Her expression dropped further. “Where are you going?”
“I’m moving in with Tony. I’ve been subletting, and the lease is up at the end of the month. He’s got a two bedroom, so…”
Tony had gotten it in hopes that Amelia would move to New Haven with him. Another attempt at getting her out of the house, part of years of effort put into regaining her confidence. Apparently Todd was the one who screwed that up last spring when he told Amelia not to move, but how the hell was he supposed to know it was part of Tony’s master plan? Besides, it was a shitty plan. Moving to New Haven wasn’t a baby step. It was a fuckin’ cliff dive. Even Tony’s neighborhood wasn’t that great. In fact, it was probably worse than Todd’s, crime-wise.
“Do you need any help?”
He snorted. She was a bit more fit than she had been months ago, but he could do it himself. “No. So what’s up with this new attitude? Taking double the dose of your antidepressants?”
She laughed like he’d made a joke and shook her head, maintaining the happy-go-lucky glow that was freaking him out.
“I don’t take them anymore,” she answered casually. “So, when are you going to graduate and become a fancy psychiatrist? I can’t wait to see you wearing a suit in an office with one of those big couches.”
There she went again, changing the subject and completely ignoring the issues. “Psychologist, Sandy. No one in their right mind would let me near a prescription pad.”
“Then they’re stupid. I think you’d be fine with one.”
He set down his fork, leaned back and crossed his arms, staring down his nose at her. He wanted to shake her out of this weird trance she was in. “Why are you being nice to me?” he demanded instead.
“You have a problem with everything, don’t you?” she said, amused. She looked down at her plate, pushing the last few bites around in the syrup. “You don’t know what you have until you almost lose it. Isn’t that what people say?”
“Something like that,” he answered cautiously.
Her lips pressed into a frown. “You almost drowned. You would have if I hadn’t gone in after you. I guess it changed things for me. That day clarified the important things in my life.”
That day was hell.
He looked away, studying the view through the window, and Sandy pushed her plate away. They sat in awkward silence until someone came by and cleared their table.
“What was it like?” she asked quietly. “Being with Aurora all that time? How did she treat you?”
“Don’t,” he grunted in warning.
“What?”
“Don’t ask things that you don’t want to know the answers to.”
“I just thought it might help to talk,” she said sheepishly. “We could work through it.”
He shook his head, feeling the rising tide of his emotions that made him want to take off and hide. He didn’t like showing weakness to anyone, especially this time, and especially to Sandy. Not just because it was fucking embarrassing, but because a part of him still blamed her for all of it.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he muttered. “I don’t want to be angry with you anymore.”
“I deserve it.”
“Shut up,” he grumbled. He drew bills from his wallet and tossed them on the table. Sandy reached into her bag to throw down her share. Her hands were shaking as she set her backpack onto one shoulder. She was clinging to that thing pretty hard…
“Are you leaving now?” she asked, looking to him through a veil of long brown bangs. She carefully brushed them aside and her hazel eyes locked on his, as if pleading with him. In that brief moment, her eyes betrayed her. It was an act. All of it. She was scared. Damn. She got good at lying.
He nodded slowly. “Yeah. I’ve got shit to do, but I’ll make time for our research.” He kept his eyes locked on hers. “We’ll find the answers,” he assured her firmly.
She smiled. “Of course we will,” she agreed brightly, keeping up the act.
He paused, carefully searching her eyes for a moment. “Do me a favor?” he asked slowly.
“Name it,” she said, face lighting up from his request. She hadn’t even heard it yet.
“Take a week. No magic, witches, or talk of spells.”
Now that he knew what she was really thinking, he could read her much easier. And she looked relieved by his request. “Why?” she asked lightly.
“Clear your head. That’s when things will start to make sense. Besides, I think Eric’s going to snap. That could be dangerous with how much his head has been messed with.”
Eric? Yeah, right. Like he gave a damn about Eric. He’d meant her.
He expected her to argue, but she didn’t.
“I’ll keep on this and call if I figure anything out. Deal?” he asked.
