The Unlikely Resident of Room 313

BONUS CHAPTER

Author's Note

In celebration of Amazon Prime Video's newest series Panic, I am thrilled to be teaming up with Amazon Prime Video and Wattpad to write this exclusive chapter that puts my characters from this story into the world of Panic!

I hope this chapter intrigues and inspires you to learn more about Panic. Visit the #PanicWritingContest on Wattpad for the chance to put your creative writing chops to the test and learn more about the show!

To find out more about the contest, prizes, and how to enter, check out the #PanicWritingContest here: wattpad.com/AmazonPrimeVideo

Don't forget to watch the series premiere on May 28th, only on Amazon Prime Video, here: http://primevideo.com/

* * * 

When you think of summer vacation, you think of white, sandy beaches, late-night excursions to local diners and ice cream shops, and sleeping in until noon with no repercussion. It's freedom—even if only for a few months. After a harrowing spring semester, I craved summer vacation more than I ever had before.

"Texas? I know times change, sweetheart. But I doubt the kids these days want to spend their summer vacation living it up in.... Carp, Texas."

I glance at the tall, sandy-haired boy behind my shoulder and roll my eyes. "We're not on vacation, Roy. We're here to visit my great-aunt, Irina."

With the death of my father's favorite uncle, my parents decided it was best to move Irina out of her trailer home in Carp and into a sunny assisted living out in Phoenix where my grandmother and her sister stayed. But every time my father called his aunt, she either insulted him, hung up, or both. So, Elijah and Claire decided that immediately following the end of my second year at Oracle, we'd make a trip to Carp, convince one of the most stubborn ladies in the world out of a home she'd lived in for forty years, and make it just in time for a birthday trip in Fort Worth.

Ambitious, yes.

Likely? Maybe.

The Rusiskas have done plenty of ambitious things and came out on top.

Voices float out of the adjoining room of the small, three-bedroom ranch house in the middle of a town that has seen better years. Mom and Dad speak in animated, lively voices that are a juxtaposition to the faded, crinkled wallpaper and peeling paint outside the window. Despite the trees and the attempts to brighten up the town with coats of pink and yellow and orange paint, a haze of despair cakes every surface of the town, and time seems to move slower and slower the longer we're here.

"This town is deader than I am," Roy grumbles, and flops onto the bed, his motion soundless. I open my mouth to scold him for his rude comments—who knew a ghost could be such a diva when traveling? —but pause when I look at the ancient car across the street, and the rusty, reddish light of the approaching sunset.

"Carp isn't dead," I reply, truthfully. I eye a group of teenagers hurrying down the road. "But it's definitely on life support."

I take in the way they glance around the empty road, at houses, and behind their shoulders as though they expect someone or something to jump out at any second. I remember seeing a bunch of police cruisers patrolling the streets when we arrived earlier this afternoon. For a town so small, that amount of patrolling felt fishy. I told myself coming here that I wouldn't meddle with anything—supernatural or otherwise. But in the blazing Texas heat, I can't help but think the group's attire is especially suspicious: hooded jackets with the hoods over their heads, long pants, and sneakers. Definitely not what I'd expect for a place that is pretty toasty for most of the year.