1989

Heather McNamara

The hike was a lot more than just 5 miles. The group walked for hours, stopping every now and then to take turns carrying Kurt on the makeshift stretcher they managed to build with tree branches and blankets.

With every step she took, Heather had to fight the urge to throw herself on the floor, she didn't care about the lake anymore, she just needed to rest; her legs and feet were starting to burn, her clothes clinging to her body with sweat as her lungs wheezed, begging her to stop and take a breath.

Heather had always been the athletic type, she liked gym class (in the few times where Chandler didn't force Veronica into forging a hall pass to get them out of it) and before she joined the Rottweilers she was captain of the cheerleaders; Heather was energetic, she hated to sit still, but the days without proper food and water (and a bed, TV and her walkman, she really missed listening to Madonna) were beginning to take a toll on her and she felt herself getting weaker as the days went on.

In addition to that, there was her other problem, the small yellow bottle on her backpack was almost empty, only one lonely pill was left, as vital to Heather McNamara as the last drop of water on their water bottle. Heather hadn't been without her antipsychotic medication in a long time, and she wasn't ready to let it go now.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Ram asked. Heather could hear in his voice how exhausted he was.

"It can't be that far..." Duke said in a response. She didn't sound very convincing, but she kept on walking, keeping an eye on the compass they retrieved from the plane.

Like Chandler, McNamara was skeptical about leaving the scene of the crash. Duke and Veronica had assured them it was the best option, they went as far as painting (with Chandler's red lipstick, much to her dismay) a message in big, bulky letters on the remains of the plane saying they had gone to the lake, in casa rescue did come, but even so, McNamara couldn't shake the feeling that there was a shoe yet to drop.

"What is that smell?" Betty asked. Heather had been too deep into her thoughts to pay attention until then, but slowly the rotten smell invaded her nose, getting stronger with each step she took until she wanted to gag.

"Jesus," Veronica's voice sounded muffled as she put her hand over her mouth and nose. Only a few feet away from them was a dead bear, its stomach torn apart, guts spread on the ground as flies hovered above it. It looked fresh, like it hadn't been dead for more than a day or two.

"What could have done that?" Tracy asked.

"A wolf, probably," Jason Dean answered, staring at the carcass with an eerie interest.

"Wolves can do this?" Heather asked. The bear was enormous, it didn't seem fathomable to her that there was something out there capable of killing it.

"Wolves can kill anything if the pack's big enough," he said, then kept on walking. Heather swallowed the sudden lump in her throat; she thought that pretty much anything that came out of that dude's mouth was creepy, but that phrase, in particular, gave her chills.

"Let's just keep going..." Duke urged them, and McNamara was happy to oblige.

Heather wasn't sure how much longer it took (the cute yellow swatch she wore, the one Chandler gave her for her birthday, had stopped working since the crash), but eventually, Tracy, who was leading them alongside Duke, squealed with joy and started to jump up and down.

"Guys, we found it!" she said. Quicker than anyone could react, she began to take off her clothes and ran to the lake only in her underwear.

"Is she insane?" Heather Chandler scoffed as Tracy jumped on the water.

"Come on, it feels amazing!" she said, smiling from ear to ear. It was the first time someone on the team looked genuinely happy in days. It was contagious, and soon Heather felt a smile starting to grow on her own face.

McNamara could still feel the apprehension in the back of her brain, but she couldn't deny that the view before her was beautiful. The lake spread out for miles, with line trees surrounding it and big, green, mountains behind it; the water was clear, and it reflected the bright blue sky and the clouds like a mirror. Heather could hear the calming sound of the water moving and hitting the gravel, and the sound of laughter coming from Tracy and the other girls.

Heather smiled and took off her clothes, until she was wearing nothing but her underwear, folding them and carefully placing them on the ground with her backpack, far from the water, then she ran to join her friends. Chandler refused to get in, as much as her friends insisted, choosing to sit on the ground (on top of a blanket, so her outfit wouldn't get dirty, of course, even though she hadn't showered in days) next to Kurt.

The water was freezing, but Heather McNamara didn't mind. It was revigorating, as if somehow she was washing away all of the horrible things she had experienced in those days. She closed her eyes as she let her tired body float on the cold waters, listening to JD's silly attempts to tackle Veronica into the water as she screamed and called him a jerk, while some of the other girls played chicken fights.

For those minutes, or maybe it had been hours (Heather didn't keep count of how long they stayed there, it wasn't like they were rushing to get somewhere anyway), she felt like a normal teenager again, she wasn't a scared girl who was trying to survive in the wild after almost dying in a plane crash, she was just a normal teen having fun with her friends just like she did at her pool during summer.

At some point, Heather must have fallen asleep, because she doesn't remember all the details but a sudden agitation made her open her eyes and stop floating on the water.

"Right there, do you see it?" she heard Veronica say.

"See what?" Heather asked.

"Look" Duke pointed her finger to a mount, not that far north from where they were. At first, all Heather could see were the trees until she caught a glimpse of something brown, in the shape of a pyramid; it looked like a roof.

"Is that a house?" she asked, barely containing her excitement. If there was a house, it was probable someone could be living there. Someone who would help them get back home.

***

Heather lost track of how much longer they walked, though the glimmer of hope inside of her made the walk seem a lot easier this time and before she noticed, they were standing in front of an old wooden cabin.

