Detective Larsen read from her notes and spoke to us in a matter-of-fact tone. She told us that from what they gathered so far, Gina and Dean lured teenagers to phony summer camps in order to participate in a deadly game. Teams were arranged and put on the island with the goal being to fight each other - to the death.
"This was created on the dark web," the detective said. "The prize was twenty million dollars to be awarded to the winning team's representatives. We are still looking into all of the parties involved. Dean and Gina seem to be new to this...sort of thing."
"Twenty million dollars?" I asked. "For the team who survived. And for the losers? The ones who died? What about them?"
"Well, all the teams were made up of minors. All teenagers. Only the reps were adults," Detective Larsen said. "We still don't have an accurate account of every person involved including the ones who...died."
"So they pitted a bunch of teenagers against each other to fight to the death?" Grant asked.
My mom interjected. "Maybe I'm naive, but what's the dark web?"
"You're not naive at all," Detective Larsen replied, waving her hand in the air. "It's like the World Wide Web, only you would need special software to access it. It allows users to remain anonymous."
"Oh," my mom said, shrinking back into her chair. A look of worry fell onto her face.
"It's complicated," the detective sighed. "There's a lot more to it, but I'll tell you what I know. This investigation may go on for a while, but the most important thing right now is making sure you all are safe."
My parents nodded. I glanced over at Grant.
We were tired and overwhelmed, with a long road of recovery ahead of us.
"If the dark web is anonymous, will you be able to find Dean and Gina?" I asked.
"Most likely we can find them, yes," she sighed. "We've gathered some good information on them. But they're only minor players in this."
I shook my head. "What do you mean? They kidnapped us!"
"Well, yes, and we'll charge them with that, among a lot of other things, when we catch them. But they're not the ones who started this. They were probably just hired to do a small part. There were other groups - teams - put together, too. We have no idea who was a part of that. We need to find out who the main ringleader of this was."
My eyes welled up with tears out of frustration. Gina had made it seem as though she and Dean owned the whole island, the camp, all of it. All along, she was nothing but a lying kidnapper who was paid to keep us chained up in a basement. After talking briefly to the detective a bit more, she promised to keep us updated on the progress and return again soon. My parents wanted to take me home, but the doctors advised keeping me in the hospital overnight until my vital signs improved. Reluctantly, they agreed. They got a hotel room near by, even though my mom didn't want to leave me. I had to tell her about ten times that I would be fine staying in the hospital. She hugged and kissed me so many times that even my dad had to laugh.
I couldn't sleep that night. Everything Detective Larsen said ran through my mind over and over. After growing much too restless, I climbed out of my bed, rolling my IV along with me, and peeked out into the hospital corridor. It was empty, except for the nurses station at the very end. A security guard they had stationed to keep watch overnight was flirting with one of the nurses. I slowly walked to the room next to mine and opened the door. The TV was on and was shining its multicolored lights down onto the bed.
"Grant?" I whispered.
He jumped a little at the sound of my voice, but then smiled when he saw me.
"Sorry," I apologized. "I didn't mean to wake you."
He motioned for me to come over to him. "You didn't. I wasn't sleeping, not really. Every time I doze off, I just wake up again too confused and forgetting where I am."
I nodded. "Me too."
Grant pulled his blankets back and patted the bed. I giggled and climbed up. We both laughed quietly as I struggled to not get too tangled in my IV, but I finally wiggled my way up and laid down next to him. I rested my head lightly on his shoulder and exhaled. It felt like I could finally relax and let my guard down a little. I knew I couldn't stay too long because the nurse would be in soon and if she didn't see me in my bed, she would think I had gone missing.
"Are you doing okay?" Grant asked.
"I guess, all things considered. What about you?"
"Same," he said. "But, I'm doing better now that you're here."
I smiled up at him.
"Me too," I said and kissed him softly on the lips.
The following day I was deemed well enough for them to reduce the sedating medication they were running through my IV. My head finally didn't feel so fuzzy. I got random flashbacks but I was too afraid to say anything to the doctors because I didn't want them to medicate me again. Every time an image would pop into my head, I literally tried to shake it away.
Even with the TV on, I couldn't drown out my memory. I kept remembering things, like the cabin fire or when Beth got hurt. As soon as the nurse came in, I knew I had to ask her if I could see Beth.
She wrote some notes onto my chart before looking up at me.
"I'm sure that would be all right, " she smiled. "You're all doing so much better. I believe the detective wants to speak with you again, so I'll see if we can arrange a short visit after."
I thanked her and laid back against my pillows. Depending on what the doctor said, I was hoping to be discharged within the next day or two.
As predicted, Detective Larsen showed up, coffee cup in hand. My parents had come back, but were busy talking to the doctor in the hallway. Pulling a chair closer to my bed, she rummaged through her notes quietly.
"Sorry," she smiled weakly. "I'm just trying to remember where we left off."
She flipped through the pages of her notebook, back and forth.
"I'll tell you," I said with irritation in my voice. "Gina and Dean were hired on the dark web to lure innocent teenagers like myself to fake camps where they held us captive until they were - I'm just guessing, here - going to release us into the wild to fight other teams to the death so they could win like a billion dollars or something."
The detective squinted her eyes and pursed her lips before letting out a sigh. "Well, not a billion dollars, but-"
I stared at her.
"But, yes," she said and cleared her throat. "That's the quick summary of it, I guess."
My parents entered my room happily, their smiles quickly fading when they saw the detective.
"Good news," my mom said. "The doctor says you can come home tomorrow."
I wanted to be excited. I really did. But I quickly glanced over at the detective and saw her worried expression.
"Can I go home tomorrow, Detective?"
"Well, I'm not a doctor, so that's not my call," she said. "This investigation will most likely be ongoing for a while, so we'll need to be in touch quite regularly. Also, and this is extremely important, we don't want the media to catch wind of this."
"The media?" my dad asked. "Don't you think they should know?"
Detective Larsen shook her head sternly. "No, definitely not. But, there's a reason we don't want to alert the news. We have a strong suspicion that whoever is behind this will strike again. If they find out that we're on to them..."
"Then maybe they'll stop!" my dad barked.
My mom placed her hand softly on his chest and whispered something that made him calm down a bit.
"I understand how you're feeling," the detective said. "But, unfortunately people like this don't stop simply because we're investigating them. They'll only make it even harder for us to find them. We need this to stay quiet, at least until we find out more."
My parents looked defeated, as though they wanted to scream from the rooftops that I was going home safe and sound. Ultimately though, we knew we wouldn't be able to talk about any of this until the FBI said we could. Detective Larsen said she already contacted local law enforcement who would work with each one of us since we were all from different states. They'd all report back to the FBI. As she spoke, I got lost in thought. I imagined how the next few months, or longer, would go. Police and FBI interrogating us over and over, monitoring social media, emails, cell phones, and doing background checks on just about everyone we had ever known.
I vaguely heard my mom ask questions.
Are they going to tap our phones?
Do we need to install a burglar alarm system?
Should we homeschool Ryleigh?
Is it safe to go outside at all?
My body started trembling again. I didn't want to live that way. It would be like being a prisoner in my own home, and that was no way to for me to live. Gina's face flashed in my mind and without thinking, I screamed. Loudly. Everyone stopped and froze in place as I cried out. I couldn't take it anymore.