Page 7 of The Dinner Party

“Oh.” He looks disappointed, but nods in understanding. “I see. Well, thank you for taking me this far. You’re very kind.”

“No problem.”

You sit there, waiting for Jasper to exit your car. But he isn’t moving. He’s just sitting there, staring at you, a strange look in his eyes. The light of the full moon makes the white hairs in his beard almost look like tiny worms.

“Um,” you say, “I really have to get going. Unless you’re coming to the dinner party?” You laugh, although it comes out choked. “Seriously, though. I don’t want to be late.”

But he doesn’t budge. Instead, he reaches out his large hands and wraps them around your throat.

You try to scream, but you can’t because his hands are cutting off your windpipe. His grip tightens until you start to see spots, and then your vision fades entirely.

You’re going to die. This man is going to kill you.

You are losing consciousness, and your final thought before you succumb to death is that if only you hadn’t picked up this hitchhiker, your night would have gone completely differently.

THE END

Want to try for a different ending? Turn back to Chapter 1 (page 1)!

12

“I can take you to the cabin,” you say. “No problem.”

“Thank you,” Jasper says. “You’re so kind.”

You are kind, and you’ve earned some good karma by picking up the hitchhiker. It’s not your fault you’ve had a run of bad luck lately, but hopefully, that’s about to change. You can feel it.

You turn down the dark, narrow road, relying on the beam of the headlights to see what’s in front of you. You drive slowly because it’s still hard to see, and the path is only somewhat paved. If anything happens to this car, Blair will definitely kill you. You’re getting worried that one of the branches could scratch the car, and you start to think this was a mistake, but it’s too late now.

After a few minutes, you come across a cabin in a clearing. You pull up in front of it and throw the car into park.

“Well,” you say, “here you are!”

“Thank you so much, Sloan,” Jasper says. “You don’t know how much I appreciate this.”

“I’m happy to help.”

He glances over at the cabin, then back at you. “Listen, would you like to come in for a minute? I know you’ve got to be somewhere, but you’ve obviously been driving a long time. You should take a minute to stop and stretch your legs. Have a cup of tea.”

You look at the time display on the dashboard. You are making very good time. “Well…”

“Come on,” Jasper urges you. “It’s the least I can do for you after you picked me up and brought me here.”

“Well…”

To follow Jasper into his cabin, turn to Chapter 13 (page 31)

To continue on your way, turn to Chapter 11 (page 27)

13

You’ve been sitting in this car for almost 90 minutes. Your back is starting to ache, and you have a cramp in your right calf. It would certainly be nice to stretch your legs a bit. And you’re making excellent time. There’s no point in being early, is there?

“Sure,” you say, “I’d love to come in for a minute.”

You climb out of the car and are horrified to discover that there are long scratches from the branches running all along the doors. Oh God, Blair is going to kill you. But you’ll worry about that later.

Jasper leads you to the cabin. But as you get closer, you notice that it’s far more run-down than you realized. In fact, it almost looks abandoned. You wonder if it was a good idea to agree to come inside, but at this point, it’s too late to change your mind. You are already committed to this choice.