Page 80 of Death is My BFF

A violent chill darted down my spine. Turning away from the coffee shop, I rushed down the sidewalk without a destination in mind. I’d parked my car too far away. I kept looking across the street, checking for the demon. I was so frantic, and neither I nor the person walking toward me on the sidewalk were paying attention to where we were going.

I smacked into a hard chest and a tiny bit of scalding hot liquid sloshed onto my flannel.

“Hot! Hot!” I pinched the wet fabric away from my skin.

“Shoot,” a familiar voice mumbled. “I’m so—”

I locked eyes with Thomas Gregory.

“Sorry,” Thomas finished with a sheepish smile. “Hey, Faith.

What are the odds?”

“Even money,” I said coldly. “I live in the same town as you.”

Thomas laughed and scratched the back of his blond curls.

“Listen, I um . . . ”

I brushed past him. “See ya.”

“Wait,” he said, blocking my retreat. “I know you hate me. If it’s any consolation at all, Marcy and I, we’re just friends now.”

“Do you think I’m stupid?”

He choked on his drink. “No, not at all. I just—”

“Is she your second choice or your thirtieth? I’ve seen you with other girls at school, and I saw you with Marcy at your party.”

“What happened at the party was a mistake,” he explained. “We were both drunk.”

“I see right through you, Thomas. All you care about is yourself.

You think you can toy with whatever girl you want without consequences, and if you think I’m going to let that happen to her again, you’ve got another thing coming, pool boy. Don’t talk to her or me ever again. Got it? Good. Have a nice life.”

He jogged to catch up to me. “Faith, hold on. Faith, wait—” I felt his hand grip my wrist, and my surroundings washed away.

I was elsewhere—standing on the sidewalk of Main Street, but in a different location, in front of a different store. Confused, I turned my head to the left, and I sawmyselfracing toward me down the sidewalk, dragging Thomas Gregory behind her. The two of them ran right through me, as if I were a ghost, before turning a corner past a popular sandwich shop. They headed to a patio with seating arrangements for a pizzeria and reached a dead end. An awful sensation settled in my gut, and I ran after them. When I reached the patio area and spotted them, chaos erupted. Ahead of them, two raven demons dropped down from the pizzeria and landed on the pavement.

I watched myself snap into action and grab Thomas by the arm, trying to tug him away from the demons. Terror washed over Thomas’s face, but instead of escaping, he shunted me behind him, like he was protecting me. The smaller demon laughed in a chilling way and vanished. He reappeared right in front of Thomas and punched toward his chest. I couldn’t see what had happened, until Thomas let out a wet gurgling noise and fell backward onto the pavement. The demon held a clump of bloody, gory flesh in his clawed hand. A heart. The one he’d ripped from Thomas’s chest cavity . . .

I wrenched myself free from the vision.

“Oh my God!” Gasping for air, I gaped wide-eyed at Thomas Gregory. There was no wound on his chest. “Oh my God!”

I tore my hand free from his and rushed to the nearest trash can, retching my brains out. I was handed a napkin and cleaned myself off as best I could.

Thomas lightly touched my back. “Are you all right?”

“Stay back!” I gasped, stumbling away from him. It was dramatic, I knew, but the last thing I wanted to do was somehow make this situation worse. “Don’t come near me!”

Thomas showed me his palms. “Whoa, chill out. Just making sure you’re okay. I mean, shit, did I really make you physically ill?”

My mind surged with thoughts. He’d touched me, and I’d gone somewhere else, just like I had with Death. But this time, I’d been in the future. I’d seen him die. I’d seen those raven demons pursuing us. Thomas might have broken my best friend’s heart, but I’d never hope for him or anyone else to die. Had I really seen the future? Was there a way to change his fate?

I had to act; I had to actnow. My hands shook as I tried to dial David’s number for help. Although it was impossible to reach his contact number on my cracked screen, I managed it by a miracle.

The call went through, right as my luck ran out and my phone died.

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