Page 40 of Devils' Day Party
“Holy shit,” Luke says when she stumbles out of class to meet me in the hallway. I'm covered in mud, my hair wet and plastered to my skull, my makeup bleeding in two dark trails down my cheeks. My shoulder is leaned up against a bank of lockers, my head resting against the scratched gray metal. Crescent Prep might be full of rich assholes, but they're delinquents first and foremost. We don't get fancy shit here like they do at Burberry Prep or Adamson Academy, two of the richest high schools in the country. “Where have you been? You hung up on me, and then you didn't answer when I called back …” Luke trails off, pushing blue hair off of her forehead.
“Luke, I can't do this,” I tell her, wanting to cry again, but feeling like my eyes are as empty and broken as my heart. She was dead. If the universe hadn't reset, she'd still be dead. And yet, all I can think about is how to get out of this. How to escape. And what might happen if I do.
“Yeah, okay, we can cut class today,” she says, misinterpreting my declaration. “It's Devils' Day, after all. Nobody will care. Let me grab April.” Luke reaches out to squeeze my arm and then starts to turn away. I snatch her wrist to keep her from leaving me. I'm not sure what I'll do if she goes just now.
“Not just class, Luke, but … everything.” The soft whisper of my voice makes her pause, her brown eyes widening. She nods once, pulls her phone out, and sends April a text before looking back up at me. “Let's go.”
Luke takes me outside, gaping at the ruin that used to be Little Bee, and then leads me to her own car. The very same one that flipped on the road just an hour ago …
“No,” I whisper, stepping back and shaking my head. The sight of the bleeding buck flailing around on ruined legs, his eyes wild, antlers casting strange shadows in the glow of the headlights … I'm not doing it. I'm not getting in that fucking convertible. “I'm sorry, but I can't get in that car.”
“Okay,” Luke says, holding up her hands in a placating gesture and watching me with a nervous expression. “We don't have to get in the car. Do you want to take a walk? We could go the bus station and ride to the bubble tea shop.”
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I nod.
I'm going to tell her. I'm going to tell her everything. And if she doesn't believe me, if she thinks I'm crazy, so what? It'll all start over again tomorrow.
We head toward the woods together, taking the same shortcut I used on the real Devils' Day, the one that started all of this shit. The one that I royally fucked up. I swipe my hands down my face. That first night, I died. Essentially, I killed myself by acting like an impetuous asshole.
“I want to tell you something,” I start as we pick our way through the woods and Luke tries to surreptitiously study my muddied clothing. A thousand questions dance in her worried gaze, but I'm not sure I'm about to answer any of them. More than likely, I'm about to introduce about a million more. “But you can't judge me. Even if you think I'm crazy, even if you think I'm lying.”
“I would never think that,” Luke assures me, but she has no idea what she's in for. It's been happening to me, over and over again, and I still don't quite believe it myself. “What's wrong, Karma? Is it the Knight Crew? Because Raz, Barron, and Calix all looked weird as hell when they came in this morning Sonja seemed fine though …”
“They looked weird?” I ask, glancing over at her. She shrugs her thin shoulders and then reaches up to loosen her silver tie with the purple plaid pattern. “How so?”
“Just … distracted? Raz was clearly pissed. Barron was distant. Calix was … Well, I'm not really sure. More asshole-ish than usual? If that's even possible. He kicked Pearl's book bag against the wall, and then whispered something to her that sent her running for the girls' bathroom.”
I bite my lower lip, but refuse to let myself look too deeply into it. So what? The Knight Crew bullying people is just par for the course.
“Something's happening to me, Luke,” I whisper, looking over at her as she jumps the creek. I follow after, stumbling and falling into the water, soaking my already wet and muddied shoes and socks. Luke grabs my arm, helping me up, her face drawn and tight, deadly serious. I look up, meeting her gaze and knowing that this isn't going to end well for me. She'll take care of me, she always has, but she'll think I'm crazy and I won't be able to blame her. Hell, maybe I really am? I could be in a coma for all I know, lying in a hospital bed and drifting further and further away from reality.
