instead, I steeled myself for the worst. Suddenly, the strange snapping sensation I always got when I was about to relive a memory whipped through me like a freight train. I saw bright, whirling lights. Widened eyes. A girl on a gurney. The word EMERGENCY glowing in red on top of a porte cochere. My nose tickled with the scent of antiseptic and sickness. My ears tingled with the sounds of moans—
maybe my own.
And just like that, I fel headfirst into another memory. . . .
Chapter 30
The Aftermath
The emergency-room waiting area is crowded with people: sick babies screaming, a greasy guy in a hard hat with the mother of all splinters in his fleshy, dirty thumb, a bunch of old people who look like they’re already halfway in the grave. The five of us sit upright in our chairs, not leafing through old magazines, not watching the lame-ass local news on TV, just staring at the double doors that divide us from the emergency room and Gabby.
By the time we arrived at the hospital, Gabby had already been taken into the treatment area. The only thing the nurses told us when we burst through the doors was that we had to wait, and they pointed us to the seating area where Lili was already pacing.