Chapter 3
I shot her a look in the rearview mirror. Please. We'd all been in this industry long enough. No one here was born yesterday. Was she seriously trying to run a ghost story inside a ghost show?
Just then, Max chimed in with a dry, sideways grin. "It's the 21st century—are we still doing the whole damsel-in-distress thing?"
Guess there really was an idiot in the room.
Not that it surprised me. His company was my agency's rival—of course he wasn't going to be friendly.
The two of them kept going back and forth, and my patience was wearing thin. I was just about to fire back when—
"Beep. Beep. Beep" The car's system suddenly went haywire.
This was a brand-new smart car, and its biggest selling point was the safety system that could automatically dodge pedestrians. If it was going off now, that meant there was someone nearby.
Except we were in the middle of nowhere. A graveyard. At midnight. Where exactly were these "people" supposed to come from?
The constant beeping was grating on everyone's nerves. The entire car fell into a weird, heavy silence.
"This is just a production stunt, right?" Max asked cautiously.
Ahead of us was pitch black. And even though we all knew it was probably a setup, the creepiness spread fast—especially when shadowy figures kept flashing past both sides of the car on the dashboard screen.
[Jesus, pulling this at midnight?]
[I'm dead—did you see Ryan subtly scoot away?]
[Half past midnight, driving in a graveyard, random people popping up... Can this show get any more unhinged?]
The live comments were full of laughing emojis.
Just when everyone was waiting to see what the producers would pull next, the car suddenly lurched forward with a violent jolt—like it had slammed into something.
Sophie screamed before she could stop herself. Everyone jolted in their seats.
Everyone except Lucas and me. The rest of the car reacted hard.
"Emily, do you even know how to drive?"
"What the hell was that?"
"Are you trying to give us a heart attack at this hour?"
I turned around and said quietly, "The car stalled."
The whole car went dead silent. The feed seemed to freeze for a full five seconds. Everyone stayed locked in their original poses, like a paused movie.
In the long, tense silence, I kept trying to start the car, but it just wouldn't budge.
Then Max spoke up, his eyes darting around. "Have you guys ever heard this before? If your car randomly dies in a cemetery, you're supposed to get out and say something nice. Like, apologize. Then you can pass safely."
He swallowed. "Maybe someone should go try?" When no one responded, he rubbed his hands together and glanced toward Ryan in the back seat.
Ryan, who'd been trying to blend into the background, just stared straight ahead, then quietly scooted over to the side.
[LOL Ryan's tough-guy image just shattered.]
[Is it just me, or is Max all talk? At least Ryan was scared quietly—this guy couldn't handle it himself and still tried to send others out.]
[Honestly, Sophie was acting too. Didn't she say she's got nerves of steel? But she was the one screaming the loudest just now—even louder than Emily.]
[Correction—Emily hasn't made a sound this whole time.]
The comments kept flying, and people started noticing that I'd stayed calm the whole time. Like an emotionally stable capybara—unbothered, unfazed.
After the engine failed a few more times, I even turned to the back seat and asked casually, "Want me to go take a look?"