Late Afternoon, Day 5 - Candlewick Lobby
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âgrace â grace?â
erin stands behind her, now, a tremble in her voice. it could be passed as such from the cold, or the fatigue, but she knows itâs from the question on her tongue.
grace had saved her. grace had found her when she was tied up, when she was unable to even call for help. but ⌠maybe she knew where to find erin because she had put her there in the first place. erin doesnât know what to think anymore.
âwe, um, someone found dean winchester. heâs dead. your â your room key was on him.â
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Grace looks up at the sound of her name, her stomach dropping at the tremor in Erinâs voice. Had something else happened? It wasnât unlikely, with the fiasco of the last 5 days, but still, it was unusual for someone to seek her out directly.
Her stomach dropped farther. Dean Winchesterâ the first disappearance.
Sheâd been out late that night. There had been a group dinner and everyone had had more than a little to drink. Sheâd lost her room key earlier in the day, and never quite found it either.Â
She encountered Dean Winchester on her way back to the hotel.
âDean? I thought he left the island?â she put on a calm, confused demeanor and faced her old friend. âI guess that explains where my room key went though.â
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erin breathes out a sigh. it canât be grace. sheâs as clueless as the bride herself. running a hand through her hair â a stress habit she doesnât recall actually starting, but itâs the least of her worries at this moment â she looks to the ground and then back up at grace, fingers moving to the hem of her shirt to fiddle as she replies hesitantly.
âyes, we â we all did. but, uh, it doesnât ⌠grace, youâre a suspect. you must have seen him last, after all, and â if you â i canât believe iâm saying this, but if you didnât kill him, why did you see him?â
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Grace watches and listens quietly. Erin is visibly distressed- and why wouldnât she be? sheâs confronting someone on the topic of murder- and Grace canât help but feel tense. Sheâd have to choose her words carefully here. She clears her throat and speaks slowly.
âI was walking back from the restaurant, alone⌠I was a little buzzed, Iâll admit to that, and Dean was standing on the beach. I couldnât see well, it was dark, but he seemed to have been standing there longer than if he had just left dinner..,â she paused and tried to gather her thoughts on the fly. âI didnât end up staying in my room that nightââ
Realizing how that might sound, Grace backtracked, speaking a little faster. âB-Because the machines were broken! I couldnât get another key to my room so I had to stay out andâŚâ She trailed off and watched Erin, trying to gauge her reactions. âI donât know how he got my key.â
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every stutter, every hitch in her breath, every GLANCE reads that grace is hiding something. erin does not have to be a genius, nor a detective, to figure that out, and with a nature as blunt as it always has been, she confronts grace with more confidence now.
âyouâre hiding something, grace. you donât â what are you hiding? we are in the middle of a horror movie, here, stranded on a powerless island with someone ready to kill us all, it would seem! keeping secrets right now isnât ⌠itâs not wise, grace.â
her voice softens at the end, but her eyes remain staring, as defiant as she can muster at a time when she would rather give in to fear. âtell me what you know. please.â
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Grace knows she isnât handling this as well as she should be. If sheâd knownthat Erin was going to be meeting with her, then sheâd be considerably more composedâ more normal. Sheâd been caught off guard by this line of questioning and it wasnât her faultâŚ
It wasnât supposed to BE this way.Â
The brunette doesnât meet her friendâs eyes, listening to her accusations and taking all of them. She deserves all of them, doesnât she?Â
Her voice is barely above a whisper as she meets Erinâs gaze, eyes soft, vulnerable, but thereâs a cold hint of ice just beyond the surface, like it has ALWAYS been.Â
âIt wasnât supposed to be this way, Erin.â
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there is a shift in the atmosphere, and not for the first time, erin is afraid. as graceâs eyes raise to meet her gaze, she can do nothing but stare back, eyebrows pulling together in confusion at her friendâs words. she swallows, looking at grace searchingly.Â
âsupposed to be âŚÂ what way, grace?â
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Sheâs frustrated, thatâs what she is. Her own words repeat in her head and more than anything she is frustrated. Hysteria that had started to set in from the beginning of this conversation was finally starting to come through and to her own surprise her voice shakes only slightly.
âThe wedding, the people, the deaths⌠After everything that happened in high school I thought that all of this drama was over and now you think I killed someone? Th-Thereâs no way that I couldâve strangled Dean like that Erin!â
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sheâs right. of course sheâs right, it was stupid of erin to even ASK. grace couldnât kill someone; grace wouldnât kill someone. erin opens her mouth to apologize, lips parted and eyes sorrowful, and she pauses.
âgrace,â she begins, and itâs calmer, quieter, âhow did you know dean was strangled?â
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Sheâs blown it now, and she curses herself for it over and over in her head. There is no recovering from this, and the realization of it snaps something inside the small woman. Thereâs no need to hold back now.Â
âWhere did they find him?â Grace half grins.Â
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something changes in grace after erin speaks, and the young bride is only given a moment to watch her warily before grace replies. there is nothing hidden now. erin swallows again, taking a step back â more of a shuffle, really â and clearing her throat in vain.
âin â in the â in the woods, grace, heâd been there for days.â a pause hangs over them. â⌠what have you done?â
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Grace knows what sheâs done. If sheâs honest, most of the people that have died here are people she didnât know. People she barely remembers the names of.Â
She doesnât remember how many have died, only that Dean was one of the first.
âI did it because of you, you know. The power going out has been lucky, but the killings were because of you.â
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erinâs breath hitches. for a moment, she simply stares at grace, dumbfounded at this confession â and terrified by what she means. her eyes glance to distant friends, companions, strangers; the wedding party is too far away to hear their conversation. she could call out to them, but sheâs scared to make a sound.Â
âi â what do you mean, because of me?â
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âThis trip was supposed to be different,â Grace grits her teeth, already losing herself to the rage she hadnât fully realized had built up over the course of the week.
âIn schoolâ Erin, you were my ONLY friend,â the anger manifests itself in the welling up of tears in her eyes and she clenches her fists. âEveryone ignored quiet little Grace with the druggie big brother. I thought things were gonna bedifferent⌠Then you forgot about me too and then this wedding and the people who hadnât even bothered to say helloââ
âErin I hated you.â
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erin freezes, breath caught sharply in the shock of her friendâs revelation. each of these deaths, every time they have been forced to mourn someone who died far too young ⌠it was her fault. all of it. archelaosâ death.Â
âyou killed these people because you were mad at me?â perhaps the jagged edge to her voice is from the desperate urge to be violently sick, crawling up her throat, but she doesnât. tears cloud her vision, thick and fast, but this conversation is over.
she turns towards the rest of the party, now, to get away from grace â to tell them the name of their killer â to find somewhere to cry.
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âIâm mad because the world is not a fair place,â She says softly, knowing that Erin isnât listening anymore.
Grace watches her go, and accepts her fate. She has been caught. Two days remain before this vacation is over, and who knows how long theyâll be forced to stay afterward.
The power is still out, there is still no service, and Grace McClain has been caught.Â











