Page 12

Perry and Dex are downstairs watching a movie on Netflix and even though I’m working on my sketches, trying my hardest to get the right forms for a leather jacket—maybe a leather jacket partially inspired by the one I thought I saw today, the one belonging to the man who may or may not exist—but I just can’t get it right.

I guess I doze off with my head on the sketchpad and a charcoal pencil in my hand.

Three hard knocks seem to ricochet through my brain.

CHAPTER THREE

My head snaps up from my desk and I let out a muffled cry, heart bouncing in my chest as I try and rescue my thoughts from sleep.

I pull off the paper that’s stuck to my cheek and quickly look around. My bedroom is dark except for the light above my desk. I’m alone, though I could have sworn those three knocks came from someone pounding on the desk, beside my head. That’s how much it rattled me.

I try and catch my breath, taking air in deep and slow. I reach for my phone to check the time, wondering how long I’ve been asleep, wondering if Perry and Dex are still downstairs watching TV, when there’s a flutter at the window.

I gasp and whirl around, nearly falling out of my chair.

Something black flashes past outside the window, the light’s reflection on the glass obscuring most of it.

Holy shit.

I’m on the second floor but that doesn’t really matter because once upon a time, Perry saw a demon on the roof and then fell off said roof trying to run from it. I could never figure out why she even went out there but now I know.

Complete morbid curiosity.

I slowly get out of my chair and edge toward the window, heart in my throat, watching my reflection get closer as I approach it. I reach for the window edge to open it the rest of the way.

I’m just about to open it when an intense chill runs over my limbs, like someone’s just dumped a bucket of ice water down my arms and back.

A slow, laborious creak comes from behind me.

From the closet.

I freeze.

Suddenly the window doesn’t seem so interesting anymore.

Bony fingers of terror skitter down my spine and I’m turning around.

The closet door is open a few inches even though I know it was closed before.

Maybe it was the wind, I tell myself.

There is no wind. If anything, the room has become still, like all the air and smell and life has been sucked out of it and the only thing left is dust.

Maybe I’m dreaming.

I’m always dreaming.

With that in mind, my feet start moving across the room, the rug cold on my soles. I’m poised, every nerve in my body ready to spring, my heart beating so fast I swear it has wings.

I stop outside the closet door and stare dumbly at the crack. The space taunts me with the dark depths behind it. In this moment it feels like it’s not a closet at all, instead it’s something infinite. A doorway to something horrible.

My hand slowly reaches for the doorknob.

I pause, my hand shaking, losing all nerve to grab it.

Then . . .

“Help me, Ada,” a faint voice rasps from inside the closet.

The voice of my mother.

The light in the closet goes on.

I scream.

My whole body launches backward and I’m running for the door out of my room and into the hallway.

I run right into Dex.

“Ada,” he says, grabbing my shoulders. “What is it, what happened?”

My mouth flaps open, soundless as I stare at him and then Perry as she appears behind him, coming out of my old bedroom.

“Something is in my closet,” I manage to say, my whole body trembling now.

The door at the end of the hall opens and my dad stares at us, slipping on his robe and sliding his glasses down on his face.

“It’s past midnight. What’s going on?” he says gruffly, voice hoarse from sleep.

I look up at Dex, not sure what to say.

“She had a dream,” Perry says to him quickly. “It’s nothing. Go back to sleep, dad.”

We stand there in the hallway, halfway to my room, watching my dad carefully. Thankfully he takes the bait, even though I know, I know I wasn’t sleeping this time. He frowns at me with a mix of exasperation and concern on his face before stepping back inside his room.

“Stay behind me,” Dex says, pushing me so Perry and I are behind him. Like hell I’d want to go back in first.

Dex walks to the middle of my room while Perry and I hang around the doorway.

“This closet?” Dex asks, pointing at it. It’s still open a crack though the light is off now. “I only ask because it feels like Perry and I are sleeping in an extension of your closet too.”