Page 67 of The Facade

“Drive safe,” he said.

And then hunching over so I wouldn’t distract everyone sitting around me, I tiptoed around the back of the couch and toward the back of the room.

I shut the large double doors firmly behind me so I wouldn’t be able to hear the movie. But when I turned around and looked down the hall that was dark and empty aside from the various paintings of the previous headmasters and headmistresses of our school, I knew I didn’t want to be there, either.

Which was a problem, because I also didn’t want to go outside and walk to my car in the dark parking lot by myself.

Why had I said yes to this?

Why hadn’t I done what I usually did and gone home to sleep instead of staying up late to watch a scary movie?

Oh yeah, because Mack had said he’d keep me safe, and I was apparently really weak when it came to promises of sitting next to him.

Footsteps sounded down the tile floor, and I could have jumped out of my skin as I imagined the guy in a hoodie with a bloody knife coming toward me. But then I saw it was just Addison Michaels and her stepbrother Evan coming around the corner and told myself to stop freaking out.

Just turn on your phone’s flashlight and run out of here. It’ll be fine. There’s no such thing as ghosts.

“Not enjoying the movie?” Addison asked, a knowing look on her face when she and Evan reached me.

“Nope,” I said with a heavy sigh. “Definitely not a fan.”

“I hate scary movies, too,” Addison said. “That’s why I’m just going to bed.”

“I’m hoping to do that, too.”If I ever get up the nerve to walk outside to my car, that is.

Evan opened the door for Addison and followed her into the common room. Once I was alone again, I drew in a few deep breaths, hoping that if I could just get my breathing under control I would be fine enough to get to my car. Because once I was in the safety of my Mercedes, I could lock the doors and drive home.

I leaned against the wall, letting my head fall back as I closed my eyes. I tried to visualize that it was daytime—that the sun was shining, birds were singing, and it wasn’t officially the first half-hour of Halloween when the doors to the spirit world were opened and the spirits of the dead had just started roaming the earth.

I don’t believe in ghosts.I pinched my eyes shut tighter beneath my glittery mask.The history of Samhain that I read about in Mrs. Aarden’s witchy book is not real.

But even as I spoke the words in my mind, I knew that part of me did believe in spiritual beings—the part that still remembered my Grandma Hastings’ stories of seeing her dead grandmother’s ghost visiting her bedroom one Halloween night.

I shook my head.

“Sunshine and rainbows. Sunshine and rainbows. Sunshine and rainbows.”

I opened my eyes after chanting my mantra several times and saw that I wasn’t alone in the hall like I’d thought.

Nope, just a few feet away was a tall guy wearing a suit and cravat.

At first I thought it might be the ghost of a headmaster from centuries past, until I saw the ghost’s face.

“Mack!” I gasped, putting a hand to my chest. “What are you doing sneaking up on me like that? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

“Sorry.” He stepped closer so I could see him better. “I wasn’t trying to scare you.”

“Well, you failed at that,” I said, wondering if my heart was ever going to return to normal speed after ratcheting up higher and higher the past several minutes.

“I noticed you hadn’t come back and wanted to make sure you were okay.” He set his hands on my shoulders. “Why were you mumbling something about sunshine and rainbows?” he asked. “What was that about?”

“I was just trying to distract myself,” I said, looking up into his eyes and daring him to make fun of me.

“And did it work?”

I sighed. “Not really.”

“Didn’t seem like it.” His eyes crinkled at the corners.

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