Page 31 of Not Quite Dead Yet

It was as though the girl had heard the thought, through time and through the lens. She turned, staring strangely right at Jet.

‘Dave, what are y–’

It appeared faster than Jet could blink, filling the entire screen.

Empty black eyes. A warped white plastic face.

Jet jumped, recoiled from the screen, head slamming into the backboard of her bed.

A searing jolt of pain in her skull.

‘Fuck you,’ Jet hissed at the screen, at the image of Ghostface fromScream,smirking into the camera.

‘Trick-or-treat, bitches,’ the boy said, rattly and deep, enjoying himself too much. He must have hidden behind his friends, snuck around to jump-scare the camera. Little prick.

‘They’re not in,’ Sassy Witch replied, as Ghostface moved back, clearing the view. ‘Look, it says take one.’

The werewolf picked up the bucket and upturned it, emptying the entire thing into his open tote bag. ‘What?’ he sniffed. ‘I think they can probably afford it.’

‘They have a doorbell camera looking right at us, you idiot!’

They all turned to look at the camera, at Jet, sheepish and ghoulish.

‘Run!’ Skeleton yelled, laughing as they all bolted back down the drive and into the night, Werewolf howling at the invisible moon.

‘Fuckers,’ Jet said as the video ended. ‘I wanted some of that.’

A video twenty-two minutes before that: Jet leaving thehouse for the fair, one hour and eleven minutes after she’d promised Mom she would, calling ‘Bye!’ to Reggie.

3:42 p.m. – Jet driving home, parking her truck, returning after a walk with Reggie. It had been a long one, around Billings Park, and again, because she’d been thinking about that app idea.

3:29 p.m. – Sophia leaving the house, baby Cameron balanced on her hip, walking back to her blue Range Rover parked where Jet’s truck normally lived. Must have been on her way out after dropping those Halloween cookies off, leaving them on the kitchen counter with a little note:Love, Sophia xx.

3:24 p.m. – Five minutes before that, a blue Range Rover pulled up into the drive. Sophia emerged, getting baby Cameron from the backseat, holding him against her chest as she approached the door, pulling out a set of keys.

Wait a minute.

Jet paused the video, rewound it. Blinked and watched again.

Where was the plate of cookies? Sophia wasn’t carrying anything other than the baby. So, where the fuck had those cookies come from? She went in and four minutes later she came out, no cookies in either video.

Jet reached for her pen, scribbled:Cookies???

2:21 p.m. – What?! It was Sophia again, leaving the house for the second time – no, the first time actually, because Jet was watching this all in reverse. What was she doing? She’d come to the house two separate times on Friday, just over an hour apart. Why? And where were those damn cookies?

2:14 p.m. The hulking blue Range Rover pulled up again. Sophia stepped out, went to the backseat. Picked Cameron up, resting him on her hip. Reached in for something else, holding it in one hand. Ah. The plate of cookies, bats andpumpkins sliding around as she tried to balance everything and get the door open.

‘Cameron, don’t fidget,’ she said, flustered.

Cookie mystery solved, then. Because if Jet had been murdered over some fucking magic Halloween cookies, she would have been furious. Still, why did Sophia come back an hour after dropping them off? Did she forget the note, thought it was important enough to come back? Jet didn’t know – she didn’t understand how Sophia’s mind worked anymore.

1:59 p.m. – Jet leaving for her walk, hoisting Reggie up into the cab of her truck, shutting the door as he yipped in excitement.

12:00 p.m. – Mom and Dad leaving on the dot, literally, to go help with the setup for the fair.

‘You got the sign?’ Mom said, walking out, hands full of plastic bags.

Dad grunted, struggling with it.

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