Erin and Emma98 tussle on the ground, punches and kicks flying. I hover uncertainly. Erin lands a fist on Emma’s cheek, and I flinch.
“Stop it right now!” Charlotte shines the bright light of her phone’s flashlight on them. “What would Anton think?”
Erin judo rolls away from the other girl and rises to her feet with her fists raised. She appears to be unharmed—and somehow as polished as ever. Emma stands up less gracefully, her previously neat ponytail coming loose. She sways slightly, then tentatively touches a swollen cut on her temple. I turn away from the sight of the dried blood. “Whoa. I didn’t hit you that hard,” Erin says.
“This wasn’t you.” She leans against a bench, lit by a flickering streetlight. It turns her into a clichéd detective from a trashy novel, with her trench coat and ugly high heels.
“Why did you attack me?” Erin says.
“I heard voices and thought you might be planning to hit me with a scaffolding pole. Again. I was already swinging when I realized who you were.”
“That’s where the blood at the building site came from.” Charlotte slaps a hand to her mouth. “Oh my goodness. Was someone trying to kill you?”
Emma shakes her head, then winces. “Truth be told, I’m not a hundred percent sure the pole didn’t fall on me by mistake. I thought I heard footsteps but…head injury.”
“You ditched the bracelet so no one could find you,” Erin says, catching on a lot faster than I ever could.
“Didn’t work though, did it?” Emma says.
She looks fiercely between the three of us: first Erin, then Charlotte, and finally me. Her gaze lingers on me. I tuck my hands into my pockets so that she won’t see how much they’re shaking. It’s humiliating that the three girls are keeping their shit together while I dissolve into a puddle of terror and anxiety at their feet.
“I’m surprised to see you again,” Emma says to me. “I still haven’t figured out where I know you from, but I will.”
“I have one of those faces,” I say.
“He really does,” Charlotte says. “I thought he was Jesus when I first saw him. It’s the hair.”
Erin and Emma look at Charlotte like she’s been sniffing glue; then they both return their glares to me. Usually, having two pretty girls paying me this much attention would be flattering. I get the feeling they both find me lacking in every possible way though.
“Why are you following me?” Emma says. She’s addressing us all, but her eyes haven’t left mine.
I desperately want to ask her if she’s been helping Rose’s ghost stage her takeover, or if she knows who is. I want to ask her if she knows a way to talk to Rose because I’d give anything for one last chance to tell her I love her. But if I say those things out loud, I’ll have to explain who I really am and why I’m really here. I can’t risk anything getting back to Anton.
“Um, Anton’s money?” I mumble. “I thought you might know about the, um…”
“About who hacked the game? You’re after his ten thousand pounds? That I could believe from Erin. And Charlotte’s clearly here because she’s an Anton stan.”
“I am!” Charlotte says happily. Then she quickly exorcises a nearby ghost that’s emerged out of thin air.
“But you?” Emma says.
I nervously clear my throat. Erin comes to my rescue. “Charlotte said you were at the party where Rose died. I didn’t see you there,” she says to Emma.
“Matthew spotted me taking photos and threw me out,” Emma admits.
“Why were you taking photos?” Erin says.
Emma tightens the belt on her trench coat and looks around like she thinks we’re being watched. Beneath the glow of the streetlight, her serious frown makes her face shadowy. It’s creepy, especially with all those ghosts about. They roam the park, glowing in the darkness. Their programming doesn’t have them chasing us yet. It’s only a matter of time.
“I used to write about Anton and the Accomplices for my school paper,” Emma says. “Like a gossip column, I guess. At first, I was a fan. Then I discovered what they’re really like, and the shine totally wore off. I started work on an exposé about the drugs and bad behavior at Anton’s parties. But then Rose died and, you know…”
“Is Rose why you’re here tonight?” Charlotte says.
“Mostly, I thought there might be a story in the game that would look good on college applications. I didn’t expect it to take such a dark turn.”
“Do you think Rose was murdered?” Erin says.
I shriek as a ghost gets close enough to register my position. It goes from drifting specter to howling monster in a split second. Long fingernails slash at me as smoke billows from its open mouth. Erin exorcises it as I cower in fear. She shoots me a look of such disapproval I want to turn myself inside out.
Emma sighs. “Honestly? I don’t know anymore. I always believed her death was an accident. I came here tonight thinking I could fill in the final gaps in Rose’s story, not solve a murder.”
“What gaps?” I say, lowering my voice to sound more manly.
“That night at the party, I overheard Matthew and Rose arguing. She was yelling at him, saying he had to tell Beatrix the truth. I figured it was about those photos of him in his underwear.”
“Then what happened?” Erin says, impatiently observing a number of approaching ghosts. They’ve evolved. They’re coming for us. As I watch one, its face flickers. For a second, it’s Rose. Her eyes are burning embers; her mouth is ringed with black and far too wide.
“Shit, we really need to go,” I say, backing away.
