Chapter 2

That afternoon, when I went to the classroom to pick up my graduation paperwork, Cheryl was up on the platform handing out flashlights and walkie-talkies to everyone.

I walked over with my backpack still on and planted myself in front of the chalkboard.

"Cheryl, you really can't go to the meatpacking plant on the west outskirts tonight. I'm not joking."

"That place is thick with death, and the people out there are all carrying weapons. They're real fugitives with murders on their records. You go out there, and something will happen to you."

The room went quiet for a second, then broke into laughter.

Cheryl rolled her eyes and came right up to me, looking me up and down.

"Christina, you really will throw away every last shred of dignity for attention, won't you."

"Death? Killers? You think we're three-year-olds?"

She lifted her phone, still mid-livestream, and shoved the lens straight into my face.

"Take a look, everybody. This is our class's famous broke little nobody."

"Normally she won't even spring for a meat dish in the cafeteria, and now that she sees me lining up a big money-making project for the whole class, she's so jealous her face has gone green, so she comes running in here spreading ghost stories."

A string of comments floated across the livestream, all of them calling me an ugly loser making a scene.

I frowned and reached up to block the lens.

"Get that phone out of my face. I'm not here to argue with you. This is my last warning. That place is off-limits. You go, and you will not walk away from it."

Years of dealing with underworld enforcers had put a low, heavy weight in my voice, and a few of the girls in the front row hunched their shoulders and edged back.

Mervyn, the class president, came striding over and shoved me hard on the shoulder.

"Christina! You're seriously not going to quit, are you?"

He used his height to point right in my face as he cursed at me.

"Cher's doing everyone a favor, setting us up to make some money, and you, who aren't putting in a single cent, want to stand here acting like some big bad wolf?"

"If you're just jealous that we can pull in appearance fees, then say it. Don't come in here making everyone sick with your bullshit about killers!"

I ignored Mervyn. I just kept my eyes on Cheryl.

"If you go tonight, once you're through the plant's front gate, getting back out won't be easy. Those people won't care whether you're college students or not."

Cheryl swung her hand and slapped it across my wrist, knocking my phone to the floor, the screen shattering to pieces on the terrazzo.

She crossed her arms and lifted her chin at me.

"A broke loser is a broke loser. Fit for nothing but rotting away at the bottom your whole life!"

"Ruining everyone's mood. Let me tell you, from now on, when this class gets together, someone like you can forget about showing your face!"

Mervyn tossed the shattered phone into the trash and pulled two hundred-dollar bills out of his wallet, throwing them down at my feet.

"Take the money and get lost. If we run into anything tonight, that's our business."

"You dare cut off everyone's payday? You think I can't make sure you don't survive at this school?"

The classmates around me looked at me with disgust all over their faces.

"Christina, enough already. Being broke is one thing, but do you have to be this nasty about it?"

"So selfish. She can't make any money herself, so she wants to smash everyone else's plate."

I looked at the two hundred on the floor, then at this crowd of righteously indignant college students.

Whatever small urge I'd had to save them was completely gone now.

I kicked the money aside and nodded.

"Fine. If you're all this determined to go get yourselves killed, I can't stop you."

I turned and walked out of the classroom.

Behind me came Cheryl's laughter and Mervyn's fawning flattery.

Since they thought I was the one blocking their payday, then tonight, these thirty-some fat pigs headed for slaughter could go run into it themselves.

By the time I walked out of the building, the sky had gone dark, thick clouds smothering the moon.

The death-energy of Ghost Night was starting to seep up out of the ground.

I glanced at my empty right hand. Tonight I wouldn't just be catching those thirty desperate men.

The way things were shaping up, I'd be dragging back a few fresh ghosts too, ones scared to death on the spot. My quota was locked in for good.