She was met with little nods, and Becca could tell her friends were finally starting to understand what she was trying to say. “All right, Becca,” Frankie said with a sigh after the silence. “Who should go with who? And who should do what?”

“Me, you, and Danny can go into the house, like the Game Master said to,” Becca answered, and at the sound of his name, Danny moved over to stand between Becca and the door to the creepy old house, his camera ready to capture everything. “Matt, Kylie, and Miguel—you should go around to the backyard and check it out. Matt and I hardly got to look around back there before we heard Frankie calling at the mailbox. Maybe there’s something out there that’ll reveal a clue about the Game Master or where they’re hiding Elephant and Nacho.”

“Roger that,” Kylie confirmed with a nod, and Matt and Miguel started making their way down the porch steps. “We’ll catch up with you when we can.”

“Let us know if you find anything,” Miguel called to Becca as they disappeared around the corner.

“Be careful,” Matt told them, and Becca nodded and offered a thumbs-up in promise.

“Okay,” Becca said after the second group was out of sight, turning back toward Frankie and Danny. “Are you ready?”

“I can’t believe I’m about to see the inside of a haunted house,” Frankie said, wonder in their voice. “It’s like a nightmare, but I can’t help but be a little curious. Haven’t you always wondered what was in here?”

Becca thought back to the cold, terrible feeling she’d always gotten whenever she walked past Gurley Street or thought about the house. “Yes,” she said with a gulp. “Why couldn’t the Game Master have chosen, like, a candy store?”

“That’d be pretty . . . sweet,” Danny said from the behind the camera with a little laugh. “Pun intended.”

That made Becca and Frankie smile a little bit. “Let’s do this if we’re gonna do it,” Frankie said, and then turned to wrap their hand around the doorknob. With a twist and a push, the front door swung open, creaking and groaning as it went.

“This is it,” Becca said, stepping between Frankie and Danny. “Let’s go in at the same time. On the count of three.”

“One,” Frankie said, taking a deep breath.

“Two,” added Danny, who eagerly turned on the light mounted on the front of his camera.

“Three!” they all cried together, and stepped into the shadows of the old house.

It took a second for Becca’s eyes to adjust to the darkness. At first, she considered running her hands along the wall to look for a light switch, but she quickly stopped when she saw that the wall was covered in dust and peeling wallpaper.

“Whoa,” Frankie said under their breath. “This is wild.”