Spoilers below to previous chapters

Character's Still Alive:

The Bride and Groom

Christina Evans (Chrissy) - The Bride

Robert Philips (Bobby) - The Groom

The Friends of the Bride and Groom

Emily Stone - The Maid-of-Honor

Victor Ford (Vic) - The Best Man

Allison Little (Alli) - The Athlete

Bruce Kemp - The Partier

Mary Medina - The Sullen

Raymond Cunningham (Ray) - The Go-Getter

Sara O'Conner - The Snob

Julie Graves - The Outcast

Tom Lane - The Stranger

The Bride's Family

Hurbert Evans - The Father-of-the-Bride

Pamela Evans - The Mother-of-the-Bride

Amy Marshall - The Tyrant

Denise Arnold - The Peacekeeper

Amber Evans - The Tease

Nicole Evans (Nicky) - The Risk Taker

Daniel Marshall - The Mogul

Kyle Arnold - The Good Son-In-Law

Melissa Marshall (Lissa) - The Flower girl

Joseph Marshall (Joey) - The Ring bearer

The Groom's Family

Allen Philips - The Reverend

Lewis Philips - The Loner

Courtney Philips (Cort) - The Estranged

Others

Troy Curtis - The Ferry Driver

Dorothy Rose - The Stripper

Chapter 6 – Boom, Boom

Troy was not entirely sure why the wedding group had wanted the extra trip to the island made, but the guest that Vic and Bruce had paid him to bring across was sure nice to look at. He had asked her if she wanted to sit near where he was driving the boat, but she had insisted she was fine sitting on the deck, but he stole a look every chance he got. Troy took a bit on the uptake, but he was now assuming that this extra trip was more expensive then just the boat ride over. It was an uneventful, quick trip from the mainland.

"Alright, it will just take me a few minutes to dock," Troy yelled down to Dorothy as they were closing in on the island. After he had docked, Troy walked down onto the deck where Dorothy already had her bag in hand.

"Do you need any help with that," Troy asked.

"No, thanks, I think I have it," Dorothy replied.

"OK. So like I said earlier, Janice is out on an errand, so there is no ride over to the inn. You are more then welcome to stay here until Janice gets back to the inn and can bring over a car," Troy offered.

"No, that's alright, I should be able to make the walk. You said it's only a few miles?" Dorothy asked.

"Um, yeah, it's not too far. Just follow the trail, its well marked. Just don't make any turns," Troy said a bit disappointed. "Now, I'll be here till you get back. You said it would be early tomorrow morning, right?"

"Yeah, more than likely, but please wait for me."

There was no chance that Troy was leaving without her.

"Oh my God, if we stop one more time, I'm going to scream," Sara thought as the group made yet another stop. Hurbert and Pamela seemed determined to identify every plant, animal and bird, and insect they saw, and since they were leading the hike, everyone else would stop as they dug out some book to find out what to call what they were looking at. Sensing she was irritated, Ray had started rubbing her back. Ray always seemed to know when she was about to lose her patience.

Sara had thought the hike had seemed like a great idea the previous evening. Vic had said he was going on the tour of the town, and it had seemed like the perfect opportunity to keep Ray and Vic apart. She had thought about the beach, but had heard that the family with the kids would be there, and didn't think she would enjoy being around screaming children all day. Sara thought it was unfortunate that parents couldn't be trusted to control their little ones, but that was the world they lived in. When she had kids, she'd make sure they stayed in line.

At this point though, she would have preferred either Vic or annoying children over this hike. Aside from Hurbert and Pamela's constant stops, the trail was rocky and they were going uphill. And when Hurbert and Pamela weren't stopping, they were keeping a pace that was tiring. She had expected a leisurely walk with Ray, not a workout mixed with a lesson on the natural world.

"Well, I certainly think that is a western-mountain ash, what do you think Hurbert," Pamela said.

"With those slight ridges on the leave, yes, I think your right."

"What does it matter," she whispered to Ray, who gave her a silent shush in return.

Seemingly satisfied they had identified the latest plant sample, Hurbert and Pamela resumed their brisk pace with the others following.

Daniel was sitting behind the front desk at the Lighthouse Inn. Behind the desk was a door into the inn manager's office, which she had left open. When Daniel heard Chrissy or Bobby wandering around the hotel, he just ducked back into the office to not be spotted. His story would be that he tried to catch up on the hike, but wasn't able to, so he did not want to be seen just sitting around. But he had to wait here, because he did not want to miss Dorothy when she came in.

