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

was drinking, but it must’ve been good because she looked relaxed and peaceful and like she didn’t want to be anywhere but here. Weirdly, I began to relax, too.

Maybe it was the warmth of the fireplace, or the negligible traces of cheap booze coursing through me. But Saundra’s head on my shoulder actually felt kind of natural. Her being this close—it was the tangible feeling of real, pure friendship.

“As the resident gossip maven of Manchester Prep, I’m better at dispensing advice on the contents of someone’s character than some random person who wants to keep you and Freddie apart. So here’s my two cents, for free: Is Freddie an outsider at our school? Def. Is he a criminal who makes quick cash by cheating for the highest bidder? Absolutely. Does that make him a bad person, though? Not necessarily. From what I know about the guy, he seems nice. And I know you like nice guys.”

“You do?”

“Yes,” she said. “You’re smart and pretty and you’ve got a good head on your shoulders. You’d never go for the asshole.”

I smiled, partly because of what she’d said about Freddie, but mostly because I’d finally told her something real about my life, and it felt good.

“Speaking of nice guys…” Saundra looked across the room and I followed her gaze. I thought she was searching for Freddie, but she was zeroing in on a guy named Aldie Something. He was talking a mile a minute with two other guys, also talking a mile a minute.

“He’s cute, right?” Saundra sighed and laid her head on my shoulder. Tentatively, I laid my cheek against her head, her hair soft against my skin. She didn’t make a move to shake me off and so there we stayed; two buzzed, lazy, warm girls, giggling over a boy across the room. It felt nice having a best friend.

So, was Aldie cute? He was tall. And big. And he seemed to like talking, so that was a plus as far as Saundra was concerned. Not my type, but, “Yeah, he’s cute.”

“I should hook up with him tonight.”

“That’s bold.”

“We’re unsupervised in the woods. It’s a bold kind of night.”

My phone buzzed in my back pocket and I fished it out.

A group text from Bram to all of us in the Mary Shelley Club.

My turn, it said simply, followed by instructions on where to meet. I felt a chill run down my spine and couldn’t tell if it was from fear or excitement.

Two guys thundered down the main stairway suddenly, and I snapped my head up from my phone. They jumped over coffee tables and bumped into unsuspecting people, hooting and hollering. And they wore white masks.

LED facial masks that they’d probably stolen from some girls’ suitcases, but it was obvious what they were doing.

My heartbeat quickened as I watched them blaze through the cabin and everyone exploded in a mixed chorus of laughter and complaint.

“It’s the Masked Man!” someone shouted gleefully. “The Masked Men!”

Saundra seemed to enjoy it, sitting up with an open-mouthed grin on her face. I turned toward Freddie. Our eyes locked and he looked as unamused as I felt.

 37

I DIDN’T WAIT for Freddie, even though it would’ve been easier to find this place together. But I didn’t want the awkwardness between us inside the cabin to follow us out here. Thankfully there was the occasional streetlight along the road or I might have accidentally trekked into the woods by now.

The snow crunched under my boots. I didn’t like this. Normally I’d be pumped on the eve of a Fear Test, but something about this felt all wrong. I didn’t even know what Bram had planned yet, but the fact that he was just springing this on us, in an unfamiliar setting, when the club was this fractured, set off all my alarm bells.

Now, with the darkness pressing all around me, I knew that I wasn’t excited—I was nervous. And as I walked, every shape around me seemed to take on the form of a masked man.

But a noise stopped me. It came from behind. I turned around but saw no one. I started walking again. There was only the sound the snow made as it flattened beneath the soles of my now completely drenched Docs, but I couldn’t shake the sense of someone else being behind me. It stuck to me like a shadow.

I spun around, shining my phone’s flashlight through the space around me. The beam shone on a pair of black boots. I gasped, jumping back, and raised the light, my fingers trembling. Felicity’s face stared back at me. She put her arm up to block the glare like a vampire caught in daylight.

“What the—!” I took a moment to catch the bit of breath she’d managed to snatch out of me. “Why were you following me!”

“Because I was trying to scare you,” Felicity said as though it was obvious. “Scaring people is what we do.”

Ugh, Felicity. As much as I didn’t want to talk to her right now, she seemed confident of the direction we were going, so I walked in step.

“Ready for tonight?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No prep, no instructions, no assigned roles. What happened to the usual protocol?”

“Bram wants to flex,” Felicity said. “Or he’s lazy. Whatever, I’m just hungry for another test.”

Yep, definite vampire vibes. “You sound excited.”

“Fear Tests are the whole point of the club. Of course I’m excited. Why aren’t you?”

I let her words linger and the silence stretched its long fingers and pointed them at me. Felicity watched me out of the sides of her eyes, her face turning into a giant snarky snarl. “Maybe you’re not such a fan of Fear Tests after failing yours?”

“I didn’t fail mine. Lux screamed.”

“Right, because of the Masked Man. Which you didn’t plan. Or did you?”

“I just want to get this over with.”

“It almost is.” It wasn’t Felicity who said it but Bram, his voice rumbling toward us from up ahead. The rest of the