For a long moment, none of them spoke. The phone screen went dark in Jade's hand, swallowing Rachel's desperate face back into the void.
Sophie's sobs shattered the silence. "She was trying to tell us. She wanted to warn us—"
"Warn us about who?" Mia snapped. "Who was she running from?"
Emily's pulse roared in her ears. Rachel's last words tangled in her mind: Don't trust
Her stomach churned. Whoever Rachel had meant… it had to be one of them.
Jade slammed the phone shut, shoving it into her bag. "We can't stay here. Not now."
But Emily couldn't move. Her gaze flicked from Sophie's tear-streaked face to Mia's pale, furious one, then to Jade's cold, unreadable expression. For the first time, she felt like she didn't know them at all.
Her phone buzzed. Then the others'.
Four messages, identical:"Don't trust the ones beside you. Secrets cut deeper than knives. – R"
Emily's throat closed. "They… they know what she said. They wanted us to hear it."
"Or they wanted to twist it," Jade said, her tone sharp, though a flicker of doubt crossed her eyes. "Make us paranoid. Turn us against each other."
"It's working," Mia muttered, hugging herself. "Because I'm already asking myself… which one of you would do this?"
Sophie flinched. "You think it's us? That one of us is… is R?"
"Why not?" Mia snapped. "Who else could get into Emily's room? Who else would know about our secrets? About Rachel?"
Emily shook her head so hard it made her dizzy. "No. We've known each other since forever. We" Her words faltered. Hadn't she thought the same thing earlier? What if R is one of us?
Another buzz cut through the tension.
This time, only Sophie's phone lit up.
Her trembling hands lifted it. "It's for me," she whispered. She swallowed hard and read aloud:
"Truth: Tell them who you kissed that night. Or I will. – R"
Emily's heart stuttered. "What night?"
Sophie's face crumpled. "I… I can't."
Jade stepped closer, her voice low and dangerous. "Who was it, Soph?"
Sophie shook her head, tears spilling down her cheeks. "It doesn't matter. It was a mistake. Please—"
Her phone buzzed again. She glanced at the screen and went white. Without a word, she shoved it into Emily's hands.
The message glared up at them:"She kissed Rachel. – R"
Mia gasped. Jade's mouth tightened.
Emily's chest caved in. The woods spun around her. "Is it true?" she whispered.
Sophie buried her face in her hands, sobbing.
Another buzz. This time, all four phones.
"See how easy it is? You never really knew her. You never really knew each other. – R"
Emily's breath came in shallow gasps. Secrets were unraveling faster than they could hold them together.
Rachel had been trying to warn them. But the warning wasn't just about R.
It was about the lies they'd buried. Lies that were finally clawing their way to the surface.
Mia's voice sliced through the clearing. "So that's it? You were sneaking around with Rachel behind our backs?"
Sophie's sobs came harder. "It wasn't like that. It was one time—one mistake."
"Then why hide it?" Mia's eyes blazed. "Unless you did have something to do with what happened to her."
"Stop," Emily said, but her voice was too thin, too fragile. "We can't turn on each other—"
Jade stepped closer to Sophie, her face inches away. "Did Rachel tell you something that night? Did she confide in you?"
"I don't know!" Sophie wailed. "She kissed me, I kissed her back, and then she laughed and said I didn't know what I was getting into. That's all!"
The words hung in the air like poison.
"What you didn't know?" Emily whispered. "What did she mean?"
Before Sophie could answer, all their phones vibrated at once.
Emily's hands shook as she read:"Secrets, secrets… they make such pretty girls ugly. Want another? – R"
Mia's phone buzzed again, seconds later. She went pale.
"What is it?" Jade demanded.
Mia's jaw tightened. "Nothing."
Emily's stomach sank. "Mia…"
Mia shoved her phone into her pocket, glaring at the ground. "It's none of your business."
Another buzz. Emily's own phone lit up, a message addressed to all of them:"She's lying. Ask Mia about the pills. – R"
Emily's chest constricted. Her voice cracked. "The pills? Is that true?"
Mia's lip trembled, but her anger flared fast. "Oh, so we're doing this now? Picking me apart? Fine. Yes, I take them. Anti-anxiety. Happy? I didn't want anyone to know because people judge, and R obviously knows that. But that doesn't make me a killer!"
The woods felt smaller, darker, the four of them trapped in their own secrets.
Jade's phone buzzed next. She hesitated before turning the screen for them to see.
"Jade, you're not as tough as you pretend. Tell them what you did to Rachel. – R"
Emily's blood ran cold. "What does that mean?"
Jade's expression didn't flicker. "It means R is trying to turn us against each other. And if you let them, we're finished."
But Emily saw it—the tiny crack in Jade's armor. The way her hands shook, the way her jaw clenched. There was something she wasn't saying.
Sophie whispered, "Rachel said don't trust someone. What if… what if it was one of us after all?"
The silence that followed was unbearable.