Emma ignores me. “I don’t know what happened after that. I took a photo of the argument, but like an amateur, I’d left the automatic flash on. Matthew spotted me and had security throw me out of the party.”
“What time was this?” Erin asks.
She shrugs. “Hours before Rose died. Eight, maybe? That’s why the police weren’t even interested in my photos. I guess they’d already decided it was an accident.”
“We’re going to get tagged out by those ghosts,” I say. “We need to run.”
“We’re nearly done,” Erin says.
Emma touches her head again, this time thoughtfully. “If it was murder though…” She stops speaking and looks around, like she’s heard a noise. There are dozens of Shadow City ghosts approaching, ready to pounce, but they’re not what has her spooked. She can’t even see them without smart glasses.
“What were you going to say?” Erin says.
“Huh?” Emma blinks at her. “This is too much. I keep thinking someone's after me, which is why I was hiding in the building site in the first place. And then someone pushed that scaffolding pole on me.”
Charlotte watches Erin closely. “According to the map, the four of us were the only ones in the building site.”
“The only ones with tracking bracelets,” Erin says, straightening her spine. “Every member of the crew has smart glasses they can use to find us with. They just don’t show up on the map.”
We all fall silent as this information sinks in. Then a Shadow City ghost lunges at me, and Erin exorcises it, but not before my wristband buzzes and I lose one of my three hearts.
“I need to go,” Emma says abruptly.
Charlotte blocks her way. “Wait. We should stick together, don’t you think?”
Emma makes an unimpressed noise, like a cat with a hairball. “As you said, you were all in the building site when I was attacked. And I’m sorry if I’m not about to trust Matthew’s sister when she gave Anton an alibi for the night of Rose’s death.” Emma jogs away, leaving Charlotte open-mouthed and red-faced.
A moment of silence. “You were his alibi?” Erin says. “You?”
“Anton didn’t need an alibi. Because it was an accident.” She glances at the ghosts and makes a face. “Grayson’s right. We should head for the geofenced safe zone.”
“Not until you tell us what really happened at the party,” Erin says.
Charlotte swallows. “Oh, all right. It was a warm night. Not hot. Kind of average—”
“Skip the weather report.”
“I’m setting the scene. The story won’t have the same emotional depth, but whatever. I arrived at the party with Matthew, but he ditched me in the gardens with the other guests, and I didn’t see him for the rest of the night. I didn’t see much of the Accomplices and crew, in fact. I was mostly on my own.”
“Doesn’t sound much fun,” I say shakily.
I edge closer to Erin as a ghost approaches with its arms outstretched. I try to exorcise it, but I’m not close enough and forget the moves. I see a flicker out of the corner of my eye, and I briefly think it’s Rose. I’m officially losing it.
Charlotte bites her lip, watching the ghosts, then turns back to Erin. “It wasn’t long before I bumped into Rose, and she was rude to me, so…that wasn’t fun either.”
“Rude, how?” Erin asks.
“She called me a pathetic Anton fan. Which maybe I am, although ‘pathetic’ is kind of harsh.”
“What happened next?”
“Um, well, around ten o’clock, I spotted Anton crossing the lawn. He was alone, so I took the opportunity to talk to him. I caught up with him outside the big hedge maze in his garden. He seemed upset, so I asked him if he was all right, but then we heard someone calling for him. He took my hand and led me into the maze. The one that’s in the shape of his face?”
“Unimportant,” Erin says.
Charlotte continues, “In one of the eyes, there was a cute summer house, and that’s where he took me. It was beautiful. Inside, it was this amazing open-plan den. There were cushions and beanbags and a sofa in the shape of a giant pair of lips.”
“Did you have sex with him?” Erin asks.
All of Charlotte’s blood finds its way into her head. I worry she’s about to pop like an overinflated water balloon. “What? How can you…? Who do you think you are? How dare you!” she splutters.
“That’s a no, then,” I joke, trying to act like my usual goofy self. Hard when I’m surrounded by monsters.
“But you spent the whole night together?” Erin continues. “Not having sex?”
Charlotte wipes sweat from her hairline. “Yes. Until the next morning.” She scowls. “I don’t see why you’re questioning me, given your mother was at the party causing a drunken scene.”
“My mother always causes a scene.” Erin sighs, but her shoulders slump. She looks around, seeming to notice the ghosts for the first time.
“There are too many to fight now.” Charlotte gestures to the ghosts. “So excuse me, but I’m out of here.”
With that, she sets off at a sprint. Ghosts turn their fiery eyes toward her as she gets close enough to activate them. Their faces contort, mouths split open, leaving ragged skin hanging in strips. They lift their arms with the crack and pop of breaking bones.
“Huh,” Erin says nonchalantly. “They’ve had an upgrade.”
In turn, they become Rose, then flash back to gray-faced ghosts. They approach in a tightening circle. Their burning eyes bore into me as their mouths tear wider and wider, revealing nothing but darkness.