“If you touch either of us, I’ll destroy you,” Chasm warns, putting me behind him. Veronica doesn’t seem concerned, shrugging her shoulders loosely.
“I’m not concerned with you. Your dad is a sniveling creep who’s just sold his company off to Justin Prior. That’s a sinking ship, McKenna. The guy was already arrested once for embezzlement. Getting into bed with him seems like a pretty terrible business decision, don’t you think?” She smiles wickedly as Chas and I exchange a look. “Just back off. You’re not a part of this unless you want to be.”
Based on his expression, I’m guessing he didn’t know about this either.
Shit.
He glances back at Veronica as the sounds of the other girls echo to us from inside the hedge maze; they’re cursing and arguing with each other now. I bet ya that they got lost.
“What do you want with me anyway?” I ask, holding out both hands, palms up in what I hope is a placating gesture. “I don’t have any problem with you guys.”
“But we have a problem with you,” Veronica says, glancing over at the brunette on her right before she looks back at me. The brunette is yet another one of Lumen’s many, many friends. Again, never bothered to learn this one’s name. I never thought it would matter. Does she know these girls are here? Did she send them? “You set the theater on fire and ruined the production. You smashed our cars. Your dad is a crook, and his new app—if it even does what he says it will—is about to make all of our lives a living hell.”
She nods her head at the brunette, and she lifts up a utility knife. Like, a very sharp, very scary metal blade. Chasm sees it, and his face goes pale. It gets even paler still when the rest of the girls—minus Veronica—start removing utility knives of their own from blazer and pants pockets, book bags, or even tucked under their dress shirts between their breasts.
Because my bio mom is a true crime writer, I know all sorts of horrible stories. Adults always have this idea in their heads that their teenage kids are still the sweet babies they knew and loved. But adolescence fucks with people; puberty fucks with people. We’re all just miniature adults trying to figure shit out.
Ever hear about the Shanda Sharer murder? A twelve-year-old tortured and killed by four teenage girls between the ages of fifteen and seventeen. True story. It isn’t something that should ever be looked up unless you have a strong stomach. What about the Slender Man stabbing? Two twelve-year-olds stabbed a girl nineteen times. She lived (miraculously), but how terrifying is that?
So, yeah. I’m afraid. I’m terrified.
Do I have time to make a phone call perhaps?
My hand slides into my pocket and Veronica steps forward.
“Touch your phone, and I’ll break the rest of your fingers,” she warns me, and then she pulls a utility knife out of her own pocket. This is the lawyer’s daughter, I think. One of the ones Volli warned me about.
“Get ready to run again,” Chasm whispers, and I get the disturbing idea that he isn’t planning on joining me. Oh hell no. Fuck that. He doesn’t want me to be all self-sacrificial and shit; I won’t let him do that either.
Although only a few seconds passes in silence, it feels like an eternity. The air is thick with the scent of violence, and I feel the bright hot surge of adrenaline in all my limbs. I’m about to snatch Chasm’s arm and drag him away with me when Danyella appears from around the corner of the maze, soaked in sweat and panting.
“There are a half-dozen administrators on the way down here—Ms. Miyamoto included,” she snaps, her strong voice commanding attention even as she pants for breath. She braces a hand against a thick branch in the hedges, reaching up to adjust her hot pink glasses with her other hand.
“You tattled on us?!” Veronica snaps, turning her rage onto Danyella.
“No, you moron,” she snarls right back, shoving angrily at some of her braids as they fall over her shoulder. “With so many students late for class, they started checking the cameras and saw all of you sprinting out the side entrance. Could you be any stupider?”
“You’re walking a fine line here, Schaeffer,” Veronica says with a long sigh. “You might be Lumen’s pet, but she can’t protect you every second of the day.” Veronica takes off, her posse of girls behind her. As they go, her brunette friend collects the knives in a bundle and shoves them into her book bag. What she plans on doing with them, I almost don’t want to know.
Chills take over me, and I nearly collapse in relief as the adrenaline in my body struggles to find an outlet.
