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SOPHIA: You didn’t say you knew her. You said this was just for fun.
MEL: It is. Because it’s just some dumb prank.
NICK: You didn’t come because of Becca?
Mel doesn’t answer. She pushes her hair back from her face and lets out a breath.
MEL: Look, I... I don’t believe in ghosts or in Lucy Gallows. So that means that I don’t believe there’s any chance that Becca is somehow... out here. I wish she was. But she isn’t.
NICK: Then why come?
MEL: Because.
She stretches a manic smile across her face, her eyes flashing with pent-up emotion.
MEL: It. Is. Fun!
She lets the smile drop and scratches the back of her neck, a quick, nervous gesture.
MEL: Where’s Sara, anyway? I thought she’d be the first one here.
SOPHIA: Unless she’s the one that sent the message in the first place.
ANTHONY: She wasn’t.
SOPHIA: I dunno. She’s pretty weird.
VANESSA: She’s n-not weird, she’s j-j-just—
SOPHIA: J-j-just freaking bizarre. D-d-duh-damaged, if you ask m-m-me.
Mel wheels, eyebrows raised incredulously.
MEL: Wow. Okay. Sophia, this isn’t a date anymore.
SOPHIA: What?
MEL: I don’t date assholes. Firm rule there.
SOPHIA: Lighten up. It was a joke.
MEL: And the punch line was that you’re an asshole. Thanks for letting me know.
SOPHIA: Fuck you. And fuck all of this. I didn’t want to come out here in the first place. Have fun with your stupid ghost hunt.
The phone drops, hanging beside Sophia’s leg as she walks, but continues recording for several seconds as Sophia stomps away through the trees.
MIRANDA: I told you it wouldn’t be a problem.
5
THE LIGHTS ANDvoices up ahead draw me forward through the dark woods. My mouth tastes strange, like I have a penny tucked under my tongue. That’s Trina’s voice. Mel’s. Anthony’s. They’re here. They came.
All of them.
I enter the clearing where they’ve gathered, staying in the shadows for a moment. They didn’t come together—not a single one of them. But they’ve come. It seems like proof of something. Like we’ve been broken, but we can still be mended. Like we can be whole again.
Anthony sees me first. That seems right. A look like relief breaks over his face. He gives me a nod, a bob of his head that pulls the others’ attention around, too, and then they’re all staring at me, all silent.
