Page 71 of The Weekend Getaway

Alex …?

He was the only one with the balls to kill him. Sarah had said that was Alex’s plan. Phil could imagine Alex committing murder. But why tie him up and leave him … where the hell was he? Blinking, Phil glanced around. The sun was setting. Coppery orange rays provided enough light to see walls of rock and stone, some of them covered with a film of furry green algae.

Why would Alex leave him in a cave?

Fighting fear and frustration, Phil stared at the linen pants he’d been wearing when he arrived on the island. Torn and filthy, they were stained with dirt and his own urine. But the stench wafting around him, like a putrid perfume, wasn’t excrement. Phil sniffed. Rotting eggs and the sharp, pungent smell of … ammonia …?

What the?—

His gaze drifted to the left side of the cave wall.

Someone was in the cave with him. Propped against the wall. Who was …

Phil squinted.

There were several people in the cave, leaning against the wall, their legs stretched out in front of them. He frowned. Something was wrong …

As his eyes began to water, Phil focused on the people. Not people. Bodies. Dead bodies.

Dismembered … no, not dismembered. There were limbs, arms, and legs with dark purple discolorations pooling beneath the pale, waxy skin …

The bodies were … decapitated.

There were no heads on the bodies.

Moaning, Phil looked away.

The heads were lined in a row on the other side of the wall, each of them swarming with flies, buzzing around the eyes and mouth.

Phil counted four heads.

Four blowfly-infested faces he recognized.

Alex. Grace. Chris.

And … Mia.

Shaking his head, Phil squeezed his eyes shut, trying to force the horrible images from his mind, trying to think, to understand, to figure out what the hell was happening. And why? Why were Alex and Grace and Chris and Mia dead? Why were their heads cut off? Who had?—

A thud landed next to him.

Startled,Phil opened his eyes.

Sarah lay on the ground next to him, unconscious, eyes closed, mouth slightly parted, and for a moment, Phil went back in time, fifteen years ago, at his party, when he’d seen Sarah on the bed and she wasn’t moving and?—

“Well … you’re awake.”

Fear and confusion colliding within him, Phil looked up.

Jason smiled at him.

CHAPTER 63

SARAH

Sarah hit the ground hard.

She gasped as pain spiraled from her hip, through her abdomen, and to her shoulder, radiating up the side of her neck. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she tasted dirt, felt the fine sands between her teeth as she smelled damp earth and … and something vile, something putrid, invaded her nostrils.

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