I quickly shut and locked my door. Mars hadn’t been the only one to come down here. Niles was skulking around the servants wing. My heart slamming against my chest wall, I grabbed my phone and tapped out a message to Kinley, making sure she was in and had her door locked. I wanted to text Mars, but I didn’t have a way. How messed up was that? He’d made me come, but I didn’t even have his phone number. Vowing to change that, I messaged Chef Andrews and let him know what I’d seen.
On it, he messaged back.
By morning, all the staff would be on high alert.
Still agitated, I sank onto the edge of my bed, knowing there was no way I’d go to sleep anytime soon. I’d be afraid to close my eyes. My hands gripped the edge of my mattress, and I stared at the wall opposite me.
I couldn’t stay here much longer. I had to figure out a way to leave. The double edged sword was, I’d need a job to support me and enough money to rent a place since this one had room and board. But I needed to interview places, and I could never get away from here during the day to do it.
As I looked around, as if my bland white walls held the answer to my morass, my gaze fell on the bag Mars had brought.
Stumbling over, I grabbed it and brought it back to my bed. The message on the enclosed card merely said: if your answer is yes, meet me in the driveway at five tomorrow night. We’ll be gone until late on Sunday.
Brow furrowed, I opened the boxes side by side on the mattress. It didn’t matter where he wanted to go, my answer was yes. The boxes contained clothes. Costumes to be more specific.
Picking up the paper that had been tucked into one of the packages, I found a ticket to a Character Con in Chicago. Mars was inviting me to go away with him. To play. To cosplay. But most importantly, I’d get to see another part of his life.
Taking a deep breath, I set down the ticket and closed the boxes. If I planned to be ready to go at five tomorrow, I had to pack tonight.