AN: Apologies again for saying this chapter would be out last week but not getting it out till now. I do not think I have hit one of my update deadlines yet, so I think it might be safe to assume it will take longer than I estimate.
Special thanks to ThePlotMurderers for the reviews! I hope you continue to enjoy the story.
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
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
Dorothy Rose - The Stripper
Chapter 7: Scrape
"Oh my God, what was that," Sara said as the two booming sounds continued to echo through the air.
"It was definitely from up the trail," Ray said, looking up the trail from where they were walking. "I think those were gun shots."
Both Sara and Ray showed their obvious fear. Hearing gun shots out in the middle of nowhere is bad enough, but on a remote island where you know no one has a gun had made their blood run cold.
"Ray, let's go, now," Sara said as she grabbed his arm and tried to pull him down the trail. But Ray continued to stand there.
"Ray, now, please! We have to go," Sara begged, far more anxiously.
"We have to go up the trail," Ray finally said. "We have to go see if Hurbert and Pamela are OK."
"No we don't. We have to stay safe. Let's go back to the inn and get help."
"They could be injured. I'm not going back until I know."
"Why? Who are they to you? We didn't even know them before yesterday. Whoever fired those gun shots could be waiting for us. They could be coming down the trail right now. We have to go now."
"Sara," Ray said in a calm voice. She was in tears now, and was clearly very scared. Ray had calmed significantly since first hearing the shots. "Your right, you need to go to the inn as fast as you can. No more stopping."
"What about you?" Sara asked.
"I'm going back. I have to."
"No, no, no. Please Ray," Sara continued begging. Ray gave her a big hug, and a kiss, then turned around and began running up the path towards the top of the hill.
"Stay on the trail and go as fast as you can," Ray called back.
Sara stood there watching him run away until he was out of site, then she turned and began a fast walk, faster then she had gone all day, down the trail towards the inn.
Emily arrived at the docks and walked towards the boat. She hadn't been formally introduced to the Troy the previous day, but had heard his name enough times from Janice that she felt comfortable yelling it out.
"Troy! Troy!"
She looked out over the emptiness of the ocean. Normally, even walking on a boat on this large of a body of water would unnerve her, but right now she had other fears on her mind.
Emily stepped onto the boat and looked around. The boat looked completely empty. She continued calling for Troy while she looked around. She went up to the bridge and looked everywhere she could get to. She found the door to Troy's cabin locked and knocked on the door. No answer. At this point, she was concerned enough to try to force the door, but it would not open.
Emily thought that Troy might have gone to the inn. Maybe since he was staying the night, he got a room from Janice. If so, she wanted to get to the inn as soon as possible. She left the boat and jogged to towards the inn.
As soon as Daniel left her room a half-an-hour earlier, Dorothy got into the shower, where she still remained. She had had several tricks over the years, including several awful ones, but Daniel had by far been the worst by far. Dorothy made no apologies for what she did, and certainly felt no shame for it, but this had been the most dehumanizing experienced in her line of work and for the first time in a long time she thought about quitting her lifestyle. And the thought of having to dance in front of anyone right now was demoralizing. Especially since she knew that Daniel would be there.
Dorothy took several deep breaths. She could get through this. She wasn't going to let an awful person like Daniel run her life and make run away from her commitments. Dorothy turned off the water and got out of the shower and began to get ready.
Ray came to a fork in the trail and stopped to catch his breath. He was drenched with sweat and had to fight off the urge to sit down. Ray was in good shape, but running the entire way to this point was almost too much.
Ray was very scared. The shot had certainly come from this direction. And Ray was certain that is what they were… gun shots. Not only that, they were certainly gun shots from a large gun.
He was past thinking it was silly to be as concerned as he was. He definitely thought there was a chance that he would get to Hurbert and Pamela and find them comfortably sitting and he would look stupid. But two loud gun shots out here didn't fit. He had to know.
He looked at the two available trails. Both trails looked like they continued up the hill. He wished he had looked at the map at the inn more closely, and hadn't relied on Hurbert and Pamela to plan the trip.
Ray made his choice, the trail on the right. He stood back upright and decided he had rested enough. He then began to run again.
