I Fed My Ex To Grizzlies

A spring trek through the rugged Wyoming backcountry. The moment we touched down, my boyfriends toxic girl-bro insisted on heading straight to the deep woods of the back mountain to shoot grizzly bears.

She claimed she wanted to film a viral clickbait videosomething along the lines of LexieWildlife Interaction Meets Wilderness Survival GuideLexie.

What she didnt know was that the grizzlies in these mountains right now were fresh out of hibernation. They weren't majestic forest dwellers; they were starving, hyper-aggressive man-eaters. Even if you went in packed to the gills with tactical gear, surviving them was a roll of the dice.

In my past life, I reported her plans to our local trail guide.

Threatened with the forfeiture of their steep security deposit, the guide kept a tight lock on the camp. But she snuck out in the dead of night anyway. By the time they found her, two starving grizzlies had left nothing of her but a single, blood-soaked hiking boot.

When my boyfriend found out, his face remained flat and indifferent. Yet, the night before we were set to leave, he snapped.

"You had to open your fat mouth!" hed screamed, pinning me down. "If I had gone with her, we wouldve gotten a viral hit, and shed still be alive!"

He tied me to a lodgepole pine. The grizzlies found me, and they tore me open from chest to groin.

When I opened my eyes again, the phantom sensation of my own wet, warm intestines spilling onto the pine needles was still burning in my gut. I was back at the campsite, listening to them argue about heading into the back mountain to find the bears.

"Come on, Darcy. Don't tell me you're actually chickening out?"

Lexie twirled my expensive carbon-fiber trekking pole between her fingers. The sharp carbide tip scraped against the gravel with a grating, metallic screech.

She looked at me, her eyes wide with that practiced, delicate innocence that made my stomach turn.

"The internet says grizzlies are practically docile this time of year," she purred, flashing a smug, dimpled smile. "If you toss them some food, theyll roll over on their backs and play like oversized golden retrievers. Zachs channel is practically dead right now. He needs a hook. As his girlfriend, shouldn't you be supporting him instead of pulling the emergency brake?"

I stared at her smooth, sun-kissed face.

My stomach rolled with violent nausea. The memory of teeth ripping through my flesh, of cold mountain air hitting my exposed organs, was so visceral I had to squeeze my hands into fists to keep from shaking.

I didn't say a word.

Standing right beside her, Zach immediately scowled. He stepped forward, defensively pulling Lexie behind his shoulder.

"Whats with the attitude, Darcy?" Zach snapped. "Lexie flew all the way out to the Rockies just to help me shoot content. She pushed through altitude sickness to be here. And you? Since we landed, youve done nothing but throw cold water on every single idea."

"Were trying to build a business here," he continued, his voice rising, practically vibrating with self-righteous anger. "You don't get views without taking risks. Do you even understand how the algorithm works? Or do you just want to see me fail?"

A few other hikers from our group drifted over to watch the drama unfold.

Dave, a guy in his fifties holding a stainless-steel thermos of rehydrated soup, chimed in. "Honestly, Darcy, the kid has a point. Young people need that drive. I looked at the map earlier; that back trail is barely a mile from the camp line. What's the worst that could happen? Youre twice her size, but you don't have half the grit of little Lexie here."

Luke, another guy from the group, nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Zach is busting his ass to secure a future for the two of you. Youre holding the girlfriend title, but youre just dead weight on this trip."

I looked at them. A slow, cold smile crept onto my face.

In my past life, these were the exact same people who took fifty thousand dollars in hush money from Zachs family. They had stood before the sheriff and sworn up and down that I must have sleepwalked into the deep woods of my own accord.

"You guys are entirely right," I said. My voice was quiet, incredibly calm.

Zach blinked, caught off guard. He clearly hadn't expected me to roll over so easily.

"Since it's for your career, of course I support it," I added, looking Zach dead in the eye. "The landscape back there is stunning. The footage will be spectacular."

Lexies eyes lit up instantly. "Really? You mean it?" She took an eager step toward me. "Great! Let me borrow your DJI Mavic drone then."

Before I could answer, a gravelly, furious roar cut through the camp.

"Like hell you will!"

Jed, our local guide, came marching out from behind the supply tents. His face was weathered and dark red from years of mountain wind, his heavy flannel shirt billowing as he strode over.

"Who the hell thinks theyre going into the back mountain?" Jed snarled, pointing a thick, calloused finger at Lexie. "Those aren't 'docile' bears. Those are starving grizzlies. Theyve been asleep all winter, and they will chew your bones to splinters the second they smell you. You go back there, youre suicide bait."

Jed glared at the group. "If you want to die, don't do it on my permit. As long as I'm the registered guide for this sector, no one steps a foot past the camp boundary. Try me, and Ill have the sheriff haul your asses down the mountain before sunset."

