Final Girl by Michelle Schusterman (beach books .TXT) 📕

bridge itself; there must have been tunnels cut through both, but they weren’t visible from this angle. The overall impression was that a tiny bridge had been sandwiched between two giant cliffs.

I imagined the Thing standing on it. Clutching that railing, long hair fluttering in the breeze, staring right back at me. I imagined it trapped there. Forever. Watching me as I got in the van and drove away and never came back.

“Kat.” Oscar squeezed my arm, his voice high and weird. I gasped, pressing the shutter button. Click.

“What, did you see it?” I lowered my camera quickly. Then I realized Oscar was looking at me, not the bridge.

“No, you weren’t responding. I said your name like five times. The others are walking; we have to follow them.”

He was standing right next to me, but his voice sounded weirdly far away. I felt strange . . . like I’d just done a roller-coaster loop, upside down and around and back to where I started in a matter of seconds, but with my insides all swoopy and scrambled.

Oscar reached out and turned off the Elapse. Then he tugged me forward. “Hurry, before they get too far ahead.”

We walked quickly, and when we rounded the curve, I saw the cast huddled up not far from the section of the bridge I’d just been photographing. They were deep in discussion, staring into the tunnel I now saw cut through the first rock.

“Better, right?” Oscar said, and it took me a second to realize he meant the lost feeling.

“Oh. Yeah.”

The anxiety that came with using the Elapse was gone. But I still felt weird.

Oscar and I continued up the bridge, which inclined quite a bit, and stopped quietly a few feet from the rest of the crew. This was only a few feet higher, but the distance was startling; thick fog swirled around us, and white clouds hung so low I thought maybe I could graze them with my fingers if I got a running jump. Dad walked through the tunnel and out onto that small, high segment of bridge between the two rocks, Mi Jin right behind him. He was calling out, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.

“I’d love to know how they got ahead of us,” Roland said mildly. Next to him, Lidia gripped her walkie-talkie, her mouth a thin line.

Jess swung her camera from the tunnel to Sam. “You didn’t see them pass us when we stopped a few minutes ago?”

Roland snorted. “They aren’t ghosts, so Sam didn’t notice them.”

“Who are you talking about?” Oscar asked, and the adults whirled around. I flinched at the sight of Jess’s camera aimed right at me.

And Jess screamed.

CHAPTER SEVEN KATYA THE NOT-SO-FRIENDLY GHOST

Monica Mills

Less than a month to the shower! All this planning is so exhausting, I’ll probably sleep through the wedding. ;)

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Kat Sinclair at 11:24am

Your real daughter will be home soon. And I’ll never leave you again.

I’D heard Jess yell before. Shout. Gasp. Shriek with laughter, even.

But I’d never, never heard her scream like this.

Oscar and I gaped at her, too stunned to speak. Roland snatched her camera before it hit the ground. Jess tore her eyes off me as she grabbed it, and held it back up. “How’d you do that?” she demanded. Sam watched me closely, his mouth slightly open, and Lidia’s eyes were huge behind her glasses. Even Roland seemed a little rattled. Dad and Mi Jin came running out of the tunnel, coming to an abrupt halt when they saw me.

Six pairs of eyes and two cameras, all pointed at me. My skin went clammy and cold.

“What?” Oscar said, looking from them to me and back again. “Why’s everyone freaking out?”

“Have you two been behind us this whole time?” Roland asked.

“Yeah, obviously,” Oscar replied. “Like you told us.”

“We saw Kat,” Jess said firmly. “Over there, through that tunnel.”

“We thought we saw a girl,” Roland corrected her. “And you and Jack thought it was Kat.”

“I’m telling you, I zoomed in on her face,” Jess argued. “It was Kat.”

I struggled to keep my shock from showing. Had they actually seen the Thing?

Dad walked over to me, eyes filled with concern. “You’re okay?”

“Of course,” I said, though my heart was racing again. “Oscar and I stopped back there for a minute and I took some pictures. Then we followed you guys over here. That’s it, I swear.”

Dad put his arm around my shoulders and turned back to Jess and her camera. “I thought I saw her, too, Jess,” he said. “But there’s no one on that part of the bridge, and Kat’s obviously right here, so . . .”

“I zoomed in,” Jess repeated, her eyes flashing. All traces of fear were gone; now she looked excited. “It was her face. Look, I’ll show you the playback—”

“No, keep it rolling,” Roland interrupted. “I think you’re all missing the point. We all saw something, right? Something potentially paranormal? And we’re supposed to be paranormal investigators, so hey. Let’s maybe investigate.”

Snickering, Mi Jin followed him back to the tunnel. Jess and Lidia exchanged bemused looks, then headed after them. So did Sam, after giving me one last curious glance. Dad squeezed my shoulders.

“You believe me, right?” I asked him.

“Yes,” he said immediately, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “I really thought I saw you out there, though. It was the weirdest thing. I can’t wait to see what Jess got on camera.”

Me either, Oscar mouthed at me, and I managed a small smile. But my heart was pounding again, even harder now than it had been when the cameras were on me. Proof. Proof. Proof.

The three of us started walking toward the tunnel, and when I was sure Dad wasn’t watching, I flipped on the Elapse. I just needed to see that picture I took of the bridge. Had I really projected the Thing? And not just into my camera, but in real life?

But instead of a picture, the