“Great idea,” Danny said, following Miguel to the gate. “We’ll check out this front half of the yard.”

“Me and Frankie can check out the sides,” Kylie volunteered, and the two linked arms and went off.

“I guess that leaves you and me to explore the back,” Matt said to Becca with a nervous chuckle. “How’d we get stuck with the spookiest part?”

“Maybe the back of the house is less creepy than the front,” Becca tried, which put a smile on Matt’s face. “Unlikely, I know, but let’s go for it.”

“After you, Becks,” he said, abandoning his scooter by the mailbox.

The sound of dead leaves crunching beneath their sneakers chilled Becca’s bones a little bit. This house was straight out of a scary movie. Hopefully there were no monsters or chainsaw-wielding madmen lurking in any of these shadows.

Don’t be ridiculous, she told herself. You’re letting your imagination get too carried away.

“I wonder if the Game Master is watching us right now,” Matt whispered, which didn’t help things one bit.

“If they are, I hope they see this,” Becca said, breaking out into the silliest dance she could think of. Matt’s eyes widened in surprise as he took in the sight of her before he burst out laughing. Becca was glad—they needed to lighten the mood around here a bit. She was just glad that Danny’s camera hadn’t been close enough to see it.

“I’m going to need you to do that every time stuff gets too spooky around here,” Matt said, wiping his eyes as he stopped laughing. “That was the greatest thing I’ve seen in a long time.”

“We’ll see,” she said, out of breath but still smiling.

When they made their way around the back of the house, Becca was both relieved and disappointed to see that there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary in sight. She turned toward Matt to ask him if he wanted to go back when the sound of Frankie’s yells stopped her.

“I found something!” Frankie was crying out. “Everybody come here!”

They found Frankie and the others gathered around the mailbox. There, stuck to the back of it, was a familiar green, backlit GM sticker.

The Game Master symbol!

Matt

With an excited gasp, Matt opened the mailbox and peered inside. “Whoa,” he said, reaching his hand into the dark cubby as the others watched. He winced as he felt around the mailbox, hoping that there weren’t any creepy crawlies hidden inside. “There’s something in here.”

“What is it?” Becca asked, and Miguel bounced up and down on his toes.

“There are a few things.”