The atmosphere went ice-cold. Lexie shrunk back, tucking her head into her shoulders, looking up at Zach with watery, helpless eyes.

Zachs face flushed a deep, angry crimson. "Jed, stop trying to scare everyone. We have bear spray. Besides, were only shooting at the tree line. We'll be back in thirty minutes. You don't own the national forest."

Jeds eyes bulged. "I own the liability for your pathetic lives!"

Seeing them on the verge of a fistfight, I stepped forward and gently patted Jeds arm.

"Jed, take it easy," I said, pulling a notepad and a sharpie from my tactical jacket pocket. "Theyre grown adults. They have the right to make their own choices. If you're worried about the liability, we can just write up a waiver."

Jed stared at me, dumbfounded. Zach looked equally stunned.

I popped the cap off the pen and quickly scribbled a few lines on the paper.

LexieWe, Lexie Vance and Zachary Thorne, hereby choose to enter the restricted back mountain area of our own free will. We fully acknowledge the high risk of wild predators in this sector. Any injury, death, or accident occurring during this excursion is solely our responsibility and is entirely unrelated to guide Jed or fellow hiker Darcy Rollins. We assume all risks.Lexie

I handed the pen and paper to Zach.

"Sign it," I said. "Once you sign, Jed won't have to worry about losing his license. And you two can go get your viral masterpiece."

I looked at Lexie, the corner of my lips turning up in a shadow of a smile.

Zach stared at the paper. His eyes flickered with a brief, uneasy hesitation.

"Darcy, what is this?" he muttered. "Drawing lines like this... are you seriously still pretending to be my girlfriend?"

I shrugged. "Even married couples keep their finances separate these days, Zach. Jed has a family to feed. Its not fair to ruin his livelihood just because you guys want to play National Geographic."

Dave scoffed from the sidelines, taking a noisy sip of his soup. "Man, Darcy, you really know how to play the accountant, don't you? Just looking out for your own skin and your own wallet, huh?"

Luke let out a dry laugh. "Modern romance. Zach, looks like your girl doesn't want to carry even an ounce of risk for you."

Lexies eyes darted between us, her expression shifting instantly into one of deep, wounded victimization.

"Darcy, if you're still mad at me, just say so," she whimpered, her voice trembling. "If you don't want to lend us the drone, you don't have to make this passive-aggressive point to humiliate Zach. Forget it. I won't go."

She made a show of turning around to walk back to her tent.

Zach caught her by the wrist. "No, we're going."

He whipped around, glaring at me with pure venom, and snatched the paper and pen from my hand.

"You want a waiver? Fine! Ill sign the damn thing!"

He scribbled his signature with aggressive, slashing strokes. Then he shoved the pen into Lexies hand.

"Sign it, Lexie. When this video hits a million views, she isn't getting a single cent of the ad revenue."

Lexie hesitated for a fraction of a second. But with Zach pressuring her and the rest of the hikers watching, she had no choice but to bite her lip and sign her name.

I took the paper back, satisfied. I folded it carefully and slid it deep into the zippered inner pocket of my sports bra.

Jed looked at me, slowly shaking his head. "Kid, you're playing with fire," he muttered, turning on his heel to check the guylines on the cook tent. Since the liability waiver was signed, he wasn't going to waste his breath. If these city slickers wanted to serve themselves up as grizzly chow, let them.

"Well, the paperwork's done," Lexie said, her meek, fragile persona evaporating the second Jed walked away. She strutted over to me, her eyes scanning me from head to toe.

"Since you're being so LexiesupportiveLexie now, Darcy, a drone isn't going to be enough." She pointed directly at my Arc'teryx alpine parka. "The wind is picking up, and my jacket is way too thin. Let me wear yours."

I raised an eyebrow.

The parka was a top-tier mountaineering shell Id bought specifically for this trip. It had cost me nearly a thousand dollars.

Zach immediately chimed in. "Yeah, Darcy, youve got a thick build anyway. You're just staying in camp; you won't freeze. Lexie has asthma; she can't handle the cold. Take it off and give it to her."

He reached out his hand, entirely entitled, as if demanding a tax payment.

"And give us your satellite phone, too. Just in case theres no service back there and we need to check in."

I looked at the two of them. In my chest, there wasn't even a spark of anger left. Just a cold, dead vacuum.

"Sure," I said.

I unzipped the parka, slipped it off, and handed it over along with the Garmin inReach satellite communicator from the sleeve pocket.

Lexie couldn't grab them fast enough. She threw the parka over her shoulders. The sleeves were a bit too long for her petite frame, so she rolled up the cuffs with a smug little giggle.

"Thanks, babe," she chirped, before turning her attention to my heavy-duty Osprey pack resting on the camp table. "Let me see what else youve got in here."

