Page 19 of Devils' Day Party
“What Sonja means is, we’ll let you out when we wake up tomorrow.” He flashes a sharp grin, reaching up and sweeping his hands through his dirty blonde hair. “Considering the amount I plan to drink tonight, it might be more like late afternoon.”
“Not April!” Luke screams, struggling against the boys holding her as they pull her toward the cave entrance. “This is a huge, fucking mistake! This is false imprisonment. Do you think I won’t report this?”
“Nobody cares what you have to say,” a girl with raven-hair and ice-blue eyes says, shoving Luke forward into the cave. She trips and falls, cutting her hand on a stalagmite with a hiss. I can see the ruby red blood blooming as she falls to her knees. “Your parents don’t even give a shit if you live or die.”
Some of the other boys move forward to grab me, but I keep my eyes on Calix, Raz, and Barron. One of them is smirking at me, one is grinning, and the other looks impassive, almost bored. The monster boys push me into the cave next to April, slam the gate, and lock it tight.
The last thing I hear before the Knight Crew moves away is Raz’s laughter, echoing through the trees.It’s cold and dark and wet in the Devils’ Den, the pleasant trickle of the spring and the constant sound of water droplets falling from the roof echoing strangely in the narrow space. The music from the Devils’ Day Party is loud enough that we have to shout to have a conversation of any kind, but I suppose that doesn’t matter because it’s pretty obvious that Luke doesn’t want to talk to me at all.
One of the demon-faced girls kicked over all the lanterns after they dragged April into the cave, so the only light we have is from the massive bonfire. I’m a little concerned at how big it’s getting, fed with logs and old furniture and gasoline. The heat makes the rusted bars warm against my fingers as I hang off of them, my heart beating so fast that I feel dizzy.
“You just had to poke the bear, didn’t you?” Luke asks finally, lifting her face up from her knees, her goblin mask discarded and stuffed into a back pocket. “After you promised me …”
“I said I wouldn’t go looking for trouble,” I say, but as soon as the words are spoken aloud, my excuse sounds as weak and pathetic as I feel. “Trouble found me.”
“Come on, Karma,” Luke says, turning to look at me, her brown eyes dark with fury—and not just fury for the Knight Crew, but for me. “You started it this morning when you hit Calix’s car. As amusing as I’m sure that was—and as deserved—you knew what would happen, how things would end.”
I turn away from her, focused on the crowd of masked students, sweaty and drunk and high, the skunk-y scent of weed mixing with the stink of the campfire. I’m not sure what I wanted for tonight, but this wasn’t it.
“So I’m to blame for their bullying?” I ask quietly, even though I know that’s not what Luke’s trying to say.
“Please don’t fight,” April says, using the stone wall to help herself to her feet, glasses reflecting the orange glow from the fire. “Look, it’s not all that bad, right? This cave is fascinating.” She points a single finger up toward the ceiling. “These stalactites are thousands of years old. I’m honestly surprised people are even allowed in here.”
“The Knight Crew stole the key,” I say, thinking of Barron’s hands on my hips, a pink flush creeping its way into my cheeks. “And I stole the key from Barron.”
“How, exactly, did you go about doing that anyway?” Luke asks, also pushing herself to her feet. The three of us have been stripped of our dignity and left to rot in here. All I can hope is that when I don’t come home tonight, that my moms will call the police, and someone will find us here long before Raz sleeps off his drunk. “Really, I’d love to know.”
“Luke,” April warns, leaning against the cave wall and looking warily between the two of us. “What’s done is done. Karma can’t go back in time and change things, so what does it matter? I’m sure she feels bad enough as it is.”
“Bad?” I ask, looking over at April with her brown hair plaited and slung over one shoulder, her green eyes dark in the shadows of the cave. It’s strange, looking at her in that uniform with her dress shirt untucked, taut around her swollen belly. I think that was her parents’ plan all along, to shame her by forcing her to stay in her school uniform every day. “I don’t feel bad. I didn’t put us in here and lock the door; they did. I figured you of all people wouldn’t be one to victim blame,” I say, looking directly at Luke.
