sign was tipped over in the front lawn, long abandoned. The circular driveway was empty. So was the road around it.
“It’s gorgeous,” Emma breathed, pulling over. “But where are the other girls’ cars? They should have been here by now to set up.” She checked her watch. She was late—it was almost 9:30.
“Maybe there’s another route around the back? Or maybe they parked even farther away to avoid suspicion.” Ethan unbuckled his seat belt and they both got out of the car.
A silver slice of moon hung high in the sky. A gust of wind whistled between the rocks and tossed Emma’s hair across her shoulders. She followed Ethan along crooked stone steps embedded into a small hill that led to the house.
They climbed along the final yards of the path and onto a smooth porch made of solid granite. Ethan’s knuckles pounded the front door. He glanced at Emma while they waited and angled his ear close to the door. “Weird. I don’t hear anyone inside,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “No music, no nothing.”
Emma knocked again. “hello?” she called. When no one answered, she tried the golden knob and pushed against the oak. The door swung open, revealing a double staircase that circled upstairs to an open-air second level.
An unlit crystal chandelier hung in the foyer. Bright stars were visible through massive skylights. A grandfather clock in the far right corner of the entranceway was the only visible fixture—otherwise, the house was completely empty.
“hello?” Emma called again. The girls should have been here already. Her voice echoed through the empty house. In the dim moonlight, she could see cobwebs glistening in the corners. She turned to glance at Ethan.
“Maybe they’re not here yet?”
“Maybe?” Ethan stepped back and gazed up the stairs.
Thwap.
Emma and Ethan wheeled around. The front door had slammed behind them.
Emma ran to the door and tried the knob. It wouldn’t budge. “Who’s there?” she cried. Something electric snapped along her body. There was no window facing out onto the front porch, so she couldn’t tell who’d just shut them inside.
Ethan yanked Emma closer to him. Scraaaaatch. A sound like fingernails down a windowpane echoed through the air. “What is that?” Emma screeched.
“Someone’s outside,” Ethan said. He pulled at the doorknob again, but it still wouldn’t give. “Who’s there?” he boomed. “Let us out!”
“Oh my God,” Emma whispered into Ethan’s chest, gripping the sides of his shirt. “What if it’s Thayer? What if he got out of jail early and followed us?” A sinister feeling passed through my weightless form as a horrible idea occurred to me. Maybe it was Thayer.
What if he’d found out that Emma had called his old hospital and was coming to shut her up for good?
“I won’t let him hurt you,” Ethan said, hugging Emma tight. “I promise.”
Another groan sounded from outside. Then there were scraping sounds, like someone was trying to get in. “We have to hide, Ethan!” Emma screamed, looking around at the bare rooms, the blank walls. She grabbed his hand and started up the stairs, but her heel caught on the first riser.
She tumbled into Ethan, and he caught her around the waist. Another thud sounded from outside. More horrible scratches. A shadow passed across the back wall. And then, a scream.
Emma answered with a shriek, but when a second scream came, she stood up straighter. That wasn’t a guy’s voice, but the high-pitched wail of a girl. Giggles sounded from outside. And suddenly, Emma smelled the distinct fragrance of Chanel Chance.
Suddenly everything clicked into place. Of course.
Emma grabbed Ethan’s hand. “This is a prank. We’re the prank. Sutton’s friends are messing with us.” Confusion settled across Ethan’s fingers. “You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
Ethan’s shoulders dropped with relief. He stepped closer to Emma and slipped his hands along Emma’s dress onto the smooth skin of her back. He pulled her close. “Well, then this is the best prank ever. I wouldn’t mind spending all night locked up alone with you in here.” Emma felt her nerves spike for an entirely new reason.
Her body was so close to Ethan’s she wondered if he could feel her heart beating through the thin silk of her dress. She looked up into Ethan’s face just as he tilted his chin to kiss her. She felt herself come alive as his lips met hers. She wrapped her arms around Ethan’s neck and returned his kiss, wishing the moment never had to end.
The door flew open with a creak and a swell of cool night air pushed against Emma’s back. Madeline stomped into the house, flanked by Charlotte, Laurel, and the Twitter Twins, who were dressed in head-to-toe black and snapping pictures rapid-fire on their iPhones.
“Gotcha!” Madeline cried.
Charlotte clapped her hands together and the Twitter Twins let out excited squeals. “You were so scared!” Gabby cried.
“I was not,” Emma said quickly.
“Were too.” Laurel smirked. “Your new guy didn’t make you feel safe?” Her eyes flickered to Ethan.
“At least this explains why you didn’t want to pull a prank on him,” Madeline said, shaking her head. “Are you going to introduce us, Sutton?”
Emma looked at Sutton’s friends. They didn’t look particularly annoyed or disgusted that they’d just caught her kissing Ethan—just left out of the loop. She grabbed Ethan’s hand. “This is Ethan Landry. My… boyfriend. ” Her voice rose at the end, a tiny question mark. She glanced at Ethan to make sure this title was okay. Ethan nodded as a slow grin spread across his face.