Daniel had shed the t-shirt and jeans that he had put on for the hike, and was now in a suit. He always felt most comfortable in a suit and he wanted to make sure Dorothy could see that he was a serious man. Janice had left the room key for the new guest on the counter, so it was easy to find. Now, Daniel just had to wait.

Daniel was so happy he did not go on the hike. He could not stand Amy's parents. And even though some of Chrissy's friends were good looking, he only really had interest in women he could have sex with, and there certainly was no chance of that with any of them this weekend. At least, not without his wife finding out.

What Daniel secretly wanted was to be a widower. When he had married Amy, she had been willing to accommodate his demanding and exotic needs in the bedroom. After the birth of Melissa, she started to be less compliant, and had practically cut him off after Joseph was born. Divorce was problematic because Daniel had been foolish ten years ago and had not required a prenuptial agreement. Along with how getting a divorce would look amongst his peers, he hated the idea of giving Amy half of what he had produced having to support her until Joseph reach adulthood.

If Amy died through some tragic accident all of that could be avoided. He would be able to keep his money, his kids, and he wouldn't have to sneak around anymore with the two women he was seeing or the prostitute he had regular sessions with.

Daniel had just hoped he had guessed right, that the stripper that Vic and Bruce had hired would be willing to perform a private session. Even Daniel was beginning to think he had a problem with his sexual needs.

Troy was not particularly happy with having to spend the afternoon alone, especially after offering for Dorothy to stay on the boat until Janice could give her a ride. He sighed as he entered his small room. He had a TV which wouldn't get any sort of reception this far out, so he would have to settle on watching one of the DVDs he had seen several times. He could do work, but aside from taking Dorothy back tomorrow and the wedding group back the day after, no one else was going to see his boat. And he didn't care at that point if they thought the boat was clean or not. More then likely, he wouldn't see any of these people ever again.

Troy had just sat down in his cabin when he thought he heard footsteps on deck. "Maybe Dorothy decided to wait for that ride," he thought. Troy knew not to keep a beautiful woman waiting, even if she was likely a lady of the night. He hopped out of his chair and went up the short staircase to the deck.

As Troy's head came up high enough to look, he looked towards the dock. The killer did not give Troy any time to turn his head, pulling the trigger and sending the first bullet into his jaw, shattering it. Troy recoiled and fell backwards down the stairs. When the killer looked down the stairs, they saw Troy grasping the remnants of his lower jaw, which was sending blood everywhere. Troy was too in shock from the situation to react, not that there was any real escape from the cabin. The killer took aim and fired until the clip of the .22 caliber hand gun was empty. The killer was happy they were far enough away from anyone to allow for using a gun on this kill. And the gun only produced a mild set of pops as it went off.

Troy was dead. Two of the series of shots had hit Troy in the head, killing him. The stairs to the cabin had a door and a lock. It took a bit to find the keys on Troy's body and to wipe clean the blood that was on the deck. The killer locked Troy's body in his cabin then found the engine and cut as many tubes and wires as they could see.

"Janice!" Kyle yelled. Kyle could not believe that Janice had just left them out here without saying anything. Amber and he had searched all around the village, which hadn't taken very long.

"If she were here, she would have answered by now. We've been all over, can we please just go back to the inn, I'm hungry," Amber pleaded. Everyone else had already left. Vic and Bruce left first, saying they had things to take care of at the hotel. Vic also had suggested that Janice had likely headed back because someone else might be showing up. It hadn't seemed as odd to Vic and Bruce that Janice had left without saying anything.

Julie and Tom had stayed for a while and helped search, but even they gave up after a while and decided to take off. Amber had wanted to head back with them, but Kyle didn't want her on the trail without him. Kyle just thought it was so rude and irresponsible for Janice to just leave them out here, and Janice had not seemed rude or irresponsible. So Kyle was actually concerned, but even he had to admit that if Janice had fallen down or something, then they likely would have found her by now. Kyle was beginning to think that Amber was right, and maybe she gone back to the inn.

"O.K. Amber, we'll head back. I swear, if Janice is at the inn, I'm going to be so angry," Kyle said.

"Seeing you get angry would be a first," Amber said jokingly, happy they were finally going to leave.

