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Prologue
SCARLETT
Ten YearsOld
“Ready or not, here I come.” Crew’s voice carries down the hall, and as soon as it hits my ears, a mixture of excitement and nervousness swims in my belly.
I cover my mouth, trying not to laugh, but spurts of the concealed sound spit into my palm.
“Caught ya,” I hear him say, and Jagger grumbles in defeat.
One down. Three to go.
The last to be found gets to pick our next game. Of all the years playing hide-and-seek at the Aima Hall—a place where all our Society meetings are held—I've never won.
There are so many times they’d find Maddie first and pretend they didn’t see her, just so I didn’t win.Being the good friend she is, Maddie’s forfeited the loss more times than I can count, but it’s not the same. I want the win because I earned it, not because someone gave it to me.
These jerks will never let me have it, though. Especially if it came down to me or Maddie winning—they’d always choose her.
With my legs hugged to my chest, I scoot deeper into the closet, hiding myself among janitor buckets and mopheads.
Shadows of footprints dance through the light, shining under the door, and my heart beats superfast. I place my hand over my chest, hoping no one can hear it.
I feel like I’m going to pee myself, but suddenly, the guys hearing me laugh is the least of my worries.
“Scar,” Crew sings. “Where are you?”
“Bet she’s in the basement,” Jagger says.
“No way. She’s too much of a scaredy-cat to go down there by herself,” Neo tells him. I didn’t even know they found Neo already. Maybe he gave up, just to help them find me.
No surprise there.
More footprints graze the light. Coming and going. Stopping and moving. When their movements stop directly in front of the closet door, my stomach tightens.
I should just give myself up now.
“I bet she’s in here,” Neo says while the others urge him to open the door.
Before I can move—be it to scoot farther back or to come out of hiding—the closet door flies open and a beam of light shines in.
My heart is racing and I’m clenching my muscles to stop what’s coming, but it’s no use. I gasp when warmth trickles down my leg.
Oh no.
My entire body flushes with heat and I’d love nothing more than to disappear through the side wall and never return.
“Found ya,” Crew beams eagerly, “you lose again.”
What do I do? What do I do?
“Yep. I lost. You can go find Maddie now.”
Crew comes deeper into the closet, then reaches over and flips the light switch. His eyes immediately land on the puddle beneath me.
I shiver and shake and internally scream as a single tear rolls down my face. I can’t even look at him. Instead, I tuck my chin to my chest, hugging my knees, and pinch my eyes closed.
The clicking of the light switch has my eyes shooting back open, noticing the closet is now dark, only the light from the hall shining into my hiding place.
