Page 61 of Borden 3

I didn’t respond, but my breathing was faster.

"Boo."

I shook my head like I was shaking off the memories. I thought of the dark. Of my bedroom. Of feeling like he was there.

“The cameras are fine, right?” I asked, randomly.

“Definitely,” he answered, attentive to me now.

I nodded. Good. I was just being paranoid.

But not really.

At the back of my mind I was very aware of the fact he was back. In the same city. He had sought me out at the charity, but then he had gone quiet.

I bit at my bottom lip, deep in thought. Light rain fell. I watched a raindrop slide down my window. Then I said, “You mind if we took a detour?”

“Where to?”

“Just…somewhere I used to go when I was younger.”

He went quiet, thinking about it. “The guys are at the club, Em.”

“I know.”

He thought some more. Then, “Where exactly?”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Emma

I walked down the familiar alleyway to Never Land. Hector was practically breathing down my neck the entire time.

“You used to come here as a kid?” he asked, awed and a little disturbed.

“Sure did,” I said, kicking aside a bag of rotten food. A rat scurried across the black coated ground, causing even Hector to jolt. “Didn’t think you were scared of a little rat, Hector.”

“That fucking thing was bigger than a dog.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You know enough of ‘em can attack and eat a whole human being. Right?”

“What horror movie was this?”

“Not a horror movie. It happened to those London toshers in the 1850s. Fuckers would go down in the sewers—”

“Ew—”

“—and try to find all sorts of scrap they could sell off.”

“I’m glad we’re not in 1800’s London, Hector.”

“You laugh.”

“I’m not.”

“Until it happens to you.”

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