Pamela was very much enjoying the hike. It was great to get a chance to hike with her husband without the kids. Not that she would have minded at all if Amber or Nicky had come, or if Amy and the grandchildren had, but it was nice to have Hurbert to herself and to be enjoying a day with him. Being with the others in her group was not much of a distraction either, because she didn't feel like she had to watch over them like with her own children.

She doubted the group they were with had expected to be going at such a fast pace with Hurbert and her in the lead. She bet that they had expected a nice, easy pace. But Hurbert and her were experienced hikers, and they liked getting out as much in as possible.

She looked back over the group. Only Alli seemed to be having no problem with the pace. That made her feel proud that they had worn out the young folks.

It was just then she noticed a flower that she hadn't seen yet on the hike. She knew what the flower was without stopping, it was a common type, but she also knew the snobby girl got frustrated every time they stopped to appreciate nature. So she was more than happy to stop if just to hear that girl give another irritated sigh.

Emily was thinking it was about time to head back. She had been thankful for the intermittent stops they had made, both because it slowed up their pace meaning they weren't as far away from the inn then they could be and the long jog they had taken in the morning had left her sore and tired.

It was midafternoon, so she thought the boat should definitely be here by now. Hurbert and Pamela had stopped the group to take a look at some flowers on the side of the path, so Emily signaled to Alli and Mary that she needed to talk to them quietly.

"I'm going to go ahead and head back now," Emily said so only Alli and Mary could hear.

"Do you want me to come with you," Alli offered.

"No, I think I'll be fine, but I am definitely going to go back to the inn after seeing Troy, and I'll be staying there. So if you get back from the hike and I'm not there, come looking for me," Emily said, only half joking.

"Be careful," Mary said as Emily began back down the trail.

Dorothy arrived at the inn. It had been a long walk, but she was O.K. with that. For what she was getting paid for this job, she was happy to. She was charging so much extra for the travel and the overnight stay she would have to have. She entered the inn to find it empty, with the exception of the one person behind the front desk.

"You must be the guest I've been waiting for," the man said as she walked towards him.

"It looks like I'm the only guest," Dorothy said.

"Oh no, everyone else is out and about, but I think the groom is still here, so why don't I take you to your room before he sees you. I'm Daniel by the way."

"I'm Dorothy, are Vic or Bruce here?"

"No, but they should be back soon," Daniel said as they began walking down the hallway. He was dressed nicer then she would have expected the manager of an establishment out in the middle of no where to dress. In fact, he was dressed like one of his clients who would hire her as a date.

"You have a nice inn here," she said.

"Oh, I'm not the inn owner. She is out giving a tour. I am just a wedding guest who stayed behind to make sure you found your room alright," Daniel said as he stopped at one of the rooms in the back area of the inn. "She wanted you to have a room down here on the first floor, if that's alright with you."

"That's fine, thanks." Daniel unlocked and opened the door for her.

"So not to be too forward, but I was wondering if you had plans for the afternoon, or if you would like some company," Daniel asked.

"There it was," Dorothy thought, "the real reason this man had been nice enough to stay here to wait for her."

"I'd be fine with some company, but you understand that I'm here to work," Dorothy said.

"I understand that, and I am more than prepared to compensate you," Daniel said. Now that it was understood that Daniel was a potential client, Dorothy looked the man over in a new way. He was definitely an imposing man. He was not as young as Vic and Bruce, but then she had the impression that Vic and Bruce had spent all of their money getting her out here. This man looked like he had plenty of money. She didn't really appreciate the way he was looking at her. But she wasn't going to turn down a few extra dollars from this trip.

"Well, let's say $500, and we make it quick. And nothing kinky," Dorothy said, laying out her offer.

Daniel pulled a large roll of money from his wallet and began pulling off bills, hundred dollar bills. He stopped when he pulled off twenty bills.

"Let's say we take are time, and we do whatever I want to do," Daniel said holding out the money.

Dorothy became a bit hesitant at this. She definitely knew to avoid men who wanted to do weird things, which she was guessing Daniel wanted. But this money would more than double was she was making for the weekend.

"OK," was all she said as she led him into the room.

KNOCK..KNOCK..KNOCK.

"Come in," Denise yelled to the door. Chrissy entered the room carrying a tray.

"Bobby and I are heading off to the church to meet with Allen, so I thought I would bring you something before I left," Chrissy said.

"Thanks Crissy. I feel so bad that you're have to take care of me like this. You shouldn't have to on your special weekend," Denise said.

"Oh it's nothing, and I know these things happen. Anyways, Kyle should be back soon. How are you feeling now?"

