Page 111 of The Unknown

Don’t say it!my brain screams.Don’t you dare say it!

She does.

Of course she does.

The name a chipper bird alighting off her tongue.

“Daisy.”

Thirty-One

Outside, the storm rages. Thunder roars and lightning slices the sky, the white-hot glow strobing across Violet’s face. I stare at her, dumbstruck, trying to think of a way in which this could logically happen.

I can’t do it.

There is no logic to this scenario. Just a shuddery feeling that it’s not only the cottage that could be haunted. The whole island might be touched in some way, slightly removed from the laws of science and nature. Some people claim there are places like that all over the world. New Avalon could be one of them.

Either that or Violet is simply acting. A skill for which she is world-renowned.

“You’re not fooling anyone,” I tell her, even though she is. Just a little.

“I’m not trying to,” Violet pretending to be Daisy says.

“Then why are you doing this?”

“I’m notdoinganything. I don’t know who you are or how I got here.”

Violet’s appearance suddenly seems off. She looks the same—same keen eyes, same sharp nose—but also changed. Her body exhibits a wired spryness, like she’s shed several dozen years. The result is a weirdmutation. Half Violet, half Daisy. She gives Ronan a flirty wave and says, “Hello. I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure of meeting.”

The transformation is enough for me to concede that it might no longer be a ruse.

It might be real.

And Violet—inexplicably, impossibly—might now be possessed by Daisy Rue.

There’s only one way to find out.

“Ronan,” I say, “everything that’s happened this past week has been a lie.”

I look to Violet, checking her reaction. There isn’t one. She just listens politely, as if all of this is news to her. And it would be, to Daisy.

“What are you talking about?” Ronan says.

“Everything was faked. Brad’s illness. The disappearances. The séance and the ghosts and the dresses in the trees.” I sneak another glance at Violet. Still no reaction. “Everyone was in on it except you and me.”

“Is that true?” Ronan asks Violet, who perks up at the attention.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t privy to any such deceit.”

“They did it to scare us,” I say. “But mostly you.”

“Like a prank?” A grin spreads across Ronan’s face, dumb and toothy. “Is that what’s happening right now?”

I don’t know what the fuck is happening, so I keep talking. I literally can’t think of another option. “They did it so that we’d think the island was haunted, that we were in danger, and that during this séance you’d admit what you did to Elise Haines.”

Ronan’s eyes ping-pong behind his glasses as he lists to the right, woozy. “Elise?”

“The sex tape. And that Elise killed herself when she found out about it. We all know. Violet and everyone else. Now you need to admit it. Admit what you did, and this will all be over.” I turn to Violet. “Right? You’ll stop then?”