Chapter 3 Three

“Move it, chicken legs. I’ve got shit to do. Ya know, 'cause I’ve got friends and a life.”

I step to the side and let him pass, just so he lets his guard down. Once he does, I grab him from behind. “Show me what you’re hiding!” I’m practically riding him piggyback as he continues down the steps. “Show me, Blaise.”

Once we reach the bottom, he shakes me o and I fall to the floor. “Make me.”

“Mom,” I holler from the bottom of the stairs. My arms cross over my chest and I scowl back at Blaise.

He barks out a laugh. “Good luck with that. Even if she did hear you, she’d pretend she didn’t.”

Blaise walks past me, and being the fricken pushover that I am, I don’t even try to stop him. What’s the point? He does what he wants, when he wants. Hopefully whatever he was hiding wasn’t mine, because if it was, it means he’s up to something.

IT’S ten o’clock on my birthday, the night before Halloween. Everyone is having the time of their lives while I’m sitting here scrolling through Facebook and watching Emery, my best friend, read a book. “What do you think they’re doing right now?”

“Who?” She peers at me over her paperback. “Everyone. Everyone who is not us.”

Emery closes her book and sets it beside her. “Oh, probably getting drunk, breaking car windows, dancing in the woods with all those strings of neon lights they hang. Some are probably having sex on the ground.”

“Sex? You think so?”

“Umm, yes. We’re in high school now. Of course our classmates are having sex.”

“You think Lilith’s done it?”

“Lilith most definitely has. In fact, I heard she lost her V-card to your brother.”

There’s a pang in my chest. Blaise isn’t a virgin anymore? Of course he’s not. It’s Blaise. Most popular guy in the school, even as a freshman. I’ll never understand why, but people bow to him. He could get any girl he wants. Even Lilith James.

Emery seems to be deep in thought. “Em, what’s wrong?” I grab her attention. She lifts her head and looks at me. “Nothing. Just thinking.” Her legs uncross and she stands up. “We should go. They all wear those masks anyways. No one will even know it’s us.”

My eyebrows hit my forehead. “Are you insane? They’d toss us in the fire without a second thought. Actually, they’d toss me in the fire. You’d be sacrificed.”

“Well, if they hate you, then they might as well hate me, too.”

“You’re the best, Em.” She really is. Emery is my only friend and ever since I’ve arrived in Skull Creek, she’s had my back. Even when she gets caught in the crossfire.

“That’s what friends are for, right? You know what else friends are for? Crashing parties.” She grumbles, “Come on. We can just stand back and watch. Aren’t you the least bit curious about what it’s like?”

“I’m sorry. I just can’t do it.”

Emery gets up, eating the space between us. Her hands rest on either side of my shoulders. “Fine then. How about a promise?”

I side-eye her. “A promise?”

“Uh-huh. I promise that one day, I will get us invited to one. Hell, I’ll do you one better. One day, we will be with the in-crowd. We will be the in-crowd.”

I laugh at her attempt at making me feel better. “So, you agree we shouldn’t go?”

“I guess.” She sighs heavily.

I’m glad she agrees. We’d just be asking for trouble by showing up there. Lilith would fry us. Blaise might even try to kill me.

I drop back down on the bed and reopen the Facebook app. For the hell of it, I click on Lilith’s page, curious to see if she has posted anything about Blaise. That’s when I see it.

Something that I can never unsee.

I tap Play on the video of Lilith standing next to the fire. Her mask is tipped up as she grips my diary in both of her hands.

“Read it. Read it,” is being chanted continuously by the entire student body of Skull Creek High as they prance around in their masks.

Lilith stares the camera dead in the eye as if she’s reading directly to me. “Last night, Lucifer came into my room when I was sleeping. He stood over me while I pinched my eyes shut. He was only there for a few minutes, but I think he was pleasuring himself while he watched me. Last week, he tried to get in the bathroom when I was taking a shower. I’m starting to get scared of him.” Everyone gasps and giggles in the background. My heart sinks deep into the pit of my stomach. Lilith flips the page. “I followed Blaise last night. He went to that old barn o Highway 88. He’s been going there a lot lately just to think. He didn’t see me, but I watched him through the side window. He laid there peacefully on some bales of hay and just stared at the ceiling deep in thought.”