She gave a smooth nod. “Deal.”
CHAPTER 19
NIGHT VISION
I fully intended to make good on my promise to Todd. I’d planned to blow off this whole magical research project anyway, but now I had the perfect excuse to give Eric for it. Thank you, Todd. Best cousin ever!
I bounded up the front steps of the dorms. Ashley was coming down the other side. “Hey!” she said, as if everything was fine and she hadn’t sided with Mike against me.
“Hey,” I mumbled in passing. It was best to play nice for now, until I knew for sure what she was up to.
I gripped the strap of my backpack fiercely with one hand, and my whistle necklace with the other as I made my way to Eric’s floor. The stairwell and hall were littered with trash: empty plastic cups, pizza boxes, and something that looked like vomit. The parties were getting wild around here again, only this time, there was no one I wanted to get expelled. Well… maybe Ashley.
I was nearly at Eric’s door when Lucas emerged from it. He had his backpack thrown over his shoulders and a Weston College lanyard holding his keys hanging around his neck. He noticed me and tipped his head, motioning for me to follow. I did, suspiciously gripping my whistle hard in my fist. He never even bothered to look at me, and now he wanted me to follow him?
He rounded the corner and stopped there to wait for me. His expression was grim. “Eric’s totally screwed up in the head,” he blurted out.
“Excuse me?” Anger heated my face. How dare he say that? He couldn’t ask for a better roommate than Eric.
Lucas shook his head wildly. “I can’t deal with this anymore. He has these crazy nightmares. The guy screams in his sleep. Like he’s being murdered or something.”
Dread consumed me. Screams in his sleep? “So wear ear plugs,” I snapped, acting on autopilot.
“Listen to me,” he pressed. “He didn’t used to be like this. And it’s not just that. It’s everything. His personality. His attitude. He’s completely different than he was in September. He beat up that guy in the parking lot and he-”
“Why are you telling me this?” I cut in. “You don’t even like Eric.”
“Yes, I do,” he snapped. “And why should that even matter? I have to like a person to worry about them?”
“Eric will be fine,” I said, turning away.
“You need to do something about this,” he demanded. I stopped and faced him again, crossing my arms. “He’s been acting really strange. I’m leaving for a few days, and I don’t want to come back to find him hanging from the light.”
My heart stopped in my chest. He thought Eric was suicidal? Aurora’s warning echoed in my head, ‘Do you want him to kill himself?’
I studied Lucas’s eyes. They were filled with actual fear. Widened with dread but fixed on me in challenge.
“I don’t care what you do, just do something,” he said firmly. “Call his parents, the school counselor, the police, the RA… Whoever. Just…” he shook his head and looked down. “I don’t know how to talk to him about this. Just handle it, okay?”
“Where is he now?” I asked.
“Working.”
I spun on my heel and rushed from the building.
<
br /> Eric hadn’t been sleeping well. He’d told me he was having dreams. He said he would wake feeling the lingering emotions, and I knew there were so many bad ones. If Lucas was worried, I needed to be too. Maybe Eric wouldn’t kill himself, but he might hurt someone. He was a warrior, after all. He’d killed people on a regular basis. What if his dreams of then were bleeding into his days?
I flew through the crowds gathered in the quad, covertly searching the faces to make sure scummy Mike wasn’t among them. A group of guys watched my approach. “Slut,” the closest guy coughed into his hand. Someone else coughed “whore,” and I swore I heard the C-word too. It was the same jerks who called me out before in front of the divas.
I stopped short and wheeled around to face them. “What did you say to me?” I challenged the group, my eyes wide and crazed.
No one said a word. I looked each weaselly bastard in the eye, daring them all. I felt ten times my size, fueled with righteous anger and capable of crushing them with a glance. A couple guys shifted backward, lowering their heads, trying to look anywhere but at the cold fire smoldering in my eyes.
I focused on the one who’d started the heckling. He seemed to shrink before me, as if hoping to become so small he might be invisible. “Nothing,” he said in a cowering whisper.
