My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 66

“Where are we going?” I shouted.

No one answered as the red-ribbon crowd flooded into the woods. Some people ran laughing. Others sprinted like their lives depended on it. High heels were thrown aside. Someone tripped and got pulled back up by a friend. Branches snapped under rushing feet.

The girl with the neon hair gripped my wrist so hard her nails dug into my skin. "Run!"

"But why?!" I yelled back, "What is happening?"

"You don't want to be anywhere near the house when the wolves come out!" she shouted, as she reached into a small pocket in her skirt and pulled out two bright blue pills. She popped one into her own mouth without blinking. "Run and hide as far as you can. It makes it more fun for them!"

My head was spinning. "What wolves?! What kind of fun?! What is this?! Ciro!"

I opened my mouth to scream his name again, my lungs desperate for air.

"Ci—"

In one quick motion, the girl jammed her thumb against my lips and shoved the second blue pill deep into my mouth.

I gasped in shock, my throat snapping shut instinctively. The small, bitter pill slid down before I could even think to spit it out. I started to cough violently, my chest heaving as the chemical taste burned the back of my tongue. I doubled over, my hands on my knees, hacking until my eyes watered.

"There," she whispered, a dark, messy smile spreading across her face, "Now the colors will look much better when they find you."

Behind us, the estate glowed like a dark castle against the sky. Music still thundered through the walls. Above the trees, huge red spotlights slowly turned toward the forest. Their beams sliced through the fog rolling over the ground.

Smoke hissed softly, filling the woods with pale drifting clouds.

It looked unreal, like stepping onto the set of some twisted ritual.

The deeper we ran into the trees, the darker everything became. The red lights followed the paths cut through the forest.

Tall iron lanterns hung from branches, their glass glowed faintly like dying embers. People scattered everywhere, some climbed over fallen logs others disappeared between the trees.

A girl near us laughed hysterically as she ran, clutching her ribbon like it was part of a game.

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