At first, it was cute how Melissa had a crush here in the wilderness.
Well, actually, Gen had known that her best friend had been acting strange around Shauna Shipman even before the crash. But the whole thing seemed like one of those crushes on someone completely out of reach, and that’s how things should have stayed.
With all this chaos happening in the wilderness, it was almost adorable to see Melissa getting close to Shauna in the most subtle ways possible—always staying near her, even though she was rarely noticed.
Gen liked to silently laugh at how pathetic Melissa seemed with her crush on Shauna. It was funny. But things changed when Melissa started having real chances with her.
She remembered when an ecstatic Melissa told her that something incredible had happened but that she couldn’t tell anyone. Of course, since Gen was her best friend, she insisted. And without giving too many details, Melissa confessed that she had kissed Shauna. Gen started laughing, as if her best friend had just told the funniest joke ever—but Melissa was serious.
How the hell had that happened? Shauna was supposed to be Melissa’s unattainable crush. But there she was, saying that she had kissed Shauna—and Shauna had kissed her back.
Even though Gen kept pressing for details, Melissa said she wanted to respect Shauna and couldn’t say anything more beyond the kiss. But either way, she was happy, and Gen was happy for Melissa—because, as her best friend, that’s what she was supposed to do, right?
The next time Melissa went to see Shauna, she asked Gen for help to look pretty. It was cute because Melissa had never acted like that before. So, Gen helped her, braiding her hair while Melissa gushed about how beautiful Shauna was. Why should Gen care about any of this? Melissa was just acting like a normal girl in love.
But then, everything changed completely.
After they had captured Coach Ben, Gen quickly realized that maybe Melissa liked pleasing Shauna a little too much. It started with just a few comments during the trial—Gen could see that Melissa got nervous, drumming her fingers on the table every time Shauna had to answer a question. But things took a much darker turn when the verdict was taking far longer than expected.
Gen knew that Shauna wasn’t someone to mess with—hell, she had seen what Shauna did to Lottie with just a few punches and kicks. But seeing all of Shauna’s anger directed at the group made Gen feel like if she didn’t raise her hand, she might end up like Lottie. And she wasn’t sure if she was strong enough to survive that.
The worst part wasn't the fear she felt for Shauna—it was seeing Melissa encouraging her. While Shauna glared at Gen in a completely threatening way, Melissa just nudged her elbow, as if expecting Gen to raise her hand as a favor so she could have a chance with Shauna.
For fuck’s sake, they were about to sentence a man to death, and it seemed like all Melissa cared about was pleasing Shauna!
Shaking with fear, Gen raised her hand—not because she was sure Ben was guilty, but because she was sure that if she didn’t, she would have to face Shauna’s wrath. And the worst part? She wasn’t even sure if Melissa would do anything to help her.
When Lottie and the others changed their votes, Gen felt a little better. After all, they had done Shauna’s will—whether out of fear or because they truly believed Ben was guilty.
Gen started convincing herself that Coach Ben really had set fire to the cabin. Maybe she was just telling herself that so she wouldn’t feel guilty about voting against him. But if it wasn’t him, who else could it have been? None of the girls would have simply condemned everyone by burning down the only home they had in this place, right? No—Ben judged them and feared that what had happened to Javi would happen to him. So he was definitely the guilty one!
Gen hadn’t spoken to Melissa since then. Well, they exchanged a few words when they were in a group, but that basically meant nothing. She knew she should talk to Melissa, check if her best friend had made any progress with Shauna. But after hearing Melissa agree with Shauna’s sick suggestion to burn Ben alive, she decided it wasn’t worth discussing Shauna anymore.
When Coach Ben was saved by Lottie, Travis, and Akilah, Gen felt a wave of relief. It didn’t matter whether he was guilty or not—it was still hard to watch and listen to him begging for his life.
Still, Ben was a problem. How were they going to make sure he didn’t escape? The group agreed to incapacitate him—whatever that was supposed to mean—but of course, Shauna volunteered for the job.
