Page 10 of The Executioners Three

“What do you think of the plan, Gellar?” Laina had moved to Freddie’s left side while Divya had moved to her right.

Laina wasn’t dressed too differently from earlier, except for the addition of a black leather jacket.

Divya, meanwhile, had traded in her jeans for black cords and a black hoodie that Freddie didn’t recognize.

She hoped that meant Divya had borrowed it from Laina.

“Yeah, got a better idea, Prank Wizard?” This was from Luis, who was hauling out the next two jugs of syrup.

Prank Wizard . Freddie bit back a smile. See? she wanted to demand of Divya. I am the Answer Finder, and now the Prank Wizard too.

“We need to take Fortin Prep down, ” Luis went on. “They hit us hard this morning, so we can’t be gentle here.”

Freddie’s smile fell away—because the disappointing reality was that this did feel pretty low caliber. After all, it was just sugar on the bleachers. A hose could wash it away in five minutes.

But she also had no better ideas. Not when the nearness of Kyle was making her brain melt, so she simply shrugged and said, “Let’s do this!”

“Excellent.” Luis clapped his hands. “Boys can each carry two jugs, and girls can snag one—”

“I can snag two, thanks.” Laina bowed into the trunk and plucked up two. She made it look so easy that Freddie was shocked when she grabbed one and, oh my god, it was so heavy. She had never considered herself weak, but she suddenly felt Deeply Inadequate Indeed.

“One jug leftover, I guess.” Kyle slammed the trunk shut, locked the doors with a key fob (how fancy!), and then turned to face everyone. “Ready?”

“Not without these.” Cat held out six black masks. They were just cheap paper and really did nothing to hide anyone’s faces. Not to mention, once everyone had slipped them on, they looked vaguely like the Hamburglar (which made Freddie’s stomach rumble).

Still, she couldn’t help but grin at Divya, who grinned right back. And when Divya slipped her fingers around Freddie’s forearm and squeezed, Freddie recognized it for the physical-touch version of Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Freddie agreed.

“Everyone grab your syrup,” Laina ordered, and without waiting to see if people complied (of course they did—no one would dare disobey President Steward), she set off into the trees.

Where it was slow going. With the moon hidden behind clouds, there was almost no light to see by. And sure, Freddie understood why, from a stealth perspective, they hadn’t brought flashlights with them, but she wished they had at least brought one .

The night’s breeze clattered through dead leaves. Cold and damp, as if winter were already on the way.

And for some reason, it made Freddie’s gut churn—not in a hamburger-hunger way, either. This was the clenching she’d felt on Wednesday night when she’d heard those screams. It was the boiling she’d felt yesterday in the woods before they’d discovered the body.

The others seemed to sense it too. No one spoke, but everyone kept checking over their shoulders. Again and again, sideways glances into the evergreens and maples. Except the only thing Freddie saw was darkness; the only thing she heard was their footsteps stamping over autumn leaves.

Until a screech ripped through the night.

Freddie jumped; Divya dropped her jug.

Then a thousand screeches laid claim to the forest, and the darkness around them moved . A great upward explosion of shadows.

Birds, Freddie realized. Countless birds erupting from the branches and taking to the sky—and all of them cawing in a grating, mind-searing pitch.

Crows, she amended, because it was definitely crows this time.

And so much more intense than that morning had been, since she and the others were right in the middle of it.

Freddie had never seen anything like it, never heard anything like it. It took several minutes for all the squawking to fade…

Which in turn revealed a new sound: moaning.

Laina clutched at her face. “My head.”

Divya reached her first. “What’s wrong? What’s wrong, Laina?”

Then Cat was to her other side. “She gets really bad migraines. Laina, are you okay?”

But still, Laina only moaned: “My head, my head.”

“What do we do?” Kyle’s eyes bulged white in the darkness. “Should I call nine-one-one?”

“I will,” Luis said. He yanked out his Nokia. But before he could dial any numbers, Laina’s moans became a single long scream.

It shattered the forest, worse somehow than the crows. Like a single, targeted scalpel compared to a hundred loosed arrows.

Then Laina fell silent, and for several long seconds, no one spoke. Freddie’s heart bumped against her ribs. Her gut positively roiled, a volcano about to shoot free. Until at last, Cat whispered, “Luis, call nine-one-one, please.”

“No, no.” This was Laina. Her voice was a hoarse whisper. “No, I’m fine, guys. I’m fine now.”

A great exhale left everyone’s lungs. Luis shoved close to her face. “What’s my name?”

Laina recoiled. “Luis Mendez.”

“And how many fingers am I holding up?”

“Three, you ass. I’m fine .” Laina shook off Cat’s and Divya’s arms. “Stop looking at me like that. You know I get migraines.”

“Um, not ones that make you scream,” Cat pointed out. “I thought you were having a stroke or something.”

“It was just… the crows.” Laina rubbed at her temples, frowning. “Sometimes… noises trigger me.” For half a moment, her glower was replaced by confusion. The tiniest of frowns that passed in an instant—but Freddie noticed it.

And Freddie noted it.

“Let’s keep going, please,” Laina insisted. “I feel fine now, okay?”

No one argued, and Laina gave them no chance to anyway. She stomped off at top speed, forcing the Prank Squad to scamper after. Except Freddie, who hung back. And while part of her knew she was being silly…

Another, distinctly abdominal part of her said: Hey, wait just one second, please. So she did, and with squinting eyes, she searched the trees. Maples. Oaks. Ash and pine.

She wasn’t a superstitious person as a rule. Definitely a scientific Dana Scully versus an insta-believer like Fox Mulder. But even Freddie had to admit that crows and a screaming Laina had been freaky. Super freaky.

The question was, though, what logical explanation could have caused the crows to take off? Maybe a sudden barometric pressure change—that could cause migraines too, Freddie thought. Or… didn’t birds sense magnetic changes in the earth? Maybe that had gotten them going.

Freddie gnawed her bottom lip, scanning the trees. There was something fuzzy and pale about two hundred paces away. Human in shape, but so blended into the forest, she couldn’t get her gaze to actually land on it. Her eyes kept pinging away. She thought again of magnets.

Then the smell hit her, like a rotting carcass. Like screams on a foggy night—

A hand landed on her arm.

Freddie flinched so hard, she released her jug. Glump!

“You okay?” Divya whispered.

“Yeah,” Freddie lied while her heart inexplicably thundered No! “I just thought… I saw something, but it’s probably just trees.” And I’ve probably been watching too much X-Files .

“What does your gut say?”

“Nothing,” Freddie lied again. After hefting up her syrup, she kicked into a not-so-quiet jog along with Divya.

Freddie did throw a final look back, though, toward whatever it was she thought she might’ve seen. But there was nothing to look at now. Just darkness and leaves and a whispering wind unseen.