Page 139 of Girls Night
Maybe she was right. Schools are always trying something new to get kids involved, and perhaps this is the Greek Letter Organization’s way of attempting to recruit people who’d never considered the Greek life. Granted the invite was shady, but sororities do weird shit all the time during recruitment. Is this reallythatfar off?
“Feel better?” she chuckles beside me, checking her gloss in the visor’s mirror again.
“It’s not a shit ton of cars, but clearly there’s obviously something happening here, so yes—I feel better. I want a cig before we go in, though. That was a long ass drive.” Jules doesn’t care that I smoke, she just doesn’t let me smoke in her car, which I totally respect.
I’m trying to cut cigarettes out anyway, so it works out.
“Nope. No cigs now.” She slams the visor shut and opens her door. “Let’s go inside, see who’s here, grab a drink,and thenI’ll take your delinquent ass outside to smoke.”
“Fine.” I roll my eyes, “I could use a drink anyway.” Popping open the door, I step out onto the pavement as Jules comes around the back end to meet me and holds out her hand for mine. “Can you imagine if they’re anti-gay? They’re gonna regret inviting me,” I snicker, lacing our fingers together.
Jules seems completely unfazed, shrugging as we start up the walkway to the porch steps. “I doubt it. Somehow, I feel like deepest, darkest desires could be sexual exploration for some people.”
My eyes almost burst from their sockets. I hadn’t thought about that before. “What if we’re walking into a giant orgy?” I whisper-hiss, pulling her back before she touches the first step. “Would explain why the invite was so vague.”
When I tell you this girl throws her head back and cackles. She’s laughing so loudly and freely that it carries through the air, resounding off the exterior of the house. I’m about to ask why she finds that so funny when the front door flies open, revealing what appears to be a maid.
The older woman smiles at us and opens the door further for us to come in. Not a single word comes out of her mouth though, a fact I find rather strange. Regardless of her silence, Jules yanks me up the steps and hauls me past the woman, throwing in a “Thank you” over her shoulder for good measure.
My jaw drops at the interior of this place. It’s even more beautiful than the outside. The decor all but screams vintage wealth, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say it’s something straight out of a history book. As we shuffle from the foyer into another room—what I presume was once a parlor type thing—I note just how many people there are in here. Everyone’s dressed to the nines, and the moment I recognize faces from school, I relax all the more. Yes, there are people Idon’trecognize, but it’s not like I know every single person who attends UNO.
“I told you,” Jules whispers beside me, leading me toward the table with a guest book—which we both end up filling out—hors d’oeuvres and champagne flutes. “I’ve seen plenty of these faces at school.”
“Don’t rub it in, okay?” I whisper back, tipping my head at that one girl from my class; Kelsey.
Looks she finally roped her friend into coming, too.
After several minutes of chatting, eating, and drinking, it’s clear no one knows why we’re here. Everyone has their assumptions, but there isn’t a firm answer to be found. Makes me uneasy, but I stuff it down. So far, my own assumptions have proved to be wrong and I refuse to spend the entire night fretting over something bad that will likely never come to be. I want to be able to enjoy myself, to enjoy Jules and make the best of our evening.
But then the maid reappears, grappling much of the attention around the room, especially when she brings out a bell from her pocket and rings it. I’m guessing that means whatever this gathering is, it’s about to get started...
“Please take a seat,” she says quietly. She waits until most of us are situated before curtsying and taking her leave.
Jules and I plant our asses right next the champagne. I down what’s left of my flute, abandon the empty glass, and grab another, downing half of that one in a split-second.
“Slow down,” Jules chides. “You look like an alchy.”
I roll my eyes, about to counter her claim, when four large frames stalk into the room. All the air just about leaves my lungs, and apparently, I’m not the only one who feels this way, either. Several gasps pop off around me at the sight of their iron, intricately detailed masks. It’s clear they’re donning suits, but most of it remains covered by these long velvet cloaks.
What. The. Fuck. Is. Going. On?
“Thank you kindly for joining us,” one of them states. Given how proudly he stands, I’m willing to be he’s their leader. “I know you’ve all taken a leap by showing up here tonight without much information to go on, but I can promise you it’ll be well worth it. By the time you leave here, you’ll feel like a whole new person.”
Quiet murmurs rent the air as glances are exchanged, none of which our mine. I can’t even look at Jules, too focused on the masked men before me to tear my eyes away. The longer I stare at them, the colder the blood in my veins runs. Something isn’t right…
“What I mean by that, you’ll see soon enough. Firstly, I want to apologize to all of you,wewant to apologize to all of you,” he motions to his friends, or whatever the fuck they are, “You see, aside from your dates, every single one of you in this room has experienced some sort of past physical trauma. You also never received justice for the trauma you faced.”
Ice cold. My blood runs ice cold right as Jules gasps and reaches for my hand. The only trauma I’ve experienced is… No, it can’t be. There’s no way they know about…
“Tonight, however, justice will be served.Youwill deliver the justice you deserved, and as a result, free yourself from the demons of your past. You will be liberated, reborn.”
Somewhere on my right, I vaguely notice someone raise their hand, but I’m too focused on not puking everything I ate in the last ten minutes on my lap to pay it my full attention. “What does that even mean?” they ask.
“It means that revenge is a dish best served cold, and that’s exactly what you’ll be doing here tonight. Won’t take long, really. You’ll all have a limited amount of time to get the job done.” The dark chuckle that follows those words seals the deal.
In a matter of two minutes, the tension has arisen so drastically, it’s almost hard to breathe. At least five people fly out of their seats in an attempt to rush out the front door, but the maid reappears at the threshold with another three hulking men, stopping them dead in their tracks. Horrified gasps and whimpers meet my ears, and all I can think to myself is this has to be a nightmare, it just has to be.
There’s no way that this is real.
