Horror Game? Looks Cute novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Pantry Light

Dinner in Cottage Four was a play with a very good cast.

Dex carved a roast the village had given us and told the nurse stories about how brave everyone was.

Mari laughed at the right places.

I sat across from Grover and said "pass the salt" in a voice I did not recognize.

The nurse ate three bites and watched me.

When Dex went to the window to check the sky, I leaned across the table.

"Seven sleeps," I whispered. "Count them. Don't be outside on the last one."

"What happens?"

"Ask Grover after he's had a drink."

Grover, who had been staring at his plate, lifted two fingers off the table.

It was a salute.

The nurse nodded once and went back to his roast.

Dex turned from the window with a lantern in his hand.

"Juno, you've been so brave today. Why don't you get some rest?"

He put the lantern into my palm.

"The cot by the back wall is yours now."

The cot by the back wall.

The wall with the gap.

It was the only reason I could think of for him to give me that bed.

He wanted me gone, and he wanted it to look like my idea.

I said goodnight to everyone.

I waited until the lantern in the front room went low.

Then I got down on my stomach, put my hands against the corner post, and slid through the gap into the dead lilies.

Cold air.

A sky with a million stars.

I went down the lane in my socks.

At the corner of Maple Lane I stopped and looked back up the hill.

A small yellow light burned on the ridge above the bakery, just outside the bell tower.

Somebody holding a lantern.

Somebody watching.

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