"Better, thanks."

"Did you know that Daniel is still here? I heard him with someone as I was coming up," Chrissy said.

"I thought he was going on the hike," Denise responded, "I cannot believe he ditched out on going to the beach with Amy and the kids just to stick around here."

"Yeah, well, we all know that Daniel is a dick," Chrissy said.

"Did you and Bobby get a lot done today?"

"Nope, and we're getting a bit nervous. We were supposed to talk to Tina today to get an update on the plan for the reception, and with Theresa on the plan for the photography, but neither one seems to be around."

"Oh no. I could help you track them down."

"No, its O.K., I'm sure they'll be around when we get back. Anyways, it's not like Bobby and I didn't have fun without them. Its amazing how having to spend one night apart can make us want each other so much more."

"I don't know if I'm supposed to hear that, with your wedding being tomorrow and all," Denise said with a smile.

"The envelope with the key is gone, so she must be here. Do you think we should go knock on her door and make sure?" Bruce asked.

"Naw, we don't need her till later. We have way too much other stuff to do right now. That tour took way longer then I expected it would. We still need to get all of the food, booze, and other stuff to the bar. If the envelope is gone, I'm sure she's here and fine," Vic replied.

"Yeah, but do you think we should track down Janice, and make sure she made it back OK."

"Are you kidding me, after she left us out there? I'm so pissed at her right now, it's better if I don't see her."

Vic and Bruce headed to the kitchen, where they had stored the supplies for the bachelor party.

They were just starting on the trail again after eating a light lunch. They had all had to listen to Sara's complaining throughout the whole stop. Alli could tell that Mary was about to throttle the woman. Alli had really enjoyed the hike. She had run on the trails on this trip and her previous trip to the island, but had not really taken in the beauty or thought about all of the different forms of life on the island.

She could tell, though, that Mary was getting more miserable with every single step. Alli thought that it was more than the difficulty of the trail or having to put up with Sara.

"Are you alright?" Alli decided to ask Mary quietly, so the others could not hear. Mary seemed to be pulled out of thought by Alli question.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine."

"I'm sure Robin will be fine," Alli said, hoping to comfort her friend, but Mary just seemed to be made sadder by the comment.

"It's not just Robin, I mean, I pretty much did the same thing to Julie a year ago. I got angry about something and couldn't let it go or hold it in. I could have just talked to her about it, but instead I really tried to hurt her, just like I did with Robin." Alli was a bit stunned by Mary's admission that she handled the situation with Julie wrong. They walked several feet before Mary continued. "I just wish I handled getting angry better than I do. I go too far."

"Well, I think everyone can go too far when they're angry," Alli tried to let Mary off the hook a bit for how she acted, even though Alli did not believe her friend should be. Alli knew that Mary could be very hurtful when she wanted to be. There wasn't anyone in their group of friends that hadn't at some point had a run in with Mary. She could be such a great friend, but she could really tear a person apart.

Mary just grunted in reply to Alli's comment, and then seemed to go back into her own thoughts. It was almost five minutes before Mary stopped walking. Alli stopped with her. They were in the back of the group, so the rest of the group did not notice and continued to walk.

"I don't think that's right. Others don't go as far as I do. Emily is such a great friend for always trying to clean up the messes of my relationships, but I think I need to be the one to fix the problems I made for once. I really do think I should be the one to talk to Robin, to apologize and try and set things right. I think I want to head back," Mary said.

This was definitely an unexpected turn for Alli. Emily usually had to work on Mary for quite a while before Mary would apologize to someone, and sometimes she never did.

"I'll go with you."

"You don't have to do that, if Emily can make it back, I'm sure I can."

"We've gone a few miles since then, I think its best if I go with you. I'll go tell the others that we are going back to the inn." Alli ran up the trail and was gone for a few minutes before returning. When she did, they started their trek down the hill.

Nicky and Lewis were sitting together. They had had a nice lunch and the kids had run everyone ragged. The children had seemed to change their minds on what they wanted to do every 15 minutes. Amy was currently helping them fly kites. Lissa had even convinced Cort to fly kites with them. Nicky was happy to take a bit of a break, and Lewis had joined her.

"What are you reading?" Nicky asked. Lewis was not actually reading the book, but he had it in his hand.

"It's just some mystery novel. It's not very good."

"Is that the kind of books you normally read?"

"Yeah, but usually better ones than this."

"I didn't figure you intentionally tried to read bad books," Nicky joked.

