“Iris?” Giselle calls. “Are you in here?”
Giselle goes down an aisle so Ron goes down another. Nothing. So she turns into the next aisle, but stops in her tracks before going down it.
Carl is standing away from her near the other end of the aisle, looking off into the distance with a vacant smile. Iris is lying limp on the ground, surrounded by chocolate bars.
“Oh my god! Iris!” Ron shouts, rushing over to her. She sits on the ground and takes Iris into her lap. She puts two fingers on Iris’s neck.
Giselle comes running into the aisle. “Iris? Carl? What’s going on?” She sits down next to Ron, taking Iris from her.
Ron lets her fingers slip away from Iris’s neck. She’d felt no pulse. Ron’s throat is dry and she wants to say something but the words can’t find their way out.
Giselle does the same—puts her fingers on Iris’s neck. She holds them there for a long while, pressing harder, expecting to feel something, her breathing getting more ragged with every passing moment.
“Iris…” she says finally, her voice small and shaking. She hugs Iris close. “No, it can’t be. Please. You can’t be dead. Please. Iris, wake up.”
Ron stands up, her legs unsteady and her mind whirling. Ron heads toward Carl, staring at him, mystified. She waves a hand in front of Carl’s face.
“Carl,” Ron says loudly. “What happened?”
He doesn’t reply so she shakes his shoulders. “What happened, Carl?”
His eyes focus on her and he opens his mouth like he’s trying to say something, but he just keeps smacking his lips, as though he doesn’t even know how his mouth works.
Ron looks back at Iris, who Giselle is still holding close with tears flowing down her face.
Chrys said she can kill someone with a touch, and Hunter—she looks back at Carl—can manipulate emotions. Is it possible to manipulate someone’s emotions so much that they become a dazed vegetable? And also, Chrys and Hunter must be back in the forest by now. There’s no way Hunter could still be manipulating him from here, right?
Ron steps away from Carl and goes back to Giselle and Iris. She sits on the floor, looking at the two of them, her brain scrambling. She needs to make a plan—desperately—but she can’t stop looking at Iris’s still body. Her mind goes blank and her face becomes wet.
She looks away, burying her face in her hands.
Think. Think.
Whatever happened here, she’s pretty sure it had something to do with Chrys.
But Chrys would never kill Iris. She must have been provoked somehow, maybe by Carl. And what if Carl saw everything? As soon as he goes back to normal, he’d probably tell everyone that Chrys did it, and if Giselle knew Chrys did it, what would happen to Ron?
Ron just needs to stay in this town for a couple days, tops. Just until Chrys can finish her task so they can leave together. Besides, if people think Chrys is a murderer, then the police will be looking for her and she and Ron will have a much harder time continuing their life on the run.
Ron is going to have to lie about this too.
She looks back at Iris, the tears starting to flow again.
Chapter 30
Hunter sits me down at my desk. I look around, vaguely aware that the cabin is still empty. My stomach growls. Hunger is faint somewhere, perhaps under the blanket of calm. My mind feels jumbled and my body numb. I’m aware of the chaos below but only peaceful or neutral thoughts are allowed past the blanket, only calm feelings. It feels so foreign but nice.
Hunter kneels down in front of me. “Chrys, I’m going to remove it now, okay?”
I just look around the cabin, my mind unable to focus on anything.
And then, like a rug ripped out from under me, the calm blanket flies out of my mind, everything beneath it rushing to fill its place.
I see Iris’s dead body stiff on the floor and feel the cold, foreign energy circulating in my body. It’s not really there—it fades after a couple minutes—but the memory of it makes me feel like it is.
Suddenly, I can’t breathe. My hands tremble. I feel like throwing up.
I clutch my chest. There’s a painful pressure there. It hurts so much, like my pounding heart is going to give up any moment now, and just stop.
Hunter, eyes wide, holds my shoulders at arm’s length. “Chrys, it’s okay. Take a deep breath. You’re not dying. You’re having a panic attack. Breathe.”
I try to breathe but my lungs feel like they’ve stopped working. I clutch my chest tighter, gasping for air. Tears stream down my face.
“Hunter,” I gasp. “Make it go away.”
“I can’t. Just try to breathe. Try to think of something happy. Think of your friend Ron.”
I think about Ron but that just makes Iris come back into my mind, too.
“Make it go away, please!” I sob.
“You have to deal with this on your own, Chrys.” He’s gripping my shoulders tighter. “I can’t make it go away. It’ll still be there. Always. The longer you avoid dealing with this, the worse it’ll get. Don’t you remember what I told you about my town?”
“I don’t care. Please! I can’t deal with this right now. Not right now. Please. Make it go away.”
“Chrys—”
“Please!” I yell out with my eyes closed. I feel so lightheaded and my body is so tense.
And then, the blanket. Instead of creeping its way in, this time it just falls onto me, crushing down the panic and the fear.
I open my eyes, taking a deep breath. It’s so much better now. What was I even concerned about?
Hunter lets go of my shoulders, looking at me with a worried expression. “Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have just removed it all at once.” He stands up and starts pacing
