The Lost Girls || Bbangsaz

XIII

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"I'll be quiet if you just let me lie down." Hanni weaved into me, then veered to the edge of the sidewalk. "Don't make me go home."

"You're not going home. I've got you." It was like trying to navigate a raft over whitewater. I'd direct her left; she'd veer right. I'd lean right; she'd keep going. "How did you end up in the park? Did you go there with friends?"

She let out a loud, snapping laugh, like lightning cracking across a stormy sky. Full of just as much turmoil. "It's funny how you think I have friends."

It really wasn't that funny.

"How did you get the liquor?" The only access I'd had to liquor in high school had been through Hyein, and I didn't really count those three sips we took from her mom's vodka.

"Stole it from my mom." She hiccupped. "She brought the bottle home to celebrate, drank half of it, and passed out. I stole the rest and just kept walking."

"You walked all the way over here?" Hanni lived on the west side of Glen River, which was a minimum of ten miles from here, if not more.

She shook her head. "Uber. Can I lie down now?"

I'd seen the public-service movies in health class. If she fell asleep, she'd choke on her own vomit and die, at least if the movie was to be believed. "Just a little bit farther now."

Hauling Hanni around made me very glad I'd never managed to get drunk. I had terrible impulse control while I'd been sober. I could only imagine the horrifying things I would've let Elton talk me into if I'd barely been able to walk.

I dragged her around the corner, where she attempted to run headfirst into a stop sign, then helped her navigate the stairs beside the meat market. Halfway up to the second floor, she wanted to stop and rest. I rubbed her back while she hung her head between her knees, but she didn't throw up again. Finally, we made it to the front doorstep. Haerin's finished brain project greeted me. She'd cut a face into it and hollowed out the inside, where a small candle burned, lighting up the toothy grin. It slightly resembled a blobfish. I hit the door with my elbow in order to keep Hanni upright.

Haerin flung open the door, carving knife pointed at my chest. "Oh. It's just you." She dropped her arm and stepped back to let me in.

"What is this supposed to be?" I poked at the blob with the toe of my shoe.

"Brain-o'-lantern." Haerin grinned. "Something cute for the kiddies if we get any trick-or-treaters this year. What did you do to Elton's latest victim?"

"I didn't do anything to her. I found her in the park this way." I flung Hanni's body forward, and Haerin scooped her up on the opposite side. Hanni managed to do a great imitation of a corpse as we dragged her into the living room.

"This is so far above my pay grade."

"You worked at Taco Bell," Haerin said. "Everything is above your pay grade."

Dani came out of the bedroom, her black-and-white-striped rockabilly dress swishing around her knees. "Oh my God. You killed Hanni."

"She's not dead." I let go of her once I was reasonably sure she could stand on her own, and she promptly tripped over the coffee table and fell face forward. "Yet."

"Hello? Is someone there?" Dani's bedframe thumped the wall while the guy she brought home begged for mercy. "Help me. Please.
I think she's going to hurt me."

I rubbed my temples. "Did you have to bring home another kill?"

"I didn't know we were going to have company." Dani looked between Hanni sprawled out on the floor with her mouth hanging open, and her bedroom, where the guy she tied up continued to scream and beat against the wall. "Hold on."