Cameron Keen never expected her life to become entangled in the horrors of Blackwood Mountain.
Drawn back by a past she can't escape, she soon finds herself face to face with her old friend Josh Washington, a man haunted not just by grief, but...
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THE PRANK.
The storm had come fast that night—faster than any of them had expected.
Snow fell in thick, heavy drifts against the windows of the Washington lodge, the wind howling outside like it wanted to get in.
Inside, though, the atmosphere was different: warm, comfortable, alive with the hum of energy that came from a group of friends who hadn't yet grown tired of each other.
Cameron Keen sat curled up by the fireplace, her hands wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate that had long since gone cold.
Her gaze flickered across the room, taking in the familiar faces.
She forced herself to smile when someone cracked a joke, even though the uneasy feeling in her chest hadn't gone away all night.
It wasn't that she didn't belong here. She did. These were her friends. Josh, Beth, Hannah, Sam, Chris—she'd known them for years. Emily, Mike, Matt, Ashley, and Jess, they were all newer to the group but they had integrated pretty well.
But tonight, there was something about the whole thing that made her feel like an outsider, watching the night unfold from behind glass.
Her eyes drifted to the corner where Hannah Washington sat, awkward and hopeful, stealing glances at Mike from across the room.
Cameron's heart ached a little watching her. She knew exactly what it was like to have a crush on someone who didn't notice you—not in the way you wanted them to.
The way Hannah was looking at Mike, with her heart practically shining in her eyes, made Cameron want to walk over and tell her to just... stop. Don't let yourself get hurt.
But she didn't say anything. She hadn't been saying much all night.
Cameron shifted on the couch, pulling her legs up underneath her, trying to shake the fog from her head. She'd been in enough of these group settings to know when the vibe was about to turn.
It was like clockwork—when the drinks flowed too freely, when the teasing shifted from light-hearted to mean-spirited. Tonight, that edge was looming closer, and Hannah was at the center of it without even knowing.
Across the room, Josh leaned in close to his sisters, Beth and Hannah, murmuring something.
Josh was always the life of the party, always keeping things going when the energy dipped, but sometimes his jokes cut a little too deep.
Cameron had been on the receiving end of that more than once. Tonight, though, it wasn't her he was focused on.
Hannah, who had pulled herself up off the couch and was headed for the staircase, had her eyes fixed on Mike like she'd finally mustered up the courage to do something about the feelings she'd been carrying for him since... well, a while now.