"I just cannot believe she left us out there," Kyle said, his frustration just barely fading.
"I know, but, sweetheart, staying angry about it isn't going to fix it," Denise said. Kyle had complained nearly non stop since he had returned. Kyle sometimes had issues letting rude behavior go. He continued to pace, while Amber, who had just come in, sat with Denise on the bed in Denise and Kyle's room. Denise put her arm around her younger sister's shoulders.
"So, where is Casey, Amber?" Denise asked. "I'm surprised you're here hanging out with you big sister and not off with your boyfriend."
Amber did not immediately reply, instead she continued to look down at her lap. Kyle was so worked up, he answered for her.
"Casey got sick on the tour and came back here. I'm surprised you haven't seen him around."
"Well, I haven't been out and about too much," Denise said. "How's he doing now?" Denise asked Amber, and only received a shrug in reply. She looked to Amber and could tell she was hiding something.
"Kyle, sweetheart, could you please run down to the kitchen and get me another cup of tea, please?" Denise asked.
"Uh, sure honey, I'll be right back," Kyle said.
"Oh, and sweetheart, if you see Janice, please keep your cool," Denise said giving her husband a smile. Kyle's scrunched his face and left. When Kyle was safely gone, Denise asked what she wanted.
"So what really happened with Casey?"
"The same thing that always happens with all my stupid boyfriends. He said that he 'wanted our relationship to go to the next level', which is just guy code for he wanted sex. I got angry with him, so he got angry with me and came back to the inn. I just don't understand why guys cannot just hang out and have fun and not want that."
"There just not built that way," Denise said giving her sister a smile.
"Dad's going to be so pissed. He told me that he didn't want to bring Casey along because he didn't like him. Now Casey's not even going to come to the wedding."
"Dad will be fine. You know he'll be happy to hear that Casey won't be around any more."
"Yeah, you're right. So, are you hungry? Is your stomach feeling better?" Amber asked.
"I'm feeling a lot better. Should we go down to the kitchen and catch Kyle before he comes back up?"
"Sure," Amber said. Amber hopped right up, while Denise stretched for few seconds before trying to stand. They both headed to the kitchen.
Ray was on the trail for almost a half mile before the trail turned and began heading back downhill. He stayed on the trail for about another quarter mile to see if the trail turned back in the right direction, but it did not. So Ray turned around, angry at himself for choosing the wrong trail. As he started running back to where the trail connected to the other trail, Ray heard the small motor.
Ray's pace, which had slowed from fatigue, sped up again. The motorized vehicle was another ominous sign. As best as Ray could tell, the vehicle was up hill from him. It was hard to tell with the echoing and with his ears throbbing from exhaustion. He just knew it was more important then before to find out what had happened to Hurbert and Pamela.
"I think we've got everything done," Bruce said setting down the bag of charcoal.
"Yeah, just about an hour behind schedule, and now I need a shower," Vic said. Both men were sweating. They had made four trips from the inn to the bar this afternoon. The bar was only about a mile from the inn, but the loads of coolers and other stuff that they had to bring over had certainly been more work than expected and the path was not smooth.
"I hope none of the guys went ahead with dinner because it took us so long," Bruce said while wiping the sweat off his face with a towel.
"They better not have. Well, I guess I should look at the bright side of it taking so long; maybe Ray will be back before when we get back to the inn. Either way, I'm going back to the inn to take a quick shower."
"Cool, let's do it," Bruce said, as they both headed back to the inn.
Sara could hear the vehicle coming down the hill. Unlike Ray, Sara's fear had diminished a bit. It had been nearly an hour since they had heard the gun fire, and since she had not heard anymore, she was now thinking that they had made too big a deal out of the whole thing.
This had meant that Sara's pace had slowed because the fatigue of the day had set back in. She hadn't really stopped too many times, but also hadn't been running. She had tried to keep to a fast walk.
Sara thought the sound of a motorized vehicle was a good sign. "Maybe it's a park ranger, or something," Sara thought. She stopped and waited. It definitely sounded like it was coming in her direction. She was so happy at the thought of not having to walk anymore; she would have taken a ride from just about anybody at this point just to get off her feet.
