Wish You Were Her(24)
“I haven’t quite mastered Jonah’s system of bookselling yet, Vivienne,” she said, forcing her tone to be light and playful. “So, I don’t think I’m his favorite person.”
She wondered why a part of her secretly wanted him to agree with his mother’s assessment.
But as Jonah opened his mouth to say something, Simon suddenly clapped his hands and the bustling room fell silent.
“All right, players. We’re waiting on a few stragglers and then the game will begin. Does anyone not know how to play?”
Allegra hesitantly raised one hand. “I’ve got an idea but I’ve never played.”
“They don’t play games in your trailer between scenes?” Skye asked, and the girl beside her spluttered out a laugh which she quickly suppressed.
“That’s not funny,” snapped Grace Lancaster.
“I agree,” Vivienne said shortly and Allegra felt grateful for both of them.
“Okay, it’s super simple,” Simon said, maneuvering his way around people so he could reach Allegra. “I’m hosting, so I don’t play. I just moderate and narrate what’s happening. Everyone else picks a card and they don’t show anyone what they have. We have a bunch of ‘villagers’ and usually a couple of werewolves. You can have a doctor but we’ve given up on that.”
Simon began to shuffle a special deck of cards as he spoke.
“Once everyone has their part and their card, the game starts,” he went on. “We’ll have our first night phase. This is when I turn off the lights and the werewolves make their first kill. Everyone has to close their eyes, while the wolf or wolves pick their target. I will put the lights back up and narrate the night phase. The victim is out and the rest get to vote on who they think is a werewolf. We keep playing until everyone is caught, or the werewolves are discovered.”
“Got it,” Allegra said confidently and people made noises of appreciative anticipation.
“This is just one way to play, but it works for us,” Theo, Simon’s little brother, said with the cheerful authority of his twelve years and it made Allegra smile.
“All right, everyone find your spot in the room and I will start handing out the cards!” Simon decreed.
This charmed Allegra. She liked how social he seemed. How unapologetically keen he was to engage the whole group in a shared bit of fun.
She sat on the floor by Grace and Kerrie, and her hands felt full of electricity. The only social gatherings she had attended over the last couple of years had been wrap parties, and she had always been chaperoned. Everyone else had solidly been an adult. She had done ten-hour days on set, disappearing occasionally to be tutored. People her own age were strange, exotic creatures that she had always watched from afar.
Now she was in the scene, and very worried about getting her lines wrong.
In Lake Pristine, everyone seemed to know each other so well and age was not a factor. Simon’s mother was one of the group, as was Jonah’s. They were both chatting to Skye’s older brother, introduced earlier to Allegra as Carrick. The slightly surly but handsome cinema manager Arthur was there, too, with some of his friends. They were talking by the makeshift bar. One was a girl with lots of piercings, and she was holding hands with Hera, the woman who ran the arcade.
A card was handed to Allegra and she covertly checked it.
Werewolf.
“Keep your cards hidden,” Simon instructed, moving over to the dimmer switches on the wall once again. “Werewolf or Werewolves, be ready to choose your first kill of the night. Everyone else. Close your eyes.”
The room fell into near darkness. “Werewolf and werewolf only, open your eyes.”
Allegra did. She found herself staring into Jonah’s eyes, as he was the only other person in the room whose head was not bowed. They glared at one another as the realization hit; they would need to work together.
“Werewolf, choose your victim,” Simon instructed, as Allegra and Jonah continued to regard each other from their opposite sides of the spacious room.
Jonah pointed to Skye but Allegra quickly shook her head. That would be far too obvious, and her siblings would extract revenge on her behalf. She pointed to Grace’s brother. Jonah considered Arthur Lancaster and then nodded, albeit a little begrudgingly. Simon silently pointed to Arthur, too, to confirm their choice.
“Lights up! Wake up, townsfolk.”
Allegra used her best skills to pretend she was also opening her eyes with all of the others. She avoided looking at either Jonah or Arthur Lancaster, their oblivious victim.
“Townsfolk, something dreadful happened in the night,” Simon declared and people smirked, enjoying his melodramatic narration. “An esteemed member of our community was brutally slain by the werewolf (or werewolves) at large.”
Allegra watched Simon hold court. She certainly found his charm attractive. She enjoyed spending time with him. She loved his emails. Now that she had been in Lake Pristine for almost a week, the online exchanges had become more and more frequent, and she was loving the adorable book cameos. They had discussed books, movies and music, all without Allegra giving too much away. She still had an air of mystery, something he regularly teased her about. He would also end every email now with the words “wish you were here” and whenever Allegra responded, she was tempted to say that she already was.
The emails were a side of Simon she struggled to see in person. But his good-natured leading of the Werewolf game was promising—and that made Allegra hopeful, because the emails had become some of her favorite things to read. She had to get to know their author better, no matter how selfish or immature he might sometimes seem.