“To be clear, I’m scared too,” Miguel said. “But I don’t have as much of a choice. These are my and my little brother’s pets. We love them too much for me to let fear get in the way. Look, we all survived last time, didn’t we?”

Even Frankie had to nod.

“Then we’ll get through this game just like we got through the last one,” Miguel went on, standing up to brush the cracker crumbs from his shirt. “Who’s with me? Who’s ready to go to the house on Gurley Street?”

“I am,” Kylie answered immediately, standing to join Miguel. “Let’s do this thing.”

“You know I’m there,” Danny said, shuffling over to join the other two. “I bet I’m gonna get some real wicked footage throughout the course of this. Bring it on, Game Master.”

Matt smiled and joined the group. “Of course I’m in,” he said, turning to Becca, who was still sitting beside Frankie, biting her lip nervously. “What about you, Becks?”

Becca’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You mean to say you’re all going to go, whether we join you or not? You’d actually leave us behind?”

“I’m sorry, Becca,” Miguel said, standing his ground. “But yes. We’d like to have you with us, of course, but I’m just not okay with sitting on this a minute longer. Pets’ lives may be at stake.”

Becca and Frankie considered it, meeting each other’s eyes in silence. As if communicating in some unspoken language, Becca raised her eyebrow just the slightest bit, and Frankie responded with a nod.

“Fine,” Becca said. “We’ll do it.”

“Yes!” Kylie and Miguel cheered, rushing forward to exchange high fives with Becca and Frankie. Danny got the whole scene on tape, of course. Matt thought that it’d make for a great moment in the documentary.

“One crew, coming together once again for round two,” Danny narrated, moving the camera excitedly over the group.

“Okay,” Becca said with one last sigh, then stood up straight and clapped her hands together. “If we’re really gonna do this, we need to go prepared. Not like last time. We have to do whatever we can to stay a few steps ahead of the Game Master.”

“Agreed.” Matt nodded. “We need to gear up somehow.”

“We’ll need flashlights,” Becca said. “I can’t imagine that we’d regret having extra light sources handy.”

“And I’ll make sure to bring some extra batteries for my camera,” Danny said. “Don’t want to risk running out and missing anything that might help us later on during a rewatch. I’ll grab my motion detector, too.”