It couldn’t be.
She didn’t.
“Ella!” I yelled at her with a ferocious quality. “What the fuck!”
Lying on the ground, cloaked in a black cape with a plague doctor mask, was Shaun.
“Oh my God.” Ella started hyperventilating. “Did I just kill Shaun?”
I fell to my knees beside my best friend. The mask was practically knocked off his head and his temple was slick with a splatter of blood. “What were you thinking? We had a plan!”
“I-I don’t know!” she cried. “I panicked and reacted, thinking it was a demon, or the masked guy, or fuck, a serial killer! I thought we were going to die! Oh my God. I’m going to fucking jail. I just killed Shaun Jacobsen the III.”
Shaun could not die. I wouldn’t allow it.
While she had her freak-out session, I felt for his pulse with shaky fingers. Thankfully, he was alive but breathing faintly. I shoved the butt of the flashlight into my mouth and unzippedElla’s little purse, digging for clean tissues. I bundled a wad and held it to Shaun’s bleeding temple.
Ella fell to her knees beside me, doing the cross before clasping her hands together in prayer. “Padre nuestro que estás en el cielo, santificado sea tu nombre…”
I drowned out the rest of Ella’s words, concentrating on wiping Shaun’s blood before slapping his cheek lightly. “Shaun? Please open your eyes.”
I already lost my parents. I couldn’t risk losing another person who mattered to me.
Done with her prayer, Ella cradled his face. “Shaun, I’m so sorry. I’ll never be able to live with myself knowing I killed you. You’re a pain in the ass, but I still adore you. Please don’t die. You’re too young and you have so many things to accomplish—like marrying Hera. That’s one of your life goals, right? If you don’t wake up now, she’ll marry someone else and we can’t have that. C’mon, Shauny boy. I swear I’ll never pull another prank on you if you just open your eyes. Please, I’m begging you.”
At the mention of the girl he was cuckoo about, Shaun’s fingers twitched to life. “W-Who is Hera marrying?”
“Shaun!” Ella gasped. “You’re alive!” She smacked a noisy kiss on his forehead. “I didn’t kill you! Oh, thank God!”
He grabbed his head, groaning. “My skull’s made of metal. I’m good, babe.”
I sighed in relief and dabbed at the sweat on his forehead. “Yeah, but you might have a concussion, so you need to stay awake. Ella’s got one helluva swing.”
“Speaking of…” Ella stared at him accusingly. “Why were you trying to scare us, you lunatic?”
Shaun chuckled weakly and sat up with my help. “I’m sorry. I saw you both in the hallway and couldn’t resist. Although, I didn’t think you’d actually smack me with a baseball bat. Otherwise, I’d have reconsidered.”
Leave it to Shaun to find joy in chasing us in a haunted school while roaring like a B-movie style monster.
“I’m sorry about that again.” Ella hugged him. “Do you forgive me?”
“Already forgiven.” Then he shot us a conspiratorial look. “You both look cozy for exes who hate each other.”
Ella huffed. “Cade, mind handing me that baseball bat? I don’t think I did enough damage the first time.”
I threw it her way and she caught it, pretending to jokingly bash Shaun’s head again. Like a good sport, he feigned dying by falling back with a hand on his heart.
I shook my head with a small smile. He was such a clown. “Since we have you here, want to tell us why it looks like everyone is gone?”
Shaun winced. “Yeah, about that…Someone called the cops. They didn’t make it past the gates because it’s private property, so they must have left after checking the outskirts. As instructed, no one parked their cars on campus, which gave us an advantage. Darla and me were able to sneak out everyone except for you guys since you were nowhere to be seen. That was more than an hour ago. I came back to school in hopes of finding you.”
Thank goodness he didn’t find us a few minutes before. Otherwise, he’d have gotten an eyeful of our extracurricular activities.
“Appreciate you coming back for us, Shaun.” I squeezed his shoulder. “Do you know who called the cops?”
“No.” He frowned. “Darla thinks it’s one of the Initiators. But why an Initiator would call the cops and risk getting caught is beyond me.”
I shared a look with Ella. Could it have been the masked guy?