They continued to talk about books they liked for a while. Nicky asked Lewis what movies he liked, and he admitted that he did not watch many movies made in the last few years because the Reverend do not like the violence, sex, and drug use they portrayed. The same went for most music and video games.

"He sounds really strict," Nicky said.

"No, it's not really that bad. If I really wanted to go see a movie like that or buy a violent video game, he'd let me, but he prefers that I don't. And since I like books more anyways, I don't really ask that often."

"So are you into any sports?"

"No, not really. Biking to school is about all I do that could be considered physical activity."

They sat their in silence for a bit. Nicky was slightly stymied by the conversation. She like Lewis, but found that she didn't know what to talk to him about. Then, she blurted out a question she immediately regretted.

"So, Allen is not your real father right?" Nicky asked, and then in an attempt to explain her possibly inappropriate question, "I'm sorry, I just knew you were adopted and…"

"No, it's alright," Lewis interrupted, "I don't mind talking about it. In fact, its kind of nice having people know everything instead of wondering what part of it they know about.

"There's really not much to tell. My parents were on drugs all through my childhood. Allen tried to help them kick their habit, but they couldn't. One morning when I was eleven, I woke up and they were gone. They hadn't really packed or taken anything with them, they just left. I didn't know who else to call, so I called the Reverend, and he came to my house with CPS. They allowed him to be my foster dad. Eventually, they revoked my parent's rights in absentia, and Allen adopted me."

"So, you have never heard from them?"

"Nope, never," Lewis replied flatly.

"I'm sorry that happened," Nicky said sympathetically.

"It's alright, Allen cares for me more then they ever did."

They sat there silently for a while watching the kids flying their kites.

"I'm glad you came down to the beach," Nicky said to Lewis. "I hope your having a good time."

Lewis smiled, "I'm actually having a great time, thanks."

Chrissy and Bobby arrived at the church. After the day they had had, they were really hoping things were going smoothly for Allen here at the church. The church building was in fairly good shape because it was a part of the Lighthouse Inn property, and Janice's parents had taken very good care of the property. The church was in good enough shape to host a half-dozen weddings each year.

"Dad? Dad?" Bobby yelled.

"I'm outside," Allen yelled back.

Bobby and Chrissy walked back outside of the church to the far side to find Allen with his workmen's gloves on. He was standing next to a sizable pile of weeds.

"I think I have gotten most of them," Allen said, taking off his gloves and walking over to them.

"You didn't have to weed this area, it would have been alright," Bobby said.

"It was no problem. The inside of the church was more ready to go then I had thought it would be, and a few of the weeds were big. So I pulled them, and once you start it's hard to stop."

"Well thank you, it looks really great," Chrissy said.

"How did everything else go today? Did you two get everything set with Tina and Theresa?" Allen asked.

"No, and we're starting to get a little worried," Bobby said. "We were not able to find either of them all day. It's not such a big deal if Theresa decided to go on the hike or on the tour, because we hope she has a good time here and that she not be too concerned with having to take the photos. We just wish she had said something. Tina not being around was more upsetting. We know there is a lot of work that still needs to be done for the reception."

"So she wasn't in her room?" Allen asked.

"No, we knocked several times," Chrissy replied. "We are a bit concerned also because we found a tray of rolls burning in the oven this morning. We thought she had decided to get up early and get some cooking done, and then decided to go back to bed forgetting about the rolls. But we're honestly getting concerned not just for the reception happening as planned, but also for Tina."

Allen could see that both Bobby and Chrissy were anxious, but Chrissy particularly seemed upset.

"I'm sure Tina's fine," Allen tried to reassure. "If you haven't found her by the time I get back to the inn, I'll help you look. Maybe she's just a heavy sleeper. We can probably get Janice to open her room and check on her. Don't worry; even if I have to cook the food for the reception myself, you two are getting married tomorrow."

Allen put an arm around both Chrissy and Bobby and led them back into the church to show them around. He quickly went over with them how the ceremony would go, and each of their parts. It would be a straightforward ceremony, so it did not take long to explain everyone's part. When they were done, Bobby asked Allen if he would head back to the hotel with them. He said he had a few last things that he wanted to cleanup and setup at the church, so that they should go ahead. Bobby and Chrissy headed back to the hotel.

Ray was getting so fatigued. Not as much from the walk but from Sara constant complaining. He knew that Sara had wanted them to go on the hike to keep him away from his friends. It wasn't like Sara had ever enjoyed hiking. In fact, over the course of their relationship they had never done anything like this because she really did not like being in nature.