She unzipped the main compartment without asking, rummaging through my personal belongings like she was picking through a thrift store bin. Zach stood beside her, watching with quiet approval.

Suddenly, Lexies hand paused. She pulled a heavy, matte-black aluminum canister from the side sleeve. It was emblazoned with a bright orange safety label.

"Ooh, whats this?" Lexie tossed it lightly in the air. "Bear spray?"

She let out a loud, mocking laugh. "Darcy, you actually believed that old mountain man's garbage? Who even carries this junk? You think spraying some hot sauce in a grizzlys face is going to stop it? You think they're vegan?"

Before I could stop her, she flicked off the plastic safety clip and pressed down on the nozzle.

A sharp, orange cloud of aerosolized capsaicin burst into the air.

"Coughcough!"

The wind caught the edge of the mist, blowing it right back into Lexies face. She gagged, her eyes watering instantly as she fell into a violent coughing fit.

Zach rushed to her side, frantically patting her back. "Lexie! Are you okay?"

He whipped his head around to glare at me, his face twisted in fury. "Darcy, are you insane? Why do you have hazardous materials just sitting in your bag? Are you trying to kill her?"

Lexie was hacking so hard tears streamed down her cheeks. Humiliated and furious, she snatched the canister from the table and slammed it onto the gravel.

She lifted her heavy hiking boot and brought it down hard on the plastic nozzle mechanism.

LexieCrack.Lexie

The plastic collar shattered. The pressurized canister hissed weakly, venting its chemical load into the dirt until it went completely flat.

"Trash," Lexie wheezed, spitting on the ground. "Taking up space for nothing."

I looked down at the ruined canister of bear spray. It was the only thing standing between them and a violent death.

And she had just crushed it under her own heel.

"Good call," I said, looking at Lexie. My voice was entirely sincere. "It was taking up space anyway."

As twilight crept in, the sky turned a bruised, heavy purple. The wind carried the sharp, icy sting of an impending storm.

Zach and Lexie were packing their gear, eager to get into the tree line before the last of the light faded completely.

"Darcy, hand over your honey jar," Zach demanded, walking up to my chair with his hand outstretched.

I was sitting by the portable fire pit, holding a mug of hot water. I looked up.

"The honey?"

"Yeah," Zach said impatiently. "Lexie said she saw signs of wild beehives on the lower trail yesterday. We're going to shoot a 'man versus nature' bit. Well smear the raw honey on a pine trunk and film her pretending to harvest it. Itll look amazing on camera."

My fingers tightened around my mug.

The memories rushed back, cold and suffocating.

In my past life, that rough lodgepole pine bark had scraped against my back. The sticky, sweet honey had been smeared all over my throat and chest.

I remembered the heavy, wet hot breath of the grizzly against my face just before its jaws closed around my shoulder. The utter, paralyzing despair of that moment flashed like a spark of white-hot lightning behind my eyes.

"What? Youre going to be stingy over a jar of honey now?" Zach sneered, taking my silence for defiance. "Its a twenty-dollar jar of raw honey, Darcy. When the video blows up, Ill buy you ten of them."

Dave, who was swapping out a propane canister nearby, let out a loud grunt. "Honestly, Darcy, your pettiness is something else. Your guy is trying to build a brand, and you won't even chip in a jar of honey. Youre a pretty lousy partner, you know that?"

A couple of other hikers chuckled.

I ignored them. I took a slow sip of my water, set the mug down, and walked over to my tent.

I reached into the gear crate and pulled out the large glass jar of high-viscosity, organic wild honey.

"Here," I said, handing it to Zach. "Take the whole thing."

Zach snatched it, grunting as he glanced at the dried dirt on the glass. "Finally."

He stuffed it into Lexies pack, then pulled two printed sheets of paper from his own pocket and slapped them onto the camp table.

"Since you're so determined to play the victim," Zach said, his voice dripping with condescension, "let's put it in writing."

He tapped the papers. "This is an official Disassociation and Revenue Waiver. It states that you have no part in this production, and you have zero claim to any intellectual property or financial returns from the footage we shoot today. Sign it."

He stared at me, his eyes full of cheap calculation. He truly believed he was protecting his future empire from a greedy girlfriend.

Lexie hovered by his shoulder, her voice dripping with mock sympathy. "Zach, maybe we shouldn't... I mean, Im sure Darcy doesn't mean to be a drag. But I guess if we make real money, it's safer to have it in writing so she doesn't try to sue us later."

I looked at the documents and had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing out loud.

They were so blinded by the mirage of internet fame that they were systematically cutting off every single cord that tied them to me. They were legally locking their own trap from the inside.

"Sure," I said.

I picked up the pen and signed both documents without a second thought. I even pressed my thumb onto the ink pad from my journal kit and left a bright red print next to my name.

