Chapter 19
Rick slept for almost ten hours, the deep, dreamless sleep that had been eluding him of late. Which probably only happened because his mom made him take a sleeping pill. He woke up groggy and out of it, but he thought that was worth it to make it through the night without being visited by ghosts.
Martina joined them around one, also in her pajamas.
Well, a hoodie and pajama pants at least, both of which were black, except the pants also had little bats all over them.
“I’m so glad your mom talked mine into letting me leave the house.
I get it, they’re worried, but everyone is hovering, and it’s driving me slowly insane. ”
“There will be no hovering here,” Rick said. “We’ve only left the couch to go to the bathroom, and so far we’ve mostly spoken in grunts.”
Daphne grunted in illustration. “I left the couch to make popcorn. That counts. Good to see you, Martina.”
“Thanks, Mrs. H.” She held up a tote bag. “I bring an assortment of candy as my contribution.”
“All contributions welcome,” Rick said. “You’re just in time. We’re about to start season two of MST3K.”
“What’s that?” Martina asked.
Daphne groaned. “I’ve failed you, children. Failed you.”
Rick made room for Martina on the couch. “It’s a show where they take old B movies and make fun of them. Except they’re in space and two of the people are actually robots.”
“It will make sense,” Daphne said. “Kind of. It doesn’t really matter. They sum it up in the opening credits.”
Martina collapsed on the couch. “I’m down.”
Daphne paused the screen. “Hold that thought. Bathroom break and then I’m making more popcorn.” She shoved herself up from the easy chair and headed down the hallway.
Rick turned his head so his cheek was against the couch and he could see her. “They’re driving you crazy, huh?”
“Yup,” Martina sighed as she turned so she was sitting the same way. “And I can’t get mad, because I get it. They love me and they’re freaked out. My abuela was this close to following me into the bathroom. But, like, I need a little alone time, or at least quiet time. It’s a lot to process.”
“Yeah.” Rick turned back to the TV, which was frozen on the image of a model spaceship. “I haven’t even been able to look at the group chat today. It’s got to be two hundred messages right now.”
Martina shrugged. “We don’t owe them shit.”
“No,” Rick said. “We don’t, except…we’ll need to tell them soon because…well, because.”
Martina buried herself under a blanket, pulling her feet up off the floor. When she turned back to Rick, her eyes were haunted, but steady. “Because they’re on the list. Because we can’t pretend that this isn’t real anymore, and they need to be careful.”
“Yeah,” Rick said. “That.”
Martina frowned. “Hey, weird question. I wouldn’t bring it up, but my brain will not let it go.”
“What is it?”
“What happened to Paxton’s phone?”
Rick felt his heartbeat pick up. “The cops asked me about that. I’m not sure.”
“It’s just, I know we didn’t take it. And if the cops were asking, it wasn’t in the trash or anything. He left it on the counter, right? To record us?”
Rick thought back through last night—just the beginning, then the end, but trying really hard to skip all the stuff in the middle. He wasn’t entirely successful. “That’s the last place I remember seeing it—on the bathroom counter.”
“Do you remember seeing it at all when we left our stall?” Martina’s gaze was laser-intense now.
“No,” Rick said slowly, “but I wasn’t looking for it. Could be I missed it. There was…a lot.”
“Yeah.” Martina dropped her chin to her knees. “There was.”
They sat quietly for a second, thinking.
Rick’s mom came out, saw them, saw the paused TV, and frowned. Then she seemed to shake it off. “Popcorn in a second. You two don’t have to wait for me if you don’t want to.”
“We’re okay,” Rick said.
“Thanks, Mrs. H.” Martina reached for her candy bag. “Do you want any?”
Rick held out his hand. He hadn’t been able to eat last night, or at first this morning, but candy and popcorn didn’t feel like food. Which didn’t make sense, but he wasn’t about to start arguing with himself. “Hey, Teeny?”
“Yeah?”
“You think the killer took the phone, don’t you.” He kept his eyes on the bag, grabbing a package of peanut M&M’S.
“That’s what I would do if I were them,” Martina said. “It’s evidence, yeah? I wouldn’t keep it, though. They can track that sort of stuff.”
“But if they did keep it, how easy would it be to hack his passcode, do you think?”
Martina took the bag back from him, frowning. “I don’t know. Why?”
“I was just thinking about my phone—when I got home, I had, like, eighty messages in the group chat. If the killer has Paxton’s phone and they didn’t dump it…”
“They could have kept it long enough to get into our group chat.” Martina scowled at her package of Sour Patch Kids. “Feels like a long shot. I bet phones are a pain in the ass to hack.”
