Page 6

I didn’t think, I just acted. I pulled out my suitcase and started packing.

I didn’t bother folding things neatly, choosing instead to stuff everything inside whatever way they would fit.

I just needed the necessities. Everything else I could leave behind.

None of it mattered, anyway, and if it did, then I would simply replace it.

If there was one thing I had learned in life, it was that everything was replaceable. Even people. And I hadn’t felt more like a replacement than I did in that moment.

I zipped up the suitcase so fast I almost caught my fingers.

I snatched them out of the way at the last second before taking a deep breath and trying again, but this time with a little more care.

My breaths were short and shallow, almost to the point of hyperventilation, so I closed my eyes and took some deep breaths to ground myself, repeating the mantras I had adopted as a child to help me through my anxiety.

Whatever happened, happened.

I am in control of myself, and no one else.

I am not responsible for other people’s actions.

The only person who truly cares about me is me.

That last one had tears stinging my eyes, the burn unwelcome.

It had been a long time since I’d felt the need to remind myself of that.

I thought I’d moved past it, but it seemed recent events had set me back.

I was afraid to be proven correct, but the longer Blake stayed away, the longer he went without contacting me, the more my old trauma resurfaced.

All I was left with as I dragged my suitcase out of the tent, my purse slung haphazardly over my shoulder, were the horrible thoughts running through my brain. I wasn’t enough. I would never belong. He didn’t love me the way I loved him. I wasn’t welcome here. He didn’t want me.

Each and every thought was like a knife to my heart, reopening old wounds from when I’d spent my entire childhood believing I was worthless and unwanted.

Tossed aside like I meant nothing to the people who were supposed to love and care for me.

Ignored, neglected, and constantly endangered.

Whatever was happening with Kali and Blake was dredging up all those old feelings until I could barely discern the past from the present.

I had to get out of here before I reverted back to that pathetic little girl who felt the only safe place was a cupboard under the sink, the one that hid and made herself smaller just to survive.

I never wanted to be that weak and helpless again.

A low growl sounded nearby, so quiet it almost went unnoticed.

My stride faltered as I left the tent behind, but I was quick to keep moving.

With the surge of old emotions, I dismissed it as my mind playing tricks on me, because there was no way I was hearing those sounds again.

They were figments of my imagination when I was a child, just more monsters hiding in the shadows.

My therapist had told me it was all in my head, and they’d gone away, so it couldn’t possibly be them.

But no. There it was again.

Louder.

Closer.

I ignored it, and the chills that skirted up my back.

But what I couldn’t ignore were the glowing red eyes peering at me from the trees.

Their forms were shrouded in shadows, ambiguous enough that if I tried, I could pretend I wasn’t seeing anything at all.

I could keep sticking my head in the sand and act like nothing was going on, but a flash of long, sharp teeth accompanied the next growl, and I knew I couldn’t fake it.

My blood turned to ice in my veins, and I froze in place.

It wasn’t possible. They were nightmares I’d made up in my head when I was a child to process my trauma; nothing more than my brain turning the bad men into something monstrous so I wouldn’t have to see the faces of the people who had hurt me and be scared.

If they were mindless beasts with sharp teeth and deadly claws that kept their distance, they weren’t people with harsh words, derisive sneers, and iron grips that left bruises on both my skin and my soul.

But they weren’t real, and the only monsters I knew were people.

It had taken me years and hard work to come to terms with that.

And yet, I was seeing them now, the exact same creatures of darkness that had once plagued my every waking and unconscious dreams, and I couldn’t deny it even if I’d wanted to.

My monsters were back.

Panic set in fast, and instinct took over. Fear was now controlling my actions, but there was at least a pinch of logic still remaining that allowed me to move in the right direction. I needed to get out of here. I needed Chance. He would know what to do.

I started to run, and when my suitcase snagged on the uneven ground, I dropped it without a second thought, too desperate to escape the beasts that were hunting me from the trees to let something as silly as clothes hold me back.