Sara continued to watch the trail until the ATV came into view. She was happy to see that the little four-wheeler looked like it might have enough room to carry her with the driver. When the ATV got close enough, she could see the driver was wearing all black. She gave the driver a wave, which the driver returned. She was really excited now.
When the vehicle was close, it did something unexpected. It sped up. Sara realized quickly that this clearly was not help, and tried to get out of the way, but she was too late. The front of the ATV clipped her legs very hard, knocking her to the ground. Her face hit a rock, breaking a tooth. She tried to get back up, but immediately fell back down from the pain in her ankle, which was badly broken.
The ATV had stopped, and then the driver backed it up to where she was lying. She tried crawling the rest of the way off the trail, fearing the driver meant to run her over again, but the driver stopped just short of her legs and dismounted.
For the killer, this couldn't have been luckier. The death the killer had planned for Sara was to come later, but it hadn't been that inventive. This death was going to be much more fun. The killer took a nylon rope from the bag on the ATV and walked over to Sara, who was still trying to pull herself from the trail. The killer decided to use the leg that did not have the obviously broken ankle. Sara tried, with no success, to kick away as the killer tied the rope very tightly to her leg.
Sara became even more frantic as the killer began tying the other end of the rope to the ATV. Sara desperately tried to untie her leg, but it was tied too well.
Having finished with both knots, the killer got back onto the ATV. Sara was pleading at this point for the killer not to do what the killer was going to do, but of course, the pleading fell on deaf ears. The killer started the ATV and began down the trail. The killer wasted no time getting the ATV to as high a speed as possible while still safely negotiating the trail.
Sara initially tried to stay upright, continuing to try to untie the knot, but she was quickly thrown backwards by the acceleration. The ground acted as very course sand paper on any of Sara's exposed skin unlucky enough to make contact. Every time this happened, there was a horrible scrapping sound, and her screams became even more intense. Sara's leg that was not untied flew around without much of her control, and then caught in a divot in the road which caused her hip to dislocate. One-hundred feet later, her tail bone hit a large rock, shattering it, and flipping her body.
When the killer reached the spot where they needed to turn off the trail to hide the ATV they stopped. The killer got off and looked at Sara's body. The killer flipped the body onto its back. The results were horrific. All of Sara's bones in her appendages were broken. Part of her nose was missing, and she was missing her right eye. What had been her mouth was just a bloody mess. Sara was definitely dead, as the killer could see from the fixed stare of her remaining eye.
The killer cut the rope. The killer wanted to remain to further study the handy work, but this kill had been especially unexpected, and the killer had to make up some time. The killer had places to be. The killer certainly planned, though, to return to this body to further study the damage done.
Ray reached where the trail had forked. The motorized vehicle sounded like it was downhill of him now, and he could see the tire tracks on the trail they had been walking on all day. His heart told him to run downhill to Sara, but his head told him that they had been running in opposite directions for over an hour, so he had to be closer to the top of the hill. "And Sara would know enough not to trust anyone on the trail at this point, right?" Ray thought. He decided to go with his reason and continue uphill.
Emily arrived back at the hotel and found Denise, Kyle, and Amber in the lounge snacking on some chips. The three waved to her as she arrived.
"Hey Emily, how was the hike? I didn't expect to see any of you back so soon." Denise said to her as Emily went into the lounge.
"Oh, it was fine. Have you guys seen Janice or Troy?" Emily asked trying to calm down as best she could.
"I wish we had seen Janice, so I could give her a talking to," Kyle said.
"Oh shush you. No we haven't seen either of them," Denise said. "Is everything alright Emily? Do you need help with something?"
Emily thought about telling them what she was concerned about but thought better of it. Right now, she wanted to confirm more information before involving people she barely knew.
"No, I'm fine. I just… If you see Janice or Troy, just please let them know I'm looking for them." Emily left the lounge and went behind the front desk. She searched the back area of the hotel and the kitchen, and then decided to go upstairs. She was heading to the third floor, but heard Vic on the second floor, so she decided to go and talk to him.
"Wakey, wakey, Adam," Vic was calling while knocking on the door to Adam's room. "Come on buddy, I know you don't want to miss the party."
