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This is stupid. Really stupid. Go inside, get Kit and the gun—
Light floods the yard, and we all jump.
“Motion detector,” I say with a half laugh.
The others nod, and we continue on.
“Wait,” I say as I slow. “There’s a motion-detecting light around the side, too. Under my window.”
“Shit,” Madison says. “I forgot about that. So if the light didn’t activate, no one could have been there.”
“Unless the bulb burned out.”
“No, it came on earlier, when that Garrett guy wandered off to take a piss. Kit told him to go inside, but he pretended not to hear and went around the corner and yelped when the light flicked on.” She glances over. “It was kind of funny.”
“Well,” Jayla says. “While this does seem to be a false alarm, at least we weren’t idiots walking out of a security-armed house to confront an intruder.”
“You realized that, too?” I say.
“Yep, about five seconds ago, when I wondered why this felt so familiar, and then I remembered I’ve seen this scene in every damn slasher movie you made me watch.”
“Made you?” I say as we resume walking to the corner of the house. “That is not how I remember it.”
“Totally how I remember it. You—”
Pain stabs through my foot, my gasp cutting her short. “And I just stepped on broken glass. Fucking renters.”
“Ooh,” Madison says. “You aren’t supposed to use that word, Auntie Laney. They can revoke your guardian license.”
“You okay?” Jayla asks me.
“I’m fine. Remind me to clean up the glass tomorrow.”
I take a step, and the sharp jab tells me a sliver is embedded in my sole. I pause as Madison continues on, Jayla following.
“It better have been the renters,” I mutter. “If Garrett dropped his beer bottle when the light came on—”
I stop as I pluck a shard from my foot. It’s too fine to be bottle glass. I squint down at it, and then IrealizeI’m squinting. We’ve rounded the back corner, away from the first motion-detector light, and second one hasn’t come on. It hasn’t come on because…
I look up to see the empty socket and jagged remains of the bulb.
“In the house!” I shout. “Everyone in the housenow!”
Jayla backs up fast. Madison is frozen there, her back to me as she stares down. I run to grab her. How did I let her get so far from me? Why the hell did I bring her out here? What was Ithinking?
“Laney?” Her voice quavers, but she doesn’t move.
“Get in the house. We—”
“That’s fake, right? It’s a decoration, right? Tell me that’s—”
I grab her T-shirt and then stop as I see what she’s looking at. It’s a hand.
There is ahand.Coming out of theground.
“It’s fake,” I blurt. “Halloween bullshit. Now get in the—”
She drops to her knees, shirt breaking from my hold. As I scramble to pull her up, I see the hand better. The white skin. The square shape. The garish high school ring. The chipped blue nail polish.