When Hurbert and Pamela had said early on in the hike that they were planning on staying on the hill until sunset, Sara had said she wanted to do that. Ray knew that if they were out until sunset that he would miss most of the bachelor party, and that was what Sara had really wanted. Ray had known when she had said she wanted to see the sunset that she wasn't thinking about how miserable she would be walking all day and then sitting on a hill waiting for the sun to set, much less having to then walk miles back to the inn in the twilight.

Now, Ray knew it was all about picking the right time to suggest going back. If he suggested it too soon then Sara would dig in and not want to go back. Too late, and Ray might miss some of the party. Emily, Alli, and Mary heading back early had really been fortunate. He had thought about suggesting they head back when Alli and Mary had, but decided to be patient and make sure they spent another hour on the hike.

"Wait, wait," Sara said, "I think I have another rock in my shoe." Hurbert and Pamela were about 40 feet up the trail, and looked annoyed at having to stop. Hurbert and Pamela had become less to blame for the stopping in the last hour, while Sara seemed to need to stop every five minutes for one reason or another. Ray helped steady her as she took off her shoe and shook it out again. To Ray, it didn't look like any rocks came out. Ray decided that now was the time.

"Sara, baby, would you like to head back? I know I'm getting a bit tired, and I know your legs and feet are hurting. The longer we walk, the longer its going to take to walk back to the inn."

Sara put her shoe back on, and was clearly thinking about what she wanted. Ray knew she was trying to decide if the pain in her legs and feet was enough to destroy her plans at keeping Ray away from the bachelor party. When she answered, she didn't answer verbally, she just nodded her head with a sad look on her face.

"OK, wait here a second while I go say goodbye to Hurbert and Pamela," Ray said, trying to hide the excitement and happiness from his face. Ray walked up the trail to where Hurbert and Pamela were. "I really wanted to thank you for leading the hike and for taking the time to explain what all we were seeing on the trail, but I think we are going to head back. Sara's feet are just getting too tired."

"Oh, are you sure," Pamela said, but she was clearly trying to hide her happiness. Ray didn't fault her for that. Hurbert and Pamela had been very patient considering all of Sara's complaining.

"Yeah, I think its best."

"Will you two be alright on the trail back, I mean we could come with you," Hurbert offered.

"No, that's alright, we should be fine."

"OK. Ray, would you do us a favor and let everyone know that we will be out here late?" Pamela asked.

"Sure. You two be careful out here."

"You and Sara be careful on the way back," Pamela said.

Amy sat on her beach blanket watching Lissa, Joey, Nicky, and Lewis out in the water. Lissa had insisted that Nicky take her back out on the boogie board for the third time today. Nicky had even convinced Lewis and Joey to try it. It had been such a fun day, but now it was time for Amy to really think about what had been happening over the past month.

The packages had started arriving about a month ago in the mail. She had received three before the one that was in her luggage. The packages were all the same, a simple envelope with her name and address in type and no return address. The envelopes each had a set of pictures in them. The pictures had shown her and a friend of hers who she had gotten very close to in the past several months.

Her friend was Charles, and they had met at the gym. He was around her age and they had hit it off great. She loved his sense of humor, and he was such a great listener. Long before the relationship turned intimate she had fallen in love with him. He had been such a gentleman and had respected the fact that she was married; he had not made the first move on her. The last few months with him had been wonderful, but it had also scared her to death.

She was in constant fear of her husband finding out. She was scared that he would divorce her and that he would take the children out of spite. She could care less about his money. She would take her children and leave today with nothing else if she thought Daniel would let her. But she knew it would not be as simple as that, that leaving her husband would also mean destroying the stability in her children's' lives, even if just for a short period. And the thought of her family and friends finding out that she had cheated on her husband and then left him, she knew that would be very hard to face.

People, she knew, would not understand just how hard it was to be with Daniel. He was always working, and even when he was around he was emotionally cold to her. He was a decent father most of the time, but as with today, he seemed to be able to blow off his kids on a whim. None of that, though, had been the worse part.

She had been so young and naïve when she had married Daniel. She had thought that Daniel would provide her with this perfect life with a perfect family. She had been inexperienced, so his degrading demands in the bedroom had seemed to be a fair price for the life he would provide her with. But over time, she began to hate herself for not being stronger, for not saying "no" sooner. She wanted to be the woman with enough self-respect to be rid of him. And in Charles, she saw the opportunity at a better life.

