Page 7

My hand drops again.
Did he see me through the peephole?
Except the door doesn’t open.
Oh my god, this is ridiculous!
I raise my hand again, set on knocking for real, when a deeper voice cuts through the door.
“…bought this under your own name, you stupid piece of shit.”
I freeze.
“No! Don’––t” Lee starts.
But whatever he was about to say, gets cut off with a pop.
Adrenaline fires in my veins. My fight or flight triggered by a sound I don’t understand, but that I instinctively know is bad.
I lower my now trembling hand as a thud sounds from the other side of the door.
My feet walk me backward, away from Lee’s apartment. Away from dark energy swirling behind that door.
He just fell. Everything is fine.
I’m sure it’s fine.
My butt bumps into the wall, startling me. And the “oops” is out of my mouth before I can stop it. A stupid lifetime reaction to always feelingin the wayorout of place.
I press my lips together, but it’s too late. Because the door directly in front of me swings open.
My eyes land on the chest that’s at my eye level, and my gaze drops to the scene on the floor inside the apartment.
Feet. Legs. The torso twisted to the side. The face turned toward me. Looking right at me. With open, unseeing eyes. The dark circle in the middle of Lee’s forehead. The slowly growing pool of angry dark blood beneath him.
Fear, like I’ve never known before, floods my body.
He’s dead.
I’m looking at a dead person.
“You.” A somewhat familiar voice snaps my attention back up to the man in the doorway.
To the killer.
To King.
He opens his mouth, but I don’t wait to hear what he has to say. I turn and I run.
“Fuck!” King’s snapped word makes me pump my legs faster.
I just saw a dead man!
My stupid little flats slap against the industrial carpet with quiet thwacks.
I’ve never seen a dead body before!
A door slams shut somewhere behind me. Lee’s apartment?