Page 10 of The Last Lost Girl

“Is that a threat?” she snaps, leaning over the balustrades.

“Nope. It’s a promise.”

five

As soon as the pool is empty, the deck is cleared of trash and sprayed clean, and the seats are wiped down, I rush home.

I listen for Belle’s song as my feet carry me closer, and when I don’t hear it after rounding the corner, hurry across the street. Its absence should comfort me, but just because she isn’t on the building’s ledge doesn’t mean she’s not on a ledge of a different sort.

The building is intact and not on fire. That is yet another plus.

Maybe the sleeping pills worked.

My keys jangle as I jog to the fourth floor and again as I turn the deadbolt.

The apartment is quiet and dark. I ease inside and gingerly close the door, then startle when I see that Belle was standing behind it. She’s so close I can feel her breath on my right shoulder.

The hair on the back of my neck lifts.

I let out a nervous breath and smile. “You scared me.”

“You should leave,” Belle says. Her voice is as dry as miles of desert sand; a strand of saliva stretches between her lips.

I swallow thickly and wonder why she would say such a thing. Wonder what is happening to my sister now and if this might be an effect of the sleeping pills she took before I left her alone, or if she broke her promise to me after all. Not gonna lie, she looks like she could be an extra in a zombie flick.

“Leave? I just got home, silly.” I hope the familiar term of affection will bring her back to me if she’s lost again.

There is no shadow in her eyes, but something is not right. I sense it with every fiber of my being. Something strange and terrible wafts from Belle that taints the very air. The room smells of the ocean just after a storm. I can’t smell her honeysuckle scent at all.

She wrings her hands at her chest to still the tremors. When I reach out for them, she sharply inhales, then withdraws and takes several steps backward, shrinking into the corner.

“Hey,” I soothe. “Talk to me. What’s happening?” I remain still to keep from upsetting her, but I want to see her. To figure out what is wrong. “We can find a way through it.”

We always do. Always have.

My sister crouches down into the corner of the room. Her back is stooped, and even in the darkness I can see the bruised crescents cupping her eyes.

But it’s not her posture or those marks of sleeplessness that make me, for the briefest of moments, clutch my keys and consider running. It’s the inhuman whimper-turned-growl that escapes her throat.

I drag my cell phone from my pocket, turn on the flashlight, and point it toward her, half-expecting her to pounce and fight me for the phone just to extinguish the light. But Belle doesn’t even flinch. She stares at me like she has since the moment I stepped through the door, but the phone’s harsh light reveals exactly what that wrongness I felt is…

The shadows are no longer confined to my sister’s golden eyes. They surround her and pour from her frame as if she is smoldering.

“Belle,” I breathe. I push the phone closer to my sister to see if the light will drive them away or put them back where they belong, but they don’t budge. I’m not sure if eradicating the shadows is the best remedy, but I know with every inch of my soul that the sinister swirls should not be unleashed. They don’t belong here – like me, per Belle. “What do I do?”

A tear streaks down her cheek and dives into her snarled, golden hair. “You have to go. You have to leave. I’m afraid,” her voice cracks. “I’m afraid I’ll hurt you.”

My spine stiffens. “I can’t.” I can’t abandon her. I love her too much. Because she’s my sister, my family, my everything. Without her I would be lost again, and I worry no one would care enough to find me. “I won’t.”

A shadow curls toward me and she hisses, gritting her teeth. “I can’t keep fighting his pull. I’m not strong enough, but it’s time for me to go anyway. There’s something I need to return, something I need to go and set right.” Her chest heaves.

“I don’t understand.” I can see that something clearly happened to her while I was working. Something horrible.

“I was supposed to go back but couldn’t. But the Star can see me back. There are so many people waiting on me.”

She is broken and her light has been extinguished, but no Second Star is to blame. I am, for not getting her help sooner. I hold my phone up to unlock the screen and bring up the keypad. There is only one right way forward. Belle needs more than I can possibly give her. I dial the nine, then hit the one key twice before hitting send.

Belle’s teeth chatter as I raise the phone to my ear. “I’m dying, Ava, and I won’t survive the night if I don’t let it take me. It will be gone by morning, and so will I.”

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