Page 139 of Their Little Ghost

“Move,” Lex says. “Let me.”

He rolls up his sleeves, then slaps Eli hard.

Eli’s face lolls to the side, staring vacantly ahead, looking right through us.

“Again,” I demand.

Lex keeps hitting him until Eli’s cheek is blazing red. Eli still doesn’t respond. He’s here in body, but his mind is elsewhere.

“Come on, Eli,” Lex growls, hitting him again, hard enough to bust his lip. “Snap out of it!”

Blood drips down Eli’s chin, coating his light stubble. His head snaps up, finally seeing us, and I sigh in relief. Thank fuck. He’s back. I’ve seen too many people reduced to brainless zombies at Acacia’s hands. We can’t lose Eli. Not now that we’re so close. After last night, I can almost taste freedom.

“Eli?” I say. “What happened?”

“Sarah,” Eli rasps. “She’s…”

“We were with her last night,” I say. “She’s okay.”

Her perfume still lingers on my skin, and I haven’t washed her sweet juices from my cock. If I try hard enough, I can even imagine exactly how she felt, how her toned thighs clamped around my head as she gushed over my tongue.

“Acacia found out she snuck out,” Eli mumbles. “He took me with him. He… made… me…”

He lies back and curls into a ball, drawing his trembling knees up to his chest.

“It was Erin!” Lex, hotheaded as usual, jumps straight to conclusions. “It had to be! Sarah always says Erin tells her father everything. She set her up. She must have called her to lure her home.”

“We don’t know that,” I say calmly. “What did he make you do, Eli?”

“Acacia fucked with my head,” he confesses, tears rolling down his face. “He’s been testing a new drug on me.”

“What does it do?” I ask.

His expression darkens. “It’s some kind of super drug that makes you do whatever he says. First, he gave me an implant.” Eli brushes his wavy hair from his neck and pulls his skin taut to reveal a strange rectangular object lodged underneath the surface. “After that, all he has to do is press a button to dose me.”

“Shit, man,” Lex groans. “That’s some seriously screwed-up shit.”

“I d-didn’t mean to…” Eli stammers. “I had no choice… I…”

“Just get to the fucking point,” Lex snaps, his patience waning. “Spit it out. What did you do?”

I glare at Lex and soften my voice. “It’s okay, Eli. You’re safe now. You can tell us what happened.”

“She’s dead. Sarah’s dead,” Eli whispers. “I didn’t want to… he made me…” He sobs into the pillow. “I killed her.”

“Call her,” I order Lex. “Right now.”

He’s already dialing.

“Well?” I demand.

Lex shakes his head. “She’s not answering.”

It’s perfectly plausible Eli’s mistaken. He’s not in his right mind. Right now, he’s acting more insane than Bea, and she eats razor blades for fun.

“Her body’s in the morgue,” Eli whimpers. “I’m a killer… I’m a killer…” He keeps repeating it. “I’m a killer.” He hits his forehead. “A killer. A killer.” He keeps going like a broken record while hurting himself. “A killer!”

I grab his wrist to stop him. “It’ll be okay,” I promise. “We’ll remove the implant.”