Page 2 of Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

“It happened over there.” I set off again, ignoring the pulsing pain in my head.

We soon came upon a bloodied, broken body on the road. Stomach sinking, I crouched down, grabbed his shoulder, and rolled him over. My eyes widened, and I stumbled back onto my ass, dread filling me.

“Oh, shit!” Evelyn exclaimed, her voice laced with panic.

On the ground was none other than Nate, the quarterback and town hero. I looked around at the quiet road, trying to piece together what he was doing out here in the middle of fucking nowhere. “Why was he here? Walking in the pouring rain?”

“It’s a bit late to ask questions now. What do we do with him?”

I frowned, rising to my feet. “What do you mean, what do we do? We call for help. Get the emergency services out here.”

“Are you crazy?” Evelyn all but shrieked, gesturing to Nate’s body covered in blood and broken limbs. “We’ll go to jail.”

“It was an accident,” I pointed out, shivering. “We didn’t mean to kill him.”

She stared at me, glared at me, and then she slid her hands into her hair. “You were driving under the influence, Skyler. And I have taken drugs tonight. Illegal drugs.”

Of course she cared more about her own reputation—the sports scholarship to that prestigious university she wouldn’t stop talking about.

“We can’t just leave him here.” I gestured wildly toward the embankment. “What about your fucking car?”

Lowering her hands, she blinked down at Nate, deep in thought. “My father can make it go away.”

Evelyn came from money, unlike me. Her father doted on her with lavish gifts to make up for the fact that he was rarely home.

She nodded, having made her mind up. “We move the body, and I’ll have my father tow the car away. No one has to find out about the crash.”

“There’s only one flaw in your plan,” I sneered, cold and exhausted, as I pointed at the body. “He’s built like a tank. How far do you think we can carry him?”

“I don’t know, alright?” Her voice was thick with frustration and desperation. “I don’t care, Skyler. We don’t have a choice.” She scanned the road, the woods, Nate.

Rubbing my aching temples, I cursed under my breath when Evelyn walked up to Nate’s body and grabbed him by the ankles. “You lift him below the armpits.”

It took us hours to carry him down the deserted road in the pouring rain. Neither of us spoke. I was numb the entire time, my mind protecting me from the horror of what was happening. This was the boy I had harbored an innocent crush on. The unattainable footballer who barely exchanged pleasantries with me, and now I was carrying his corpse down the road.

“This should be far enough,” she finally said, shuffling over to the side of the road and dropping his feet to the ground. “Now it looks like a hit-and-run.”

“How can you be so calm about this?” I questioned, lowering him down onto the wet ground. My arms burned from exertion, and when I straightened, she was staring into the woods with a faraway look. “I’m not calm.” Her voice was as haunted as I felt. “But what is done is done. We can’t change it.” She looked back at me, her eyes blazing with determination. “I refuse to lose my chance at a scholarship and ruin my future because of an accident. You said it yourself; we didn’t mean to kill him.”

I hated to admit that she was right. If we called this in, it would destroy her future, and I would end up in jail. It didn’t matter that it’d been an accident. I was driving under the influence. I could go away for a long time.

Evelyn set off walking down the road, calling out over her shoulder. “Come on, we need to get the car towed away before his body gets discovered.”

PART ONE

CHAPTER

ONE

SKYLER

ONE YEAR LATER

Istartled awake, shooting upright in bed, with my matted hair stuck to my cheeks, my heart thudding hard against my ribcage.

The nightmare still lingered at the fringes of my consciousness. They were happening more regularly now, and I knew it was because the one-year anniversary was coming up next week.

That night changed my life for the worse. Evelyn’s father had the car towed within the hour, and by the next day, Nate’s body had been discovered. Nate’s death was ruled a hit-and-run, and no one was ever charged for his murder.

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