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Billie notices her beat up truck still in the spot she left it in the night of Cletus’s vigil. Feels like that was a week ago, a month maybe. But the realization that it was only a few nights ago sinks a heavy sensation down her chest, all the way to her gut, something like defeat.
Her mind churns to understand the time, the day, and how the fuck it all happened—whenit all happened.
Cletus was killed on the same night as Preston’s party. Saturday night.
Sunday was her shift, the vigil, and the sleepover, the one Gigi didn’t make it to and that was the night she died.
Monday, they found Gigi, and Billie spent the whole day at the station, then the rest with Preston in her trailer before Kate came and put her to bed.
Now… it’s Tuesday night, and she can’t quite remember how she spent the day. Mostly, watching TV in bed with Kate in those brief, fleeting moments that she would wake up, a lot of moonshine, and a shower at some point before Kate dragged her out of the trailer to the Joint where they were to meet Carmine and Grace for dinner. And then more booze, so much that she still fights the urge to sleep, to pass out.
Tuesday night—
And her truck is still in the parking lot from her shift on Sunday. Itstaysabandoned in the lot as she climbs into Kate’s passenger seat, tossing her bag over her shoulder into the back.
Grace and Carmine ride together in Grace’s Mercedes.
Kate drives to the sleepover with the radio for company since Billie is quick to pass out the whole way there. She only wakes when Kate shakes her violently, then shoves her bag into her arms, ordering her to “Sleep inside.”
She does.
While the others fuss about with the TV in the lounge, and ordering pizza and making drinks, Billie steals the cushioned armchair, curls up with a blanket, and drifts in and out.
One time, she wakes for a few seconds to roll over, seeing all the girls tucked up on the couch, sharing pepperoni and cheese pizzas. The next time she stirs from her sleep, she notices Buffy, The Vampire Slayer playing on the TV. After that, Kate’s on the phone in the kitchen to Trevor. Billie thinks of Preston, and just how much she misses him carves out a fresh cavity in her chest.
Then, nothing—
She’s out-cold again.
When she wakes the last time, the darkness of the deep night is only penetrated by the flickering lights of the TV left on. Kate, Carmine and Grace aren’t in the lounge.
No lights are on in the kitchen.
The only light there is comes from the grey and black TV screen, the static flashing over and over.
Billie rubs the ball of her palm against her eye. Blinking heavily, she fights the urge to yawn when she looks across the lounge to the foyer…
Someone is standing there. Right in the middle of the foyer and facing her in the lounge.
But… it isn’t one of the girls.
It’s a tall, broad-shouldered man. Wrapped in all black, down to the boots and leather gloves…
But what sends chills down her spine and a burn of sick up her throat is what he wears on his head—
A bloody hood.
