Ghost Bird

23: Murderer in the Dark

Gabriel leads the way back into the house. The huge grin on his face has me slightly worried for what's about to happen. North and Luke come in a few moments later and plop a mound of grocery bags onto the kitchen counter. Bags of chips and piles of cookies spill out of them. I zero in on a particular chocolate chip one roughly the size of a frisbee. Luke looks at my target and hands me the cookie when North is distracted glaring at some poor speck of dust floating in the air.

I take a seat on one of the plush couches, and the guys follow suit. Rather than doing so in an orderly manner, it's more of a mad dash to claim one of the two remaining seats on the couch. I end up sandwiched between Nathan and Silas (I don't think the couch makers envisioned someone as large as Silas when they deemed the couch suitable for three people). Everybody else takes a seat on the other couch, or on the floor around us. Kota sits next to my feet, and he traces a circle on my leg with his thumb. A shiver runs down my spine.

"So what's the plan, Gabe?" Luke asks. I nibble on my cookie as I wait for Gabriel to answer. To my utter horror, some of the cookie crumbs fall into Kota's adorably ruffled hair. He doesn't notice, but Silas lets out a low laugh. A blush tinges my cheeks. I hand the rest of the cookie to Nathan, who eats it in a few bites.

"Chocolate with a hint of girl cooties—my favorite," he whispers. I sink farther into the couch, terribly embarrassed, but also trying to hold in a laugh.

During all the cookie drama, Gabriel still hasn't said his plan. Everybody looks at him as he rubs a blond streak of hair between his fingers. "So about the plan..." He trails off mid-sentence.

"Does it rhyme with calm flea pup shake mail ball wish?" Sean asks. He still hasn't taken off his doctor's coat from filming. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to stay in the studio, but he takes it practically everywhere. One of these days, some poor person is going to mistake him for an actual doctor. Or not, if they take a good look at his youthful (read: mischievous) eyes.

Gabriel scowls. "No it does not, smart ass. My plan is to...watch a movie?"

"What the fuck kind of plan is that?" North exclaims at the same time that Nathan says, "Is it a zombie movie?"

I'm perfectly fine watching a movie. It's nice and relaxing, and after all the hectic filming, relaxing sounds pretty great. The guys, however, look like Gabriel suggested they strip off all their clothes and streak down the road under the full moon. While it's snowing. And a hoard of rabid fangirls are after them. It's that level of scandalized.

"That's your great idea?" Victor asks.

"You try coming up with party ideas all the time," Gabriel says. "It's fucking hard! I hoped that saying I had an idea would give me one. Time pressure and all that. Let's see one of you guys come up with a better idea!"

Owen, casually leaning against the wall, tilts his head downward. He then raises his eyes to meet mine. "What if we do as Gabriel suggested and watch a movie? We can order pizza for dinner. Then, when it's nighttime—" his eyes flash in the evening light— "we can play murderer in the dark."

Kota relaxes against the couch, his thumb still on my leg. "That sounds like the perfect plan," he says.

I wrack my brain trying to remember what murderer in the dark is. I've definitely heard of it before, but the rules are buried deep within the recesses of my brain. I mentally shrug. I'm sure they'll cover it when we actually play.

Victor walks over to a DVD rack, which I hadn't even noticed yet. It's fully stocked with over a hundred movies. Just how much effort did they put into getting this house for me? Guilt snakes into my thoughts. What did I do to deserve all this?