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

hissed, looking around to make sure that no one was listening.

“What, are you scared that someone’s going to think you did it?” Saundra asked, her words colored with a sprinkling of laughter. My cheeks colored red.

“Oh my gosh, I’m kidding! What if there is a prankster after all? What if the mask is, like, his calling card? Ooh, what if he’s hot?”

I stopped walking and now it was my turn to be incredulous. “Lux was hurt, Saundra.”

Saying it out loud—hearing it all over school—made it more real. It made my involvement in it more real. My pulse was already at a quick pace and getting quicker; my cheeks tingled, my teeth were on the cusp of chattering. My whole body was acting like it couldn’t hold up the anvil of guilt bearing down on me.

“Yeah,” Saundra said. “Hence, I’m a fan.”

My phone buzzed in my hand—a text from Felicity.

Emergency meeting on roof. Now.

“I gotta go,” I told Saundra.

The roof was a recreation space surrounded on all sides by chain-link fence, but no one ever came up there. Thayer, Felicity, and Freddie were all huddled together.

“What’s going on?” I asked when I got there. Nobody answered. They were looking behind me at Bram, who’d just shown up.

“Bram, I’m sorry,” I started. But Bram stalked right past me, to Freddie. He rushed him, grabbing two fistfuls of his blazer and pushing him against the bulkhead door.

“It was you,” he said. “You did this.”

Felicity watched with unabashed interest while Thayer stumbled back, out of the way. But I tried to put myself between the two boys.

“What is wrong with you?” I pushed my palms on both their chests and when Bram finally noticed me, he let go of Freddie.

“What the hell was that?” he asked me. “Were you in on it? Was a masked man part of your Fear Test?”

“No,” I said. “I don’t know how Lux got hurt. I’m sorry, Bram, the test was only supposed to rattle her.”

“How convenient for you,” Bram said. “The person you hate the most almost got killed.”

His words were like a hot knife gliding slowly through my middle. I already felt guilty, but hearing it out loud from him compounded the guilt. It was heavy, crushing me. And I couldn’t even defend myself.

“Hey, Rachel told us all her plan,” Thayer said. “We all stuck to it.”

“I want to know what you’re accusing me of,” Freddie said to Bram over my head. He was a lot calmer than I’d thought he’d be, given that Bram looked like he wanted to murder Freddie.

Bram bit down, his jaw tightening. He breathed in, as if trying to regain some chill, but it came off more like a bull huffing through flared nostrils, ready to charge. “Lux said there was someone in a mask on the second floor. And since you, Freddie, were the only one who was supposed to be up there, it was obviously you.”

Freddie shook his head. “I left through the backyard. Like Rachel told me to.”

“Stop lying!” Bram roared. He was nearly on Freddie again, raising a pointed finger at his face like a loaded gun. “You put on a mask. You chased after Lux.”

“Bram, why would Freddie do that?” I asked.

“He was at the rendezvous with us,” Thayer said. “We were waiting for you.”

“Freddie only left the house after Lux fell down the stairs,” Bram said. But it sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

“Did you see the person in the mask?” Felicity asked Bram. “When you showed up and found Lux, did you see anyone?”

Bram took a breath. He looked like someone trying desperately to calm himself down, to not say something out of line that he would regret. He shook his head. Then he turned to me with the same intense focus he always had. The force of his gaze made me take a step back, sticking close to Thayer. But Bram’s eyes followed me. It was like we were the only ones up on the roof, and the rest of the members of the club fell away. “You didn’t plan for this to happen? You didn’t tell Freddie to chase Lux?”

“No,” I said. It was a small, simple word, but I hoped it was big enough to convey that I meant it. It looked like Bram believed me because he turned to Freddie next.

“You’re too obsessed with this game,” Bram spat. “You took it too far this time.”

“No, I didn’t,” Freddie said. His voice was just as even as Bram’s, but with much less venom. He didn’t seem intimidated at all. “I get that you’re mad. Your girlfriend got hurt and the Fear Test didn’t go as planned and Lux should have run out of the house.”

“What?” Bram said.

“You have to admit she fell into the trope where the babysitter stays inside. Classic mista—”

Bram lunged for him again, and this time I wasn’t quick enough to get between them. Bram’s fist crashed against Freddie’s lip, splitting the bottom one. Behind me I could hear Felicity squeak with surprise and Thayer shout something unintelligible.

“This isn’t a fucking game,” Bram said.

Freddie touched his lip and looked at the red stain left on his fingers like it was nothing more than war paint. “Yes, it is.”

A moment passed where Bram seemed to collect himself, breathing in, setting his features back to their normal passive calm. But everything felt like it had changed, like we’d crossed a line as a club that we wouldn’t be able to get back behind. Bram walked through the stairwell door without another word.

Thayer and Felicity looked at Freddie, maybe hoping for some clarity about what to do next. Freddie always seemed to know what to do next. But all he did was shrug. “He’ll cool off,” he said. “Just give him a while.”

And with that, Thayer and Felicity left the roof, too. But I hung back.

“Did you wear a mask last night?” I asked quietly.

When it’d been Bram asking the questions, Freddie stood his ground, cool under the threat