Page 3

My hands shake as I pull out my phone. Three missed texts from Bailey, sent twenty minutes ago while I was still dancing, before the bathroom…

OMG, that guy in the wolf mask is staring at us. He’s still looking this way.

It’s kinda weird.

Fawn, where are you?

I call her.

It rings once. Twice. Three times. Then voicemail. Her recorded voice, bright and casual. “Hey, it’s Bailey! Leave a message, and I’ll call you back!”

“Bailey, where the fuck are you? Call me back. Now. Please.”

I hang up. Call again. Voicemail again.

The party keeps happening around me, people dancing, drinking, and laughing, while I stand in the middle of it, my crooked bunny ears on and my heart hammering against my ribs.

I know this feeling.

It’s the same weight that hangs in the air when the Winter brothers sit in my section at the diner. The reason I refrain from making eye contact and try my hardest not to fuck up their orders. Because people who fuck up their orders no longer work there.

They don’t fuck up anywhere anymore.

2

FAWN

Ihead toward the exit, shoving past bodies, my breath coming too fast. The cold air outside hits my skin, and I don’t feel it. The parking lot stretches out in front of me, and I spin in a circle looking for blond hair and white polyester. For the only person in the world I would die for.

“Bailey!” My voice echoes.

But no one answers.

I run toward the side of the building, toward the alley where people go to smoke. My flats slip on gravel, but I don’t slow down. My phone vibrates in my hand, and I almost drop it. It’s just a text from our landlord about the rent.

“Fuck!”

That’s when I see them.

Right fucking there. Three large figures, lingering in the shadows where the streetlights die, and the darkness begins.

They are wearing masks.

A zombie with gray-green rot peeling off the rubber like actual dead shit. A skull with hollow eyes, watching me like it already knows how my bones fit together. And a wolf with its teeth bared, muzzle snarling, looking so real that it doesn’t even resemble a costume. Eyeing me as if he wants to fuck me or rip my throat out.

They haven’t moved, not even an inch. Chests heaving as they breathe…staring back at me while my heart tries to punch through my ribs.

My stomach drops, pussy clenching tight, that pulse between my legs that always kicks in when something dangerous gets too close. Every nerve screams run, you stupid, fucking rabbit.

But Bailey’s out here.

I walk toward them. I don’t know how, but I somehow know they have something to do with my sister disappearing.

My legs are numb, feeling like they belong to someone else. The cold air scrapes my throat raw, and the bunny ears slip down over my eyes. I don’t bother to push them back.

Let them block the view. At least, I can pretend for one more fucking second that this isn’t happening.

“Where is my sister?” My voice doesn’t shake. Thank God.