I followed the impatient girls who were waiting for me at the end of the hall. I looked back over my shoulder. Dorian was still by my locker, watching us leave. He was the first person to talk to me, and certainly the first one to act in any way friendly toward me. Maybe he wasn’t so bad.
“I’m Chloe,” the brunette said. She was so petite and her skin so golden-toned that I probably looked like a ghost on stilts next to her. “And this is Emma. Seriously, be careful with him. His crowd are creepy.”
Emma shivered dramatically. “It’s so cold in here.”
Chloe gave her a pointed look. “It’s called October, idiot.”
Emma rolled her eyes. Chloe gripped my arm and dragged me into the canteen until we reached an empty table. She pointed at a free chair. “That’s your seat, new girl.”
“It’s Margo,” I said, my gums itching at her tone.
“Where are you from?” she basically demanded, taking the seat across from me.
“Wexford,” I said warily.
Emma brightened, slipping into the seat next to Chloe. “Courtown?”
I shook my head.
The interest faded from her eyes. “Oh.” She shifted in her seat to face her friend. “Are you gonna go to the party?”
Chloe shrugged. “Dunno. You?”
Emma took a bottle of water from her bag. “I want to, but it’s probably a joke.”
“A joke?” I asked. Dorian had seemed sincere.
“Those freaks are probably planning an epic prank,” Chloe said, rolling her eyes.
“Who, his family?”
Emma leaned over the table and lowered her voice. “Not exactly.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Look at the table closest to the back window. That’s his crowd.”
“What’s wrong with them?” I asked, biting back my laughter. “Nerds? Junkies? Vampires?”
She frowned in confusion, my joke whooshing straight over her head. “What? No.”
“Where are you from again?” Chloe asked suspiciously.
“Far, far away,” I murmured. “Go on then. Tell me the gossip.”
Emma grinned. “They’re like some kind of weird cult or something.”
Even better. “A cult?” I said doubtfully.
Emma shrugged, suddenly finding her freshly painted nails more interesting than the conversation she had started.
Chloe stared at her for a few seconds before sighing and taking over. “There’s this family who’ve been around for years now who keep bringing people out here to live with them.”
“To be brainwashed,” Emma added helpfully.
Chloe waved a dismissive hand. “They stay a while, then out of the blue, they’re gone again.”
“My brother reckons there’s a bunch of bodies buried over there,” Emma whispered. “And that’s where the missing ones end up.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Chloe said scornfully. “The teenagers all leave when they’re eighteen, and then more show up. It’s probably some kind of fostering scam. Or human trafficking. They started showing up and moving into the old estates that went bankrupt before the buildings were finished. The family I mentioned bought them all up, finished them, and filled them up with foreigners. It was like an invasion.”
“And theyhateus,” Emma said. “They call us townies and act like they’re better than us.”