Page 23 of Unfinished Desire
Isla’s mouth opened and closed like a fish.
Petra gave a single, slow nod, as if that reaction alone confirmed everything. And honestly? It probably did. But was it really that obvious? And if it was, well then, the entire camp must be thinking the same thing Petra was thinking. And they’d all be correct.
Yes, something had happened.
“You know what, I don’t care,” Petra said, stepping back. Then she waited a beat, staring at Isla as if she were a parent and considering whether or not to ground her. “What I care about is whether your head is clear for tonight’s vote.”
“Crystal clear,” Isla said quickly. “It can’t get any clearer.”
Petra took another moment to consider this. Her eyebrows, which were perfectly tapered at the edges, raised up together before flattening out. “Fine, it should be a straightforward vote,” she said finally.
“Kendall and Abigail will be at the bottom,” Isla said. “Then if they choose to go to The Sending, which they will, we’ll put all the votes on Abigail.”
Petra nodded, looking satisfied. “We’ve got the majority. Aggie and Josie are on the same page. I’m assuming Tamsyn is too.”
“She is,” Isla said, not entirely sure why Petra was so intent on sending Abigail home when Kendall seemed the more obvious choice. She’d played the game before; she’d gotten pretty far too. She was an endurance athlete and a surgical nurse, which meant she had stamina and a level head under pressure. On paper, she was far more dangerous.
The only reasonable explanation Isla could come up with was that, with Janelle gone—apparently the rumors that they’d hooked up were just that, rumors—Kendall might be easier to pull into future votes. Abigail, on the other hand, was a different kind of threat.
With that smoky voice of hers, she was strangely magnetic. Barra, especially, turned into a malfunctioning robot around her. The woman was smitten. Which was dangerous for everyone.
Not that any of that mattered. Isla would vote for anyone as long as it meant she could stay a few more days in the game. Frankly—and this wasn’t the strategy she’d hoped to play; she didn’t want to be anyone’s puppet—she was just glad the Red Gum Rebels hadn’t gone behind their backs and tossed them out of the alliance. Or at least she hoped that wasn’t the case. In a game likeOutlast Her, no one was safe.
“Good,” Petra said, then bent down and picked up the water bottles. “Now let’s get these filled up before we take too long. You know how the girls talk.”
Chapter Fourteen
Tamsyn found the walk back to camp after The Sending almost as terrifying as The Sending itself. Which was ridiculous because she was still here in the game, safe and sound, for another few days. It was just that the walk back was always done in near-total darkness, and the path was all roots and loose shale and the occasional branch that reached out and tried to clothesline you. The moon was completely absent tonight, leaving the sky an endless spill of stars, though offering no form of light on the ground. She could barely even see Isla in front of her. Not to mention, apart from the occasional distant dingo howl and the dry chirr of crickets, the silence was thick enough to cut. Nobody said a word.
They never did.
This was the decompression walk. The silent autopsy of the evening’s events, where everyone introspectively processed Abigail being sent home and considered the newest pairing: Kendall and Frankie, who, to Frankie’s relief, could participate in challenges again.
Everything had gone as smoothly as creamy yogurt. But even so, Tamsyn had felt the hunch. Which was basically just a faint prickle at the back of her neck, as if someone had leaned in too close and exhaled. It was her internal smoke alarm. A warning that something wasn’t as it appeared. Except this time, and like most other times, she had no idea what that warning was.
The first thing Tamsyn spotted when they reached the campsite was the fire. She was quite sure a production member stayed behind to ensure the flames didn’t leap into the nearbytrees or spinifex. But now the fire had dwindled to a shallow bed of embers. She took it upon herself to stoke the embers while everyone gathered around it.
“I’m ready for bed,” Dominique said, yawning so loud it echoed off distant rocks.
“Me too,” Petra said, already turning toward the shelter.
“Shouldn’t we do a little reflection?” Kendall asked. It had become customary for theOutlast Hercontestants to come together after The Sending and mention three things they’d miss most about the person leaving.
“You’re right,” Petra said, pausing for a second before she turned back toward the fire. The others remained where they were too, each one staring down at the flames like Abigail herself might flicker to life in the curling orange tongues.
“I’ll go first,” Barra said. Was Tamsyn imagining it, or was there a little shudder in her voice? “The first time I ever met Abigail, I told her she looked like the spitting image of a young Lisa Marie Presley. She didn’t know who that was.”
Laughter rolled around the circle.
“She was aTrue Crimefanatic,” Josie added. “On the second day here, we were sitting in the creek and she started telling us about this unsolved murder in a tiny Outback town that’s apparently not that far from here. She described every detail, like the victim’s shoes, blood splatter, you name it. I know she’s a firefighter, but I think she missed her calling to be a detective or something.”
More laughs rippled through the clearing, including Tamsyn, whose only real conversation with Abigail had involved Ted Bundy and why she agreed with Matt DeLisi—a criminologist—that there were more victims out there.
“She had the best voice I’ve ever heard in my life,” Barra added, going again. “Her rendition ofPink Pony Clubwas hauntingly perfect. I still get chills just thinking about it.”
“I’m going to miss her singing every time she walked back from Moon Pit,” Kendall said. “Especially when she’d belt outTalking to the Moon. I love that song.”
“She loved anything Ed Sheeran,” Dominique added. “And Florence and the Machine. I can’t get the lyrics toCosmic Loveout of my head because that’s all she sang before bed.”