That was it. Gen didn’t trust Shauna to do whatever needed to be done. But later that night, when it was time to carry out the plan, Melissa simply showed up beside Shauna like a damn puppy on a leash.
No. What the fuck was she doing? This was supposed to be Shauna’s job alone.
The two of them went to Ben, and Gen didn’t know what had happened there. But his screams of pain were horrifying.
When Melissa returned with bloodied hands, Gen realized that it wasn’t Shauna who had done that to Ben. It was Melissa.
Shauna intertwined her fingers with Melissa’s blood-stained ones, as if it were an announcement to everyone that they were officially together. A few days ago, Gen would have been happy for her best friend. But not now. Now, she was just losing her best friend to a psychopath.
Fuck, how did this happen?! Didn’t Melissa realize that Shauna was turning her into a fucking psychopath too?! There was no way Melissa truly agreed with any of this—because her best friend wasn’t like that.
As Shauna and Melissa walked hand in hand across the camp toward Shauna’s hut, Melissa looked back, and for a moment, her eyes met Gen’s.
Melissa’s gaze wasn’t one of regret. It wasn’t the look of someone scared or ashamed. It was just the look of someone who had finally gotten what they wanted.
That night, Gen took hours to fall asleep, haunted by the coach’s screams and by what her best friend had done. Before sleep finally took over, Gen made a promise to herself—she would talk to Melissa the next day.
Gen didn’t sleep well—how could she, after that terrifying night filled with Coach Ben’s screams and the realization that her best friend had caused it? She thought she heard strange noises, moans, but she wasn’t sure. The only thing she was sure of was that those moans could have only come from Shauna’s hut.
Gen had gotten about two hours of sleep, but she didn’t care. There were too many things on her mind.
She stepped out of the hut she shared with the other JV girls and walked toward the campfire in the middle of the camp. She stood there for a while, watching as people slowly emerged from their huts.
She wanted to go check on Coach Ben, see how he was doing, but she knew she didn’t have the courage. Just imagining his condition made her want to vomit, and she knew the guilt would suffocate her. Gen thought that becoming a hunter would make things easier for her, but seeing injured animals wasn’t the same as seeing an injured human.
The camp was silent, as if everyone knew they were monsters but couldn’t bring themselves to say it out loud.
So far, there was no sign of Melissa, and Gen was struggling not to go after her. The truth was, the only reason she hadn’t gone looking for Melissa was because she was afraid of waking up Shauna or something like that.
When she finally saw Melissa stepping out of Shauna’s hut, she stood up quickly and decided not to hesitate. Maybe she could at least postpone the conversation for a bit, but this was eating her up inside.
“Melissa.”
“Hey.” Melissa smiled at her like nothing had happened.
“I…” Gen was about to say something, but she got distracted when she noticed the hickeys and bite marks on Melissa’s neck.
That’s when it hit her—the moans she had thought she heard in the middle of the night were real. And they had been coming from Melissa.
“Is there a problem here?”
Gen flinched at the sound of Shauna’s voice. She hadn’t even noticed her standing nearby.
They were still in front of Shauna’s hut, so Gen wasn’t sure what she had been thinking.
Shauna didn’t seem angry, but she definitely looked impatient.
“Is there a problem, Gen?” Melissa repeated the question.
“I just wanted to talk to you. Alone.” Gen said to Melissa.
Shauna didn’t say anything, just rolled her eyes.
“Uh, okay.” Melissa replied. “Let’s go somewhere else.”
They walked toward the trees, still within the camp’s boundaries. For a few seconds, Gen almost convinced herself that nothing had changed in Melissa. But deep down, she knew she was just lying to herself.
Suddenly, Melissa stopped walking.
“What do you want?” she asked. The question wasn’t rude, but there was a hint of impatience in her voice.
“I missed you in the hut,” Gen started. It wasn’t how she had planned to begin the conversation, but it was still true.
“Well, I didn’t miss being with a bunch of girls, barely having space to move.”
“Shauna’s hut must be pretty nice, huh?” Gen had never actually been inside, but she knew it was big—and it was Shauna’s alone.
