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I was almost done with everything when the ladder creaked behind me. “Don’t come up! There’s only enough room for one of us up here.”

The ladder kept creaking.

I whirled around. “I’m almost done—”

“Eliza?” A head popped up out of the floor like one of those moles in a carnival game—a mole I’d very much like to hit with a hammer right now.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked. Then again, was I really that surprised?

Reed Fulton would come to the place that had one escape route and block that route with his big head.

“You left your mask at the party.” He held it out and took another step up, making the suspended floor wobble.

“Stop!” I grabbed the railing. “It’s really tight up here. One of us could fall.”

Wait. Was that part of his plan?

He paused and sat on the edge of the hole, his long legs dangling against the ladder. “This is cool. I always wondered what the catwalk looked like.”

“Well, now you’ve seen it. So just leave the mask by the ladder on your way out.” I put a new gel into the second to last PAR can.

“I recognize those.” He pointed to the can then clicked his tongue a few times.

Ugh. Why wouldn’t he leave?

Was this the contingency part of his plan? If Eliza doesn’t fall off the catwalk when I come up, annoy her until she thinks about jumping off of it?

“I learned about gels in a film-appreciation class last year,” he said.

“Fascinating,” I said. “Bye, now.”

Loud hammering came from the stage. Some of the set guys finished another piece while small groups of the cast did team-building exercises around the auditorium.

Reed drummed on the ladder. “Busy around here, huh?”

I wedged my clipboard under my arm. “So this has been super fun, but remind me again: Why are you here?”

Other than to make me mess up bad enough on day one that Ms. Sparrow fires me.

Crap. Could she fire me?

“I told you. To bring you your mask.”

I jumped, startled by another loud thwack of a hammer. “You could’ve left it down below.”

“I like climbing things.”

“I remember.” Trees, barns, old railcars. We used to climb a lot of those together. But that was a long time ago.

He rubbed the back of his neck, revealing the long tendons of muscles in his arm.

Oh.

Those are new.

I snapped my head down and made notes about the new positions.

“Didn’t think you wore ball caps, Crowley.” He cocked his head to the side. “Won’t it mess up your perfect hair?”