Page 15 of Half Truths (Secret Society 1)
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
“This is a regular Thursday at The Bar. Welcome to town.” She smiled brightly, but it looked more like a grimace. “If you want to go out back, there’s a door right there you can use. It’ll lead you to the alley, but if you make a quick right, you’ll be out in the street.”
“Will you have to call the cops?”
“On them?” She looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
“I don’t know, on the entire group involved in the fight.”
Hailey scoffed. “They’ll probably arrest me before they arrest them.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.” I looked back at the brawl, which was still going, but now it was a screaming match between Logan’s friend that looked like Thor and some other guy.
“Their money talks. Mine makes me a mute.”
“Oh.” I blinked. I definitely understood that even if I hadn’t been on the mute side of things. “Well, yeah, I think I’ll go out the back way then.”
I set some money down for the drink I had as I stood and gathered my things. Once I’d made my way to the back door, I glanced over my shoulder one last time. As I did, Logan’s gaze lifted and met mine. He looked absolutely furious, but at least this time I knew it wasn’t with me. As I opened the door to the back, brittle air shot straight to me. I shut the door behind me and zipped my jacket all the way up, looking up and down the alley. There were two brightly lit streetlamps, so it wasn’t dark out here, but it was still much darker than I felt comfortable with. I idled by the door a little longer, looking up and down the alley once more. Finally, I heard a group of people, girls laughing, guys talking, and I sprinted in that direction. When I got to the populated sidewalk, I caught my breath and joined the herd of people walking in the direction of my apartment building.
The guy walking directly in front of me was swaying on his feet, obviously drunk, between two girls who looked like they were sharing the same fate as him. As I absently listened to their conversation, I pulled out my phone and re-read my brother’s text messages. This is not a drill jumped out at me.
“Yo, what is that?” the guy in front of me said loudly. “Is that a person?”
“I don’t see anything,” one of the girls responded.
“Brent is drunk,” the other said.
“I’m drunk but I’m not crazy,” he said. “You don’t see that?”
“No, Brent,” one of them whined.
“Shut up already,” the other added, also whining.
I put my phone back in the pocket of my bag and looked around, searching for whatever it was drunk Brent was seeing that nobody else was. The streets were crowded. Students were pouring out of bars and onto the pavement, joining the herd. Brent jerked to a stop suddenly. I was staring at the back of his head and still bumped into him. The person behind me bumped into me. I opened my mouth to complain, when Brent lifted his arm up and pointed.
“There,” he shouted. “Does nobody see that?”
My gaze followed in the direction of his pointer. I stood on the tips of my toes, placing a hand against Brent’s back to steady myself. I didn’t know the guy, but I was sure he wouldn’t remember this tomorrow and I needed to see what he saw. In the midst of the crowd that had overflowed onto the street, there were two people walking in blood-red cloaks. People shouldered past them, without hesitation, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
“What are they doing?” I asked, forgetting my face was so close to Brent’s ear. He whipped around so quickly, I had to step back to keep from falling over.
“You see them?”
“Of course I see them.”
“Does nobody else think this is weird?” he yelled.
“Dude shut up,” some random guy said.
“They’re in a society. They’re hunting for new members,” another added.
Anticipation coiled deep in my belly. How would they choose? What society was it? Was it the one Lana had been investigating? And why did they call it hunting? It was just as Hailey had said, they did things in broad view of everyone and nobody seemed to care. They were used to it. The rest of the way home, I was all up in my thoughts, wondering what would happen if I went up to one of those people and asked questions. Maybe I’d wait until it was daylight. The crowd thinned out as we walked, everyone going their separate way toward their buildings. I could see the navy blue awning that hung over the main door of my building as I stood on the side of the street, waiting to cross, and knew I was almost home free. I wondered if Celia was there or if she was staying at her boyfriend’s again tonight.
