The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky (ebook reader for manga TXT) 📕

“Uh, yeah,” I said. “Yeah, okay.”

“This is still strictly probationary,” Felicity said. “Until such time as we deem it unprobationary.”

They rose to their feet. Apparently, the initiation was over and I had passed. I stood too, wiping the back of my jeans. Someone opened the door, and the room was flooded with moonlight. They filed out and I followed, weaving through clunky cars sitting on the weird railroad tracks I hadn’t been able to identify before. We were surrounded by boarded-up game booths and derelict amusement park rides, the peaks and valleys of a log flume rising up in the distance like a mountain. When I looked up over the entryway of the building we’d just left I saw the words SPOOK-A-RAMA.

All the emotions I’d been holding back—the fear, the tension, the desperation—came bursting out in a laugh. It was just a silly, stupid haunted house. Not so scary after all.

Freddie hung back and waited for me.

“I’ve never been to Coney Island before,” I said.

“Well, how’s this for a first impression?”

“How’d you get the keys to this place anyway?”

Freddie pointed his chin to the rest of the club up ahead. “You can get the keys to anything if you can pay.”

Made sense.

“What you talked about in there,” Freddie said. He pushed up his glasses. “I’m sorry that happened to you.”

There was so much he could’ve said, but I was so grateful he’d chosen that. He sounded like he really meant it.

“Welcome to the Mary Shelley Club,” he said.

 13

BY THE TIME I arrived at school the next morning, everything that had happened the night before felt like a dream.

Because A) it’d been incredibly weird. All of it—the hood, the abduction, Coney Island. It got even weirder the more I thought about it.

And B) no one in the Mary Shelley Club said a word to me. No more texts from Freddie with further instructions, not even a glance from Bram when I passed him in the hall. Though that might’ve been because he was with Lux, who would probably burn the school to the ground if I dared make eye contact with her.

But for once, I wasn’t worrying about Lux or that everyone else at Manchester thought I was a freak, because right now, there was space in my mind only for the Mary Shelley Club. I was still trying to figure out why they were all in the club. Was it just to create havoc? Or maybe this was simply the way bored rich kids had a good time. But that didn’t explain the game, something that required skill, strategy, and some kind of scoring system. It was shrouded in an element of horror, but it sounded kind of innocent. Kids play games.

Apparently, I was in the club, but I had no idea when the game would begin. I guess I shouldn’t have expected an orientation packet and a syllabus, but still, they were being kind of over the top with the secrecy thing. By the time my first morning class let out, I felt like I was going to burst out of my skin with impatience.

I spotted Felicity at her locker after second period and sped up. She was stashing her books like they were a body she was desperate to bury. A Stephen King paperback fell out. I bent down to pick it up for her.

“Doctor Sleep,” I said cheerfully. “Haven’t read this one yet.”

Felicity cast me a look very much in the family of the stink eye and snatched the book out of my hand. She slammed her locker door shut and skulked away without a word.

“It’s bad form to talk about the club in school,” Thayer said. I jumped. He was suddenly next to me, but just as quickly as he’d appeared, he was on his way again. I chased after him.

“I wasn’t,” I said quickly.

“It’s an unwritten rule. No fraternization in public. It avoids suspicion.”

“Got it.” I didn’t point out that talking and walking down the hall together might be misconstrued as fraternization to the objective observer. “Does Felicity hate me for some reason?”

“Of course not. Maybe. Probably. Felicity’s the devil,” Thayer said casually. “You look terrible, by the way.”

“Uh, thanks. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”

“Why not?”

Was he serious? “I was kidnapped by a band of psychotic assholes in a catering van.”

“Well, aren’t you kinky.”

“Look, I know we’re not supposed to be talking about it, but when do I hear more about the club?”

“Sorry, New Girl, can’t share anything yet, but soon,” he whispered. “My Fear Test’s in two days. Lots to do. Exciting stuff.”

“Fear Test?” The words sent a sudden thrill through me. But Thayer didn’t answer. Instead he walked into Ms. Liu’s class and took his seat, which left me to look for mine. Bram was in the back. After the weirdness with Felicity and Thayer, I wasn’t sure how to greet him, or even if I should. I decided to follow Bram’s lead of continuing to ignore each other’s existence.

Which was fine until Ms. Liu started going around the class asking who we’d chosen to write our term papers on.

“Patricia Highsm—” Bram started to answer.

I cut in. “Mary Shelley.”

Across the room, Thayer howled. Bram’s nostrils flared. And Ms. Liu told us we’d chosen wonderfully.

At lunch I decided to scour social media looking for more info on the Mary Shelley Club members. Felicity didn’t appear to have Insta. Bram’s was private, but he was all over Lux’s grid posing behind flattering filters, nuzzling her neck, and occasionally pulling silly faces. It wasn’t a side of him I’d ever seen.

Someone cleared their throat dramatically behind me.

“Saundra! Hi.” I quickly shoved my phone into my book bag.

She sat down next to me pointedly, tore into her slice of sourdough pointedly, and chewed. Pointedly. The point clearly being that she wasn’t talking to me. Which I fully deserved.

“I’m sorry about the way I acted yesterday,” I said. “I was a jerk. A really awful, big,