"Vanessa."
The name escaped my lips before I could stop it.
Everyone turned toward her.
Vanessa stared at the photograph.
Then at me.
Then back at the photograph.
Her face had gone completely white.
"No."
Her voice was barely a whisper.
"No, that's impossible."
I looked down again.
The image was clear.
Painfully clear.
A man falling.
A struggle.
And beside him...
A woman.
A woman who looked exactly like Vanessa.
Same eyes.
Same face.
Same features.
Everything.
Lucas stepped back.
His hands trembled.
"You knew?"
Vanessa shook her head immediately.
"No."
"Stop lying!" Lucas shouted.
The forest echoed with his voice.
For the first time since we'd reunited, genuine anger consumed him.
Twenty years of grief.
Twenty years of guilt.
Twenty years of unanswered questions.
And now a photograph seemed to provide an answer.
An answer standing right beside us.
But something felt wrong.
Very wrong.
I looked closer.
Much closer.
Then I noticed it.
The date.
My heart skipped.
The photograph was taken in 2007.
Vanessa and I were children then.
Around ten years old.
The woman in the picture wasn't a child.
She was an adult.
An adult who merely resembled Vanessa.
Suddenly Richard smiled.
The kind of smile people wear when they know they've won.
And I hated it.
Because that smile told me he wanted us to believe the photograph.
Wanted us to fight each other.
I wanted us to be divided.
Then Ethan saw it too.
"The woman isn't Vanessa."
Everyone froze.
Lucas looked confused.
"What?"
Ethan pointed at the image.
"The age."
Silence.
Then realization slowly spread across our faces.
The woman couldn't be Vanessa.
She wasn't even old enough.
Richard's smile disappeared.
Only for a second.
But I saw it.
And that was enough.
Because for the first time...
Richard looked nervous.
Then Vanessa whispered something.
Something that made my blood run cold.
"I know who she is."
Every head turned toward her.
The color had drained from her face.
"My grandmother."
Silence.
The woman in the photograph wasn't Vanessa.
It was Margaret.
The same Margaret from the letter.
The same woman Ethan's father had written to.
The same woman everyone thought was innocent.
Lucas staggered backward.
"No."
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
"I've seen that necklace before."
She pointed at the photo.
Around the woman's neck hung a silver pendant.
A pendant Vanessa wore every single day.
An heirloom.
Passed down through generations.
Passed down from Margaret.
The forest fell silent.
Then Richard laughed.
A soft laugh.
A dangerous laugh.
"Now we're getting somewhere."
I hated that laugh.
Because it sounded like a man enjoying a game.
A game built on our pain.
Then Lucas looked at Richard.
And asked the question none of us had asked yet.
"If Margaret was there..."
His voice shook.
"Then where were you?"
Richard's smile vanished.
Instantly.
The change was so sudden it frightened me.
Because suddenly he wasn't amused.
He wasn't calm.
He wasn't in control.
He was angry.
Very angry.
And that told me everything.
Lucas had finally asked the right question.
Then Richard took a step backward.
Toward the trees.
Toward the darkness.
Toward escape.
Ethan noticed first.
"He's leaving."
Richard smiled again.
But this time there was fear behind it.
Real fear.
"You're close."
He glanced at me.
Then Lucas.
Then Vanessa.
And finally Ethan.
"Closer than any of you realize."
Then he pointed toward the lake.
One final time.
"The answer isn't in the photographs."
"The answer is in the water."
Before anyone could stop him—
Richard turned and ran into the forest.
And for the first time in twenty years...
The hunter had become the hunted.

Should they chase Richard immediately, or search the lake first?
A. Chase Richard
B. Search the lake
C. Split up
D. Richard wants them to go to the lake