Page 101 of From Hell

“The letters were in the bedroom,” I whisper.

“Laine. I think they’re gone. The bedroom is gone. I’m going to try.…”

Her words don’t sink in. Nothing does. Everything goes dark and far away. Shadows grow and consume me. Soft rain falls like pins and needles, plastering the ruined dress to my soaked skin and sticking my hair to my face. I need to get home.

There is no home.

Then I need.…

I spin around suddenly, not knowing where I am. I’ve been walking for a good five minutes through shitty weather. There aren’t any streetlights here, and the moon has drifted behind gunmetal clouds, making everything seem darker than it should be.

“Laine?” Sage’s voice cuts through like a beacon, and so is the noise of someone behind me. Adrenaline, causing every cell to spark under my skin, wakes me up like a vat of coffee.

“Wait, I think. I hear something.” I turn around just as the darkness at the end of the street shifts and moves.

There’s someone there.

“I need to go.”

“Wait—”

I click the phone off. Heart pounding, hurrying as fast as I can, I get to the bend in the road and duck across it to the other side. This part of the road is brighter, with cars flying left and right. A corner shop is lit up from within, but it’s locked when I reach the entrance.

Fear screams through me when I look back and see someone stalking toward me. I can’t tell if its Addison or Jaxon. But I don’t care.

I break out into a run.

A black hackney cab appears with its amber light ablaze. I all but sprint into the road to flag it down, my heart threatening to leap out of my skin. Slamming the cab door behind me, I sink into the leather seat, hand clutching the door handle.

“Where to, love?”

I repeat my address.

As the taxi turns in the street to head the other way, past the hotel, I see him watching me from the corner, scowl on his lips, eyes like two black holes devoid of emotion as they follow me to the end of the road, sweeping past him, escaping him once again. So it wasn’t him on the street, chasing me.

My phone pings.

Unknown:

Leaving so soon?

Laine:

There’s a fire.…

Unknown:

Where?

Laine:

My house.

Unknown:

When you’ve dealt with it, come over to mine. I’ll have a present for you that I think you’ll like.

I don’t reply to that.