“We don’t know what this person is capable of,” Rick said.
“God, that’s a creepy thought.”
Rick fished his phone out of his pocket and turned it on. “I’ll text Nika. Tell her to kill the chat. Start a new one.”
Martina blew out a breath. “I hate this so much. I just want this to be over.”
“I know,” Rick said. “Me too.”
Rick typed out a quick text to Nika, filling her in on everything.
His mom came in then, a big bowl of popcorn in her hands, which she placed on the coffee table where they all could reach.
Rick grabbed a handful, eating the pieces one by one.
He usually shoved it in by the fistful, but today…
Little pieces worked better today. Small bites.
He didn’t think he could handle a bunch of food at once.
They were about a third of the way into the episode when his screen lit up. He glanced down and saw Nika’s name, so he tapped on the screen.
On it.
He typed out a quick thanks and put his phone back down. He felt all talked out. Right now this was about all he could handle.
—
They didn’t go back to school the next day, either.
Teachers were supposed to post homework online so everyone wouldn’t fall behind, but Rick didn’t open his laptop.
He mostly slept. Hung out with Martina and Dani.
They didn’t go outside if they could help it.
Media coverage had erupted now. Rick did his best not to see any of it, but it was hard to miss the cameras outside his uncle’s house.
Vic tried to shoo them away, but it didn’t do any good.
Mrs. Lopez put together a statement for him and Martina, which was handed out, but Rick didn’t want to talk to anyone.
He’d never wanted to be famous. Found the idea claustrophobic.
Why would you want everyone to know who you were?
To watch you all the time? School had been bad enough since this whole thing started, but at least that stage was small.
This was like going from playing a guitar in your friend’s basement to playing a sold-out arena, except everyone was there to boo you.
To Rick, this was like not only getting something he didn’t want, but also getting it in the worst possible way.
By the third day he was crawling out of his skin.
Dani was at school. His mom had gone to work, but only after giving him the number for the counselor his school had recommended and making sure Martina would be there with him.
She didn’t want him to be alone, since his uncle was working extra hours to cover the work Rick was missing, which made Rick feel bad, but if he went in, the reporters would follow him…
His brain was exhausted from running that particular hamster wheel.
He and Martina were sprawled on his uncle’s couch, Martina stretched out along it, with Rick sitting up at the end, his feet on the coffee table.
Martina was trying to read a book, though she didn’t seem to be getting very far, and Rick decided that scrolling listlessly through streaming options was the best use of his time.
When a text popped up in the new group chat, named Final Folks (We Want Everyone to Survive), he almost leapt on it. Martina was only seconds behind him.
Alexis: Landon and I got our creepy letters
Below her message was a picture of two pieces of shiny gold paper. They’d been styled to look like theater tickets made out to Alexis and Landon.
Landon: We literally got front row tix for our deaths. I’m going to need so much therapy
Alexis: I wanted to burn them, but my mom made us turn them in
Camryn: U ok?
Alexis: No but thx for asking
Camryn: I wonder why mine hasn’t shown up yet?
Martina: Maybe the killer has limited arts and crafts time
Rick: Dude
Martina: Sorry humor is my favorite coping mechanism
Zara: I also have news. Allison Haysmith is not in an early college program
Camryn: Wait WHAT?
Martina: OMG she’s not dead is she?
Zara: What? No. Why would you think that?
Martina: Srsly?
Zara: You right, stupid question. As far as I know, she’s fine. Just not in early college program
Nika: Where did she go?
Landon: And does she have Bryce’s baby? Twins maybe?
Alexis: Not funny, Landon
Landon: Srry, babe
Alexis: Forgiven
Martina shot Rick a look, her eyes wide. “Plot twist.” She typed out a quick response to the chat. A+ work! How did you find her?
Zara: Why thank you, thank you, hold your applause *dusts off shoulders*
Nika: Yes, yes, you deserve all the praise, but also I’m dying here
Camryn: Might not be the best thing to say in this group
Nika: Oh, right. Sorry
Zara: Can we focus on me for 10 seconds here? I swear this group is like a bag of hamsters sometimes
Martina: I have…so many questions. Why so many hamsters???
Camryn: And why are they in a bag?
Martina: Why was that the first analogy that sprang to mind? Do you think a lot about hamsters?
Rick sighed and typed in his own message. Just tell us, Zara. They’ll go all day.