Fear Games

4. The Remembrance Society

Mom nodded. "He contacted me the night before the first day of school. He told me that things were...starting again. He made a comment about a she that is coming for us. Coming for you."

"Are you sure it's him?" I asked, my heart racing a million miles an hour. "You can't be positive, can you?"

"No, I can't," Mom said. "But that's why I'm telling you this. I'm telling you so you can be careful. Someone broke into our house the other night and...I think it was him."

So many thoughts were running through my head that I couldn't keep track of them all. What were the chances that Cinder, Kael, and I started a Fear Games Remembrance Society right around the same time that Josh contacted my mother? Who was the she that Josh could have been talking about? Was it even Josh at all? I didn't know what to think. I just knew I had to tell Cinder and the others.

As if reading my mind, Mom's next words were, "Emerald, I need you to keep quiet about this, okay? At least until we get more information."

"You don't want me to tell Cinder or Colton?" I asked.

Mom shook her head. "Absolutely not. You can't tell anyone. If this gets out that the Fear Games could be starting again, we might draw more attention to ourselves than necessary. Right now nothing bad has happened. We just need to stay calm, get more details, and keep the peace until I actually look Josh in the face."

"What are you going to do then?" I asked. "What if it's not really Josh? What if someone is messing with us?"

"Then we'll catch them," Mom said. "But in the meantime, this stays between us. Got it?"

There was no way I could keep this news quiet. Absolutely not. But I forced a smile, grabbed my mom's hand, and said, "I understand. You got it." That was most definitely a lie.

KAEL

Emerald called an emergency meeting the following day after school, and just like the day before, all the same members arrived. Everyone was sitting around in a circle in the same seats as yesterday when Emerald appeared, coming over the hill to join us. She was the last one we were waiting on, which meant it was time for the meeting to start.

Rachel's daughter didn't sit. Instead, she stood with her arms crossed over her chest, her face serious and a little worried. She didn't tell us anything about what this meeting was supposed to be about. We originally agreed to meet once a week. This was already our second meeting and we were doing so in the same week as the first. Something had to be wrong.

"What's wrong?" I managed to ask, the first one to speak.

Everyone else was silent as Emerald said, "We have a bit of a problem. I'm not too sure how serious it is, but...I spoke with my mom last night and she told me some things."

"What things?" Cinder asked.

The awkward quiet that fell over the group could be felt in the air. Emerald finally said, "Josh Mitchell reached out to my mom. Or someone claiming to be him."

"Josh?" I asked. "As in the one who ended Fear Games?"

Emerald nodded. "Yep. He disappeared after Damien offered the Fear Games to him. He wrote a letter to my mom and yours stating that he chose to end the Games, then left it up to our parents to end it as well."

"And he's supposedly back?" Colton, Emerald's boyfriend, asked.

Emerald shrugged. "I guess so. But that's not all. There's a reason he reached out to my mom. He said that we're in danger and that she is coming for us."

"She?" Harlin, my best friend said. "Who's she?"

"Yeah," Freddy, my other best friend, said. "Who could he be talking about?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Emerald said. "Listen, if what my mother said is true, there's a possibility that the Fear Games could be starting again."

My blood instantly ran cold as I thought of the anonymous text I'd received. Ready for a new set of Fear Games? I'm in if you are. I still had the text on my phone. There was no way I could tell the the group about it. If I did, it would seem like I was keeping it from them intentionally. Sure, I thought about telling them yesterday when we started the group, but I figured it was a prank.

Now I wasn't so sure. Was I an idiot for not telling them about the text?

Probably.

"So what if they are?" Cinder asked. "Isn't it a little weird that they'd be starting around the time we create this club? I'd say that's a big coincidence."

"Definitely," Emerald said. "We've been talking about creating this club since last year. I have a feeling that means that someone knows that we finally did and will make us targets."

"So what are you saying?" Harlin asked as he crossed his arms like Emerald. "That we have to stop the club?"

"I'm not sure that's a good idea either," Emerald said. "I think it might be best if we continue meeting every week. Maybe even more frequently."

"But why?" German asked, finally speaking up. "Someone obviously doesn't want us having this group."

"All the more reason for us to stick together," Emerald said.

"But what if it makes us targets?" Harlin asked. "I mean, this new person—villain, killer, players, whatever they are—they want something, right? We obviously provoked them by doing this."

"All the more reason for us to stick together," Emerald said. "Trust me, if we go our separate ways now, that might make it easier for this person to come after us."

"But they're coming anyway," I said. "The Fear Games can't possibly happen again. It just can't." I didn't want to admit that I was scared, but when I looked down at my arms, I realized I was shaking.

"Mom is going to figure it out," Emerald said. "In the meantime, it's best that we stay close, keep having these meetings, and report anything weird that could be from this new villain."

Arya, my girlfriend, reached over and grabbed my hands as if she were trying to comfort me. I knew I needed to say something. I had to tell them about the text I'd received. Right when I opened my mouth, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I used my free hand to pull it out and almost gasped when I saw the message.

Say a word and your body will be the first they find in a ditch, the text read. Keep your mouth shut.

It was then that I realized I was totally screwed.