Page 105 of Indigo Sky

We didn’t have a description of the person behind the torment. We didn’t know if it was someone close to us or someone who only knew her from afar. We knew nothing, and that only meant it could be anyone in this place. Even Scott.

Even Saul, my mind said as the man himself sauntered over to the bar to ask for a drink.

“How’s it going, Rev?” he asked as Scott set out to pour him a ginger ale.

“All right.”

He accepted the glass from Scott, then sat beside me, his attention pointing in the direction of the stage, where his wife was beginning to entertain the full house.

“Can I give you a word of advice?” he asked, his voice a murmur against the glass as he took a sip.

“Sure.”

He glanced at me, never taking his drink far from his lips. “Until you know what’s going on, be careful who you’re speaking to.”

The comment put me on edge, especially after the runaway train my thoughts had set off on moments earlier. My breath stuttered uneasily in my lungs as my glare hardened on Kate, her hand resting casually on a customer’s shoulder. It was all for appearances, it was a part of the act, but that guy could’ve beenhim.

“You gotta get her out of here,” Saul added, lowering his glass. “Wendy and I have been trying to convince her for years, but she never listens to us. She says she’d miss us too much, like she’d never see us again or something, but that was before she met you. You could talk her into it. She has someone outside of this place now, apart from her father.”

“I already tried,” I confessed. “She wouldn’t be here right now if it were up to me.”

Saul grunted an acknowledging sound as he slowly sipped at his ginger ale. “I believe you. But try again. Tryharder. I’m not saying this place is all bad. I like it enough. But for her, it’s bad luck—you understand what I’m saying? It has been nothing but a series of unfortunate events and circumstances from day one for that girl, and it’s time she moves on before something truly horrible happens. And, Rev, between you and me, I have a really bad feeling that something is coming soon if she doesn’t get out now.”

***

I went back to Kate’s place that night without incident. She asked that I stay with her, and I wasn’t in any position to complain. We tiptoed through the door, up the stairs, and down the hall to her bedroom, once again passing that closed-off room that continued to irk me, no matter how much I knew it was ludicrous. I hoped that, sooner or later, the unease I felt would settle, and I’d finally accept that it was all one big, ridiculous coincidence. But until then, the memories of that day continued to haunt me in a way they hadn’t for years.

We took a quick shower together before climbing into bed, where I worshipped her body until God’s name was replaced in my mind with hers. Moments after, I reminded her of how much I loved her, how much she completed my life, how happy I was, despite everything, and she fell asleep to my voice and my hands stroking her vibrant hair.

I wished I could’ve slept with her. But insomnia was an asshole, and it had grabbed ahold of me in such a viselike grip that nothing I did could shake it free.

So, I left the bed to take a piss. Then, I quietly went downstairs to the kitchen, where I found a glass in one of the cabinets, and got myself a cold drink of water from a pitcher in the fridge. I did all of these things as my brain charged on with countless questions and anxieties and worries about what Saul had said.

Because what the fuck, man? What the hell could he have been alluding to—andwhy? What did he know?Did heknow anything, or was it just a … hunch?

I dropped into the living room armchair and scrubbed a hand over my hair, back and forth, the condensation from the cold glass dripping from my palm and onto my bare foot. The house was eerily quiet. My brain wasscreaming. I imagined my life just a few months ago, before starting work at Midnight Lotus. I hadn’t been happier, but everything had been easier, and I craved that now. A time when I hadn’t been terrified for the safety of my girlfriend, a woman I was certain was the love of my life.

You can’t think if you’re exhausted.

Yeah, I needed to try and rest. I blew out a weighted breath and stood from the chair. I glanced around the dark living room. Everything looked as normal as I knew it to be, blanketed in shadow, until the light from the lamppost hit something in the hallway. I sucked in a breath, my lungs stalled, and my heart stopped as the face of Angela came into view.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” she said.

She was dressed in a long robe that fluttered around her ankles as she came into the moonlight shining through the living room window.

“I heard someone moving around in the kitchen and came out to make sure it wasn’t Howard,” she explained with a kind smile. “I don’t trust him to not turn on the stove and forget.”

I nodded, feeling suddenly self-conscious without my eyepatch or shirt. I felt naked under the gaze of this woman I didn’t know, and although I didn’t sense anything overtly judgmental in her stare, I also wasn’t a mind reader.

“I didn’t mean to wake anyone up,” I replied sheepishly. “I just came down to get some water.”

She gestured toward the chair I had just been sitting in. “And sit alone in the dark?”

I huffed a humorless chuckle. “I just … have a lot on my mind.”

“Yeah, I can imagine you do,” she said with an understanding sigh. “Kate told me about the things going on.”

I narrowed my gaze at the older woman. The shadows and lack of light turned the lines on her face into valleys. She watched me, her stance loose and open, but she was sizing me up, too, I realized, as she tipped her head and lifted one side of her mouth in a gentle smile.

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