I was prepared for something strange that time around, so it was almost more unnerving when nothing happened.

  Ava’s eyes widened. “Over there!”

  I turned to follow where she was looking. On the range, there were two humans. It looked like a boy and a girl, but I couldn’t be sure from that distance.

  Before I could think more about it, Ava was running towards the range. The boys chased after her without hesitation, but I waited. My legs were actually starting to ache from all the things I’d put them through. A ten-minute bike ride through hills, a mile hike through the woods, and now all this running. Jesus, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d exercised that much.

  I pushed away the idea of just sitting there and stood up with a groan. I picked up the Journal and ran after the others.

  Once I got to the range, the memory was already in full swing. Ava, Tyler, and Jake were standing in a semi-circle around two teenagers, a boy and a girl, who were sitting on the first level of the range. I assumed the boy was Colin and the girl was Abigial.

  Abigail looked less confident here than she had in the memory where she’d been a little girl. She seemed visibly uncomfortable and kept fiddling with her hands. Colin was oblivious to this, however. He hummed as he positioned the little basket and fiddled with an expensive looking camera.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” Colin said as Abigail stared out around the range.

  “Um... Yes, it’s amazing.”

  Colin nodded in a self-satisfied way. “My dad used to take me here way back when. Father-son bonding over gold. Classic stuff.”

  “Oh, Colin I’m so sorry to hear about your father.” Abigail scratched her ear nervously. The way she was acting hinted that her comment was more loaded than it seemed at face value.

  “Nah, don’t sweat it,” he beamed at her. “I hated him anyways.”

  Abigail looked put off by that. “Right. Uh, I really do have to get bac home soon. I’ve got piano lessons.”

  Colin’s smile didn’t falter. “Piano can wait, Abby. We’ll only get this moment once.”

  Abigail turned back to the view and frowned. Colin must’ve thought that was the perfect time to shoot his shot because he touched her jaw and turned her face towards his. She pulled away quickly.

  Colin drew back in confusion. Finally, that cocky smirk left his face.

  “I’m sorry but I can’t do this! I’ve been trying to tell you I don’t have feelings for you, and I just want to be friends but you’re not listening!”

  “But- but Abigail I thought-”

  “I’ll see you later, okay?” She stood up and looked at him for a long moment. Then she turned on her heel and ran away. And promptly disappeared.

  “Ouch,” Jake muttered next to me.

  I felt bad for the kid. Colin sat there for a long time. He was staring directly at us, or directly at our legs anyway, but he couldn’t see us.

  He picked up his camera and held it to his chest. He hunched over it like he was trying to protect or something. But then he lifted it up and slammed it into the concrete floor.

  Ava screamed and I backed up as the camera shards went flying. Colin kept pounding the camera into the ground over and over. Even when it was barely distinguishable as a camera, he kept slamming it.

  When he’d finished, he leaned back on his hands and started to cry.

  “What the hell?” Jake asked. He’d taken his cap off and was fiddling with his hair again.

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  Tyler, like me, had taken a few steps back. He looked awkward. Ava had completely turned her back to Colin. She had her hand pressed to her mouth to keep the screams back.

  I walked forward and knelt when I was in front of him. He had his head back, so his greasy brown hair swung behind him. There were bright red cuts dotting his fingers from where the sharp camera pieces had caught him.

  I reached out, to take one of his hands in mine. I hadn’t been expecting to actually make contact, because of how the girl hadn’t been able to touch Jake, but I swear I felt his hand against mine.

  And I think maybe Colin felt it too because his head snapped forward and it was like we were making eye contact. Recognition dawned on his face as our hands touched, and I felt that horrible feeling in my stomach again.

  I yanked my hand away like I’d been burned, and he disappeared.

  “Mission accomplished,” Jake was saying from behind me.

