RACHEL
I awoke in the middle of the night to my cellphone ringing on my bedside table. When I looked at the time, I saw that it was nearly three in the morning. Who would possibly be calling me this late?
Unless it was an emergency. I didn't recognize the number. Had something happened to Emerald?
I was quick to pick up the phone and answer. "Hello?" I said, trying my best to hide my concern.
"Rachel? Is this Rachel?" The voice belonged to what I guessed was a male, but I didn't want to assume. Something about the voice seemed familiar to me...
"This is she," I said. "May I ask who's calling?"
"Rachel, do you remember me? It's Josh," the guy on the other end said. "Josh Mitchell."
My mouth dropped open, and for a moment I was at a loss for words. Could this really be Josh? The Josh? The one who killed Damien, the final Fear Games killer, and left Eden and me with a note asking us whether we wanted to continue the Games? I'd always wondered what happened. If I was being honest, for the longest time I figured he was dead.
But here he was on the other end of my phone call. Once I finally found the words to say, I spoke. "Is it really you?"
"Yes, it's me," Josh said. He sounded as if he was in a rush. "Listen, I don't have much time. I've called to warn you."
"Warn me of what?" I asked. My stomach dropped to the pit of my stomach. What could be happening that could warrant a phone call after twenty years? Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.
"It's happening," Josh said. "She's coming for us."
"She?" I asked. "What do you mean? What's going on?"
"I can't say anything else," Josh said. "You and Eden need to prepare for the worst. You're not safe. Neither are your kids. I—" Before he could finish his sentence, I heard a gasp and what sounded like the phone dropping to the ground.
"Josh?" I said, jumping out of my bed. "Josh, are you there?"
No response.
I was just about to hang up when I heard a hissed voice say into the phone, "Buckle up, bitch." Then I was met with the dial tone and I dropped the phone to the floor.
There was no way. After all these years, I'd built a family, built a life for myself. There was no way that we could be in danger again. Could we? Who was that voice on the other end of the phone?
I reached down and grabbed my cell, then searched through my contacts for my best friend. I hit call and it rang four times before she picked up.
"Rachel?" Eden said. "Why are you calling me so late?"
"We have to meet tomorrow morning," I said. "Before you go to the school. Josh just called me. I think we might have a problem."
EDEN
When I woke up the next morning, I crawled out of bed and went straight to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. There was absolutely no way I could start my day off without it. Especially considering it was my first day teaching English at the new private school in town, Valley View. My daughter Cinder was starting her sophomore year, her second year at the school.
Originally I was teaching at Easton High School, the school that Rachel and I went to as kids, but I got a better job offer from Valley View and took it. Besides, Easton always sort of rubbed me the wrong way after everything that happened to us. The only reason I stayed in this dreadful town was because of my husband, Jacob. This morning when I awoke, I found that I was alone.
Figured.
After making my pot of coffee, taking a shower, and eating some toast, I texted Rachel telling her it was okay to come over. It was astonishing to me that she chose to stay in this town. It wasn't like she was tied to it anymore. Not after her divorce. My only guess was that she didn't want to pry Emerald away from her friends.
It only took about fifteen minutes for Rachel to arrive at my door. She didn't even knock; not that she needed to. She was my best friend. In fact, she was one of my only friends. We were like family.
I guess after our trauma with Fear Games, we grew pretty close. Did all people that go through trauma experience that? I didn't think so but couldn't be sure.
While standing at the counter, I turned to look at her and realized she was still in her pajamas—pink sweats and a white top to be exact. Rachel didn't have a job and spent her time as a stay-at-home-mom. Now that she was divorced, she really needed a job but couldn't seem to find one because, well, she never had one.
"Hey," Rachel said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You might want to be seated for this."
This couldn't be good. "What's so important that you couldn't tell me over the phone?" I asked as I took a seat at the round table I had in the middle of the kitchen. "It's the first day of school. Valley View will be pissed if I'm late."
"You're not going to be late," I said. "This will be quick. But you might have more to worry about than you and your kids' first day at private school after you hear what I have to say."
"Okay, spill it," I said. "Are you going to sit too?"
"I think I'd rather stand," Rachel said as she started to pace and ran her fingers through her messy blonde hair. She sighed. "I got a phone call from Josh last night."
I nearly choked on the sip of my coffee I had going down my throat. I looked up at her, surprised, and said, "What do you mean you got a call from Josh? As in Josh Mitchell?"