But then the pictures had started to arrive. The pictures had shown her and Charles together. The first batch showed just her and him sitting at a restaurant eating lunch. The next set featured the two of them in an embrace. And the third set showed him leaving her house, and her stopping him and giving him a passionate kiss. The set in her luggage just reiterated the evidence, the evidence that easily proved her infidelity.

The first set had a note demanding half-a-million dollars, but it had been the third set that had said that she should bring the money with her on this trip. She had assumed that the meeting would happen before they got to the island, but it hadn't. She had assumed that the blackmailer had decided to wait, until she found the package in her luggage. She was now left to suspect someone on the island as the blackmailer.

The first suspect was of course her husband, but it was hard to understand why he would demand a half-million dollars of his own money. She had taken the money from their safe at their home. For some reason her husband liked having a lot of cash around. In addition, if her husband had this kind of evidence on her, he would have made her pay long before now.

The second set of suspects was a member of her family, which was hard to stomach. She had eliminated her parents, who obviously wouldn't do this to her, and Nicky, because she was too young. Denise was too nice, and though Kyle was very nice, she had not eliminated him in her mind. They made a nice living, but with the baby on the way, maybe Kyle wanted more. Chrissy had definitely crossed her mind, because the two of them had never gotten along, but with her being all the way out West, it was hard to imagine that she would know, much less be able to organize this. Amber was also a suspect. Even though she was young, she was very smart. She definitely had the ability to pull this off, and if she knew about the affair it might explain why she had turned so cold to her. But she also knew that Amber was a nice person, and that if Amber had known about the affair she was opinionated enough to simply confront her about it.

The third set of suspects, and the latest group, was everyone else on the island. The more she thought about it, the more this made sense. Everyone had known who would be here, and the blackmailer could certainly have researched her husband and found out how much he was worth. One of Chrissy's or Bobby's friends could easily have decided to dig into their lives to find out something to blackmail her with.

At the end of the day, it mattered who it was who was doing this to her, but it mattered more that it be over. She just hoped that when she met with the blackmailer tonight, that would be the end of it. Luckily, Daniel would be at the bachelor party, so at least she would have the chance to sneak out and meet with this person without anyone knowing.

Walking alone on the path had increasingly made Emily feel vulnerable. The more she thought about what was happening, the more the rational explanations were making less sense. She was not only feeling vulnerable for herself, but for everyone on the island. She tried to convince herself that she had just seen too many scary movies, that those kinds of things don't really happen, but she couldn't help thinking they were in more danger then anyone thought. Then she heard something that made her stop in her tracks.

What she heard sounded like a motorized vehicle, like an ATV or a motorbike. At first she just stopped on the trail, and then she went off the trail and hid behind a bush. Motorized vehicles were prohibited on the island, without exception. As she sat their and strained to hear, she realized that the vehicle must be a ways away.

She sat there until she could no longer hear it. It must not have been on the trail she was on. It was too far away and not in the direction that the trail ran in either direction, but it was hard to tell.

When she regained her nerve, she got back onto the trail and began walking to the dock with a faster pace. Even though her legs were still fatigued from the morning jog, the adrenaline from her fear pushed her forward.

"Is someone else on the island," she thought. The idea made her even more fearful then she had been before.

Alli would have liked to have a faster pace on their walk, but Mary was dragging. Both had long since stopped enjoying the scenery, and now just wanted to be back at the inn to find out what had happened to Robin. And to maybe enjoy a snack and a glass of wine.

"At this pace, it may be dark before we get back," Alli said.

"I'll try to speed it up, but you know that I'll never be able to go as fast as you're comfortable with," Mary replied. "Anyways, were not that far out."

"We definitely still have a few miles to go," Alli said. "Just pick up the pace a bit, please."

"OK." Mary would normally have argued, or added a snide remark, but not today. Today she certainly didn't feel like doing any of those things, and she definitely wanted to be back at the inn. They increased their pace and continued down the trail.

Hurbert and Pamela continued on the trail up the backside of the hill at an even faster pace then when before the others had left. They would have been to the top a couple of hours earlier if had just been the two of them. They had decided that, even though this had been a beautiful and scenic hike, that this may have been to difficult of a trail to have chosen with less experienced hikers along. There were two other trails that both would have gotten them to the top of the hill faster, but they had chosen the one that Janice had said was the most scenic. In fact, they were kicking themselves fifteen minutes after Ray and Sara had left, because they walked past a trail that connected to the trail they were on that would have been a shorter trip back to the inn.

