Sheridan’s citizen’s arrest is at least peaceful. She doesn’t resist being restrained, though it seems miles more dramatic than necessary. Ollie ties Sheridan’s hands behind her back and fastens them to the trunk of a particularly sturdy tree in camp while Aidan rips away a bit of his T-shirt for a makeshift blindfold. They hoist a tarp over her, which Aidan claims is to protect her from the elements, though Devin knows it’s a lie. They cover her so they don’t have to feel bad when they see their prisoner sitting alone, tied to a tree in a forest of monsters.
“I would’ve known,” Devin says when it’s all done. When it’s just the four of them left. “If she got replaced or possessed or whatever, I would know. We were together the whole time.”
“I know,” Hannah says, perched gracefully on a nearby log. They’re making her talk because they think she’s the one Devin’s least likely to explode at, a fact Devin doesn’t miss. “I’m just trying to think in terms of … I don’t know, gut feelings? I knew something was off with Coach Liv and I was right. Maybe she’s not one of them, but something is off.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know,” Hannah says. “Can you try to trust us?”
Devin turns. Aidan and Ollie stand behind her, all three of them eyeing her like they think she’ll burst. She shakes her head. “I’m not saying you guys are lying. Trust me, I do not wanna be the one defending her. Which is why you should trust me when I say I know she’s human.”
“She’s so different now,” Aidan says, voice soft like he’s talking to a preschooler. “You see that, right?”
“Different how?”
Aidan looks at Ollie.
Ollie’s frown deepens. From a distance, Devin can’t tell if it’s dirt under his eyes or if he’s just exhausted. He clears his throat in the crook of his elbow. “She wouldn’t shut up before you guys left. She didn’t want to help with anything. She complained all the time.”
Devin laughs.
“Then it’s my fault. I told her to be more helpful,” she says. “I told her she needed to make up for being such a bitch. She’s only acting different to apologize.”
“The Sheridan I met wouldn’t’ve apologized,” Aidan says. “If you told her to, she’d spit on you.”
Devin narrows her eyes. “Maybe you. Not me, though.”
“You?” Aidan asks, indignant. “She hated you worse than everyone else.”
Devin casts a glance at the tarp that covers Sheridan’s makeshift prison. They might’ve blindfolded her, but she can still hear. Devin’s stomach turns at the thought of Sheridan hearing Devin defend her this hard. God, she cannot believe this. Of all the things Sheridan has made her do, forcing her to argue on her behalf is the worst of it.
Devin folds her arms. “Let me talk to her.”
“I don’t think—” Aidan starts.
“Give me a chance to ask her a few things. And then we come up with a plan. I don’t like her, but I don’t want to hurt her. I assume none of us do.”
Hannah closes her eyes and Ollie looks at the ground. But Aidan just stares, blank in a way that doesn’t say yes or no. Which means there’s a very real chance he does think violence is the answer. For the first time in her life, Devin finds herself the group’s only pacifist.
“What kind of questions?” Ollie asks.
“What is this?” Devin spits. “Am I a suspect now, too?”
Ollie sighs. Aidan looks at him with wide eyes, clearly expecting him to say more. But Devin knows Ollie and she knows he won’t fight her if he can avoid it. “Just be careful. I told you what happened to me. If it’s … if she’s dangerous, it’ll be hard for you to not listen to her.”
“I’ve been with her a while,” Devin says, standing. She pats the dirt from her legs. Sheridan is listening, silently judging what she hears. “She hasn’t convinced me of anything except that I want to get out of this forest and as far away from her as possible.”
Aidan, Hannah, and Ollie look at each other. Ollie nods.
Devin ducks under the tarp and holds her breath. Sheridan sits so still against her tree, Devin thinks she might be asleep. There’s no room, and Devin finds herself hovering over Sheridan’s knees, fists sinking into the soft soil on either side of Sheridan’s hips. Too close for comfort. Sheridan’s chin rises slightly at the intrusion, but she says nothing.
“Hey,” Devin whispers.
“Devin?”
“You got it.”
Sheridan sighs. “You’re in my bubble.”
“Sorry,” Devin says. “This is the only way I can talk to you right now.”
Sheridan swallows. The tattered T-shirt blindfold is too big for her slender face. It slips down her nose, exposing the sharp line of her brow. This close, Devin notices the way her lip quivers. No matter how hard she tries to deflect, there’s a part of her that’s afraid.
“What’s your problem?” Devin says, careful not to breathe on Sheridan’s face. “You didn’t even argue with them.”
“What am I supposed to do?” Sheridan asks. “They already made up their mind.”
“No, they didn’t. They wanted you to prove them wrong.”
Sheridan scoffs. “I doubt it.”
“Are you understanding? They think you’re like Liv. You don’t want to defend yourself at all?”
“I had the journal.” Sheridan breathes.
“Did you burn the pages?”
Sheridan is quiet for a long moment. “No.”
“Why didn’t you say that?”
Sheridan is silent.
