When Jay woke up, Quentin was still asleep but Nolan was gone. Jay found him in the living room, sitting on one of the couches and looking up sharply every time someone came from the hallway. He was obviously doing a mental headcount. Jay immediately scanned the room for Mickie, but she was nowhere to be seen. He looked in the kitchen and dining room, and asked Kyrie and Trinity if they'd seen her. Kyrie shrugged and shook her head. Trinity patted Jay on the arm and said, "Don't worry. Mickie's tough."

Still worried, Jay decided to join Nolan on the couch that faced the hall so he could watch for her.

Nolan nudged him with his elbow. "Why don't you just knock on her door?"

"Huh?"

"Mickie. It's really obvious that you like her. If you're worried, go knock on her door and see if she's okay."

Jay turned slightly pink. "I don't wanna seem like a stalker or some weird possessive freak."

"I don't think that's happening anytime soon," Nolan said.

They spent the next half hour in silence, watching people come from their rooms. Finally Mickie emerged from the hallway and Jay stood up. She noticed him and walked over. "Don't tell me you thought I was dead," she said with a laugh.

"No, but I did wanna make sure you were okay," Jay replied.

She smiled, and Jay noticed that her smiles never seemed genuine. She looked toward the window and said, "Looks like the snow let up a lot overnight. Anyone going out?"

"I'm planning to," Nolan said, "as soon as everyone's been accounted for."

Mickie followed Nolan's gaze back to the hall. "Who's still asleep?"

Nolan glanced at the paper in his lap that listed all their names and ages. There were checkmarks beside most of the names and a shaky line through Scott's. "Harper's the only one I haven't seen yet."

"Didn't Harper sleep alone last night?" Jay asked.

"I'll go check on her," Mickie said, heading to the hallway.

Nolan and Jay got up from the couch and followed after her. In the hallway, they stood nearby as Mickie knocked on Harper's door. When no answer came, Jay felt that familiar dread building in the pit of his stomach. Mickie called Harper's name, but there was still no answer. She tried opening the door but it was locked.

"This doesn't look good," she said.

"Step back, well break the door down," Nolan said.

Mickie stepped aside and Nolan and Jay stood against the wall opposite the door. They counted to three, then ran forward and rammed the door with their shoulders. The wood cracked slightly around the doorframe but it didn't open. They rammed it a second time and the door broke loose from the hinges and fell into Harper's room with a crash.

"Oh no," Nolan said as the icy air in the room filled their lungs. Harper's window was broken. There was blood all over her cot and a trail of it leading out the window.

Jay ran to the window and looked out. In the brightness of the day, he could clearly see splotches of bright red blood in the snow. "Hey, the blood isn't covered up this time! We can follow the trail!"

Nolan and Mickie were already headed to their rooms to get their coats. Jay had to push past a small crowd that had gathered in the hall to get his own. They met in the living room, where Kyrie and Trinity were waiting.

"I want to go too," Kyrie said.

Nolan opened the door and they filed out, then circled around toward Harper's window. The snow was falling faintly, nothing like the wild gusts from the day before, and Jay could see the forest surrounding the camp much more clearly. It was dark and ominous, full of towering pines. The snow was still deep enough to hinder them, so they walked carefully, single-file, until they reached the bloodied snow. They gathered around it and Jay's eyes tracked the red spots, and the large footprints beside them, as they made a line from Harper's window straight out toward the forest.

"Oh hell," Jay said, "we're gonna have to go in there, aren't we?"

Nolan's face was tense. "If we want to find out anything, yeah."

Trinity placed a hand on Jay's arm. "You can stay here if you want."

Her tone had been so flat that Jay couldn't tell if she was being nice or making fun of him. He gave an uneasy smile. "Nah, I'll stick with you guys."

The five of them walked as quickly as possible along the blood trail until they reached the edge of the woods. There was a small pause during which all of them seemed to take a deep breath before pressing on. The forest was quiet and dark, the trees blocking out most of the sunlight that had filled the yard of the camp. Occasionally they would hear snow falling from the branches and hitting the ground, but otherwise the forest was completely silent.

In front of Jay, Nolan suddenly stopped and held his hand up to signal the others to wait. He squatted down and raked his hands through the snow. "The trail ends here."

Jay looked down. The snow was pure white, not a hint of red anywhere, nor were there anymore footprints. "There's nothing here," Jay said, gesturing toward the trees that surrounded them.

Trinity looked back at the last drops of blood they had seen, several steps back. "The trail was pretty much making a straight line up til this point. Let's keep going straight. We might find something."

Everyone agreed, so they continued walking. Jay noticed that the snow seemed to be getting a little heavier, but he didn't say anything. The others had probably noticed too, and he didn't want to seem like he wanted to give up. Still, with the blood trail ending, it seemed unlikely that they would find Harper.

