“Don’t react,” I whisper, my voice barely audible.
Luke goes still beside me. Brady shifts slightly, not obviously, but enough that I know he heard me.
“What?” Luke murmurs under his breath.
“Behind us. Tree line,” I say, keeping my eyes forward now, forcing myself not to look again. “It’s him.”
There’s a pause. A single, heavy second.
“Fuck," Brady mutters.
“Don’t turn around,” I add quickly. “He’s watching us.”
Another firework goes off, making me flinch this time, lighting everything up for a split second, and I see it again out of the corner of my eye—his face, that calm, sick look like this is exactly how he wanted it to play out.
“He’s too close,” Luke says quietly.
“I know.”
“We go back to the camper?” Brady asks.
“No,” I say immediately, panic spiking. “No, we can’t. He’ll follow us there. He knows where it is.”
“Truck?” Luke asks.
I nod once. “Truck.”
There’s another pause, shorter this time.
“Okay,” Brady says. “We get up normally. No rushing.”
“Okay,” I whisper, even though everything in me is screaming to run.
“On three,” Luke murmurs. “One… two…”
We stand. My legs feel shaky, but I force them to move like nothing is wrong. Like we’re just another group heading out early. My hands are clenched at my sides, nails digging into my palms, trying to keep myself grounded.
I don’t look back. I don’t need to. I can feel him. We make it maybe five steps before I hear footsteps behind us. Not fast. Not slow. “Don’t run,” Brady mutters.
“I’m trying,” I whisper. The crowd is still around us, people laughing, pointing at the sky, completely unaware of what’s happening just a few feet away. If he has a gun… if he does something here… He will hurt someone.
“We’re not stopping,” Luke says under his breath. We don’t. We keep walking, cutting around the edge of the crowd, heading straight for the truck. The distance feels longer now, every step dragging, every second stretching too thin. The footsteps behind us don’t fade. They get closer. Somehow, they are the loudestsound out here. Maybe it’s all in my head. It’s like I am creating the sounds because that’s what I expect.
“Keys,” Brady says.
“I’ve got them,” Luke replies, already digging them out.
We reach the truck, and the doors open. I climb in, hands shaking so badly I can barely grab the handle. Brady slides in beside me while Luke circles to the driver’s side, unlocking it just as he yanks the door open. I risk one look, and Austin is still there. He swings his leg over a bike. It looks like a dual-purpose bike, meaning he can follow us off-road, too.
“Go,” I say, my voice breaking.
Luke doesn’t hesitate. The engine roars to life, tires spitting gravel as he throws it into gear and floors it out of the lot. We leave behind everything, the camper, our belongings, our phones…
I turn in my seat, watching through the back window as the distance grows. Austin doesn’t chase, but the bike is running. We know this isn't over, and so does he.
Like he always told me, I will never escape him.
Chapter Four