Page 125 of One Killer Night

The music that’s playing is so loud I can hear every word, all the way over by the door. The room might be small, but she’s actively destroying her hearing.

“Sorry,” she says with a grin. “I couldn’t hear—” but that’s all she gets out before her head shifts to the window; then she looks back at me. “Are there people here?”

I’m nodding, thankful she’s finally caught up. “Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. I thought we were supposed to leave before people got here.”

She shoots to her feet. “We are. Grab your shit.”

Thankfully, like she instructed earlier, I already had my bag packed, so I grab it and follow her quickly as we speed walk out of the cabin and back into the mayhem.

She looks back over her shoulder, giving me a look likeWowbefore she laughs.

“What are you looking at me like that for?” I say to her back. “These are your people.”

She’s a little bit faster than me, so when I see her stop and spread her arms wide as she looks around, my heart drops into my stomach.

No. Nope. This is not happening.

“Hell no, I have plans tonight, Goldie,” she hisses as she spins around and walks past me, headed toward where I presume Remus’s office is located.

I’m hot on her trail as she takes the two steps and lets herself in, not bothering to knock, her voice already raised.

“Remus. Where’s my team?”

He looks up from his desk, his eyes volleying between us, the shock on his face evident. Remus was not expecting to see us.

“Oh no. What are you doing here?”

I blink five hundred times a minute as my sister’s palms smack down on the desk. “What do you mean, ‘What are we doing here?’”

I swear I see the slightest sheen of sweat begin to break out on his forehead before he swallows hard. “Well ... well ... I mean, you’re on the bus, and it’s already left.”

The bag in my hand drops with a thud to the cabin floor. “You have got to be kidding me.”

My sister echoes my thought as we both stare at him. “Yeah, say you’re joking. Say this is a prank.”

Remus holds his hands up from his leather chair like he’s trying to calm us down. It immediately irritates me.

We have every right to be upset. We were told—rather, Evie was told—that the bus would leave promptly at 3:00 p.m. But now here we are standing in Remus’s dusty-ass office while hordes of people run around the grounds with fake retractable butcher knives, wearing masks from some serial killer movie where a bunch of teenagers die.

“Okay,” he starts, sounding sheepish, “I want to preface by saying this truly is management’s fault. And we take full responsibility for the mishandling.”

I interject quickly, “You mean your fault, Remus ... Becauseyouare management.”

He nods and at least has the decency to look apologetic, but expressing his admission isn’t fixing our problem.

Evie’s pacing now. “How did everyone else from Mass FX make it on the bus except for us? Explain that to me ... We’re the only women here. And she’s a giant tree of a redhead, and I’m the only Black girl. We’re not exactly wallpaper.”

He shrugs and then winces, looking around for help, but unless he has a spirit guide, he’s fucked.

“I’m sorry. I thought I counted you. I even went down the line counting heads, and I could have sworn I marked you off on my list. Or maybe someone said you were coming, so I counted that. There was a lot of revelry when everyone left, and I was stressed about the incoming buses.”

“Remus,” I bark. “This isn’tHome Alone, and I am not Macaulay Culkin.” My voice keeps rising, and the vein on my neck pulses. “So why am I still here after my whole family left?”

He motions to Evie, looking confused. “I thought you guys were sisters.”

“Ahhh,” Evie yells, throwing her arms in the air. “I have a date tonight with a guy I have been pining over for three months. And now I can’t even call him to tell him I’m stuck at camp. He’s never going to speak to me again, and I’m blaming you.”

She’s pointing at Remus, whose forehead wrinkles with fear.