The Missing by Kiersten Modglin (essential books to read txt) 📕

sense in my muddled mind. It couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t. I glanced back down, forcing myself to read it again.

Kill your friends, save yourself.

Only one of you will leave alive.

Chapter Eight

We didn’t know how to react to the note. If you asked each of us, you might get different answers about why we did it, but the truth was, we only hid it because we were trying to figure out what to do with the new information.

Had one of the other members of our group planted it? James or Noah were the only ones who’d been away from the three of us, but we’d kept an eye on James most of the time and, for all we knew, Noah still hadn’t returned from doing whatever the hell he was doing.

So, what then? Where did that leave us?

We had to believe someone else was on the island. Someone who, at the very least, knew what had happened, and at the worst, had constructed the whole thing. But why? What did they want with us?

Harry believed we should tell them all. He said everyone should have the information we did, that it was only fair. Ava and I thought differently. We’d seen both Noah and James acting foolish and pigheaded since we’d arrived, and that was without the knowledge that we were potentially meant to be fending for ourselves and taking each other out one by one in some sort of Hunger Games-esque challenge, so I was worried things would only get worse if they knew what the note said.

Our side of the argument won out when I pointed out that Noah was the only one with a weapon.

So, as the weight of our newfound information sat heavily on us, Harry tucked the note into his pocket and we made our way back out to the shore, where James finally had both a small and large fire going.

“This work?” he asked when he saw us heading his direction across the sand.

Harry bent down and studied both fires closely before standing back up. “You did a really good job, actually.” There was a sincerity in his tone that seemed to catch James off guard.

“No big deal. I was in Boy Scouts as a kid,” he said, shrugging with his hands in his pockets. “It’s one of the only things I remember.”

“Well, you’ve done really well. We’ll want to set up a sort of ramp with different logs, so that when one burns out, the next one replaces it and keeps the fire going constantly, but we can do that later.” He sighed, rubbing his hands together. “Now, this isn’t going to be a foolproof process, but if we can find the largest seashells with a big base to hold water and then some palm leaves, I can try to construct something to hold condensation from the sea water we’ll gather.”

“Will that work?” Ava asked.

“In theory?” Harry said, obviously unsure. “Maybe. But it’s not guaranteed. It’s why we need to look for an actual water source…and soon.” He glanced toward me, then at my shoulder. “You’re already starting to get sunburned.”

I followed his gaze toward the red patches on my shoulders. I’d be willing to bet my face looked the same. “I burn easily,” I told him. “No big deal.”

“Out here it is,” he said. “We don’t have aloe or salve to treat the burns, so they could easily get infected. Not to mention that they’ll make you dehydrate quicker. You need to stand in the shade whenever possible.” He directed me toward the shade with the wave of his finger. “Anyone else starting to burn?”

Ava checked her own dark shoulders and shook her head. “I’m good.”

James did the same, shoving back the sleeves of his white T-shirt quickly before confirming that I, with my pale skin and freckles, was the only one who had managed to burn in just a few hours on the beach.

“Well, she’s also the only one wearing hardly any clothes,” James said, his eyes trailing down the length of my body in a way that made my stomach tighten. I wrapped the sarong around myself tighter, keeping my arms folded.

“Well, it’s not exactly like I was packing for a trip here, was I?” I demanded.

“Hey, you won’t hear me complaining,” he said, his hands up in the air innocently, though the devilish look in his eye didn’t evaporate.

“Anyway,” Harry interrupted firmly, “we need to get to work. The sun’s already higher in the sky, and once it reaches its highest point, it’s going to be miserable out here.” He looked back toward me, where I now stood several feet away. “If we’re going to look for fresh water and others on the island, we should get this done in just a few minutes and then head out. The good news is, most of our search will be covered by the trees, so you won’t burn anymore for today.”

“So what are we looking for?” Ava asked, glancing out toward the ocean. “Seashells?” She started walking toward the sand without further prompting.

“Yeah”—Harry joined her—“the biggest ones we can find. We want something that can hold quite a bit of water since we don’t have any pans or bottles of our own.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to help?” I asked, feeling useless standing there watching as the three of them searched the shore.

“You can look for leaves,” Harry called back after a moment. “The biggest, cleanest palm leaves you can find. Just stay in the shade.”

I huffed, turning away from them and beginning to search the tree line for any such leaves. Moments after I’d gathered a few under my arms, I heard a rustle in the jungle ahead of me. I froze, trying to decide where the movement had come from. Had I imagined it?

I stood completely still, quieting even my breathing as I watched the trees blowing in the breeze. The visibility in the jungle wasn’t great. In fact, someone could disappear just a few