  What the fuck was that? The feeling had been worse than ever when I’d looked into Jake’s eyes. What if somehow, it had been him all along. What if he had been watching me this whole time. All the times I’d felt that gnawing discomfort in the pit of my stomach, was it possible I’d found the source? But what could that mean? And was it even possible?

  “Are you good?” I turned to see Ava looking at me with her eyebrows drawn together.

  “Fine,” I said. She nodded and went to join the boys as they surrounded the picnic basket. Apparently, it was the only remnant of the scene. Both the kids and the camera, or what was left of it, were gone.

  I glanced back at where Colin had been sitting. I felt a familiar itch in my palm and rubbed it against my pants, before turning to join the others.

  “Wasn’t that so weird,” Ava said.

  “Sort of sad,” Tyler said. “But definitely weird that these are the memories the Journal is choosing to show us.”

  Jake shrugged and pulled two sandwiches out the basket, completely.

  “So, is it the journal trapping us here, or the journal and Colin?” Ava asked. “Because didn’t the journal say it belonged to Colin?”

  “It’s both of them,” I said.

  Ava and Tyler turned to me. I wondered how much I could reveal about my thought process without them thinking I was crazy. I decided on none and just shrugged away their glances.

  Jake picked up half a sandwich and waved it in front of the group at large. “Eat. We can talk about that stuff later.”

  Tyler took the sandwich out his hands and sighed. “Just ham and cheese?”

  “With lettuce and tomatoes, yuck,” Jake pinched the tomato in his sandwich and threw it onto the ground.

  “STOP!” Ava shouted. Her voice echoed.

  “What now?” Jake asked.

  “What if he poisoned it?” She whispered.

  Tyler and Jake exchanged looks. “Why would he poison food he made for himself?” Tyler asked.

  “I don’t know. But don’t you guys think he might be a little crazy? He smashed that fancy camera to pieces just because some girl rejected him. What if he wanted to poison her and he put the poison in her sandwich. We don’t know which is which. Right, Hannah?”

  She was looking for me to back her up on this. “Sure,” I said. “He did seem a bit off.”

  Jake frowned at the sandwich in his hand, not so sure of its safety anymore. “How do we know if something’s poisonous or not?”

  No one of us had a clue.

  Jake tilted the sandwich, as if examining it from a different angle would reveal if it was safe to eat or not. “I’ll risk it,” he said. “If the Journal wanted to kill us it could’ve done it by now, right?”

  And before I could tell him not to do it, he took a ginormous bite. We watched him chew slowly and then gulp it down.

  “Well?” Ava asked tentatively.

  Jake opened his mouth to say something but then shuddered and fell to the ground.

  “JAKE!” Ava screamed and scrambled over to him.

  My heart froze and I saw double. I watched transfixed as two twin Tylers dropped two sandwiched onto the ground in shock. Ava was screaming as Jake lay limp.

  But then, Jake pushed himself up, smiling wildly with a bit of lettuce sticking between his teeth. “Tricked ya.”

  Ava slapped him across the face. Tyler just laughed and picked his sandwich off the floor.

  Ava and I exchanged annoyed looks. What the hell was wrong with them? How could they make those jokes in our situation? I ended the silent conversation with a shrug.

  We both took a half sandwich from the basket. I bit into it and my mouth flooded with goodness. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was.

  We tucked into the romantic picnic food like there was no tomorrow, (which maybe there wasn’t) and started talking. We were all doing our best to avoid talking about Colin or the journal though. Those topics were conversations for later, not for while we were eating good food.

  But I couldn’t stop thinking about how it had felt when Colin looked at me and what it could mean. Surely the journal was almost ready to show us what it was building up to, and that made me so nervous that my hands started shaking as I ate.

  The others were talking about themselves, and I figured I should say something about my own life, but I couldn’t really think of anything other than my art and that was too personal to share.

  Tyler wasn’t talking much either and I noticed he skillfully avoided a question about his own family. I got the feeling things weren’t too good for him. I recalled his stoney-faced mother and thought of my own family.