Page 71 of Only If You're Lucky
“I wish it was him. It should have been him.”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” I say instead, head swimming, a slow heat starting to crawl up the back of my throat.
I turn around and walk away from the water, toward the direction of the tent before taking a turn and going inland instead. I approach the trees quickly, the foliage growing denser the farther I get from the shore, and I keep my eyes down, watch where I’m stepping. Trying not to think too hard about Lucas on the boat and his comment about all the other creatures we’re sharing the place with; all the deadly things that lurk in the shadows, just waiting for an unassuming something to stumble across their path. Finally, I chance a glance up and spot a clearing a few feet in front of me, another little patch of sand in the distance with water retreating on the other side. I keep my eyes lifted, my gaze trained forward until my foot hooks around a root and I start to fall.
“Shit,” I hiss, just barely catching myself.
I shake my leg free and look down, realizing, too late, that it’s not a root. Instead, my foot got caught on something else entirely: a human arm stretched out in front of me, long and lean andcovered in dirt. I feel something catch in my throat—shock, fear, a horrible knowing locked deep inside—and before I can stop myself, I let out a scream, shrill and haunting, before the sharp swell of vomit comes barreling out.
CHAPTER 53
It doesn’t take long for the others to find me.
I can hear them before I see them, the snapping of twigs and leaves as they run in my direction, calling my name. My scream suspended in the air around me and my pile of vomit steaming warm in the cool morning air.
“Margot!”
They must think I’ve stumbled upon some kind of animal, visions of me clutched in the jaws of an alligator, limbs ripping as it drags me away. I recognize Lucas’s voice first, just a few yards behind me, but I still can’t move. I still can’t speak. All I can do is stare down at the body beneath me, facedown in the mud. At the back of his head, moppy brown hair all tangled and torn. The same head I saw staring into the distance from beneath the deck-board slats almost three years ago; those long, tan arms, so muscular and toned, once holding a cigarette as he stood just above, now strewn about in all the wrong angles.
“Margot, are you okay?”
Lucas appears beside me and places his hand on my arm, slowand delicate. Like he’s afraid I might break. I can feel the moment he sees it, too: his tightening fingers, the intake of air.
The back of Levi’s neck, all marbled in bruises.
“Oh shit,” he says, letting go of me before pushing both of his hands through his hair. I turn to look at him just in time to register the color drain from his skin. “Oh shit, oh shit.”
“What is it?”
Sloane jogs up behind us before coming to an abrupt halt, her eyes bulging impossibly wide. Nicole just behind her, her face ghost-white.
“What’s going on?”
I hear Trevor’s voice next, more irritated than anything, and twist around to see a handful of people trickling in behind him, too nosy to stay put on shore. I step to the side, mechanically letting him through, and watch as he follows everyone’s gaze before registering the body lying limp in the mud.
“What is this?” he asks before turning to look at me, his voice picking up an octave. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” I say, finally finding my own. “I just… found him here.”
“What do you mean you justfound him here?”
“I just found him,” I repeat. “I came out here and I… I tripped. I thought it was a root, or a branch, or…”
I stop, shaking my head, shock settling over me. Making me numb.
“Butler,” Trevor says, turning back toward the body before nudging Levi’s side with his shoe. We all flinch as it sags back into the mud, almost like we expected him to spring up and pounce. “Butler, get up.”
“Trevor—” Nicole starts, but he ignores her, pushing the torso with his foot again.
“Butler, get the fuck up,” he says, louder. “He’s passed out.”
“He’s not passed out—”
“Yes, he is,” Trevor says, nudging him harder. The toe of his shoe pushing deeper and deeper as he tries to rouse Levi awake. We’re all still, too afraid to move. To breathe. Just like last night, watching Trevor and Levi fight in the dark. Like if we just stand here, statue-still, we might blend into the trees and disappear.
“Butler!”Trevor yells, kicking his side, and before anyone can even realize what’s happening, he charges toward Levi and grabs his shoulder, rolling him over so he’s flat on his back.
“Trevor, what are youdoing?” Nicole screams, lunging forward, but Sloane holds her back before she can get too far. “Don’t touch him! He’sdead.”
