All Chapters of Murder on the Northwind Trail: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

It took over an hour before sirens finally tore through the silence of the frozen plain.I was crouched behind a rock, maybe 30 feet from the car, wrapped in a mud-stained parka. My hands wouldn't let go of a nearly dead power bank.Forensics, highway patrol, and local detectives all showed up together. Six people had come out here to the Northwind Trail for the trip. Only one of us was still breathing.The other five were trapped in their seats by seatbelts, bodies bent at impossible angles.Damon Snee, our leader, slumped over the steering wheel, his forehead pressed against the horn that gave no sound. Mike Hardy, in the passenger seat, had his mouth frozen half open, as if he'd been about to scream. His eyes were wide and terrified.In the back, Charlie Field, Russ Newton, and our photographer, Ken Blanton, sat contorted, some curled up, some hanging back, faces stiff with pain or empty shock. Not one of them had visible injuries. It was as if life had just been pulled out o

Chapter 2

By the time the sun was fully up, I sat inside the patrol car, watching through the window as the coroner and investigators kept moving around the SUV.The coroner pulled off his outer gloves, his voice heavy in the cold air as he said, "Initial assessment: Cause of death is complex. Acute altitude complications are suspected—possibly sudden cardiac arrest or brain swelling. There might also be carbon monoxide poisoning or sudden hypothermia involved."Because people react so differently, some may have blacked out instantly, while others might've felt pain first. But their deaths all seem to have happened close together, sometime between 1 and 3 AM."Detective Captain Alex Bell turned to me then, his eyes sharp, pinning me in place. "You were in that car, too. You must've experienced the same altitude and freezing temps."I nodded, my throat dry and tight.He studied me, as if he was trying to peel back layers. But instead of pushing harder on that point, he switched gears. "You'r

Chapter 3

"Before the trip, who was in charge of checking the gear?" Alex continued."Usually Damon and Ken. Ken was the photographer, so he kept a close eye on the equipment."Alex's stare cut into me. He didn't look angry, but the pressure in his gaze felt like a weight pressing on my chest."Strange, isn't it? You woke up and everyone else was dead. In all that time, you didn't notice anything off. The dashcam card's gone, but you have no clue where it went. It's like…" He paused, his voice flat. "It's like the only thing you know for sure is that you're alive. You draw a blank about everything else."I stared back, scared and lost, my voice shaking when I finally spoke, "I was out cold from altitude sickness. I can't even drive. I swear I don't know where the dashcam stuff is."Alex didn't push any further then. The bodies were taken away. There was too much work waiting.They brought me back to the little station they'd set up in town. The stove in the corner glowed hot, wood poppin

Chapter 4

Alex must've noticed how shaken I was, because his voice softened a little. "Alright. Let me ask you another way. You said you heard someone calling your name, but you couldn't tell if it was real or a dream. Can you explain that?"It felt as if all the strength had drained right out of me. I leaned back in the chair, my voice barely hanging on. "It was like… someone was pulling me, shaking me, telling me to wake up. Everything was loud and messy, and I felt awful. My head was heavy, like I was stuck in some dream I couldn't climb out of."Alex picked up the camera again, his tone so low that it chilled me. "Did it ever cross your mind that maybe it wasn't a dream? That they were actually begging you to wake up, and you never did?"A shiver ripped down my spine, cold as ice.The blurry flashes from my dream suddenly came back, sharp and real. I saw Damon's face twisted in pain, pressed against the steering wheel. I saw Mike's skin pale as paper. I saw Ken, lifting his camera in the

Chapter 5

There were a few short replies under Damon's message.Charlie wrote, [OK.]Russ replied, [Got it.]And Ken typed, [Alright.]Ten minutes later, they drove straight into that deadly stretch of road.Thirty minutes after that, the recording started.I couldn't take my eyes off the words "that girl", "let her sleep through the whole thing", and "dead weight". My whole body went cold.So that was what I was to them. To Damon, I wasn't a teammate. I was nothing but baggage.My lips were pressed so tightly that they turned pale.Alex slid a tablet across the table toward me. "Did you know you guys actually had two group chats?"I looked up, confused."One was the all-team chat—the one with you, Damon, Ken, everyone. That one was for planning routes, splitting costs, all that." He tapped the tablet. "But this one here, the one I just showed you—that was their private chat group. That's where they talked trash about you and made plans. You really mean to tell me you never noticed