"I think so," Rachel said. "At least that's who he said he was. His voice...it...is sounded familiar. Like I'd heard it before. I'm sure it was him."
"Well, this is huge," I said, jumping out of the chair. "That means he's okay! After twenty years, we can stop worrying. Does he want to come home?"
"I...I don't think it's that simple," Rachel said softly.
"And why not?" I asked, not understanding. "He's alive! He can come home. He can be our friend."
"But remember, he killed Damien, which set off the bomb at St. Mary's," Rachel said. "The police have stopped looking for him, but that doesn't mean he'd be entirely in the clear even if he returned."
"We can help him with that," I said. This was such big news and I was so happy. My childhood best friend was alive. I wanted to be able to support him in whatever way I could.
"There's something else," Rachel said. "Something I'm not sure you're going to like."
"And what's that?" I asked.
Rachel sighed and pulled out a chair, taking a seat at the table. "He said something was coming for us. He didn't say who."
My heart skipped a beat, and for a second I thought she was kidding. When I realized she wasn't, I sat back at the table next to her. "What do you mean? What exactly did he say?"
"He said he called to warn me," Rachel said as she put her head between her hands. "That she was coming for us."
"She?" I said. "Who's she?"
"I have no idea," I said. "I mean, everyone that wanted to hurt is dead, right?"
Supposedly. First there was Ryan, who was Rachel's original Fear Games killer, avenging the death of his brother Noah. Then there was Daisy, who'd apparently worked with Ryan before Ryan took the Game for himself. Then there was Brandon, the homophone who worked with Daisy to torment Josh. Finally, there was Layla and Damien, both of whom were also dead.
"You don't think..." I started.
"I don't know," Rachel said, looking me right in my eyes. She looked terrified. "I mean, we finished the Games. There's no way this could happen again."
"Did he say anything else?" I asked.
Rachel was silent for a moment. Finally, she said, "He told me our kids aren't safe. Then before he could say anything else, I heard the phone drop and a different voice picked up the phone. It sounded like it was disguised."
"What did they say?" I asked.
"They said to buckle up," Rachel said. "You don't really think our kids could be in danger, do you?"
There was so much to take in. Just yesterday I was living a normal life—or as normal of a life I could while being in the middle of a divorce. I'd spent the last twenty years putting away everything that happened to Rachel, Josh, and me in a locked box and threw away the key. Now all of a sudden someone was calling to say they were Josh and that our kids weren't safe? As much as I wanted to believe it was Josh, I was starting to have my doubts.
I looked at the time on my phone and said, "Listen, I have to get going."
"So soon?" Rachel said. "But we haven't even really talked about this!"
"What is there to talk about? It's probably just some prank," I said as I stood up and grabbed my purse off the counter. "There's no way it was Josh. It was just someone trying to scare you."
"But I really think—"
"What's going on down here?"
The voice came from Cinder, who was standing in the doorway of the kitchen with her brother Kael and their little sister Echo. Cinder was a relatively tall girl who stood five feet and ten inches, with dark hair that was buzzed. She loved the color black and it reminded me so much of when I was a teenager, before Fear Games fucked me up. Kael, who was starting as a freshman today, was a few inches shorter than Cinder, probably because he hadn't hit a growth spurt yet. He had dark hair as well and gorgeous blue eyes like his two sisters. Echo was my only child left in middle school and she had long, gorgeous brown hair that fell to her back. Together, they all looked so much alike, but their personalities differed greatly.
"I was just talking to your aunt Rachel," I said. "I was telling her that we were getting ready to go to school." Locking eyes with Rachel, I tried to telepathically tell her that she needed to leave. She obviously didn't take the hint.
"You all look so great!" Rachel said. "Kael, are you excited to start at Valley View?"
"I guess," Kael said softly. "I've heard freshman year sucks."
One thing I knew about Rachel was that her freshman year did in fact suck. She'd started dating Noah Williamson, who was in a special education class for an emotional disability. When Rachel told her friends Esme, Elijah, and boyfriend Isaiah about Noah, things went south and Noah committed suicide. That was why Ryan, the first Fear Games killer, went after Rachel and her friends.
Freshman year for Kael had to be better than that.
"Okay!" I said awkwardly. "Rachel, it was really nice talking to you, but we have to go now."
Rachel frowned but said, "Fine. But we're talking about this later."