Letting the extra weight go allowed me to push my legs faster, and I sprinted down the gravel driveway towards Rhodes’ house.

I didn’t slow when it came into view, because I could sense them following me.

They were keeping pace, their growls and snarls echoing around me, taunting me with flashes of glowing red eyes peering through the foliage.

I never looked right at them, but I could still see them from the corner of my eye.

I slammed into the front door at full speed, knocking the breath from my lungs. I pounded my fists against it and screamed. ‘Let me in, let me in, let me in!’

Suddenly, the door swung open, and I practically fell inside, kicking it shut behind me so hard that it rattled on its hinges.

‘Woah, what the fuck?’ Rhodes asked, hands held in the air as he backed away from where I was bent over, panting heavily.

‘Where’s… Chance?’ I asked through my heaving breaths. My eyes were so wide that the air stung them as I whipped my head back and forth, searching for my brother-in-law. Rhodes, Mikey, Ashe and Gloria were crowding the room, but there was no Chance.

‘He… went next door,’ Rhodes said slowly. Cautiously.

‘He what?’ Ashe shrieked, jerking back like she’d been slapped.

‘What the fuck?’ Gloria joined in, equally as perturbed. ‘What was he thinking?’

‘No… No, no, no. How could he be so stupid? ’ Ashe cried, hands pulling at her hair. She looked completely dismayed.

‘Next door…’ I said the words out loud, sounding them out as if it would make sense why that was so bad. But then I remembered that was where Kali was supposedly buried, where she may have been murdered, and my spine snapped straight in alarm. ‘He went after the killer on his own? When?’

Mikey looked like he was going to be sick, and he swayed where he stood. Rhodes gently pushed him to lean against the wall, and the slimmer man shot him a grateful look before admitting something that turned my own stomach with its implication. ‘A little over twenty-four hours ago.’

‘Wait a minute… I thought he was with you?’ Ashe directed her question to me, unable to keep the accusation from bleeding through in her tone, and I didn’t take kindly to it.

‘I haven’t seen him since I left here yesterday,’ I said, failing to maintain my composure, so it came out snappier than intended. I wasn’t too cut up about it, though, since she was apparently trying to blame me for Chance going missing.

She didn’t seem to care about that, however, because her attention suddenly whipped to the men. ‘You knew?’

Both men looked at their feet, ashamed that they’d kept quiet, quite possibly to the detriment of their own friend’s life.

I wasn’t sure what to do with this information.

Selfishly, I needed Chance because if my demons were, in fact, real, then I was going to need all the help I could get.

I wasn’t equipped to deal with anything paranormal, and I was scared out of my wits.

Now, he could possibly be… I couldn’t even think it.

‘Has anyone called him?’ I asked, my voice shrill in my panic.

‘I’ll try now,’ Ashe said, already pulling out her phone and dialling his number. She put it on speakerphone so we could all hear, but it went straight to voicemail. Either his phone was dead, or…

She tried again. And again. Each time with the same result. I could see her beginning to unravel, and Gloria was quick to usher her away to start damage control. The police were going to need to be involved, especially if he’d already been MIA for over twenty-four hours.

Fuck, this was bad. This was so, so bad.

‘Someone needs to call the police,’ I instructed. I didn’t recognise the sound of my voice. It was flat, like someone had trampled all over my emotions until they were nothing more than flimsy, pancaked remains.

‘We were going to if he wasn’t back by tonight,’ Mikey admitted sullenly, but we both knew that wasn’t good enough.

He never should have allowed Chance to run off into danger on his own.

If Kali’s killer was next door, and it was the same person responsible for all the other spirits they’d claimed were lingering, then we could be dealing with a serial killer.

And they’d let Chance run right to them.

I had the worst feeling in my gut that told me we weren’t going to be seeing him alive again.

If I’d felt helpless before, it was nothing compared to now.

And when my gaze skimmed past the window, red eyes flashed.