Page 98 of Beautiful Prey

The story of this place had gotten around and now people were coming to visit. The house of death.

If they got it in their heads to get any closer, even to try and get inside, I didn’t want to know what Emery would do to them.

I knew he was thinking it. I knew the lengths he would go to protect what he kept hidden. He would do whatever it took to keep me here with him without hesitation.

“Let me take the spider up,” I said softly. “I’ll just put it in a corner somewhere.”

Emery barely peeled his eyes away, just long enough to hand me the spider. I shoved my fear down as I encased it in my hand.

Don’t freak out, don’t freak out.

I took deep, slow breaths, trying to ignore the feel of the thing attempting to move in my hand.

I took this chance to carefully step back and creep my way up the stairs. I kept my free hand steady on the rail as I made my way up into the dark attic.

There was a dim light coming from the arched window above, making the shadows seem deeper than ever. Boxes and stacks of old medical magazines and books took up most of the space. We hadn’t had time to finish clearing the attic so most of it was junk left behind.

Quickly, I stepped into a dark corner and opened my hand, letting the spider scuttle away and disappear. The spider would probably end up back down again, but that didn’t matter right now. I just needed an excuse to come upstairs.

Assuming I had limited time, I went around a set of boxes and over to a little nook to one side with two shelves pressed together. I looked back to make sure Emery wasn’t coming up the steps, then I bent down and reached through the lower shelf. The shelf hid a part of the wall where a hole exposed the narrow space between inner and outer wall. I reached inside, blindly searching, trying to listen for movement on the stairs.

When my hand touched on something solid, I grabbed what I knew was a small wooden box and took it out.

It wasn’t just any box, but a puzzle box given to me by my brother on my eighth birthday. I had to press on certain parts of the lid at the same time to get it to partially open. Then I had to slide another piece into place to get the lid to open fully. I did this, my heart jumping a little when I thought I heard a sound from below along with the wind howling through the side.

The lid popped open and I saw the necklace lying within, the same way I had placed it the day I put it inside.

Emery’s necklace.

The little heart with the E in the middle could just barely be seen, the little blue and pink beads the same as I remembered.

I picked it up, bringing it closer, rubbing my thumb along the E. When my brother had given it to me, I thought he had made it for me.

My eyes stung a little just staring at it, enraged that my brother could lie to my face like that. How he could be just like our father. My hand tightened around it just like Emery’s would.

“Eve.”

The whisper behind me was so soft, but in the quiet, it was piercing loud. For a second, I thought it sounded just like my brother’s voice.

I shoved the necklace down my shirt and into my bra before I stood and whirled around. I expected to see my brother’s ghost. Instead, I saw Emery standing by the edge of the stair.

How he got up without me even noticing was one more reason why I feared he wasn’t totally human.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

I swallowed hard. “Just letting the spider free.”

Emery’s eyes fell over me, seeing there was nothing in my hands.

“The men left,” he said.

“Oh…” I didn’t know what else to say. Not sure if that was a good thing or not.

He waited as if expecting me to say more. Then he said, “We should go down. Don’t know if they’ll come back. I need to…” He didn’t finish.

He didn’t need to. I could already guess he was pissed at himself for not considering trapping the back somehow, or compromising the dock in some way in case others came around from the river. He was definitely thinking it now. Didn’t want anyone upsetting his plans.

I nodded, but I had plans of my own.

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