if one of them is dead.

chapter twenty-seven.

Lilith.

"So," Fynn said, standing against the wall in an alley, "we jump the fence, break into this weird ass place that I'm sure wasn't there last month, and grab this weird ass thing, is that right?"

Lilith nodded from the opposite wall. "That's almost exactly what we do."

Darcy shook her head. "Sorry, why are we doing this. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm always up for it. I'm just a little confused as to why exactly we are doing this."

"Yeah, is it like a school project thing?" Raine asked, tilting their head.

Lilith nodded again. "Yeah, something like that. Look, I just need to get this thing and take it back to my— instructor. He needs to make sure something like this is safe." She shook her head, putting her hands in her pockets. "It's not a real thing, it's like a prop or something. Don't worry, it's not like a huge deal except that it's a big percentage of my grade. But this assignment is basically like a scavenger hunt. They said that we can have help from other people, just not from our class."

Alrik shrugged against the wall from next to Aven. "Makes sense to me."

Aven looked at him weirdly and shook her head. "No, it doesn't."

Lilith sighed. "Look, I know it's confusing. To dumb it down a little, it's a scavenger hunt for a really important prop for a big percentage of my school grade. I can't mess this one up."

Fynn chuckled. "I didn't think that you were so interested in school things."

"I'm normally not. But this assignment is more important than any of the others that I've done." Lilith shook her head. "This matters. Everything else can get shit on."

Aven tilted her head. "Lil, are you okay?" she asked, pushing herself away from the wall. She walked over to Lilith slowly, earning a weird look from her. "You've been acting— different lately. Is something wrong?"

Lilith shook her head. "I'm fine, seriously. Just a little stressed is all."

Raine tilted their head. "No, Aven's right." They squinted slightly. "You've been acting off." There was a pause before they glared and huffed. "I swear to god, Lilith, if that asshole did something to you, I will fucking kill him—"

"Mattheo didn't do anything, Raine. Everything is fine," Lilith said, starting to walk away. The others exchanged glances and didn't move. She turned back to them and shrugged. "Seriously. If there was something wrong I would tell you. Now come on."

She turned around and the others followed after her. "Well," Darcy said, "you do kind of keep your problems to yourself."

"Darc, I'm fine, I assure you."

☯︎︎

"You think we can jump an electrical fence?" Fynn asked with a 'seriously' look on his face, pointing to a sign on the fence.

Alrik stood next to Fynn, furrowing his brows while he read everything on the sign. The fence buzzed, and he took a step back, grabbing the back of Fynn's shirt to pull him back.

Raine shook their head. They pointed at the fence. "You're kidding, right? We've done a lot of dangerous shit, but that is begging to get electrocuted."

"Hold on," Lilith said, taking a step towards the fence. It made a zapping sound, blue electricity was showing every few seconds. "If I remember right, they turn this thing off in a minute," she lied.