“I…I don’t…” Hailey realized she had no idea how to turn down a date. Or accept one. This was all new.
“Just think about it.”
Hailey sighed. She didn’t need a couple days to think about it. She didn’t even need a couple seconds. There was no way in hell she was going to prom.
“And, uh, you can come tapping in my direction with your answer anytime.”
Hailey shook her head and tried to say, “no,” but nothing came out. She was in the Twilight Zone. And Tage was clearly out of his mind. Maybe he’d recently taken a hit to the head…without his helmet. That would explain his craziness.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, and then he pecked her on the cheek and jogged away.
“Buh…” Hailey uttered after him.
Stunned, she stood on the sidewalk for several seconds before she turned and moped home, Holly’s toothbrush in hand.
Detective Toll was at the townhouse waiting for her, and he was wearing his police-face.
Everyone stood up when Hailey stepped inside.
“Hi…?” she announced as she tentatively placed her backpack next to the door.
The clock in the kitchen spoke first.Tick…tick…tick…
“As you were,” Hailey said, trying to lighten the mood as they all stared at her. She held up Holly’s toothbrush. “Thanks for telling me I had a toothbrush stuck in my hair this morning.”
Her uncles gave each other first quizzical then accusatory looks. All five of them had eaten breakfast with her. One of them should have said something.
She really missed Holly.
“Mrs. Lash is dead,” Uncle Pix announced.
“And burning in hell,” Dale added, and Holly’s toothbrush fell out of Hailey’s hand. She quickly picked it up and looked at Detective Toll for an explanation.
“Mary Lash hanged herself last night.”
Hailey’s hand shot up to her mouth.
“Oh my gosh,” she breathed. “Why? Why would she do that?”
“There’s uh…there’s a little more,” Toll said, and then Uncle Pix took over.
“She helped them kill Holly,” Uncle Pix told her.
“What?”
“She confessed it in a note, and she left her weapon next…right next to it,” Toll said.
“I just can’t believe it,” Hailey said, clutching Holly’s toothbrush as blood swished in her ears. Blinking the dark away, she slowed her breathing, wishing Fin was next to her.
Where was he?she wondered, feeling the sting of abandonment. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since Holly’s funeral. And she never got to interrogate him about the Envoys he’d mentioned at the church.
Sleep wouldn’t come. Once the house went quiet, Hailey sneaked out her bedroom window and headed to the cemetery to visit Holly.
Shortly after she hit the street, the rain started, and the air went from chilly to downright frigid. Then the wind picked up. She realized too late she should have worn a jacket. As cold rain turned to sleet, icy needles pricked her skin, injecting their frost directly into her veins until she shivered in violent convulsions.
Still she walked, one shoulder raised to the wind, which still managed to blow ice crystals into her ear.
It felt good to hurt. She deserved it for abandoning her sister, for allowing Mrs. Lash, the bad men, and the Envoy from Hell to get her. In fact, she deserved far worse than a chill, she decided, as she trudged through the darkness, through the pouring rain-slush to Holly’s grave.