As Emily approached Vic she noticed that he looked like he had just returned from a workout. Although, Emily knew she probably looked similar after hiking and running for part of the way back. Vic continued to knock on Adam's door as Emily approached.
"Vic, can I talk to you," Emily said hesitantly. Vic was taken back by this.
"Sure, Emily, of course," Vic replied. Sensing she was troubled by something, Vic decided to save any flippant remarks.
"I'm sorry; this is kind of difficult, but… When was the last time you saw Adam?"
Vic thought for a moment. "When we got here to the hotel yesterday," Vic replied. "Why?" The question from Emily had thrown Vic off.
"Well, I haven't seen Robin since the pool yesterday. She missed dinner last night and no one else has seen her. I had Janice let me into her room this morning, but she wasn't there, and all of her stuff was gone. I just think it's weird that Robin's gone and that you haven't seen Adam. Janice thought Robin might have caught the ferry back to the mainland. Speaking of which, have you seen Janice?"
"I haven't seen Janice since she ditched us on the tour," Vic said.
"Ditched you?" Emily asked.
"Yeah, she just left us in the town, and I haven't seen her since. But, I have been busy moving stuff to the bar, so I haven't been around here too much."
"Well, I was wondering if you want to help me get the key to Adam's room from the front desk and open it up and see if he's inside."
"What, break into Adam's room?" Vic laughed. "I have no problem with that."
The two went downstairs to the front desk and found a board with extra keys to all of the room. They pulled a key for Adam's room and headed back. Vic unlocked and opened the door and they walked in. Inside, the room looked as if no one had been there. Vic stood inside the room stunned.
"Do you think it's time to start getting concerned? Wouldn't Adam have mentioned something to you if he were leaving?" Emily asked as she looked around the room.
Vic stood there processing for several minutes. He then turned and headed for the door. "I'm going to go take a shower."
"What? Wait!" Emily said in disbelief.
"Look, Emily, I don't know what's going on here, but you're jumping to conclusions that something bad is happening. You're so desperate to fix problems that you create them when none exist," Vic said.
"But, how do you explain this?"
"I'm not going to Emily, because I don't know. But just cause I don't know doesn't mean that something bad has happened," Vic said. He could see that the answer had not satisfied Emily, and that she was frustrated, so he continued.
"Just keep looking for Janice. I'm sure she probably knows what's going on. If you're really concerned, just stay around the inn tonight. But I do not see what else we can do about this until we find Janice, and I'm not going to cancel Bobby's party just to find out that Adam and Robin decided to run away together." Vic smiled at that last part, as it was clearly a joke, but Emily just looked at him with a disappointed look.
Emily was trying to think of something to say to convince him that he should be more concerned, but she knew that suggesting that people were going missing without more evidence was unreasonable. And she knew that Vic was right, she didn't want to ruin Bobby's party over nothing. When Emily didn't reply, Vic shrugged his shoulders and left.
Emily sat down on Adam's bed and tried to decide what to do next. She really wished she had asked Alli and Mary to come back with her from the hike.
The group from the beach arrived back at the hotel not long after Emily. The group had taken it slow to allow Amy and Joey to catch them, so they arrived at the hotel together. Cort immediately headed to his room.
"Lewis, come hang out for a while," Nicky insisted.
"I think I'm going to go up to my room and let my dad know I'm back," Lewis said after looking over the group in the lounge.
"Well, if you come back down for dinner come find us, OK," Nicky said.
"I will," Lewis said and headed upstairs.
Lissa and Joey had gone straight to the bowl of chips on the coffee table, and Lissa was telling everybody what they had done at the beach, most of the time with her mouth full. Amy had taken a seat next to Denise, and looked very tired from the walk. Nicky took a seat next to Amber and also began digging into the bowl of chips.
"Don't eat too many of those you two, we're still going to have dinner," Amy said to her children. "Speaking of which, did Chrissy tell anyone what the plan for dinner tonight is?"
"I think she had planned on Tina making something, but no one has seen her all day," Denise said.
"The caterer is missing?" Kyle asked.
"Well, maybe," Denise replied. "Chrissy and Bobby were supposed to meet with her earlier today to make final plans for the reception, but she wasn't around. Speaking of which, Amy, if the caterer did take off for the mainland, would you help me put together the reception tomorrow."