They had decided that after the sunset that they would go back on the shortest trail. They would still be in the dark for most of the walk, and that could be dangerous to be on a trail at night that they had never been on before. But the shorter trail would take a couple of hours off of their walk back to the inn.

"I think its just a bit further, how are you doing?" Pamela asked.

"Me? I'm doing great. Let's push through and get to the top and enjoy the bottle of cider I brought."

The going had been very slow for Ray and Sara. Sara seemed to want to stop every few feet. Ray would have carried her if he didn't have a backpack. It was almost assured that he would miss the beginning of the bachelor party, but if he pushed forward, maybe they could make up some time.

"Please Sara, all of these stops are just keeping you from being able to get off your feet. If you just push harder, we'll be back to the inn in no time. Please."

"I know you just want to get back to go to that party, that you don't even care if I'm hurting all night," Sara accused. The long day had turned her from pitiful to vicious.

"I swear, Sara, if you just push harder, I'll stay with you for a while at the inn. I'll make sure you're alright," Ray said, hoping to placate Sara without giving up his entire evening.

"Do you promise," Sara said, giving Ray her sad eyes.

"Absolutely," Ray replied. They continued on, at a slightly better pace. They went for a whole five minutes before Sara needed to stop again.

Neither of Amy's children had been happy when she had announced that they needed to get ready to go. Amy could tell by looking at her kids that it was time to pack up and leave, or else she would be carrying her kids back to the inn. And they had too much stuff to carry back to really do that. Nicky, Cort, and Lewis helped her pack, and they quickly got everything together and everyone picked up what they would carry back, when Amy noticed that her son was a bit antsy.

"The rest of you go ahead and head back, I think Joey needs to make a pit stop before we go. Lissa, you make sure and stay right by Nicky, OK?" Amy said.

"I will Mommy."

"Are you sure you don't want us to wait," Cort offered, a bit to Amy's surprise.

"No, that's alright, we'll just be a few minutes," Amy replied. Nicky, Lissa, Cort, and Lewis began heading back, while Amy found the hand sanitizer in her bag, took her son's hand, and began walking a bit further up the beach. They stopped at some tall grass just a little ways from the trail to the inn.

"Mommy, it smells yucky here," Joey said holding his nose.

"It's OK honey, just go ahead and pee so we can get going," Amy replied. She waited till her son was getting on with it before looking out over the grass. Her son was right, something did smell really bad. She assumed it was a dead animal or something. She started walking a little ways into the grass. She could see the flies.

"All done Mommy," she heard Joey say behind her. She was almost standing right on top of Eugene's body, which was only lightly covered with sand, when she heard Joey. Amy turned around and returned to her son. She pumped some of the hand sanitizer into his hands which he rubbed in. She then took him by the hand to collect the remainder of the stuff and headed to the inn.

Hurbert and Pamela reached the top of the hill with still a couple of hours left before the sunset. They set out the blanket they had brought with them and a snack. They were just about to sit down when they heard the footsteps running a ways off on the trail. They thought it was Ray at first, which gave them a scare.

"You don't think something happened to Sara, do you?" Pamela asked Hurbert, who just shrugged his shoulder and walked back to the trail with Pamela behind him. The figure came into view quicker then either of them thought they would. It didn't look like Ray. The figure running on the trail was dressed all in black. Then Pamela screamed.

"Wait, no…," was all Hurbert could say as the figure took aim with the shotgun and shot Hurbert in the face, removing all of its features. Pamela, who continued to scream, turned her back to run. The killer pumped the shotgun quickly and fired a shot that went straight through Pamela's back, making her as dead as her husband. It seemed to take a second for the two echoing booms of the shotgun to leave the air.

The killer walked over to the bodies. Pamela had ended up only a few feet from the body of Hurbert. The killer hated guns. Guns just weren't that much fun to kill with. The killer thought that it would have been more fun if the initial shots hadn't been fatal, but efficiency was still important. For now.

Deaths:

Troy Curtis - The Ferry Driver

Hurbert Evans - The Father-of-the-Bride

Pamela Evans - The Mother-of-the-Bride

AN: Sorry that it took so long to get this chapter posted. I will try to get the next chapter posted in a week or so. The next chapter is Chapter 7: Scrape.