I stared into his eyes until they lowered to the ground. Stupid bullies. They were amateurs compared to the ones I dealt with. I walked off, leaving them uncomfortably speechless.
I stormed through the glass doors of the gallery. Eric was seated on the stool by the computer, looking as normal as possible, like he didn’t have a care in the world. Liar. He glanced up at me and smiled. I threw my backpack to the floor at his feet. “Why didn’t you make me listen?” I demanded.
His brow lifted slightly. “Good morning to you too, sweetie,” he said, unfazed and a little amused. He took a casual sip of coffee from his travel mug, and that was when I realized he wasn’t alone.
Tom sat on a small bench against the wall, stretched out with his arms crossed behind his head. “Well, aren’t you a ray of sunshine in the morning,” he joked.
Eric laughed into his mug, and my face burned red. “She’s crabby until ten,” Eric said. He checked the time. “We’ve got five more minutes of this.”
I shoved his shoulder, only making them both laugh. Eric offered his coffee to me, but as I took it from him, Tom blurted out, “I can’t wait to tell her the good news.” He leaned forward excitedly. “We’re clearing your name, Voodoo Girl.”
“Huh?” I grunted, taking a sip of coffee.
Eric looked hesitant. “Apparently, since Mike got back, he’s been lying to everyone around here. He said that you went with him to Virginia to cheat on me.”
I almost choked on the coffee. “What?” I gasped.
“And that I followed, and when I found you together, I hurt you and got him blamed for it. He’s making me out to be some jealous, controlling freak. And he’s saying that you went along with it, and are secretly dating him too.”
Tom cut in excitedly. “When Eric beat him up in the parking lot, it only backed up Mike’s story to everyone. So, Sandy, I didn’t know what to believe. I mean, you did date the guy. It didn’t seem that unlikely. And if I could be unsure, anyone who doesn’t know your pleasant disposition like I do would definitely believe it. Mike’s pretty damn convincing.”
“Is that why people keep calling me a slut?” I asked numbly.
Eric leapt to his feet. “Who did?” he demanded.
Tom stood. “Chill, man. I’m all for getting in the ring, but that would only make things worse right now.”
A sick feeling coursed through me, knotting my stomach. “Why would Mike say all this?”
“So he’s not the bad guy. If people knew the truth, that he followed you and Todd to Virginia to hurt you-”
“He’d be on the outs,” Tom finished for him. He took off his hat and played with the bend of the rim, then grinned devilishly at me. “Lucky for you, I’m louder than Mike. And since Eric cleared things up last night, I’ve started my ‘Sandy for President’ campaign.”
I looked away. Mike might be trying to salvage his reputation… but I didn’t believe for a second that that was his only goal. He was up to something…
I realized my hands were tight around the coffee mug, so much so that my fingers were beginning to cramp. Tom noticed it too. He gave me a sympathetic smile. “Don’t worry, little darlin’. We’ll have this campus on your side in no time.” With a wink, he placed his hat on my head, shifting it into position. Eric stepped up, took it off me, and whipped it back at him rather roughly. It struck Tom in the chest and he chuckled to himself, unbothered.
I wasn’t sure what to make of their exchange, but my mind was otherwise occupied.
“Speaking of,” Tom began, “I have a lunch date with a major big mouth, so I should go clean up.” He put his hat on, gave us a sly wink and left with a wave.
I felt numb. “That really happened?” I asked Eric. “Mike’s been spreading rumors about us?” About me and him? Together? Disgusting. Just the thought made my skin crawl.
I looked to Eric. His fierce expression slowly dissolved, and he nodded solemnly. “Yeah.”
I set down the mug, hands shaking with ire, shock, or fear, I couldn’t be sure. “Thank God for Tom,” I gushed, looking back at the door he had just left. We’d had no clue what was being said about us behind our backs. I normally didn’t care about gossip, but it was like Mike was building support for something bigger than fixing his own reputation. He was going to use this in some way, I just knew it, because it sounded like something Aurora would do.
I leaned against Eric’s chest, using his embrace to keep me from sinking like my stomach had. “It’s okay. We’re going to fix this. We’ll fix everything,” he assured me.
