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19

Aiden

Where the fuck was she?

I fisted my black hair once more as I paced just outside the house. That shady fucker, Heath, had promised us he would find her. I had no idea how he intended to do that, and to be completely honest, I didn’t care. So help me God, if he was playing with me…

I allowed that thought to taper off as I glanced down at Tanner, who sat on the driveway, his arms wrapped around his knees. We’d only been separated from him and Bianaca for less than ten minutes before he materialized in front of us. Besides a claw mark on his right arm, he appeared relatively unscathed.

His eyes were hardened, darkened, the blue nearly black. Whatever he’d experienced before he arrived here was enough to rattle him, though that could also be an aftereffect of his time in that fucked-up theme park.

Fucked up.

I couldn’t help but snort at how…tame those two words seemed in comparison to everything we had endured.

When we exited the theme park, we’d found ourselves once again in infinite blackness. I wanted to claw and tear at the darkness until it shattered, until light flooded the world once more. I was pretty sure when I returned home, I would sleep with a damn nightlight on like some simpering, whiny child.

In the distance, a speck of gold had beckoned us forward, and we hadn’t hesitated to follow it.

Beau had recognized the house immediately.

Bianaca’s home.

Which meant…

Which meant that another layer of Purgatory was meant for her.

I wanted to scream at the injustice of the world, at the unfairness of it all, but I knew I needed to remain levelheaded.

Even though every molecule inside of my body wanted to find Bianaca, drag her back to us, and spank that pert ass until she screamed my name.

The house was small, only two levels, and had a gray roof with black patches, almost as if whoever owned it chose not to pay for the necessary maintenance. I half feared that it would cave in on our heads if we were to enter the building. The siding was constructed out of light blue beams, though more than one was freckled with holes and dirt. The long, gray driveway curved steeply down, disappearing into the unrelenting darkness surrounding us. A single porchlight, almost orange in appearance, illuminated the entire front yard. A swinging chair rested amidst the overgrown weeds and decaying flowers and hung precariously from a stand, appearing seconds from breaking completely. The darkness pressed in on either side of the house, allowing us access to only the front yard, half of the driveway, and the house itself.

“We need to go after her!” Kace exclaimed suddenly, jumping to his feet. He began to bounce on the balls of them, his gaze intent on the darkness. As if some invisible beast had heard his words, a roar reverberated through the blackness, and every hair on my arms stood at attention.

Beau placed a calming hand on his shoulder, but Kace shrugged him away.

“Kace…” Tanner slowly lifted his head and pierced the auburn-haired boy with an indecipherable look. “You don’t want to go in there.” Violet circles lined the skin beneath both of his eyes, another indication that he’d been shaken by everything that had happened.

Kace’s eyes flared with banked fire. “If B is down there—”

“Heath said he’ll handle it,” I interrupted.

He whirled on me. “And you believe him?”

Worry for my friend consumed me. I didn’t know a lot about bipolar disorder, but I knew his lows were often accompanied by unspeakable highs. It was why he disappeared for days at a time. Sometimes, he would lie in bed, not moving, eating, or speaking, until I feared he would waste away. And other times…

Other times he was eccentric, unpredictable, his mind unable to focus on one thing in particular. He grasped at life with a zeal that honestly made me afraid. The risks he took were deadlier, his decisions were often based on impulse, and he never gave a second thought to his own health and safety.

Before Bianaca, before she came into his life, his highs would often involve some combination of drugs, booze, girls, and stupid dares. But now…now they revolved around her.

“You’re no help to her if you’re dead,” I drawled, and his eyes narrowed into slits.

“Fuck you, Aiden,” he hissed, baring his teeth like a rabid animal. “Just because I’m the only one who seems to care about her—”

“Watch it,” Tanner interjected, his tone low and full of warning. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You guys are content to let her get eaten by fucking monsters—”