“Why wouldn’t you tell them about your sister? Or the withdrawals? Now it sounds like you’re hiding things.”
“I’m not telling them.”
“Why?”
“Because they don’t deserve to know,” Sheridan hisses. “Everyone back home got to know everything about me all the time. They don’t. I get to choose who I tell, and I’m not telling them anything.”
Devin eases back, sucking in a cool breath. Against her better judgment, she believes Sheridan. She believes she’s real, and she believes she’s telling the truth. Which makes everything a thousand times more complicated.
“Why’d you tell me, then?” Devin asks. “You think I deserve to know?”
Sheridan turns away.
“Were you…”
… manipulating me? That’s what she wants to ask. Were all of Sheridan’s little truths meant to reel her in? That’s what Aidan and Ollie would tell her. But asking it out loud feels like cementing her doubts. Giving them life.
“Never mind. You need to give them a reason to trust you. You think they want there to be a threat in camp with us?” Devin asks. “If you’re not one of those things, or not helping them, just prove it. It should be easy.”
“Not without the pages saying how they work,” Sheridan says.
“There are other ways.” Devin runs her hand through the greasy mop of her hair. “If you aren’t—”
“You keep saying if,” Sheridan says. “You think I’m evil?”
Devin pauses. “Not like that.”
“How do you know?” Sheridan’s chapped lips twist into a somber smile. “What’s your proof?”
Devin ignores the baiting. She’s been in these woods with Sheridan long enough to know a cover when she sees it. Sheridan is afraid of what’s going to happen to her if they decide she’s against them and she’s afraid of what will happen to her if they don’t. Devin doesn’t know Hannah and Aidan as well as she knows Ollie. She might know for sure Ollie wouldn’t hurt someone “just to be safe,” but she’s less sure of the others. The woods have changed them. Taken pieces of them away. They’re more cautious now. More guarded. Paranoid. She needs to prove Sheridan is just a regular, run-of-the-mill asshole, and she needs to prove it quickly.
“You’re so confusing,” Sheridan whispers. “Why are you here?”
“I’m trying to help you.”
“Why, though?”
“Do you want to die?” Devin asks.
Sheridan raises a brow. “Am I up for execution?”
Devin pauses. When she doesn’t answer, Sheridan’s smile fades. A slow breeze ruffles the tarp on either side of them, fluttering against Devin’s arms. “I don’t know what they want to do.”
“Right.”
“If I’m gonna do this, I need to know I’m not wrong. I need to know I’m…”
Sheridan scoffs.
“Hold still. I’m gonna just…”
Devin reaches up and touches the tip of Sheridan’s blindfold. She waits for an objection, but Sheridan is silent. Delicately, Devin peels the blindfold up and Sheridan blinks at the sudden light. Her steely eyes are watery, red-rimmed, pupils the size of pinpricks. It should feel good to see her shaken like this, but when Devin looks into her face, it’s like something takes her by the lungs and squeezes.
“No jokes,” Devin says. “I need you to look me in the eyes and tell me you’re not one.”
Sheridan looks at her, hard. In her eyes is the same girl Devin met on day one, still riding a high, still unconcerned and cruel. She sees the girl who lashed out at anyone who dared breathe her air. She might be a nightmare, but she’s a human nightmare.
“You’re acting different from before, too,” Sheridan says. “The Devin I met when we got here wouldn’t be helping me. I don’t get what you’re—”
“Stop,” Devin snaps. “I just need you to tell me.”
“I could lie.”
“You could,” Devin says. “I’d prefer you didn’t.”
The air between them shifts like summer dipping into fall. There’s a seriousness to Sheridan’s face that Devin’s been waiting for. A glimpse of a girl she’s seen a few times since this nightmare began, who actually cares about what happens next.
Sheridan swallows. “I’m not one.”
The longer Devin looks at her, the more she’s sure this is the truth. Sheridan is right—everything is different now. When she looks into Sheridan’s face, it’s like a fist clenches between her ribs. Maybe trusting will make her a fool, maybe it’ll doom them, but it’s the only answer she has.
Which means something else burned those journal pages, and something else is working against them. It means they’re in more danger than they thought.
“Okay,” Devin says. “I believe you.”
Sheridan’s eyes flutter shut in relief.
“The fire watchtower you found in the journal,” Devin says. “You’re a thousand percent sure you can get us there?”
Sheridan nods.
Devin wipes the sweat from her brow. She leans back, suddenly aware of the shrinking space between them. This isn’t just a mission to clear Sheridan’s name. They need to find an escape or they’ll have bigger problems than the mimics. The longer they’re lost, the fewer search parties they’ll send. If they don’t manage to make it to the pickup point on time, the woods will get colder and they’ll run out of food. They don’t have what they need to last much longer, with or without monsters.
“Okay,” Devin says, her breath flush against Sheridan’s pale face. “Hold tight. I’m gonna save your ass.”
“We need to be prepared,” Aidan says under his breath. “She’s had so much time to work on Devin. There’s a good chance she could—”
“Aidan,” Ollie warns. He massages his temples. “We don’t know anything. About anything.”