Then Emily's phone buzzed one last time.
She lifted it with trembling hands, the words slicing across the screen like a blade:
"Rachel trusted the wrong friend. Don't make the same mistake. – R"
Mia pointed a shaking finger at Jade. "You didn't even deny it. 'What you did to Rachel'? What the hell does that mean, Jade?"
Jade's eyes flashed. "It means R is a manipulative psycho who wants us tearing each other apart. And congratulations—it's working."
Sophie wiped her cheeks with trembling hands. "But Rachel said don't trust… what if she was talking about you?"
Jade's fists clenched at her sides. "Careful, Soph."
Emily stepped between them, her voice breaking. "Stop it! This is exactly what they want."
But Mia's voice was sharp, unrelenting. "Or maybe it's exactly what we should've realized a long time ago. Rachel disappears, Jade magically finds her phone in the dirt, and now R sends messages that sound like they're written just for her? Doesn't that seem a little too perfect?"
Jade's jaw tightened, but her eyes flickered, just for a second, with something Emily had never seen before—fear.
Her phone buzzed again.
Jade didn't move.
"Read it," Sophie whispered.
Jade swallowed, then unlocked her screen. The message glowed in the pale moonlight:
"Tell them about the fight. Or I will. – R"
Emily's stomach dropped. "What fight?"
Jade's face was carved from stone. "It was nothing."
Mia barked out a humorless laugh. "Nothing? Are you serious? You think you can just say 'nothing' and we'll believe you?"
Emily's hands trembled. "Jade… please. If there's something we don't know, you need to tell us."
Jade's eyes narrowed. "The night before she disappeared… Rachel and I argued. That's it. People argue. It doesn't mean I killed her."
Sophie's voice was small. "What about?"
Jade looked away. The silence was answer enough.
Another buzz.
Emily's phone lit this time, the message stabbing into her chest:
"She told Rachel the truth. That's why Rachel ran. – R"
Emily's mouth went dry. "The truth? What truth?"
Jade's head snapped up, fury in her eyes. "Don't. Don't listen to them. They twist everything."
But the words rang hollow. Emily could feel it. There was something Jade wasn't saying—something big.
Mia crossed her arms. "If you're keeping secrets, you're no better than R."
Jade took a step closer, her voice low and dangerous. "Say that again."
Emily shoved herself between them. Her whole body shook. "Enough! Don't you see? We're falling apart, and Rachel's still gone, and R is winning."
Her phone buzzed in her hand.
She looked down, her blood freezing.
"Tick tock, Em. You're running out of time. – R"
Emily felt the ground sway beneath her. Running out of time for what?
The clearing vibrated with tension, every breath sharp enough to cut.
Mia took a step toward Jade, her fists balled at her sides. "You think you can scare me into shutting up? Go ahead, try."
Jade's eyes narrowed. "You don't want me to."
Sophie sobbed harder, clutching her hoodie like it could shield her from all of them. "Stop, please. You're scaring me."
Emily raised her hands, desperate to calm them down. "We're supposed to be friends—"
"Were we?" Mia spat, her voice venomous. "Because Rachel's gone, Sophie was hiding kisses, Jade was hiding fights, and you—" She turned on Emily, her eyes like knives. "You've been quiet this whole time. What are you hiding?"
Emily's breath caught. "Nothing—"
Her phone buzzed. She didn't want to look, didn't want another wound carved open. But the others were already staring.
Shaking, she unlocked the screen.
"Tell them about the box under your bed. – R"
Emily's stomach dropped. "No. No, they're lying."
Mia lunged forward. "Show us."
Emily backed away, panic rising like bile. "It's nothing. Just old stuff."
Jade's voice was icy. "What kind of stuff?"
Before Emily could answer, Sophie's phone buzzed again. She gasped, reading aloud before she could stop herself:
"Her diary. Rachel's. Emily has it. – R"
The world spun.
Three sets of eyes locked on Emily.
"That's not true," Emily whispered, her throat burning. "I—"
But her voice cracked, betraying her.
Sophie's face twisted in betrayal. "You had her diary? All this time?"
Tears burned Emily's eyes. "I didn't steal it! She gave it to me the week before she… before she disappeared. She said I was the only one she could trust. I didn't tell you because—because I thought it would make things worse."
"Worse than this?" Mia's voice was shrill. "You let us dig up her jacket, chase shadows, fight each other, while you've been sitting on the one thing that could tell us what happened?"
Jade's hands curled into fists. "Where is it, Emily?"
Emily shook her head, terror choking her. "If I show you, it'll just tear us apart more. Please."
Her phone buzzed again.
The message chilled her blood:"If you don't show them, I will. – R"
A crack echoed through the woods. A branch snapping under someone's weight.
The girls froze, heads whipping toward the darkness.
"Someone's here," Sophie whispered, her voice trembling.
Another snap, closer this time.
Emily's phone lit up one last time, the glow searing through the dark:
"RUN. – R"