“Who’s there?” I yelled. “Who’s there?”
I knew I was being hunted, and the realization terrified me.
Between the trees, I saw movement, and I narrowed my gaze to adjust my eyes to see better in the dark. Three female figures were gliding toward me, the outlines of their bodies suggesting they were wearing dresses—prom dresses it seemed—and my fear quickly turned to confusion. Were they a group of teenagers coming home from a dance? Were they out here secretly drinking in a place they thought their parents wouldn’t catch them? It was dangerous. Stupid even. I wanted to shake them and yell for them to go home.
That smell of funeral flowers became even more potent the closer they got.
The light from the moon shined down on them, and that’s when I saw it—the fabric of the dresses were torn in several places and stained by something red, and none of these girls were wearing coats despite the temperature being in the twenties. There was also something strangely familiar about the dress belonging to the girl in the center. It was purple and puffed out at the bottom. Why did I know it?
Then I saw their faces.
My heart stopped.
No, this couldn’t be real. I had to be hallucinating.
“What’s wrong?” she asked and stepped forward under the light of the moon. Her skin was bone white, her eyes blackened, and a trickle of blood trailed down the corner of her mouth and to her chin. “You don’t recognize your best friends?”
I swallowed hard. “Molly…?” I was saying it, but I didn’t believe it. Behind her were Veronica and Tiffany, looking just as pale and lifeless, all still wearing their dresses from the night of the date auction. The night they died.
Yet here they stood, blood soiling their white flesh.
Molly smiled, and all I saw were sharp teeth. The aroma of fresh blood was everywhere, and I wanted to throw up. “So you do remember me,” she said. “I’m touched.”
My eyes danced back and forth between the three of them, my heart beating hard and fast the entire time. “How is this happening?” I whispered.
Molly pouted insincerely. “I thought you’d be happier to see us, Dana. After all, it’s been, what, a couple of years since we’ve spoken? Shoot, I can’t keep track anymore. Why don’t you come and give us a hug?” She moved toward me and I lunged back, balling my fists up at my chest. Molly cackled. “Harsh, don’t you think? What do you think we’re gonna do, eat you?”
She said it like it was ridiculous, but that she even brought it up was enough for me to be on guard.
I looked past her and called out, “Tiff?” Tiffany had always been the person I was closest to in the group, even if we weren’t exactly best friends. She was mostly kind natured and playful, which made getting along with her much easier than Veronica or Molly. But now she was leaned against the tree, her own dress shredded like ribbons, a dizzy almost catatonic expression on her face as she stared up at the sky.
“Freddy says I have to be a good girl,” she said softly, not speaking to anyone in particular. “He doesn’t like what I did. He’s gonna punish me. He says I’m a bad girl now.”
Freddy was Tiffany’s boyfriend, who had also been killed that night. Or at least I thought he had been.
“Freddy ain’t here,” Veronica hissed.
“Hush,” Molly said as she raised a hand to silence her. “Let her talk to her imaginary friend. It’s easier than us having to listen to her ramblings.”
I couldn’t believe this was actually happening. They were all here talking like this was normal, like they all hadn’t been attacked by Owen and pronounced dead two summers ago. I should have been prepared for anything after being turned into a werewolf, but yet I wasn’t.
I licked my bottom lip. “Are you guys…ghosts?”
All three of them laughed like hyenas.
“If that’s what you want to call us,” Veronica said.
“She was always a little slow,” Molly said to her while laughing at me. They used to take turns making fun of me, and it looked like nothing had changed.
“How are you guys here?” I had so many questions but didn’t know where to begin.
“That’s not important. You’ll learn in time,” Molly said and then sashayed toward me. Her steps were weightless and quiet, almost like she was floating. “It’s my turn to ask a couple of questions.”
I couldn’t move. I was too scared to move.
“Are you here alone?” she asked.
“Huh?”
She wiped my hair away from my ear and her touch was pure ice. Molly leaned in closer and repeated herself. “Are you here alone?”
I nodded.
Molly stared at me with no expression, her eyes like two black holes. “Do I need to say that again?” she asked.
“It’s just me,” I replied with a shrug.
Molly’s face never moved an inch. She didn’t believe me. “I thought we were friends,” she began. “Friends don’t lie to each other, and they certainly don’t side with the wrong people.”
“I don’t know what you’re—”
“Where is she?” she barked into my face. There was no heat from her breath.
“I—”
“Don’t play dumb. Where’s your little group? I know you’re not here alone.”
She was so close to me that every time she opened her mouth, I saw two little sharp fangs smacking against the bottom row of her teeth. I closed my eyes so I didn’t have to look at them and said, “Molly, I swear I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
She went silent and a smirk crept in from the corner of her mouth. The blood on her lips had dried and was now flaking off, and