The three of them sit on the log nearest the fire. Ollie trusts Devin, even after ten days apart. When he looks in her eyes, he sees she’s real. When he looks into Sheridan’s eyes, he’s less sure. But he was unsure of Sheridan before any of this happened. He doubted her when she was human, too. It’s like his head is full of TV static.
“If she says she trusts her?” Hannah asks, softer.
“Then I guess we believe her.”
“No,” Aidan argues. “I’m sorry, but we can’t let her stay with us.”
“What are you pitching?” Ollie asks. “Exile?”
Aidan looks at the ground and pouts. He doesn’t know what he wants to do with her, either. But that’s been the issue from the start, hasn’t it? In a classic Sheridan move, she’s become the group’s great unsolvable problem. Maybe she’s a monster, maybe she isn’t, but they can’t afford to take risks. Ollie imagines people have been wondering what to do with Sheridan since the day she was born.
When Devin emerges from the tent, Ollie straightens. Usually, he can read her like a book, but now her expression is indecipherable. She looks at the ground, scratching the back of her head like she can put off having to deliver her verdict. He knows what she’ll say long before she says it.
“I’ll just get it out of the way,” Devin says. “I believe her.”
“Are you kidding?” Aidan spits. He turns to Ollie. “I told you this would happen.”
Ollie ignores him. “You’re a thousand percent sure?”
“Uh.” Devin’s laugh is small. “A thousand is a lot. But I’m sure.”
“What do we do if you’re wrong?” Ollie asks. “Are we supposed to trust her on watch? What if she targets one of us like Liv did?”
“I’m gonna suggest something and I want you to hear me out,” Devin says. She looks pointedly at Aidan when she speaks. “Really consider it. You know I don’t like being shot down.”
Aidan rolls his eyes.
“We’re not gonna agree. I don’t think she’s playing us. You do.”
“I—” Aidan starts.
Devin turns on him. “What did I say?”
Aidan falls quiet.
“She’s positive there’s a fire watchtower on top of that”—Devin points to a steep incline to their west—“mountain. She’s seen it on the map and in the journal. She says she’ll guide us there if we untie her. Before you guys came back with the accusations, she told me she wanted us to hold out there and wait for rescue, but I said I think you guys will want more proof before you follow her anywhere. So here’s my suggestion. Sheridan leads me and Aidan up the mountain.”
“What?” Aidan asks.
“Hannah and Ollie stay on the milestone trail. Sheridan says there’s a way for us to meet back up with you in a few days. If the watch is there like she says, we’ll need three people to bring the supplies back to the group, anyway.”
Ollie swallows. “And if it isn’t?”
“Then she’s outnumbered,” Hannah suggests. “That’s the thought?”
“That’s the thought,” Devin confirms.
“I don’t like this,” Aidan says. He looks to Ollie, desperate. “I don’t want to go with them. What if she’s already got Devin. What if—”
“Maybe I should go with you, instead?” Ollie suggests. “I’d probably be a better bet to stop her if something happens.”
Devin shakes her head. “She’s, like, a hundred pounds soaking wet. Besides, I’m not worried about proving this to you. I want to prove it to him.”
She turns to Aidan and Ollie frowns. She’s right, but Aidan is too scared to see the logic. All his vitriol boils down to the same thing, Ollie thinks. The same raw fear, curdling itself into anger.
Ollie puts a hand on Aidan’s shoulder. “If you go with them and come back telling me she’s legit, I’ll believe it. More than anyone else, because I know it’ll take a lot to convince you. You could save us.”
“But…” Aidan trails.
Hannah wraps an arm around Aidan’s shoulders, too. Together, they hold him and wait for his posture to soften. Softly, Hannah says, “Devin won’t let anything happen to you. And she’s right. We do need supplies.”
“We all want the same thing,” Ollie says. “Right?”
Aidan exhales. “I guess.”
“I’m not gonna let anything happen to you,” Devin says, crouching in front of Aidan. “Look me in the eyes. I have a clear head on this. I swear.”
Finally, Aidan nods. A breeze runs through the campsite, just lifting the edge of Sheridan’s tarp. Ollie catches a glimpse of her pale hand at her side, clenched in a fist.
“She’s…” Devin glances back at Sheridan, jaw tight. “She’s got stuff going on that she doesn’t want to tell you guys about. I think if you knew, you wouldn’t … I don’t know.”
Ollie looks over the crown of Aidan’s head to eye Devin, brow furrowed. “What kind of stuff?”
“I can’t tell you,” Devin says. “I’m just asking you to trust me.”
Aidan puts his head in his hands and the camp falls quiet, the crinkling tarp the only sound. Finally he stands, brushes himself off, and turns to the fire. “Okay. If I did go, would you guys be okay starting fires without me?”
Relief floods Ollie. “Yeah. I could do that.”
Aidan looks at him for a long moment. “Then I guess I’ll go save us.”