Page 34 of We’re All Going to Die Tonight!

“Or they’re hurt, too,” Javi finishes.

Caulder shrugs. “We don’t know. We don’t know anything. Hopefully, it was all just a failed burglary and whoever it is took off.”

“In this rain?” Kaitlyn demands. “Who would choose tonight to rob this place?”

“Maybe they thought it’d be easier to get away with it with the storm,” Javi says. “Make it harder for police to get out here or something.”

“Regardless, we need to be calm,” Caulder says. “We need to think this through.”

“Or,” Emerson says, “we need to open our fucking eyes.”

He strides toward the center of the kitchen, near a knife block that sits on the counter. When his glare lands on me, my heart stutters.

“You,” Emerson growls, pointing his finger at me. “You.”

There’s rage boiling in his eyes. And when I think about it, it’s not hard to figure out why. Emerson’s brother is—was—Mr. Jay’s best friend. Their families are close.

And everyone knows I had an argument with Mr. Jay last night.

Caulder even heard it.

And now…he’s dead.

“You aren’t seriously suggesting that Avery did this, are you?” Caulder says, stepping in front of Emerson.

“I thought you said some guy attacked you and Lucas,” Kaitlyn says. “What happened to that story?”

“This might not be the same person,” Emerson says. “I fought off the guy who came after me and Lucas, but we don’t know if they’re the same person who attacked Jay. What we do know is that Winslow here had it out for Jay.”

Emerson’s eyes blaze on me, flickering to Caulder for a moment before returning.

“She was the one screaming at him last night,” Emerson says. “Are we really going to ignore that? And you two could’ve gone outside while we were still hiding.”

“Except we didn’t,” I snap. “We were inside the entire time.”

“Yeah,” Caulder adds. “Don’t you remember your little game where you trapped us in a room?”

Emerson’s eyes dart around. “You could’ve gone outside while we hid—”

“We’d be soaking wet if we’d been outside,” Caulder argues.

“You could’ve changed!” Emerson snarls, advancing on me. “Just admit it, Winslow. You wanted him dead. You—”

“Stop it,” Caulder says, holding his hand out to keep Emerson from moving closer. “We’re going to take a fucking beat here, all right? We’re not going to hurl accusations at anyone. That doesn’t help us.”

“I dunno,” Javi says. “I can think of someone else who might have some explaining to do.”

He walks over to the knife block. Unlike Emerson, though, he doesn’t just stand next to it. He reaches over and grabs the whole block, turning to set it behind him on the counter—away from Emerson’s reach, I assume. But then he runs his fingers over the handles before grabbing one and rotating back around so he’s facing us with the knife in his hand.

He holds it casually, his eyes firmly on Emerson. Emerson looks from him to the knife, backing up.

“What the fuck, man?” Emerson says, the fear unmistakable in his voice.

“You’re the one who wanted to do the prank on Caulder and Avery,” he says. “You’re the one who suggested we do all that weird rapture prank shit and then hide. Now Lucas is unconscious, Jay’s dead, and Dorman and McCullough are missing.”

“Yeah,” Emerson says, gesturing to the blood all over his clothes. “I’m also the one who got attacked. And why would I kill Jay? He’s like family.”

He has Javi there. I can’t think of a single reason why Emerson would want Jay dead.