Chapter 6

My eyes widened as I stared at the photo. I felt my chest tightening, as if the air had been knocked out of me. My hands trembling, I looked up at Alex."How could you even think that about me? Yeah, I survived, but I was a victim, too. And now, just because of one photo, you're calling me a killer? Do you have any idea how much that hurts?"I swallowed hard, my voice breaking. "I said I probably fell asleep around 10 PM. I never said I was sure. My head was spinning from the altitude, and I wasn't clear. And come on—I'm just one woman. How the heck could I take out five grown men?"Alex's stare locked onto my face. "Yeah… doesn't seem likely."Just then, the coroner walked in with a fresh report, the pages still smelling like ink. He handed it straight to Alex."His time of death doesn't match the others'."He circled a name on the page with his pen. Mike.The words hit me like a needle jab, and I jerked upright, my eyes darting to the report curiously.Alex noticed. His voi

Chapter 7

A bone-deep chill ripped through me as a thought I couldn't control slipped out of my mouth."You're saying… Mike killed the other four guys in the van to get revenge, and then… he killed himself?"Alex gave a slow nod. "That's one way to read it."Then his voice dropped, sharper now. "But there's something even stranger. Each of their bodies was in a different position when we found them. But their hands? All of them were shaped the same way. It was like they were begging for forgiveness. The question is—who were they asking forgiveness from?"My throat closed up. "I-I don't know! I swear, I don't know anything!"The words tumbled out of me, broken, almost like I was choking on them. "I didn't notice any of that. I was terrified—I just ran out of the van and hid while I called the cops. I wasn't paying attention to anything else!"But even I could hear how messy and desperate my voice sounded, how it gave me away."Hannah!" Alex's tone snapped like a whip, sharp and heavy enoug

Chapter 8

Alex then flipped the photo over.On the back, where it should've been blank, three words were written in thick, dark ink.No date. No name. Just three words.Blood for blood.It was as if something had exploded in my brain. Every mask, every plan, and every ounce of fear I'd been holding onto shattered into pieces the second I saw those words.Alex's voice cut through the ringing in my ears. "Our investigation shows your sister, Sharon, was part of a hiking group three years ago. It was the same trail, the same five people. She went missing during that trip and was never found. Don't you think that's a little too much of a coincidence?""Aaahhh!"The scream ripped out of my throat, sharp and broken, almost inhuman. I shot up from my chair and lunged across the table for the evidence bag containing the photo.Tears blurred my vision, pouring endlessly down my face, mixing with snot and spit. My hands clawed wildly at the bag. "Give it back! Give her back to me!"Alex was ready

Chapter 9

My body curled in on itself, crushed by so much pain that I could barely breathe. My nails dug into the table so hard that they almost bent backward."I searched for her," I choked out. "I searched for three whole months. I climbed down every rock under that cliff. I tore apart the valley stone by stone. And in the end… all I found was… just pieces of her backpack, a-and…"The words stuck in my throat, strangled by grief."A small piece of her skull… with blood still on it."My fist slammed into my chest, thudding like a drum. A scream tore out of me, ragged and broken, as tears drowned me."They didn't even leave me her body! I couldn't even hold her one last time!"The rest of my words drowned under sobs. I collapsed into the chair, shaking, my body jerking like a puppet with its strings cut. Tears, snot, and spit covered my face. My hair was stuck to my wet cheeks. I was nothing but a mess of grief and rage.The whole room went silent.Alex's grip on my shoulder loosened.

Chapter 10

It turned out, Mike been guarding against me all along.The recording kept playing. Mike's voice grew weaker, rasping like he was slipping away."You used my guilt… and made me… help you kill those four… I never thought… you'd try to finish me, too…"I should've done to you… what we did to your sister… We should've taken you, then left you… to die out there… just another body in the wild…"Then came my own voice on the recording."When did I ever use you? You all turned on each other. And after killing them, you tried to kill me, too, right? That cyanide drink was meant for me, wasn't it?"Too bad you grabbed the wrong glass and ended up poisoning yourself. Well, evil has its own way of catching up. What's that got to do with me? I'm just an innocent bystander."And then—silence. The recording cut off.The whole interrogation room went still, as if the air itself froze solid.That last piece of evidence felt damning enough to seal my fate. Did I lose?No.In those suffocat

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