"All yours," I said, sliding the papers back. "I hope you get exactly what you deserve."

Zach checked the signatures, satisfied, and slid them into a waterproof ziplock bag. "Good. At least you have some common sense left."

He hoisted his pack and called out, "Lexie, let's go!"

Lexie, clad in my expensive Arc'teryx parka, carrying my drone, and carrying my honey, sauntered past me.

She paused, turned back, and flashed me a vulgar middle finger.

"Have fun playing housewife at the camp, Darcy! Well show you the footage when we get back!"

I sat back down in my folding chair. I watched their silhouettes shrink into the dark, jagged line of the pine forest until they were swallowed by the shadows.

They looked exactly like walking corpses.

The wind howled louder now, carrying the faint, distant echo of a low rumble from the deep valley. I pulled my fleece jacket tighter around myself, finished my water, and waited for the show to start.

By eleven o'clock that night, the wind outside was screaming like a banshee.

I lay flat on my cot inside the tent, my eyes wide open. My phone was gripped in my hand, its screen glowing in the dark, displaying a high-definition infrared live feed.

I had paid a premium for a cellular-linked, night-vision trail camera and set it up on the perimeter of the back-mountain trail before we arrived. I had bought it to keep an eye out for gear thieves. Now, it was my front-row ticket to the main event.

Suddenly, a blood-curdling shriek pierced through the roar of the wind.

It was a sound of absolute, primitive terrorso warped and shrill it didn't even sound human.

Immediately after came the sound of snapping timber and a deep, guttural roar that vibrated through the floor of my tent.

The entire camp erupted.

Zippers hissed open as flashlights cut through the dark. Dave threw his tent flap open, stumbling out into the cold in his long underwear. "What the hell was that? Was that a wolf?"

Jed ran out of his tent holding a high-lumen spotlight, his face pale. "That's no wolf. That's a grizzly. A big one."

About thirty minutes later, the brush at the edge of the camp rattled violently.

A shadow stumbled out, falling face-first into the dirt.

It was Zach.

He was coated in black mud and pine needles. His jacket was shredded down the back, exposing raw, bloody gouges across his shoulders. His hair was wild, his eyes rolling back in his head.

"Help... please, God, help me!" he shrieked, his entire body convulsing with dry heaves.

Jed ran over, grabbing him by the shoulders. "Where is she? Where is the girl?!"

At the mention of Lexie's name, Zach let out a horrific, high-pitched scream, covering his ears and thrashing in the dirt.

"The bear... it was huge! It took her! There was so much blood!"

The camp fell into a horrified silence, broken only by the howling wind and Zach's hysterical sobbing.

Jed didn't waste a second. He ran to his cabin tent, grabbed his sat phone, and dialed search and rescue.

Two hours later, three search and rescue deputies and a local ranger arrived at the camp, their spotlights cutting through the swirling snow.

The lead deputy, a burly, stern man named Deputy Briggs, took one look at Zachs shock-induced state.

"What happened here?" Briggs demanded, his voice dropping like an anvil. "Didn't you people see the warning signs posted at the trailhead?"

Zach slowly raised his head. His vacant, bloodshot eyes scanned the crowd until they landed on me.

In an instant, his grief turned into a feral, rabid hatred. He dragged himself across the gravel, grabbing the cuff of my pants.

"It was her!" Zach roared, pointing a trembling, muddy finger at my face. "Officer, she killed Lexie! She forced Lexie to go out there!"

He was screaming so hard spit flew from his lips. "She was jealous of Lexie! She refused to give us our safety gear! She poisoned that honey to attract the bears! It was a setup!"

Every eye in the camp locked onto me.

Dave, looking terrified but eager to shift blame, jumped in. "Officer, I saw it! Darcy was egging them on all afternoon! She even made them sign a waiver just to wash her hands of it!"

Luke chimed in. "Yeah! And she broke their bear spray! We saw her stomp on it!"

Zach wept hysterically, clutching the deputys jacket. "Shes a murderer! You have to lock her up! She killed Lexie!"

Deputy Briggs frowned, his gaze shifting to me, hard and suspicious.

"Is this true, ma'am?"

He reached for the heavy steel handcuffs on his utility belt. "I'm going to need you to step forward and cooperate with our investigation."

Zach stared at the handcuffs, his lips twitching into a tiny, sick grimace of triumph.

He thought he had won. Just like in my past life, he thought he could use his tears and lies to bury me under the weight of public outrage.

I looked at him. I felt no anger. No panic.

I calmly pulled my phone from my pocket and unlocked the screen, opening the cloud-synced security app. The blue light cast a cool glow over my face.

"Are you sure I'm the one who forced her to go, Zach?"

I pressed play.