What Lies in the Woods

Cody and Naomi finish their visit; she considers trying to seduce him, but it becomes clear that he is devoted to his wife and family. Alone in her motel room, Naomi becomes uneasy and eventually drives out to the woods where the attack occurred. Her memories of the events are fragmentary, and she has never returned to this place. Naomi reads the letter she received: In it, Stahl’s son, AJ, warns that Naomi sent Stahl to prison under false pretenses.

Shaken by the letter, Naomi walks into the woods. She hears the sounds of footsteps nearby and feels terror: “It was dark and I was alone and no one knew I was here, and these woods had been promised my death and denied it” (65). She runs back to her car, and once she reaches safety, she begins to wonder if she was mistaken and there was no one in the woods after all.

Naomi falls asleep in her parked car and is woken the next morning by a police officer. She finds a disturbing voicemail from Liv on her phone: “I have to…I’m sorry. I need you to know that. I’m so, so sorry” (69).