What Lies in the Woods

Content Warning: This section references suicide, domestic violence, sexual assault of a minor, and alcohol use disorder.

A flashback describes the events on the day that Naomi was attacked. A man was walking his dog in a wooded area when he encountered two young girls, covered in blood. They explained that they had been attacked by a man with a knife and that their third friend had been killed. Almost immediately, a group of local volunteers went to look for the third girl; a young man named Cody Benham found her. Miraculously, the girl was alive and able to recover from her serious injuries. There is a hint that there is more to this narrative than has been revealed: “We didn’t tell the story. Not the real one. Not ever” (3).

Naomi Cunningham receives an unexpected phone call informing her that a man named Alan Michael Stahl has died in prison. Naomi is immediately curious about whether her two best friends, Olivia Barnes (Liv) and Cassidy Green (Cass), have been informed about Stahl’s death. She is also pleased with the news: “The man who’d attacked me was dead. A little less evil in the world” (7).