He Thought I Was Faking My Death, But I Was Really Gone Chapter 05

He Thought I Was Faking My Death, But I Was Really Gone Chapter 05

Derek made it to within a few feet of my body before he stopped.

He took an instinctive step forward, reaching to touch my face.

Just then, Paige’s scream cut through the air.

“Ah! Derek! There’s a snake!”

Derek abandoned all thought of me and spun around, sprinting toward Paige.

“Paige! Don’t move!”

He pulled her into his arms and scanned the ground warily.

Paige clung to his waist, sobbing without pause.

“Derek, I’m so scared…”

Between sobs, she peeked over his shoulder, glancing at me lying on the ground.

“What’s wrong with Nora?”

“Is she mad at me? Is she lying there on purpose to scare us?”

Tyler and Chase worked up the nerve to crept out of the truck.

They stood by the truck door, aiming their flashlights toward me from a distance.

“She’s definitely faking it.”

“We laid on the horn back there and she didn’t even flinch.”

“No way a living person can hold their breath that long.”

Tyler chimed in.

“Right, and to really sell it-smearing red dye and sand on her fingers like that? Nora really commits to the

bit.”

Hearing his friends talk, the fear drained out of Derek completely.

He stopped a few feet from me and let out a disdainful sneer.

“Nora, you’d fake your own death just to make me cave?”

“You think making yourself look like this is going to make me feel sorry for you?”

“I’ll tell you exactly what this makes me feel. Disgust!”

He pulled two bottles of water from his pocket and dropped them heavily next to my hand.

“Fine. You want to lie there, lie there all you want.”

“Consider these two bottles my charity.”

“Camp breaks tomorrow morning. If you’re not back by then, don’t ever show your face in front of me again.”

The group turned and walked away.

My soul drifted along behind them.

There wasn’t a ripple of feeling left inside me.

The next morning, Falcon Ridge broke camp on schedule and headed back to the city.

Because I still hadn’t come slinking back, Derek kept his jaw tight the whole drive.

Even when Paige tried to talk to him, he only answered with distracted grunts.

Furious, the moment Paige got home she posted on the largest outdoor forum around-SummitTalk..

[Desert Survival, So Grateful For You-While Someone Else Played Petty Games Without Limits.]

In the post, she painted herself as a fragile-but-brave victim.

She described Derek as a good team leader shouldering an unbearable burden for the greater good.

And me-I became the jealous psycho who’d fought over a bottle of electrolyte water, put the whole group at risk, and even faked her own death in the desert with special-effects makeup to guilt-trip the team leader.

Under the post, she’d added photos of them all laughing warmly around the campfire.

Public opinion exploded instantly.

The post shot straight to the top of every trending list.

My social media accounts got dug up by internet sleuths with terrifying speed.

My DMs flooded with thousands of hateful messages.

[Go die, you toxic snake! Making light of people’s lives like that!]

[Why didn’t you just actually die out there in the desert?]

[Poor Derek, cursed with a psycho girlfriend like that.]

[Faking your death in the desert? You think rescue resources are your personal plaything?]

Watching the outrage climb, Derek tagged my account directly.

[Nora, Paige has worried herself sick over you. Are you done playing dead yet?]

[You have ten minutes to post a public apology to Paige on the forum. And while you’re at it, wash off that

stage makeup and post an apology video to the group.]

[Otherwise, we’re done. For real.]

Members of the group lined up to pile on beneath his post.

[That’s my Derek, standing tall! Should’ve dumped that toxic ex ages ago!]

[Nora, get out here and apologize already]

[Stop hiding behind your screen playing dead!]