“It is. And Shauna’s there, so that’s a huge bonus.” Melissa said with a silly smile on her face.
“I’m glad you finally got some space to sleep, but it doesn’t seem like you two got much sleep.” Gen commented.
Melissa scoffed. “You don’t have to say it like it’s a bad thing.”
“Did she hurt you?” Gen asked.
“No! It’s almost insulting that you’d even ask that!”
“I don’t know, it’s just… look at yourself. You have so many marks on you that someone could easily assume…” She didn’t finish the sentence.
“Assume what? For fuck’s sake, Gen, Shauna’s not a rapist or anything like that. Everything she did was with my consent.” Melissa was starting to get angry.
“It’s just that you’ve been doing so much to please Shauna that I don’t even know if you can say no to her.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know! I saw the blood on your hands—I know what you did to Ben!”
Melissa let out an impatient sigh.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked.
“Doing what?”
“Trying to ruin something good.”
“There’s no way you actually think this is something good.” Gen couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“When have you ever seen me this happy? Don’t you get it? Something good is finally happening for me, and I just expected you to support me.”
“Shauna is a fucking psychopath!”
“You don’t know her.” Melissa defended her.
“What it feels like is that I don’t know you! Because why the hell are you suddenly turning into a psychopath over a girl? She doesn’t even seem to like you—you're just her little puppy, obeying her every order.”
That seemed to strike a nerve.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Fuck, why can’t you just be happy for me?”
“Because your little girlfriend is a violent, terrifying person, and she’s turning you into one too!”
“Maybe this is who I am, and you just never knew it.”
Gen shook her head in disgust. “Look at you—talking like you’re trying to convince yourself.”
“Convince myself?” Melissa let out a sarcastic laugh. “Do you want to know what happened last night? Shauna handed me the knife, and at first, I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it. But then I did it—I sliced Coach Ben’s Achilles tendon. You know what happened after that? With his blood on my hands and his screams of pain, I smiled. Yeah, I smiled because I had never felt so alive before. So no, I wasn’t trying to convince myself that I liked it.”
Gen wanted to vomit at Melissa’s confession. What the hell had happened to her best friend? No—it didn’t matter how much Melissa insisted, Gen refused to believe this was who she truly was. This fucking wilderness had changed her. No—Shauna had changed her.
Tears threatened to spill from Gen’s eyes, but she doubted this version of Melissa would even care if she cried in front of her.
“Melissa.” And there was Shauna again.
Melissa’s eyes lit up at the sight of her, and to Gen’s shock, Shauna walked straight over and kissed her.
Gen hadn’t expected to see them kissing right in front of her, and once again, she felt like throwing up. But she forced herself to watch.
If it were anyone else, Gen would have just seen it as a simple display of affection. But she knew Shauna wasn’t doing it for that reason. She knew this was another display of dominance—just like holding hands in front of everyone yesterday had been.
When they pulled apart, Melissa still had that lovesick smile on her face, looking like an idiot. And now, it seemed like Gen wasn’t even there anymore—Melissa only had eyes for Shauna.
“Is there something wrong here?” Shauna asked.
“No, we were just talking,” Melissa replied.
“Really? Because it looks like you’re about to cry, Gen.”
That sentence could have sounded like concern from someone else, but Gen wasn’t stupid. There wasn’t a single trace of worry in Shauna’s voice—she was just trying to intimidate her.
Gen wanted to tell Shauna to fuck off, to go to hell, to say she deserved everything bad that had ever happened to her. But she didn’t have the courage. No one did. They all just let Shauna bully them because they were terrified of how unstable and violent the butcher was.
“It’s fine. Melissa and I were just talking, but the conversation is over.”
Gen turned her back on them and walked away, feeling utterly defeated. She couldn’t stomach this anymore.
She wished she had the courage to stand up to Shauna—or at least to firmly tell Melissa that she was being manipulated. But she didn’t. So, just like the rest of the group, she simply let Shauna do whatever she wanted. And the only thing Gen could do was hope that Melissa would be careful with Shauna—and that she wouldn’t become her next victim.