She drank a couple of mouthfuls of water and wiped her face. “Hugo’s brother, Billy, was there. They were right outside the bathroom door so I could hear them. Billy was screaming at Hugo about stealing from him, and how he was in deep shit because Hugo had taken stuff from his apartment. Billy said, ‘You don’t even know what you’ve done.’ Hugo told him to fuck off and leave him alone. He went back to fooling around with the girl he was with. Billy went upstairs and came back down with a knife and just went sick. He started with Hugo, and he went around the room. The music was so loud, no one could really hear anything, and the lights were off except for some candles they had burning. I thought it was over and then a girl came out of the bedroom, and Billy saw her, so he went in there. I was so scared he was going to see me, so I stayed really quiet, even though I was crying and freaking out about Brooke cuz I knew she was in that bedroom. He came out of there, and was breathing really hard. I was still peeking through the crack in the bathroom door. I held my breath, and I was praying so hard he wouldn’t see me.

“And then he went upstairs, and I heard the front door open. As soon as I knew he was gone, I ran for my phone and asked my friend Davey to come get me. I went into the bedroom to find Brooke.” Hoda wiped her face and took another sip of water. “There was blood everywhere, but someone had put a comforter over her, so he didn’t see her. I could feel her chest moving so I grabbed a sheet and wrapped it around her and dragged her out of there. I went into the garage and waited for Davey to come. He showed up with one of his friends and he helped me get her out of there.”

“Did Davey know what you’d seen in the Springers’ house?”

Hoda shook her head. “I didn’t tell anyone. Even Nico doesn’t know why I was so upset.”

“Why did you and Davey take Brooke to her aunt’s house?”

“Because her aunt would know what to do. Brooke’s mom tends to freak out over the slightest thing, but Brooke always said her aunt was kind of cool. Plus she’s a cop, so it just seemed like the right thing to do. We watched for them to come home. If they didn’t come soon, we were going to call nine-one-one.”

Sam tucked her trembling hands under her arms so Faith wouldn’t see how undone she was after hearing how close Brooke had come to being murdered. “What do you think?” Sam asked Faith.