Survive the Night: A Novel

Shortly after their conversation, Josh turns off the music and asks Charlie to play a game of 20 questions. She recalls playing 20 questions with her parents on car trips. Charlie asks questions, trying to determine the word Josh has in mind, that point to Josh’s word being a useful thing that’s part of something living. Charlie begins to worry that he might have plans to assault her. Eventually, though, Charlie concludes that Josh is thinking about a human tooth. This realization disturbs her, and Josh puts together that she is upset because the Campus Killer pulled a tooth out of each of his victims. Charlie asks how Josh knows this, and he says he read it in a newspaper. However, the police never released that fact to the public and told Charlie not to tell anyone else. Charlie concludes that Josh is lying—he must know about the tooth because he is the Campus Killer.

Realizing that Josh is likely the Campus Killer, Charlie becomes determined to get out of the car. When Josh notices that she is nervous, though, she realizes that she must appear calm. A state trooper is driving close to them. When the state trooper draws alongside the car, Charlie fogs up the glass window with her breath and manages to write the word “HELP” without Josh’s knowledge. However, Josh eases on the brakes, allowing the state trooper to pass them. Josh then speeds up again, making it impossible for Charlie to jump out of the car. She regains hope when a toll plaza approaches, realizing that Josh will need to slow down. Charlie mentally runs through scenarios in which she could run away, preparing to jump out of the car. Before she can, however, Josh calls her name.

Charlie hears the same music play again, and Josh tells her she was seeing another movie in her mind. She doubts his claim; she is aware of when she returns to reality after seeing one, as the “movies” no longer feel real to her once she returns. Josh expresses annoyance at her interrogations. Suspecting that Josh might be trying to confuse her, Charlie confronts him for lying. She saw the name she saw on his license, Jake Collins, and she knows he never worked at Olyphant because Madison Hall is real.

Josh admits that he never worked at the university. He wanted someone to ride with him to Ohio and did not want his worry and grief about his father to trouble him on the drive. Charlie feels guilty once again for suspecting him, understanding grief herself. She still worries that he is a killer, however, and asks if he ever turned the stereo off and if they really played 20 questions. Josh replies no on both counts. He also shows her his license, a New Jersey license with the name Josh Baxter. Charlie questions whether the “movies” are taking control of her mind and worries she might have imagined everything on the car trip.

Josh asks Charlie if she minds him turning the music back on. Charlie asks him what he said earlier, and he says that he told her they did not play 20 questions. Charlie is relieved that at least that conversation she had with him was real. Wanting to get out of the car, even briefly, she tells him she needs to use the bathroom. He drives to a rest stop, and Charlie exits the car. She pretends to stretch behind the car so she can see the license plate, which is a New Jersey one. She then walks to the payphone to call Robbie and have him pick her up. However, the phone is not working. Charlie then goes into the rest stop building and sees a map of Interstate 80 with the rest stop’s location. She wonders if the entire trip, or even the entire past two months, has been a movie in her mind. She closes her eyes, but when she opens them, she is still in the rest stop building by the map.

Charlie enters the women’s bathroom and sits in a stall. There, she tries to make a plan about how to escape Josh. She hears a knock on the main door, and someone enters. She is sure that it is Josh and pulls her legs up, hoping to make him think the stall is empty. The person knocks on each stall before reaching hers. Charlie realizes the door is unlocked. A woman opens the door and is startled to see her there initially. Charlie asks the woman if she could give her a ride; she could drop Charlie off anywhere, and Charlie would get to her destination on her own. Charlie then sees Maddy walk into the bathroom and apply lipstick at the mirror. Maddy tells Charlie she should not have abandoned her and attacks her, pulling Charlie’s hair and pushing her against the sink.

Charlie returns to reality, realizing that Maddy’s appearance was another movie in her mind. Charlie’s reaction has disturbed the real woman, who believes Charlie is drunk. Charlie insists she’s sober and desperately asks again for a ride because she thinks the man she is with might be a killer. Still believing Charlie’s daze is a sign that she is drunk or unstable, however, the woman says that the man should be the one worried about Charlie. The woman then leaves the bathroom. Charlie looks at herself in the mirror and concludes that she is losing her grip on reality and cannot trust herself. She must trust Josh.

The narrative shifts to Josh’s perspective. Josh saw the woman from the bathroom arrive in an Oldsmobile while he was stretching outside the car. He let that woman go because he wanted Charlie. Josh had used the Olyphant sweatshirt to lure Charlie to him, and, in reality, he had played 20 questions with her. Josh regrets mentioning the tooth, as it made Charlie uneasy. He has been using her mental state to his advantage, keeping her off her footing by lying about the music and switching out his ID cards. Josh worries that Charlie might have told the woman about it. He then opens his trunk, where he has a box of license plates and ropes and a toolbox containing a gag, handcuffs, and a Swiss Army knife. He takes the handcuffs and knife out of the toolbox and brings them with him to the rest stop.