Page 115 of She Haunts Me Still

“Shhhh,” one of the crew members hisses, snatching Mallory’s elbow as she starts for the stage. “She’s just acting.”

“Let go of me!” she snarls. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Tell them to go to blackout!”

Lily growls on the bed. “—O look, methinks I see my cousin’s ghost—”

The crew member hasn’t let go of Mallory’s arm. “The scene is over in two lines, just relax—”

“Relax?” she whispers furiously. “Relax?This is an emergency! Tell them to cut the lights right n—”

“—seeking out Romeo that did spit his body”—slash, slash, squelch—“upon a rapier’s point—!”

“Mal!” Arden now, in horror.

Blood trickles down Saskia’s stomach. Her nose is redder, too, ruby trailing all the way over her chin. And then, she starts laughing, the sound bursting through her throat, thickened with red-purple veins. Her chortling roars through the theater, bleeding into a keening cackle as she wrenches out: “Stay, Tybalt, stay!”

“Let go of me, let go—Fucking hell,give me this.” Mallory twists against the crew member who’s holding her and snatches the walkie-talkie from his waistband. She smashes the button. “Go to blackout! Go to blackout! Go to—”

“Romeo, Romeo, Romeo!” Saskia rises on her knees, dropping the dagger and snatching the glass vial with wet, red hands. She tilts her head back and back and back and—“Here’s drink! I drink to thee!”

And the stage slams to darkness just as Saskia vomits mouthful after mouthful of dirt onto the stage, all over the nightgown Juliet is supposed to die wearing.

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Mallory lays a shivering Saskia down in the dressing room just as Paisley’s voice crackles over the sound system.

Attention everyone,she says.We’re sorry for the disruption. Due to a medical emergency, the role of Juliet will be portrayed by Mallory Webb for the remainder of the performance. The show will resume in five minutes.

“Someone needs to be with her at all times,” Mallory orders Raf and Arden as they hover around the sofa. She peels off her clothes, snatching the second Juliet nightgown from the costume rack. “After curtain call, take her back to her dorm. Make sure there’s nothing sharp within reach. Stay until I arrive.”

“Where willyoube?” Raf demands. Next to him, Arden is noticeably silent, eyes trained on Saskia.

“There’s something I need to do after the show,” Mallory says, clipping her microphone to her dress. “If I’m not back after an hour, contact my Aunt Penelope. Arden knows the number. Don’t stop calling until she answers.”

“We should call EMS,” Raf insists.

“We can’t,” Mallory replies.

“What?” Raf exclaims. “Are you serious?”

“I am. No doctors.”

Raf shakes his head, confused. “But Saskia is sick—”

“She’s not.” Arden’s voice surprises them both, and they turn in tandem. “This isn’t an illness.” Her expression brims with a darkened understanding as she slides her gaze to Mallory’s. “This is evil.”

Arden’s words echo like the crash of a gavel. There it is. The judgment Mallory has feared for years. Somehow, it arrives with a gust of relief because it means she doesn’t have to hide anymore.

“Is this what you’ve been keeping secret all this time?” Arden grazes her cross. “Some kind of…of”—she swallows, as if the words are hard to say out loud—“tie to the occult?”

Unable to find the strength for any more lies, Mallory nods. Arden’s eyes dart to the side like she’s wrestling with the question of what it means to help her in this moment. The question of whether she can do it without giving something up, too.

“What is it?” Arden presses. “Witchcraft? Satanism? Whatisit?” She glances at Saskia again. “Are you responsible for this somehow? Who have I been friends with all these years?”

I don’t know,she’s tempted to say.I don’t fucking know.

Instead, Mallory exhales a promise: “If I make it back tonight, I’ll tell you everything. No more secrets. I swear.”

Arden just stares. For a second, Mallory thinks she’ll walk away. That she’ll leave her to face this nightmare on her own.