Page 33 of Half the Summer's Night

North Carolina would be nice enough. I’m sure I could find a job. But leaving Rosado means selling the Hatch Street Funeral Parlor. And I promised Uncle Vic I wouldn’t do that.

“Okay, but seriously,” Chloe says. “There’s the new A24 movie?—”

“Abi doesn’t want to watch that pretentious garbage,” Penelope laughs.

“Oh, shut up. It’s free on HBO right now. I can share my password and?—”

Something thumps downstairs.

Immediately, the woozy, feel-good feeling from the weed calcifies into a sharp, paranoid anxiety. I take a deep breath, trying to calm down my suddenly racing heart as Chloe and Penelope argue good-naturedly on the computer screen.

Another thump, louder than the first, and I jump against my couch.

He’s back.

“Abs? You okay?” Penelope’s voice sounds far away. I blink at the computer. They’re both staring at their screens. Looking at me.

“I’m fine,” I say. “I just—I thought I heard something.” I shake my head, force out a grin. “It’s just this house. Makes a lot of noise at night. What movie were you thinking of?—”

My cell phone lights up, buzzing against the coffee table. I grab it.

Unknown Number

“You need to take that?” Chloe says, and I can tell from the worry in her voice what she’s thinking—more bad news, another death.

“No, it’s a spam call.” I silence my phone and throw it on the sofa beside me. “What are we thinking? Movie?”

My phone lights up, this time with a text.

“Can you even still do watch parties anymore?” Penelope says. “I figured they nixed all that shit after?—”

I check my phone as surreptitiously as possible, hoping Chloe and Penelope can’t see me on screen. The same unknown number?—

And the text is a photograph of my front door.

Real fear lances through my chest, and I suck in deep breaths of air as Chloe and Penelope’s bickering voices spill out of my computer speaker, tinny and far away. I should call the police.

What if it’s him?My killer?

What if it is? He’s a fucking murderer, even if he’s apparently not the only one in Rosado. I shake my head, trying to clear out my thoughts. Trying to convince myself not to be stupid.

“Abi? Are you even paying attention?” Chloe says, sounding put out.

Something explodes downstairs. A loud, echoingbang, then the crash of splintering wood. I shriek and jump to my feet, dropping my laptop on the sofa.

My phone lights up with another text. Chloe and Penelope are shouting at me, asking if I’m okay, wanting to know what’s going on. I don’t know how to answer them. I told them about Rowan and our coffee date, but the whole time I was thinking about the masked killer who broke in the night before, who brushed his mouth against mine and asked if he could touch me.

I grab my computer and hold it up to my face. “I’ll be right back,” I tell them, hoping I can keep the panic down in my voice. “Someone’s at the door, okay?”

“Ignore it,” Penelope says flatly. “It’s almost midnight.”

More thumps from downstairs. My heart is going to erupt out of my chest. I have no idea why I’m not being truthful with them?—

Because you think it’shim, you absolute fucking idiot.

“I’ll call you guys back, okay?” I exit out of the Zoom room and snap my laptop shut and grab my phone. A single text waits for me.

Where are you hiding?