Page 113 of The Emma Special

“I heard it!” Summer whisper-screamed. “Something is out there. I knew it!”

Emma shushed Katie and motioned for her to get up before slowly pulling back the tent flap. “I can’t see anything,” she whispered.

“Me neither,” Summer whispered back.

The sound was closer this time, and the rustling was punctuated by a loud thump.

“Screw this,” Summer said. “Allison, on your feet!”

“What are you doing?” Emma asked, scanning the area for Summer and Allison’s tent.

“Incoming!”

Summer wasn’t speaking through the phone anymore. Instead, she barreled toward the half-opened flap of Emma and Katie’s tent.

Emma jerked the zipper back, widening the entrance just as Summer toppled into the single-person tent followed by Allison.

“What are you doing?” Katie asked from the bottom of the dogpile. “Your elbow is sticking in my butt cheek!”

Emma quickly closed the flap and scooted back toward her friends. “Something is out there!”

“Oww! My hair! My hair!” Allison screamed.

“I’m not on your hair!” Summer replied.

“No! In the zipper!”

Oh no. The flap was securely closed now, and Allison’s hair was entwined with the threaded device.

“I’ll get it.” Emma gave the zipper a jerk.

A dark form that could only be Allison slumped beside Emma. “Thanks. I thought I was a goner.”

“Speaking of goners, what’s out there?” Katie asked.

Emma scrambled around, searching for her phone. “Hold on, it might be James.”

“James? How does he even know where we are?” Summer asked.

“I doubt it’s him, but…” She fired off a text to James.

Emma: Are you out here in the woods?

“I can’t believe you told him where we are,” Summer whined. “It’s supposed to be⁠—”

“A girl’s night. We get it,” Allison finished. “But Emma is married, and she’s supposed to tell her husband where she is at night.”

The phone dinged almost immediately.

James: No. I was waiting on your go-ahead.

Emma lowered the phone and ran a hand over the black beanie Summer insisted she wear to cover her blonde hair. “It’s not him.”

Allison pushed Summer off of her as she scrambled toward the opening. “I’m outta here.”

“I’m right behind you!” Katie said as she got to her feet and ducked through the exit.

“Wait!” Summer begged, but the girls were already jogging through the forest toward the cottage.