Page 23 of Raine

I watch his retreating back as the door closes behind him, mulling over everything he’d said to me only moments ago.

Pushing it to the back of my mind because I don’t want to think about it anymore, I close the distance, shut the front door, and lock it.

My eyes flick to the stairs, and a small smile creeps onto my face. I have a date with a journal, and I’m both excited and nervous about finding out who it belonged to.

Chapter10

Raine

As soon as Justyce left and I locked the front door, I ran up the stairs and sat down on the floor next to the journal. Nervous energy pumped through my body, causing butterflies to erupt in my stomach.

Running my hand over the cover, questions begin whirling in my mind, and I wonder what I’m going to find once I start reading.

Tracing the Tartarus Mafia skull with my index finger, I take a deep breath and open the book. The front page is yellowed from old age, the spot where it says this diary belongs to, is empty.

My eyebrows cave along with my stomach, and with shaky hands and bated breath, I flip to the next page and noticed the handwriting immediately. Tears spring to my eyes, blurring my vision, a sob wrenching from my throat, and pain slashing across my heart.

Wiping the tears away with the side of my hand, I run my fingers along the writing, memories detonating in my mind and hitting me for six.

“Raine!”I hear Babushka’s voice call my name, and I giggle from the inside of my treehouse in the woods outside.

“You’re going to get into trouble, Raine.” Arrow remarks, and I smile at him.

“Ssshh, she’ll hear us.”

He scoffs. “She can’t hear us from here. She’s like a hundred years old.”

My mouth pops open. “A hundred years old? That is really old,” I say with conviction, nodding my head.

Arrow shakes his head, his messy, toffee-colored hair falling over his pretty eyes, and I feel my cheeks grow warm. Looking away quickly, I look out of the makeshift treehouse toward the house. I can’t see much from here, but I know she’s angry.

“Are you going to go in?”

“Not yet; I want to stay with you for a little longer. What will you do when I go inside?”

“I’ll stay here,” he says, looking away.

“You can’t stay here all by yourself. It’s scary at night and the boogie man might get you! He can never get you, Arrow, because you’re my bestest friend, and I’ll be so sad if he hurts you.”

He smirks at me, his pretty eyes twinkling and making my belly dip. “I’ll be fine; it’s not like my father will look for me or even know where I am. He’s too busy, anyway.”

“Your daddy doesn’t care where you are?”

“He’s got other…priorities,” he answers. I can tell he’s upset, and it makes me feel sad for him. Why doesn’t his daddy look for him?

“But he loves you.”

“He loves the thought of me and what I can do for him when the time is right.”

“What do you mean?”

Arrow chews on his lip and pulls at the collar of his black shirt. “Never mind; you’ll find out when you’re older.”

I stomp my foot. “Don’t treat me like a baby! I’m seven, you know.”

He nods his head. “And I’m eleven. That makes you a baby to me.”

“That’s not fair, Arrow. Papa says that I’m a big girl now.”