Amy was a bit surprised by Denise's request which came out of nowhere. "Sure, if all of the food is here we should be able to do that," Amy said. "Do you really think the caterer left the island?"
"She must have," Denise replied. "I cannot imagine she would have gone anywhere else on the island."
"But how would she have left the island?" Amber asked skeptically.
"I don't know, nor do I know why she would leave without say anything about leaving," Denise replied. They all sat there considering this. When Lissa thought the silence had lasted too long, she began telling everyone more about the stuff they had done at the beach.
Bobby saw Lewis in the hallway coming back from the beach. Bobby was already to go to his party, but wanted to do one more thing before he left, and Lewis walking down the hall was perfect timing.
"Hey bro, I need to talk to you," Bobby said as Lewis continued down the hall.
"Hey, what's up?"
"Well, I was wondering something, and wanted to make sure you said yes," Bobby said to his younger brother.
"OK, what is it?" Lewis said hesitantly.
"Well, your seventeen now, and I was wondering if you wanted to come to my party tonight?"
Lewis hadn't expected this. He had assumed that the party would be an adults- only event. In fact, he had asked his father if they were going, and Allen had told him that it would only be for Bobby and his adult friends. Normally, Lewis wouldn't have even wanted to go to a party, but he had not been able to spend much time with his brother, and he had such a great time at the beach. So he was more willing to take a chance at having fun.
"Sure, I'd love to go," Lewis said.
"Really, great," Bobby said, shocked that his brother had agreed so willingly. "Now, let's not get too excited, we still need to convince Dad to let you go."
"Do you think he'll let me?" Lewis asked.
"Only one way to find out." The two went into Allen and Lewis' room to find Allen reading in a chair.
"Ah, boys. Lewis, those do not look like hiking clothes," Allen said.
"Oh, yeah, I decided to go to the beach instead," Lewis replied.
"Excellent, did you have a good time."
"Yeah, it was great." It was clear to Bobby that Lewis honestly meant that, as opposed to most of the time when Bobby knew that Lewis would say he enjoyed himself when he really had not.
"Very good, you'll have to tell me all about it. Bobby, did you ever track down your caterer?"
"No sir, not yet," Bobby said. "We are really starting to get concerned now, but I'm taking the evening off from wedding stuff and am getting ready to head off to the bachelor party.
"And on that note, I know you said you did not want to come, though, you're more then welcome to, but I think Lewis should come," Bobby said matter-of-factly.
"What? Well, Lewis, do you want to go?" Allan asked.
"Yeah, actually I do want to, if you'll let me," Lewis said hesitantly.
"Sure, on two conditions Bobby," Allen said. "The first is that Lewis comes back here as sober as he left. And two, that he comes back as pure as he left. I know your friends Vic and Bruce have something planned, and I would like it if Lewis is not involved in that. And, I want you to escort him back here when its time for him to come back."
"Deal," Bobby said. "Lewis, you have time for a quick shower, so go to it." Lewis complied and gathered some clothes and went into the bathroom. "I'm going to go see if Vic and Bruce are ready and tell them to wait up."
"Sure, but Bobby, I wanted to tell you one more thing," Allen said. "I just wanted to say that the way you look out for your younger brother is just another reason why I am so proud of you this weekend." Allen was standing, and he gave Bobby a long hug.
"Thanks Dad," Bobby said as he left the room. Outside, Vic and Bruce were waiting in the hall.
"We need to wait a bit longer before we head over, my brother is coming along," Bobby said to them.
"We are getting such a late start, I don't think a few extra minutes will matter," Vic said. "Does anybody know where Tom and Kyle are?"
"Kyle is downstairs, and I think someone said that Tom was out by the pool with Julie," Bruce said.
"Good. Bruce, go ahead and knock on Daniel's door upstairs and tell him we are leaving soon," Vic said. "He asked me to let him know. Then go grab Tom, Kyle, and our special guest and head over. Maybe by the time Lewis is ready, Ray will be back."
Bruce headed off to go collect everyone, while Vic and Bobby discussed their days. Not long after, Cort emerged from his room. He was wearing a large jacket.
"Hey Cort, do you want to reconsider on the party tonight?" Bobby asked.