It looked straight out of a horror movie, with its old wooden planks appearing on the verge of falling apart, the roof covered in moss and dead leaves and the windows so dirty it was hard to see the inside;  but the house also seemed warm, warmer than the ground they had been sleeping on for the past three days at least, so no one said anything when Ram took a step further to knock on the door, and no one stopped him from reaching out his hand to touch the doorkbok after receiving no response from inside the house.

The door was unlocked, so the teens let themselves in, ready to explore the empty house. Standing in front of the open door, McNamara found herself unable to move. Her feet felt heavy as if her shoes were stuck on two buckets of cement; she couldn't pinpoint why, but something about the house made Heather's blood run cold.

"Hey, are you coming or what?" Chandler asked her.

Heather opened her mouth to speak. She wanted to grab Chandler by the arm and beg her and everyone else to leave, to go back to where they were before, but she didn't want to be mocked or called a child, so she swallowed down the wad of anxiety lodged in her throat, that uneasy feeling that something bad was going to happen, and smiled.

"Yeah," she said, finally placing on foot inside the house.

"God, this place smells like shit," Chandler complained.

Heather didn't think it was possible, but the cabin was even worse on the inside. Every surface of the house was covered in a thick layer of dust as if the place hadn't been cleaned in decades, spider webs decorating every corner. The air was dense and humid, thanks to the moldy walls, and there was a heavy smell of something rotten that burned through Heather's nostrils.

"It smells worse than the bear," Tracy gagged.

"There's probably a dead rat in here or something," JD said, struggling to open one of the windows.

Heather began to walk around the house, hoping that maybe getting familiar with the place would stop the nagging feeling inside her gut. The floorboards creaked with every step she took, but she kept on walking. The cabin wasn't big, nothing but a living room, a small kitchen, a pantry, a bedroom, and one bathroom, plus a small wooden shed on the outside. The water didn't work, neither did the electricity, and every single food in the party was rotten.

"Hey, Kurt, look! There's porn!" Ram walked out of the bedroom with a stack of magazines in his hand and a shit-eating grin on his face.

Kurt, who had been carefully placed on the couch by Ram and JD (neither JD nor Kurt was very pleased by that, their fight at the beginning of the year was still a sore spot for both of them) laughed and fist-bumped his friend. Heather tried to pretend that her boyfriend's attitude didn't upset her a little bit; she was right next to him and he was drooling over playboy women.

"Nice, we're probably gonna starve but at least there's porn," Veronica rolled her eyes.

"Do you guys actually jerk off to this?" Chandler scrunched her nose and held one of the magazines by her fingertips, as though she was scared of catching an STD just by touching it.

"No, we hate that stuff. We can't even tell what her favorite book is," Ram mocked her, his eyes still glued on the pages. Chandler gave him the middle finger as a reply.

"Holy shit," JD said, suddenly. Heather turned her head to see him holding a hunting rifle in his hands. His eyes gleamed like a child opening up their Christmas present.

"Is that real?" Veronica asked.

"Yes," he smiled. "My dad had one of those."

"Do you think that thing over there was killed by this?" Betty pointed to the skeleton of a deer, hanging proudly above the fireplace. It gave Heather the creeps.

With her hands shaking and her heart doing the same inside her chest, Heather walked out the door to get some fresh air. That strong, nauseating smell was only making her head hurt even more.

She sat on the porch, digging her nails into her palm to stop them from trembling.

"God, this place is a dump," she heard a voice saying before Duke sat next to her.

McNamara looked at her friend. "Can I tell you something?"

"What?"

She hesitated for a second, but the cold wind making the hairs on her neck stand up felt like a whisper of warning to McNamara, giving her chills and making her shake even harder, so she opened her mouth. "I don't like this place."

Duke snorted. "Yeah, 'cause it stinks and there are spiders the size of my fist."

"I'm serious, Heather."

"Me too, but after that bear we saw earlier, I rather sleep in a stinky cabin than risk becoming a wolf chew toy."

"I-I still think we should go back. I have a really bad feeling about this place."

"Are you fucking kidding me, Heather?" Duke snarled. "A bad feeling? Just because Fleming is dead you want to take her place as the crazy lady? I don't believe in that shit and neither do you. Everybody is already scared out of their minds, don't make this any worse."

***

HEATHER DUKE

The day soon turned into night. With the old blankets and pillows they found in the closet, the group started to get ready to sleep, finally ready to succumb to exhaustion.

Duke hated the way she had treated McNamara, but she knew that the last thing everyone needed at that moment was her freaking out and scaring everyone.

While everyone else settled down, Duke found herself a spot on one of the corners, trying to make the hard floor as comfortable as she could, wishing that she was home in her bed instead, wishing that Chandler had broken her leg instead of Riley on the game.

Above her head, she heard a noise, of steps, of floorboards creaking. She got up from her spot, tiptoeing to avoid stepping on her teammates who were already asleep.

She followed the noise, her head looking up.at the ceiling, until she found herself staring at an attic door that had been unnoticed by everyone, including her, until that moment.

She climbed the windows, and allowed herself to breathe once she saw the familiar blonde curls and realized that it was just Heather McNamara standing in the attic; her back was facing Heather, but it was her.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Heather whispered.

McNamara didn't turn to look at her, but she noticed Duke's presence.

"See?" McNamara said. Duke didn't know what she meant at first, not until she fully stepped inside the attic and got a complete view of it.

She looked at where McNamara was staring, at the chair on the left corner, where a man was seated. Well, it used to be a man, but now all that was left of him was his skeleton.

McNamara turned to look at Duke, her eyes wide. "I told you I had a bad feeling about this place."