“So, are you two, like, in love?” Lili asked. Her raccoon-ish eyeliner was even more dramatic than usual, making the whites of her eyes glow bright. Gabby made kissing noises with her pouty lips and Laurel and Charlotte giggled.
Emma laughed despite herself. “How long have you guys been planning this?” she asked.
“Ever since Laurel explained a few days ago why you weren’t totally up for the Ethan prank.” Charlotte curled a red tendril around her finger. “We’ve been teasing you all week. As soon as you left dinner, we flew into action. Lili and Gabby stood at the base of the road to make sure no one got here early. We wanted you to get here when the house was empty—and super-scary.”
“And we disconnected Ethan’s car cables so you’d have to give him a ride,” Lili said proudly.
“You did what?” Ethan gaped.
Gabby waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t worry. You just need to reconnect the cables. I saw a YouTube video on it.”
Ethan shook his head but laughed.
“So the real party is still here?” Emma asked.
“Yep!” Laurel chirped. She pointed to two plastic bags hidden in the corner of the dining room Emma hadn’t noticed before. And then, as if on cue, the door swung open, and a bunch of kids spilled inside. The entire boys’
baseball team. Nisha and her tennis cronies. A bunch of kids who always said hello to Emma in the halls, and a lot of people Emma didn’t recognize. Last but not least, Garrett stepped through the door, carrying a massive keg.
When he set eyes on Ethan and Emma, who were still holding hands, his expression soured.
“Hi, Garrett,” Emma tried, knowing just how futile her attempt at friendliness was.
Garrett’s muscled arms tensed as he adjusted his grip on the keg. “So now you’re with Ethan?” he growled.
“I am,” Emma answered proudly, ignoring Garrett’s hateful gaze. She wasn’t going to let anything bother her tonight. Things suddenly felt perfect.
A techno song suddenly blared over a portable stereo someone had brought. Plastic cups were passed around, and drinks were poured. “Whoooo!” Charlotte cried, waving her hands over her head to dance. Emma pulled Ethan into the circle and started to dance, too.
The party had begun.
27
ONE FLEW THE COOP
The mansion filled to capacity in no time. Warm bodies mingled and flirted, red plastic cups in hand. Emma snaked through the crowd with Ethan on her arm, feeling happier than she had in ages.
“I’m going to get a beer,” Ethan said, glancing at his phone before shoving it into his pocket. “Want one?” Emma shot him a smile. “I still have to drive us home, remember? Unless you want to camp out tonight in the middle of nowhere …” She gestured outside to the rocky cliffs surrounding the mansion.
Ethan grinned and leaned forward. His lips brushed her cheek as he whispered, “What exactly are you suggesting?”
Her cheeks flushed at what she’d implied—a sleepover with Ethan. “Some of us have a curfew,” she whispered.
“Too bad,” Ethan whispered back. His lips touched hers. A bunch of kids whistled. Emma sensed a flash of a phone camera. That Sutton Mercer was dating Ethan Landry was a huge deal. But no one was laughing at them
—instead everyone was staring at Ethan, like they’d suddenly realized just how cute he was.
As a bunch of boys did shots in the corner and a crowd of kids danced to vintage Michael Jackson on the makeshift dance floor, Emma felt Sutton’s clutch vibrate.
She dropped Ethan’s hand and asked him to grab her a Sprite. Then, she stepped away from the stream of partygoers and pulled Sutton’s iPhone from her clutch: ONE
MISSED CALL.
There was a number she didn’t recognize in the call log along with a voicemail alert. Emma caught Ethan’s eye across the room and motioned that she’d be right back.
Then she negotiated her way through the sweaty crowd toward the back of the house, where it was hopefully quieter.
She rounded a corner into the kitchen, where liquor bottles lined the counter along with half-eaten bags of Fritos and abandoned plastic cups. A girl with short black hair poured tequila and margarita mix into a blender and pressed a button, sending the contents whirling. The shril buzz of the blender and the sweet smell of lime filled the kitchen and followed Emma down a dark hallway. She trailed her fingertips along the wall to get her bearings and ducked into a back room. Moonlight spilled through an open window to ill uminate dark wooden floors and long windows. There were only two objects in the room: a long, cracked mirror propped up in the corner and a small doll with marble eyes sitting on the windowsill. Emma turned away from the doll, an eerie feeling washing over her.
Pressing the voicemail icon, she lifted Sutton’s phone to her ear. A loud voice boomed through the speaker.
“hello. This message is for Sutton Mercer. It’s Detective Quinlan. I need to speak to you. Please call me at this number—it’s my cell. I’ll have it on me all night. It’s urgent, so call me as soon as you get this.”
An emergency? Emma’s fingertips prickled. She gripped the phone, ready to dial the number, when a loud crash sounded outside the room. She jumped and turned around. Bass reverberated through the house. Laughter echoed off the walls. Even though she was alone, it was still too loud for her to have a real conversation. She let herself out of the room, glancing once more at the eerie, glassy-eyed doll, and headed for the back door.