MELROSE

CHAPTER 7

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I paid my price today. Sort of.
Mum made me visit Keith in the hospital and suffice to say, he wasn't so happy to see me. Chris followed me, all because she wanted to see my 'victim'. And now she was bombarding me with questions she already knew the answer to.

"Come the fuck on Aura. Why can't you pick something?"

"Chris every year since we were seven you've always picked out my Halloween costume, even when we thought we were too old for costumes. What makes you think its changed?"

"I thought this would be the year you would finally pick a costume for yourself. Guess not."

I rolled my eyes at her.

"Anyway you're gonna love your costume. I already have it in mind."

"What the fuck is it?"

"Its a surprise."

"Whatever just make sure it's black."

"Yes ma'am."

***

Ethan's mouth opened. Closed. Opened. Closed. Opened. Closed. Open ...

"You have an arcade room in your house." He said, momentarily getting over his shock.

"From what I see, yeah."

Ethan scanned the mini arcade again and muttered a silent wow under his breath. If I didn't live here I probably would have been breath taken.

I grabbed his arm. "Come on. Let's go meet the others."

They were in the backyard, a fire in their middle, their faces painted with red and white chalks. The fact that is was night and our matching t-shirts with L'escouade printed on it were black, gave the situation a more eerie feeling.

I swear we've never done this before, but everyone agreed Ethan was good enough to join our squad so they decided to do this to make the whole 'initiation process' more cult like.

Ethan gulped as I put a bag over his head. "I'm starting to rethink this."

I patted his bag clad head. "You should. We murder people this way."

"Thanks Belle, for making me feel so much better."

I sat him down on one of the logs before joining them as they had moved to make sure Ethan didn't hear the conversation.

"What's the plan Sterling?"

"What makes you think I have a plan?"

"Well this whole initiation was your idea. You said you wanted it to be scary, which is why we did this stupid shit and put a bag over his head."

"So?"

"Did you think of what we'd do after covering his face?"

"Was I supposed to?"

Four of us sighed.

Finn, ever the levelheaded one, suggested we skipped all the trying to be scary shit and just asked him a bunch of questions, an idea that was collectively agreed to.

Zuke was the first questioner.

"Okay here goes. What's your full name?"

"Ethan Lorenzo Chandler."

"Age?"

"Seventeen. Eighteen, 5th December."

"Siblings?"