The Invitation
The gravel road stretched on longer than any of them expected, a pale ribbon unspooling through trees that seemed to lean closer the deeper they drove. Lily gripped the steering wheel with both hands, though the car needed no correction; the path was straight enough, just endless, swallowed on either side by black pines that blotted out what remained of the sun.
"Are we sure this is right?" she asked, glancing at the dashboard clock. Six forty-two. The invitation had said arrive by seven.
"GPS says two more minutes." Mimi didn't look up from her phone, scrolling through something that had nothing to do with directions. "Relax. It's not like we're driving into a horror movie."
"That's exactly the kind of thing someone says right before they drive into a horror movie," Ivy said from the back seat, and laughed, delighted with herself. She'd had her window cracked the whole ride, letting in the cold, resinous smell of the woods, and now she leaned forward between the two front seats, her camera already in hand. "I can't believe none of us remember signing up for this. Doesn't that seem insane to anybody else?"
"I remember something," Mimi said. "Vaguely. Like a Facebook thing? An…