"Sure, sure," I said and raced to the door, opening it wide. "Come on, kids. Let's go."
As we all exited the house and climbed into the car, I watched Rachel get into hers and drive away. My kids argued over who would get to sit in the passenger seat and they eventually settled on Cinder while Kael and Echo pouted in the back.
"Ready?" I asked the kids.
"Ready," they all replied in unison.
But the truth was, none of us were ready for what was coming for us in the near future.
RACHEL
After seeing Eden that morning, I went back to the house to realize that Emerald had already taken her car and headed off to school. That left me all alone. The house was eerily silent, and after that weird phone call the night before, I wasn't too keen on the idea of no one else being around.
I pulled out my cell phone and dialed my eldest son Calix's phone number. He'd been calling me for weeks and I'd been ignoring him, not because I didn't want to talk, but because I was just struggling a lot lately. As much as I tried to hold it together for Emerald, I found myself being depressed. Thankfully mental health was no longer a taboo topic and there was much better treatment these days. They even abolished psychiatric hospitals, and instead replaced them with group homes where a resident could live and focus on themselves.
It was nice, but with a child, I'd never be able to do that.
As the phone rang, I half expected Calix not to pick up. After about five rings, I heard his beautiful voice. "Hey Mama."
"Hey bud," I said. "How's it going in South Carolina?"
"It's going alright," Calix said. "Actually, that's a lie, but I'm dealing with it I guess."
"What's wrong?" I asked, taking a seat on my couch. "Is your mental health still a struggle?" I paused, then realized what I said. "God, that was a stupid question. Of course it's still a struggle. How are you handling it?"
"Not very well," Calix said. "I just got out of the hospital yesterday. I tried calling you while I was in there but you never answered."
So that's where that unknown number came from all those days ago. "Again? Calix, can I ask you a question?"
"Of course," he said. "Anything."
"What's so important out in South Carolina?" I asked. "I mean, I know you went out there for a writing program, but you got kicked out of there. Living on your own has been tough for you. What's keeping you there?"
Calix was silent for a moment and I almost thought the call dropped. Finally, he said, "I don't know."
"You've been through so much pain and hurt out there these last couple years," I said. An idea immediately came to mind, one that I'd considered on several other occasions but never shared before. "Why don't you just move back home and live with Emerald and me?"
Once again I was met with silence. I knew that Calix wanted to love being on his own, but it just didn't seem like he did. We had issues here at home when I was still with Drake, but we were divorced now and things here were pretty peaceful.
"Are you sure?" Calix asked. "I wouldn't want to intrude."
"Calix, you're my son," I said. "It's my job to take care of you, even if you're an adult now. You can come home, get a small part-time job and continue going to school. It'd be perfect."
"But how will I get home?" Calix asked. "I don't have the money for a plane ticket or a car ride across the country."
"I'll talk to your father and see if he'll pitch in some money for you to return," I said. "Even if he's a dick to me, I'm sure he'd still love to see you."
"You think so?"
I smiled even though he couldn't see it. "I know so."
We spent the next thirty minutes or so talking, and when we finished, I found myself feeling the loneliness of the house again. The only real friend I had in this town was Eden and she was at the school working. That meant that for the next seven hours or so, I'd have no one to talk to.
I kept thinking about the phone call I received the night before and wondered if Eden was right. Maybe the whole thing was a joke. But why did the voice sound so much like Josh? And if that wasn't Josh, where was the real him?
If it wasn't a joke, why would our kids be in danger? I had no idea but I didn't want to know. I knew I couldn't go to Drake about this. He was so old fashioned when it came to mental health and would just think I was nuts.
But there was one person I could call. Would he believe me about my phone call? There was only one way to find out.
I picked up the phone again and searched through my contacts to find the number. When I clicked on it, it rang three times before he answered.
"Dr. Schneider," he said.
"Hey doc, it's Rachel," I said. "Do you have time for an appointment today? It's kind of urgent."
EDEN
When the last bell rang, I said goodbye to my students and followed them all to the door. Once they were all gone, I closed it and sighed. That was a long first day. Trying to get to know all the students and get them to listen to me was hard.
Valley View was a fairly new school and had only been around a few years. I didn't really want my kids going to Easton, so Valley View it was, dropping twenty grand a year for them to attend. Thankfully Jacob was a well-paid psychiatrist.