Everything… There was so much going wrong in our lives.
Dazed, I looked up at him. “Why didn’t you tell me you were having nightmares?” I asked.
“I did.”
I clung to his shirt with both fists. “Are they visions? Or dreams?”
“Both, I think,” he answered carefully. He swallowed hard. “Sometimes, I’m there. With her. Locked up. She’s burning candles and… she’s drawing shapes in…” His words trailed off and he looked away. “I don’t know what they are. I hope they’re not real.”
I could feel his heart racing. He had suffered, locked in that cellar. I felt helpless knowing that he had been there, tortured and starving, while I was only a few miles away, aching with worry for him.
“Is that all you see?”
He shook his head. “I saw… a house. And a window. Something happened, I don’t know what. And… ice. Rust. Snow and a broken… something.” He backed away from me, scrubbing his hands down his face and shaking his head. “I see and feel lots of things, but when I wake up, they’re gone. I can’t remember them.” He rubbed his neck until it was red, then pressed his right temple, rubbing in circles.
Something inside of me tightened, watching him rub his head. The way he winced seemed all too familiar. “Do you have a headache?” I asked carefully.
“Yeah, sorta. I guess I did have too much last night. I didn’t think so, but…”
“You’ve been rubbing your brow a lot lately,” I hedged. “Did you know that? Have you been having a lot of headaches?”
“Maybe.”
“Since when, exactly?” I asked.
“I don’t know… a month or…” His eyes held a ghost of fear. “You don’t think…”
His sentence trailed off, and we were left staring silently at each other, unable to mention the small, deadly thing capable of ripping us apart again.
TODD:
His car rolled slowly down the crowded downtown street. He looked up at the substantial gothic revival building, newly renovated, complete with shiny new secured doors.
“Fucking hell,” he grumbled. He maneuvered his car into an empty space by the curb and kille
d the rumbling engine. He glowered at the upscale building and growled in frustration. This was a superbly bad idea; he knew this when Tony had offered. In fact, the extreme “badness” of it was probably the main selling point to his screwed up head. He always picked the bad choice. The worse, the better. Plus, he hadn’t really had any other choice. Fuck Aurora. Her mind games had sent him into a tailspin that he was still reeling from. He hadn’t even realized the end of his lease sneak up on him and without time to bring in some new roommates or find a new home, he was now moving in with Tony, into this massive old building of expensive apartments.
He could understand why Tony picked this location. It was at the center of everything, close to college, restaurants, bars, and shopping—essential for someone with no car, but Todd hated it for that. Money was practically stamped on everything in sight, including the people. Tony’s building might as well have, “Rob me, I’m rich,” painted on the side. Todd was more inclined to live in the neighborhoods labeled, “Mess with me, I mess with you.” Places where everyone was in the same shitty boat and no one started trouble because they knew it would bring on the apocalypse. But this… crap. He really hated the look of the huge building in front of him. This was not meant for people like him. Not even close.
Tony stepped out of the glossy main doors. He stared at Todd’s car while holding the door open for him. Apparently Tony expected that he had arrived willingly and would just enter without hesitation. Stupid.
“Mimes, where are you?” Todd grumbled.
He heard a meow from the back seat. She hopped over the armrest and climbed onto his lap.
“Are you ready for this shit? Cuz I sure as hell am not.”
Mimi purred. She always purred.
Dammit.
He reluctantly got out of his car with Mimi scooped up in one arm and slammed the door shut with the other. Tony was still waiting at the door, impatiently now, and Todd fought the urge to make him keep waiting. It wasn’t a good idea to start pushing Tony’s buttons just yet. He should probably wait until he at least got the keys from him.
Todd walked stiffly over, leaving his shit stacked in his car, not worried about being robbed. It was usually expected in most places in the city, definitely including this one, but anyone passing by would see his shitty TV on the passenger’s seat and know there was nothing worth stealing inside. That was the good thing about being dirt poor. Nobody wanted to take your crap. That was also the bad thing. Nothing worth pawning.
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