Page 102 of Collins
Before the car is even fully in park, I’m out, the door slamming behind me as I rush toward the garage keypad. My pulse is loud in my ears, drowning out everything else.
“You’re needed out back.”
I gasp, jumping at the sudden voice that cracks through the quiet like thunder.
“Oh my god!”
My hand flies to my chest as I spin around. I think it’s Crandall who spoke, but Campbell is there too now, both of them stepping into the wash of moonlight. Their faces are…calm. Amused, even.
Not panicked.
Not worried.
“Huh?” The confusion tangles with the adrenaline still surging through me.
They exchange a glance. One of those looks people give when they know something you don’t, and then they smile. Not small smiles either. Full knowing ones that only make my pulse trip over itself harder.
Headlights sweep across the driveway just then, another car pulling in behind us.
Lou’s.
The engine cuts, and Bea steps out of the driver’s seat, that same smirk tugging at her lips. It’s the exact one mirrored on the twins’ faces.
A slow realization begins to creep in, but it doesn’t settle into anything solid.
Not yet.
“What the hell is going on?” I breathe, my voice thinner now, caught somewhere between suspicion and something I can’t quite name.
“Just trust us,” she says softly.
My gaze flicks between all of them, my heart still racing, still trying to catch up.
“Collins is waiting for you out back.”
My heart is thundering as I round the edge of the garage. Each step feels uneven, unsteady, dry grass and brittle leaves crackling beneath my shoes like they’re announcing my every movement to the night.
Then—
Music.
Faint at first. Carried on the breeze from somewhere out back.
I freeze mid-step.
My heart trips, then stops altogether.
“The Freshmen.”
The sound of it hits me like a physical force, stealing all my air. For a second, I can’t move, can’t think. It’s like my body doesn’t know how to exist in this moment.
I still can’t see anything, the back of the house juts out too far past the garage. There’s a glow now, though. Soft. Golden. Flickering in the distance like something out of a dream.
I take another step. Then another. Drawn forward by something deeper than logic, deeper than sense.
And then I round the edge of the patio.
Everything comes into view.