As I sat at my desk and started looking through the students' first assignment, I heard the classroom door open. Standing in the doorway was Rachel.
"Rachel!" I said, surprised. "What are you doing here?"
She closed the door quietly and said, "I just got back from seeing Doctor Schneider."
"Your psychiatrist?" I asked. Dr. Schneider was friends with my husband. Well, friends was pushing it. They occasionally went out together, but Schneider was way older and had been Rachel's psychiatrist for a long time. At first I thought it was a conflict of interest that Rachel started seeing him, but patient information was confidential. It wasn't like my husband would ever know what she said.
"Of course my psychiatrist," Rachel said as she stepped closer toward my desk. "I had to talk to someone about the phone call I got last night, especially since you don't seem to believe it's a big deal."
"You told him about the phone call?" I asked, dropping my pen and looking up at her seriously. "What the hell did you do that for? I told you it was probably just a joke."
"But we don't know that for sure," Rachel said as she sat in the desk closest to mine, facing me. "Dr. Schneider happens to think that this might be a real threat."
"Oh really?" I said. "Just because your psychiatrist agrees with everything you say doesn't make you right."
"And just because you've never seen someone after what happened to us doesn't make you right, either," Rachel said.
"So we're really going to bring that up, huh?" I said. "I never saw someone because I never needed to. I've dealt with my trauma perfectly fine."
"Is that why your husband is divorcing you?" Rachel asked.
My mouth dropped open, but I clamped it shut. She did have a point and I hated it when she was right. Before I could tell her that, she spoke.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that," Rachel said softly. "I'm just trying to get you to understand there might be a real threat out there."
"It's okay," Eden said. "Listen, Rachel, I know you want to talk about this, but I have assignments to grade and then I have to bring Cinder and Kael home, then pick up Echo from her school. Can this wait until later?"
"That depends," Rachel said, "will you actually start taking this threat seriously?"
"Fine," I said. "I'll hear you out. But I probably won't believe anything until I get a threat myself. I'll talk to you later?"
Rachel nodded and got up from her desk. "Yeah, I'll call you. See you later."
As she exited the classroom, I sighed, looking down at my papers and realized that I probably wouldn't have time to grade the assignments there and would likely have to do it at home. Cinder and Kael were probably already waiting.
I grabbed my purse, put the assignments in my handbag, then walked out of the classroom. The hallway was unsurprisingly empty. Extracurriculars were taking place and so it appeared to be just me. As I made my way down the hall, I texted Cinder and told her to meet her and Kael at my car.
I wasn't sure if it had to do with what Rachel said or not, but I had a bad feeling wandering through the school. It was almost as if someone was watching me. I turned around to see if someone was behind me, but of course, it was just me.
I looked up at the corner of the ceiling and saw a security camera watching me. That was definitely what was giving me the chills. Who knew who was watching me through that camera right now?
Knock it off, Eden, I thought. It's just your imagination. If anyone is watching you through those cameras, it's someone from the front office. Rachel's really getting to your head.
When I made it out to the parking lot, I found my car and saw several people standing around it, including Cinder and Kael. I couldn't see what they were looking at, and when I approached, all eyes fell on me.
"Hey kids," I said. "What's up?"
"Mom..." Cinder said, pointing to the other side of the car invisible to me. "Look."
I heard a few murmurs through the crowd and took a few extra steps to see the other side of the car. I gasped at the sight. The voices continued to grow around us and everyone was staring and pointing. It was pissing me off.
"Back off," I said to the students. "Everyone go home. There's nothing to see here." But there definitely was and students were already getting pictures of it.
"Mom, what do we do?" Kael asked quietly.
"We get in the car and go home," I instructed my children. There was no arguing over who got the passenger seat this time. Cinder got in front while Kael climbed in the back. As we drove out of the parking lot, I dialed Rachel's number.
She answered right away. "Well, that was fast."
"You're on speakerphone," I said as we made it onto the main road. "I'm in the car with my kids. I just wanted to tell you something really quick."
"And what's that?" Rachel asked.
"Someone vandalized my car," I said. "It says, Eden, Get Lost in what looks like fake blood. Or at least I hope it's fake. Can you come over in thirty minutes?"
"I'll be there in twenty," Rachel said and then she hung up.
"Mom," Cinder said. "This is just some harmless prank, right?"
"I hope so, sweetie," I said. "I sure hope so."