After walking for twenty more minutes, they came to a clearing and all of them stopped at the same time, looking up with shocked and confused faces. Before them stood a huge metal fence. Jay guessed it was at least twenty-five feet tall. It was made of iron bars that were rusty, but still looked strong. ,

"Oh my God," Trinity said, walking forward until she could reach out and touch the fence. The others did the same. The metal was so cold, Jay thought it was burning his fingers. He quickly pulled away and rubbed his hands together.

Nolan looked from side to side. "It keeps going for as far as I can see."

"We're trapped in here," Mickie said, gazing up at the fence with dark, unreadable eyes.

Kyrie still had her hands pressed against the metal, and Jay wondered how she could stand the pain. Her face was turned downward and she said, in a small voice, "We're being punished."

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"What?" Jay asked.

She didn't look up. "Maybe... maybe we're here for a reason. Maybe... this is punishment for all the bad things we've done."

Trinity frowned. "Hey, hold on. Maybe you've done something bad enough to deserve being locked up and killed by a pissed off Bigfoot, but I haven't. Don't go making assumptions about the rest of us."

Nolan interrupted them. "The snow's getting worse, we should head back for now."

No one else said anything as they began walking away from the fence. Kyrie trailed behind them, her eyes downcast. Jay couldn't help being curious about what she'd done that was so horrible, she thought she deserved this.

As they trudged through the snow, the wind picked up and whipped at their faces, making an eerie sound as it blew through the trees. Jay looked up toward the sky. "Is it my imagination, or is it getting darker already?"

Nolan was in front of the line and he answered without looking back. "It's not your imagination. The days must be shorter here. We're already losing light."

Mickie was walking directly in front of Jay. "We'd better hurry," she said. "We definitely don't want to be out here when it gets dark."

It took them longer to get back to camp than it did to reach the fence, partly because the weather was worse and the wind was slowing them down, and partly because they all felt dejected. It was clear now that they couldn't escape and couldn't find help. And if they were trapped there, whoever had taken Scott and Harper was trapped there with them.

The sun went down and darkness crept across the forest. To Jay, it seemed like the darkness was chasing them out of the trees as they broke free of the woods and entered the camp's yard. They could see several faces in the living room window, watching for their return.

Nolan was the first to the porch, so he opened the door and held it back for the rest of them. As Mickie passed through, the sound of howling pierced the silence of the evening and all of them jumped, startled by the sudden noise. Jay looked back at the forest, and though he spent the night convincing himself it had been his imagination, he thought he caught a glimpse of a tall, dark figure among the trees.

Safely inside the living room, warming themselves up near the fireplace, the five who had ventured into the woods found themselves being hammered with questions.

"Did you find Harper?"

"Did you see any houses?"

"Did you see a road?"

Trinity looked up with an impatient expression. "Hold on a minute. We'll explain everything as best we can," she said. "First of all, we didn't find Harper, or Scott."

"The trail ended in the middle of the woods," Nolan said. "We kept going in the same direction for a while after that until we had to stop."

"Why did you have to stop?" Diego asked.

"There's a huge metal fence out there," Kyrie said.

There were a few sounds of surprise and fear around the room. Quentin wheeled himself closer to Nolan and asked, "What's a fence doing out there?"

"To keep us trapped in here," Diego said, "right?"

Nolan nodded quietly.

"What about the monster?" Ginger asked. "Did you see it?"

"No monster," Mickie answered her. "Probably just a crazy person, but we didn't see anyone."

"So we still know nothing," Diego said, "except that there's a psychopath lurking around outside and we're completely trapped. That's fantastic. If anyone is dumb enough to sleep alone tonight, they deserve to get butchered."

Jay stepped closer to Mickie. "Still gonna go it alone?" he asked.

She gave him a half smile. "Are you trying to get me to bunk with you?"

"What? No! I mean... if you wanted to... but no, seriously, I'm just worried about you."

"I know, and I appreciate it," she said. "But don't worry, I'm staying with Trinity tonight."

Jay let out a sigh of relief. Between Mickie and Trinity, he almost felt sorry for whatever poor monster would try to attack two fierce girls like them.

"Alright everyone," Trinity called, "it's getting late so you better check your sleeping arrangements and get ready for lights out. Group up! Don't be alone for any reason! If anyone hears or sees anything at all, come tell me or Nolan."

Most of them were keeping the same arrangements from the night before, except Mickie and Trinity who were rooming together. Still, Jay went to Nolan's room and got his cot ready while waiting for the others to join him.

