M
The first few warning raindrops have given way to a steady downpour. Tree limbs groan overhead in a sudden gust of wind. Those scattered branches won’t do much to protect me from getting soaked to the skin.
Reese, fully exposed to the elements out there on the shelf of rock, doesn’t seem to care. Water drips down her forehead, but she’s oblivious to the reality surrounding her. She keeps her full attention devoted to the visor—and whatever game she’s using it to play.
Something about her expression scares me more than the dark storm clouds. I need to get out of here. Now.
I turn to go, but pull up short. A new sound greets my ears. Footsteps, growing stronger by the second. Whoever M may be, I’ll find out soon enough. There’s someone running up the trail in our direction.
Maddox or Miranda? I’m not sure I care to encounter either of them on the narrow, rocky steps back down to campus. I shift my weight from side to side, hesitating.
The footsteps grow more urgent. They splash through puddled water as they make their way closer. Reese must hear it too. She turns toward the trailhead and squares her shoulders.
The owner of those footsteps climbs the final rise. At last, a head comes into view.
Not Maddox, thankfully.
Not Miranda either.
I’m rooted to the spot as recognition dawns. I’ve never seen that face in the flesh before, but I know it from pictures. I must have read a hundred articles with his headshot at the top. Reese’s voice confirms his identity.
“Emerson.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, sending up a silent word of thanks. Emerson Kemp. An adult. Here to take charge and put an end to his sister’s erratic behavior. He must have followed us up here.
He stops a few feet from where I stand, breathing hard from the climb. His hands go to his hips as he struggles for air, and his head turns back and forth between Reese and myself. “What are you two doing up here?”
“I—I—”
Reese cuts off my stammers, her voice rising to be heard over the rumble of distant thunder. “I don’t know, Emerson. I might ask you the same question.”
She takes off her visor, and there’s a menace in her eyes I don’t understand. Instinctively, I take a step away, retreating closer to the man in shredded jeans and a sopping wet T-shirt.
“I got an InstaQuest.” Emerson pants, his eyes traveling all around him. “El… She’s still up here somewhere! Did you get one too?”
He holds up an oversize smartphone, cupping it with his hand to shield the screen from water. I squint to read the text through the intensifying sheets of rain.
L: M, I’m here. Come find me. Don’t tell anyone, OK? I’ll explain when you get here. Come alone.
An InstaQuest.
From L.
To M.
My eyes fly open wide as the full truth hits me. The nicknames… Of course. I realize what they stand for—what Reese must have known the moment she saw the letters on the screen.
Eleanor and Emerson.
L and M.
Emerson tucks the phone away in his pocket. He looks frantic, water running down his face in rivulets. His spiky blond hair has darkened to the color of straw. “Help me find her!” He takes a few steps onto the rain-slick slab of rock where Reese stands. “Help me look! She’s still alive!”
A flash of lightning fills the sky. I count the beats inside my head until its followed by the roar of thunder.
One one-thousand…two one-thousand…three one-thousand…
Crash.
The sound makes me jump. Emerson retreats. Reese takes off her visor, lowers her forehead, and glares.
“What is with you?” Emerson yells at her. “Don’t just stand there! Help!”
She holds up the visor and waves it at him. “Eleanor’s gone, jackass. The InstaQuest was from me.”
The two of them look like they both want to kill each other. I edge back toward the trailhead as the claps of thunder grow closer. A torrent of rushing water tumbles down the rocky staircase, stopping me in my tracks. I don’t dare attempt the treacherous descent. “Oh no,” I whisper, but my voice is barely loud enough to reach my own ears.
I turn back to Reese and Emerson, but the sight of them does nothing to ease my rising panic. They stand face-to-face on the clifftop, a few short feet from the edge.
This is not going to end well. “You guys!” I call out to them. “Maybe we should talk about this somewhere else?”
Reese ignores me, keeping her full fury trained on her brother. “It was you? That’s why she was graduating early? To be with you?”
My jaw goes slack. Eleanor’s sudden change of college plans… No wonder she picked Stanford, a stone’s throw from Emerson’s corporate headquarters in Silicon Valley.
He doesn’t bother to deny it. “Don’t be a baby, Reese.”
“I’m a baby? I’m not allowed to be upset that you were stealing my best friend?”
He shakes his head. “She knew you’d react this way. That’s why we couldn’t tell you.”
“She was my friend. Not yours!”
“Actually, she was getting really tired of how possessive you were.”
Reese wraps her arms around herself, quivering with the force of each word she utters. “You killed her!”
He reaches for her elbow. “Calm down. You know that isn’t true.” Reese jerks her arm out of his grasp as he continues. “I loved Eleanor. It was serious between us. You don’t even know…”
“Are you stupid?” Reese’s voice rises sharply, echoing off the rocks. “You killed her! Don’t you realize what you did?”
Emerson looks dumbfounded, but I know what she means.
The distance parameter.
My code was stored on the InstaLove corporate servers. Eleanor didn’t have access to edit that parameter herself, but if anyone would have admin privileges on that file server, it was the company’s CEO.
“You sabotaged the code!” Reese shouts in his face. “Negative one, remember? She didn’t get a hazard alert. She fell because of you!”
Emerson swipes a hand across his face to clear away the rainwater. “That? No—that—that was a prank. She said it was a three-foot drop. I wasn’t going to at first, but it seemed harmless enough…”
“She fell from here!” Reese’s mouth twists as she delivers the devastating truth. “She came up here at night! She didn’t get a warning message! Because of you!” She rushes at Emerson and pummels at his chest. He sidesteps, dangerously close to the precipice, to avoid her raging fists.
“Watch out!” I call. My heart beats a mile a minute. Reese is out of control. Someone’s going to get hurt. I hesitate, unsure if I should stay here in the shelter of the trees, help Emerson subdue his sister, or attempt the flooded trail.
I look toward the trailhead, chewing my lip. Another flash of lightning blazes, close enough that I can smell the ozone in the air. Nope. I’m not going anywhere. Not right now. The storm’s right over us. I don’t need to count the beats before the thunderclap rings out.
The ear-splitting roar is punctuated by an even louder noise behind me—the sound of Reese’s scream.