Page 15 of Hunting Pretty

God, I must be fucked up if a hallucination was the only thing that set me alight.

I heard Dr. Vale clearing his throat and opened my eyes to see him peering at me, his eyebrows furrowed together.

I couldn’t admit any of this to him.

“Nothing. He… left.” I sipped at my tea, letting the steam partially hide my face, my lie feeling like a stone lodged in my throat.

Dr. Vale lifted a quizzical brow. “He just left?”

“Yes.”

“And where did this encounter occur?”

A hollow feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. “My… uh… my bedroom.”

Dr. Vale’s pen clattered to the polished wood floor and rolled aside. “Your bedroom?”

“Yeah, he, uh, kinda sorta… broke in.”

Dr. Vale made a noise in the back of his throat as he leaned over to pick up his pen.

“Ava, this is serious. If someone broke into your room, then you need to tell the police.”

I played with my lip with my teeth. “No, I mean, yes. I know. But…”

Dr. Vale tilted his head, his eyes narrowing slightly. “But?”

“But when I checked the security cameras the next day, he wasn’t on them.”

Dr. Vale let out a rush of breath as he sat back, the leather creaking. “I see.”

“I don’t know why he didn’t show up on the cameras, but I know he was there last night.”

“Ava, remember how we spoke about how to tell the difference between fantasy and reality?”

I slammed my palm down on the plump cushion of his couch. “He’sreal, Dr. Vale. I swear he is.”

The deepened crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes made him look a decade older as he studied me, his slender fingers twirling his signet ring around and around. “Have you been taking the pills I prescribed?”

“Yes.”

I wasn’t seeing things. My pills were supposed to stop all that.

“You haven’t missed a dose? Not a single one?”

Ihadbeen taking my pills.

I mean, I was sure I’d been taking them.

I snatched my tea back up again and took a sip, now lukewarm. “Well…”

“Ava, do youwantto get better?”

I gripped the mug so hard I thought it might shatter in my shaking hands.

What kind of fucking question was that?

“Of course,” I spat out.

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