Nolan and Quentin were both quiet that night, and Jay didn't feel like joking around. The situation was getting worse by the day, and there was no indication that it would be getting better anytime soon. Jay closed his eyes and slid into a restless sleep.

A loud knocking at Nolan's door caused Jay to snap awake and sit up. In the dark, he could make out Nolan's form as the boy jumped out of bed and hurried to open the door. Jay joined him in time to see the dim light from the hall illuminate Kat's face.

"Leah is missing," she said simply.

"The mousey girl who never talks?" Jay asked.

Kat nodded. "We both had to use the bathroom, so we went together. I waited outside the door for her to finish, then went into the bathroom myself. She was supposed to wait in the hall for me, but when I opened the door, she was gone."

"Have you checked your room?" Nolan asked. By this time everyone else was coming out of their rooms upon hearing the commotion in the hall.

Kat nodded again. "I checked but she's not there."

"What about Leah's room?" Jay asked.

Kat looked down at the floor. "Her door is shut. I knocked but there was no answer. I didn't want to open it and look. Not by myself."

Jay was surprised by the hint of fear in Kat's voice. It was the first time she'd shown any sign of being afraid of anything.

Trinity and Mickie joined them as they headed to Leah's room.

"What would make Leah go back to her room instead of waiting for you?" Nolan asked.

"Maybe she went to get a tampon," Trinity said. "If she went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, then ran to her room, it makes sense."

Mickie nodded in agreement, and Kat said, "You're probably right. I saw blood on some toilet paper in the garbage can in the bathroom."

"That explains it then," Nolan said, and Jay wondered why the other boy didn't seem uncomfortable with the conversation. Then he remembered that Nolan had younger siblings, which probably included a younger sister.

They gathered outside Leah's room and Jay swallowed before placing a shaky hand on the doorknob. He glanced at the others, then swung the door open. The bitter wind stung their eyes as it blew in through the broken window. The scene was painfully familiar to them now: blood all over the cot and floor, leading out the window and into the snow outside.

Jay and the others backed out of the room and shut the door. The weather was too bad, and it was far too dark, for them to try following the trail into the woods again. Kat had lingered outside the room, and Jay realized she had never looked in the other rooms either, as if she was making sure to avoid seeing the blood. When she saw their faces, she understood immediately and left the hall without a word.

Nolan stood in the middle of the group outside Leah's room, eyes downcast and face tight. "New rules. Every night, we split into two groups. All the girls stay together. All the boys stay together. No exceptions. No one can be alone after the sun goes down. I don't care if you're taking a shit, someone better be in there with you."

For once, Diego had nothing to say. The others huddled together in the hall, waiting for sunrise. Jay sat between Nolan and Mickie. Trinity, on the other side of Nolan, stood up and began to speak. "I think we should go over some facts," she said, "Number one, the attacks only happen at night. We can't be sure they won't happen during the day though, so everyone should stay on their guard no matter what time it is. Number two, only one person is taken each night. Whoever is doing this had a great opportunity to get several of us the first night, when we were all alone and vulnerable, but they only took one. I think this is important."

"That's probably why there's plenty of food," Mickie said, "Whoever trapped us here wanted to make sure we survived at least thirteen nights."

"But who's doing this?" Quentin asked.

Diego stood up. "Forget who! It's some lunatic in the woods! I wanna know why. Why did it have to be us? Why were we sent here?"

The hallway was quiet for several moments, then Mickie spoke up. "I think I know."

Jay looked at her. In the dark, he couldn't see her expression, but he felt her body go tense next to him. "What?"

"I think I know why it had to be us," Mickie said.

Diego stomped over to where she was sitting. "Then tell us!" he screamed impatiently.

There was a pause, then Mickie asked, "How well do you all get along with your parents?"

Jay hadn't been expecting the question, but he suddenly imagined his mother's face, angry, bitter, disappointed. Always disappointed.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Diego asked.

Mickie's body tensed again beside Jay. He heard her exhale softly before she went on. "Around a week ago, I was using my dad's computer and I found a weird website in his browser history. It was a place to sign up if you want your child to 'disappear'. The site said it was a free service, and all you had to do was fill in some information about your child and submit a picture."

Jay felt his stomach tighten. He suddenly felt colder. "You think... our parents sent us here?"

"That's crazy!" Diego yelled.

"Is it?" Mickie asked, raising her face to look at him. "How's your relationship with your parents, Diego?"

Diego was silent for several seconds, then he said, "That's none of your business!" and sat back down.

"You can believe it if you want. Actually, it might be better for you guys if you don't believe it," Mickie said, "but I'm certain my dad sent me here to get rid of me. That's probably what happened to all of you."

The wind whipped against the camp and in the darkened hall, Jay could hear Ginger begin to cry.