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Someone that wasn’t Ashley answered the door in distressed denim shorts and a knit crop top.

“Hi, is Ashley in?” Of course she was in. Where else would she be? The sun had just set.

“Have I seen you before?”

Esther was pretty sure she’d never seen this woman. “I was hoping to speak with her.”

“You’re Esther, aren’t you?” The woman leaned against the doorway, getting annoyingly comfortable in this unhelpful limbo they were in.

“Yes?” It wasn’t meant to be a question. Esther was caught off guard by the vampire knowing her name.

“Awesome.” She offered her hand. “I’m Cynthia.”

Esther shook Cynthia’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you. Do you know if Ashley is in?”

“Why would I know where Ashley is?” Cynthia spoke loud and dramatically, her gaze darting behind her into the house. “She’s probably out.”

This wasn’t the outcome Esther had hoped for. While her note was solid, she’d still hoped to speak to Ashley in person.

“One second.” Esther pulled the letter out of her pocket, folded it into an envelope, and slipped the necklace inside. “Here.” She handed the package to Cynthia. “Could you see that she gets this?”

“Sure thing, dude.” With a brief finger gun, Cynthia sank back into the house and closed the door.

And that was that. Esther walked back to August’s house with a feeling of incompleteness. So, she hadn’t gotten to say her speech. Ashley would still get the note. She couldn’t bring herself to text Ashley. Not after her awkward exchange at the door. Maybe she’d text Ashley tomorrow. Just to make sure Cynthia had a chance to get the letter to Ashley. There wasn’t any reason to rush.

37

Ashley

“There.” Ashley stuck the last notecard to the wall with washi tape and wiped her hands together. The color-coordinated cards and cheerfully contrasting tape really brightened up the room. As long as she only looked at this one wall. Not even her extensive collection of office supplies could fix all the chipped plaster and dusty cobwebs.

The door to the basement opened. Before the creak of the top step, Ashley had pulled shut the curtain she’d rigged across her card wall and taken to her designated hiding box.

“It’s just me,” called Cynthia.

Ashley sighed. This whole setup was very demoralizing. When she’d texted Cynthia for help, Ashley hadn’t considered that she’d be spending her days in the basement, a few feet below everyone she was hiding from. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could stand it down here. But that was what her card wall was for.

“I have something for you.” Cynthia held up a small piece of folded paper.

Ashley eyed it suspiciously. She was always waiting for the other shoe to fall with Cynthia. When Ashley’s mom had suggested calling another vampire, her first thought was Claribel. While her stories may be all over the place and her mind two hundred years in the past, Claribel was at least reliable. Cynthia, on the other hand, could ditch Ashley at any moment with the smallest excuse. But Claribel was closer to Hannah, and it was Hannah—and John—that Ashley was hiding from.

“Your girlfriend was here,” Cynthia said.

Electricity zinged down Ashley’s spine at the mention of Esther, despite everything that had happened a week ago.

“She left you something.”

“What?” Ashley was out of the box and in front of Cynthia. “I’ll take that, thank you.”

Cynthia laughed as she passed the note. “Way to play it cool, chickee.”

Ashley sat on her hiding box and picked at the folded corners of the note while Cynthia pulled back the curtain to Ashley’s card wall.

“Careful with that,” Ashley called. “I ran out of tape, so some of the cards aren’t as secure as I’d like them to be.”

“What is this anyway?” Cynthia poked at a card. Ashley joined her at the wall, too nervous to leave Cynthia with it unsupervised. “A flow chart?”

“This”—Ashley gestured grandly—“is my life plan.”