"No thanks, I need to go for my walk," Cort said as he walked on by Bobby and Vic.
"OK. He's kind of an odd fellow, you know," Vic said after Cort was outside of earshot.
"Yeah, but I guess he is family, even though I don't know him at all," Bobby replied.
Ray had tried to brace himself for what he would find at the top of the hill. In his mind, he knew that hearing two gunshots coming from the direction of where Hurbert and Pamela had gone could certainly mean that they had been killed. But Ray still wasn't quite prepared for seeing Hurbert's head with the face missing. Ray vomited the limited contents of his stomach.
It was clear Hurbert was dead, but Ray was less clear on Pamela. Ray could see that she had been shot in the back and wasn't moving, but in Ray's mind he still wasn't sure if she was completely dead. He walked over to her body, and while trying to avoid the large puddle of blood, took Pamela's pulse. Not finding one, Ray was sure she was dead.
Ray sat down a short ways from the bodies. Running nearly the entire way to the top of the hill had left him incredibly light headed. Along with the shocking scene, he was finding it hard to think. He finally decided to walk over to Hurbert's and Pamela's bags and to find some water. That helped him regain his senses.
He then remembered that he had heard a motorized vehicle going down the trail to where Sara had been. He wished now that he had never run to the top of the hill. His curiosity just had to be satisfied, but there was absolutely nothing he could do here, and he was that much farther from the inn and now separated from Sara, who could be in danger. In his guilt, he got up and began running down the mountain as the sun began to set.
Cort had walked by everyone in the lounge unnoticed and left the inn. He decided to take a left onto a path he hadn't explored yet. He walked at a good pace on the flat trail.
Cort had a reason for finally coming out of his home and coming to the wedding. Six months earlier, he had a heart attack and had almost died. This was the reason he was walking, to try and lose weight and become healthier. Over the past 6 months, he had lost 50 pounds by walking in his neighborhood late at night.
After the heart attack, he decided he did not want to die yet, particularly without making amends with his brother and seeing Bobby again and getting a chance to meet Lewis. When he was invited to the wedding, he knew this was his opportunity to finally reconnect, and he wasn't going to miss it.
The walk was going great. Over the past several months, his walking speed had greatly improved. He had made it a fair distance from the inn in a short period of time.
Then he heard someone behind him. It had sounded like a lighter being ignited. He turned around in time to see the flaming bottle flying at him. He tried to move out of the way, but just tripped and fell down. The bottle hit the ground and became a puddle of flame that quickly set alight his large jacket.
Cort screamed an unnatural scream. The pain was like nothing else he had ever felt, and it was all encompassing. Without really thinking, Cort leapt to his feet and began running on the trail away from where the attack had come. The rational part of his brain had gone silent, and now all that was in control was his primal brain that was solely focused on skin that was burning away. His primal mind thought he could outrun the suffering.
Running only fed the fire. The fat on his body was quickly starting to melt and being soaked up by the cotton in his jacket, causing a wick effect. It would be hours before his body stopped burning, but it was just over a minute before he collapsed to the ground and a few seconds after that when the shock of the event finally caused his heart to stop.
The killer did not stick around for long, heading back to the inn as quickly as possible. The killer hoped Cort's horrible screams had not alerted anyone.
The sun was now set. Ray was running as fast as he could, but it was becoming harder to pick his feet up off the ground. He was barely able to think and he was barely able to still see where he was going. His foot stepped down on a rock wrong and he lost his balance. He stumble off the trail and went head first into a tree trunk, knocking him out cold.
Sara O'Conner - The Snob
Courtney Philips (Cort) - The Estranged
AN: The next chapter I might be renaming, so I am not releasing the title yet. I actually wrote through the beginning of chapter 10 months ago, but then I got really busy (it takes me a while to edit the chapters, which is the reason I have chapters written that I haven't posted). In the time between writing the chapters and now, I have decided to make changes in the story.
Chapter 9 was a really troublesome chapter to write, and I wasn't happy with some of the stuff I had the characters doing. I decided I should re-do chapter 9, but that requires changes in chapter 8 (including the death(s)). I am not sure how many changes yet, but I will try to have the next chapter out next weekend.