The Haunted

After lunch, her dad took James over to his friend’s house, while Megan and her mom baked brownies and mixed together the dip for potato chips. When her dad returned, he took her over to Safeway, where she rented two Twilight DVDs from the Redbox. There were three girls coming over, and originally she’d planned for all of them to camp out in the living room, but her dad had put the brakes on that idea (“I’m not giving up my entire evening for your friends,” was what he’d said, and she’d been tempted to respond, “Why don’t you find something to do besides watch TV all night?” but she sensed that this was not the time to push back). She’d then thought about having two of her friends spend the night in James’s room (that would drive her brother crazy!), but since it was her party, she knew that whoever didn’t get to sleep in her room would feel slighted. And she didn’t want to make enemies of any of her friends.

So she’d decided to rearrange her own room so there’d be enough space for everyone. It was harder than she’d thought, not just because she needed to create an area big enough for two sleeping bags and the feather mattress (she was still going to sleep in her bed), but because she needed to put away things that weren’t cool and replace them with things that were. The last thing she needed was to get a reputation as a geek or a nerd.

She was removing a World Wildlife Federation poster of a herd of running horses from the wall at the head of her bed when her iPhone beeped. Putting the tacks down on top of her dresser, Megan picked up the phone and looked at the message on-screen.

Take off your pants.

She erased it, her heart thumping crazily.

The message popped up again.

Take off your pants.

A bolt of fear shot through her.

“Mom!” she yelled. “Mom!”

Her mother came hurrying up the stairs and into her room. “What is it?” Megan immediately handed over the phone. A shadow crossed over her mom’s face as she read the text. “Who sent this?”

“I don’t know!” Megan was almost crying.

“Have you ever gotten anything like this before?”

There was a second’s pause, too short to be noticed. “No.” Her mind was whirring. She was scared, and she was glad that she’d shown this to her mom—

Take off your pants.

—because it was too serious to keep to herself. Her parents needed to know about it. But if her mom found out about the other weird messages Megan had received, she would definitely take her phone away—and probably restrict her Internet access. She might do that anyway, but Megan wasn’t going to help her.

“Who do you think would send you something like this? Is there a boy from one of your classes … ?”

“I don’t know!” Megan insisted. And she didn’t.

Only …

Only she didn’t think it was anyone familiar, did she? No. For whatever reason, she thought it was a man, an adult, someone she didn’t know but who somehow knew her. She had no idea where she’d gotten this impression or why she believed it to be true, but she did.

“Well, I’m keeping your phone until we get everything sorted out. I don’t like this at all, and your father won’t, either. This is scary stuff. There are all sorts of predators out there, and until we find out who’s doing this, I don’t want you calling, texting, tweeting, IM-ing or anything like that. Do you understand?”

Megan nodded. In a way, she was relieved. She needed to get hold of her friends and tell them not to send any texts or leave any embarrassing messages, but at least she didn’t have to worry about some psycho pervert harassing her. She could just get on with her life and concentrate on her slumber party.

Maybe it was someone who found out about the party but wasn’t invited. …

No. It was a man. Besides, she didn’t have the kind of social standing that would make anyone jealous of not being invited. Her friends were probably the only ones who would want to sleep over.

“Thanks, Mom,” she said, and smiled gratefully.

“If anything else like this comes up—”

“I’ll tell you.”

Her mother smiled back, and Megan returned to rearranging her room, although she could not help peeking out the window at the street outside as she took the horse poster off her wall.

Zoe arrived early, shortly after three. Her mother said that she’d been antsy all day, and she’d finally given in and brought her over. While the moms talked downstairs, Megan led Zoe up to her room and let her pick out a sleeping spot. “First come, first served.”

“Where are you sleeping?”

“My bed.”

“I’ll sleep next to the bed, on the feather mattress.”

Megan grinned. “Then I guess Julie and Kate get the floor.”

Zoe went downstairs, said good-bye to her mom, and brought up her luggage, placing it next to the spot where she’d be sleeping. “I brought a Ouija board,” she said, pulling the Parker Brothers box out of her suitcase.