The Last Word

Emma wakes up in the middle of the night and sees a man in the bedroom, but when she turns on the light, he is gone, and she questions whether she really saw him. She goes through all the rooms in the house, including the basement, but finds no one. Emma spends her day reading two e-books, but she doesn’t review either one because she is still shaken by her earlier interaction with Kane. Emma generally keeps to herself; at the moment, she is acting as the sitter for this house, which is located on Strand Beach Island, just off the Pacific Northwest coast. The owner, Jules, is in Portland and communicates via text messages.

Emma’s only neighbor, Deek, plays hangman with her using whiteboards and telescopes. He is good at the game and plays lots of practical jokes. She can see some of his belongings, including a “cowboy gun.” Deek is the one who recommended Murder Mountain, and she complains about it to him on the whiteboard. Emma compares their respective houses to spaceships. He tells her that he has seen her on the beach and offers to listen if she ever needs someone to talk to.

During her walks on the beach, Emma thinks about her husband, Shawn. Emma remembers him saying that he would choose immortality as a superpower. At the time, she explained why immortality would be a bad superpower. Whenever she is outside and therefore under Deek’s scrutiny, Emma pretends that “[e]verything is fine” (38), but internally, she is considering dying by suicide.

As Emma walks back from the beach with her dog, she thinks about Laika’s namesake: the first dog in space. Laika has just cut her mouth on meat that Emma believes to resemble human remains. Emma buries the meat in some sand and cleans the cut in Lakia’s mouth. Afterward, she showers and reads another book, occasionally playing hangman with Deek. She begins to fear that an intruder is in the house. Emma also reflects on the fact that her mother’s death happened on the day of her senior prom; this event caused Emma to keep her distance from people throughout her adult life.

Later that night, the motion-sensor light turns on, and Laika comes to attention. Emma tries looking through the peephole in the front door but sees nothing. She momentarily considers opening the door but changes her mind and keeps the door closed. Deek’s whiteboard message from earlier, “Just know you’re not alone” (51), haunts her. She sees the figure in her bedroom again in the middle of the night.

The following day, Emma leaves sand under all the doors and windows to track whether an intruder crosses the lines. She thinks about seeing the man again and recalls the scratching noise that accompanied his presence. However, she also finds a potential stalker to be a distraction from the trauma of her past. She avoids facing what is in her backpack: a collection of rocks to weigh her down in the ocean. Using her whiteboard, she asks Deek if he has seen anyone, and he replies in the negative. Emma looks for clues to Deek’s identity in the belongings that she can see through his windows. This causes her to remember her support of Shawn’s miniature train hobby. She also remembers telling him about her love of astronomy. Shawn always swore that he would haunt her if he died first, and she regrets not spending more time with him.

That afternoon, the owner of the house, Jules, texts Emma to let her know that the doorbell camera picked up suspicious activity the previous night. There was someone in a “Halloween demon mask” at the door (63), standing just out of view of the peephole. Jules called the police, and tells them about this masked man; the conversation is relayed in transcript form. The narrative also includes a discussion of crimes that have occurred in Strand Beach, such as the death of a teenage girl named Laura. Jules assures Emma that a police officer will drive by the house occasionally and that a stun gun will be delivered to her. Emma smokes through the laundry room window with a fan and thinks that she might know the identity of the masked man.

While smoking, Emma remembers that the killer in Murder Mountain also wears a Halloween mask. She looks up the author, H.G. Kane, who has no pictures or videos online, just a pretentious self-written bio on Amazon. He has self-published 16 books, all of which are written from the perspective of the killer, and all the titles consist of the word “murder” followed by a generic location such as a river or valley. Emma suspects that the positive reviews for his books are written by sock puppet accounts controlled by Kane. She also searches for herself and reasons that someone with decent computer skills could discover her address. When she finds Kane’s email address, she sends him a message, telling him that he doesn’t scare her.

Briefly, Emma considers whether her review was too harsh. Then, she recalls that the book was “the written equivalent of a snuff tape” and decides that she wasn’t too harsh after all (74). Meanwhile, the glass walls of the house make her feel too visible and vulnerable. Jules tells her that her son had a hard time dealing with the house’s isolated location. That night, Emma decides to sit in the bedroom closet with a knife and watch her bed. She passes the time by reading on a dimmed screen and imagines having a conversation with Shawn about the situation.

No one appears while Emma is hiding in her closet. In the morning, the only sand line that was disturbed has a paw print in it. While hiding last night, Emma realized that Deek (whose full name is Deacon Cowl) is a writer. She solved this mystery by searching for one of Deek’s hangman words and his name, which led her to his book, Silent Screams. She writes her realization on the whiteboard, and Deek admits to being a retired writer. His alcohol misuse indicates that he is unhappy with his situation, and Emma reflects on her own habit of avoiding alcohol in order to stay in control. Deek asks if Julie (Jules) told Emma about him. Emma lies, saying Jules didn’t, but in fact, Jules warned Emma that Deek is a “100-karat asshole.” Later, Laika’s scratching reminds Emma of the scratching that she heard in the middle of the night. Via text messages, Jules reassures Emma that there are no secret entrances to the house and wishes her a merry Christmas.

Emma receives a reply from H.G. Kane in her inbox. He says that she doesn’t understand the publishing industry and is harming his livelihood. He also makes sexist remarks to the effect that women do not appreciate horror and insists again that she take down her review. This makes Emma feel homicidal. However, she replies with one grammatical correction, pointing out a fault in his email. Deek, on his whiteboard, offers to keep an eye out that night, commenting, that another “serial killer could really restart [his] career” (91). Emma recalls that when she asked him about his family, he mentioned that he lost his twin daughters.

Then, Emma reflects on her car accident five months ago and her daughter’s subsequent funeral. She hesitates to reassure Deek that she is fine because she knows that it isn’t true. In reality, Emma hopes that a serial killer will come for her. Deek says he’ll talk to her later, and Emma reflects that she almost didn’t talk to Shawn when they were the only two college students on a hiking trip to Turnkey Peak. On their way out, he cut off part of his finger on the trailhead gate and asked Emma for help. She took him to a gas station and called for help. Then, she told him that she would meet him at the hospital. After that day, the phrase “I’ll meet you there” becomes significant in their relationship (99).

This memory inspires Emma to try reaching out to Deek. She uses the whiteboard to invite him to tea, but he has already turned out his lights. She then decides to pack a bag and smuggle her dog into the local motel.

While Emma waits for Laika to urinate in the backyard, she hears someone knock on the front door. The visitor, claiming to be Deek, claims that someone broke into his house and went through his books. Emma doesn’t believe that the person is who he says he is, so she doesn’t let him in. He covers the peephole and threatens that he can get in at any time. He asks if she wants to change anything about her one-star review. With a knife in one hand, she dials 911. He starts reading her scathing review, which ends with the statement, “I would rather die than read Murder Mountain ever again” (111). Emma realizes that Laika is still in the backyard. To keep Kane occupied, she discusses reality and fiction with him. When she calls him an amateur, he declares that his new book will be called “Murder Beach.”