Page 84 of Haunted Prey

“No matter what?”

I tensed. “Nothing will change that.”

She was doubting. And I wondered how much of that was because of my doppelganger in her mind. I wished I could hopinside of her head and beat the shit out of him, quieting him for good.

He was scaring my Evee, and he needed to pay.

I laughed a little at how crazy that was, and Eve gave me a funny look. I cleared my throat.

“Your demons are still there too,” she said, studying me. “How much does it take you to fight them?”

I locked my gaze with hers. “The smiling woman and Nina…are one and the same now.”

Her eyes widened, clearly not expecting that response. “That must be awful. Does it make things worse now…that she…”

I shook my head. “Sometimes. But I’m fighting her day by day.”

That seemed to relax her, if only a little. “How did you keep yourself from breaking completely?”

“Honestly? I don’t know. But I know when you came to me, tried to help me at St. Agnes, it was the first time I wanted to try to be better.”

She curled closer to me, her body pressing against mine. Closing her eyes, she turned her head and buried her face in the curve of my neck. “I hope…I can get better too.”

“You will, sweetheart. We’ll crawl out of the dark if we have to until we're playing in the sun. And we can forget.”

She hummed and, before I knew it, she fell asleep. I imagined we were outside of time and space where the bad shit could never find us. Where we were safe and free.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The day was bright and beautiful.

It was warm for this time of year, but not too warm. There was a cool breeze coming through, picking up some of the dead leaves and swirling them low to the ground. The trees swayed a little, and I could smell the earth around me, hear the low roar of the river not far away.

I sat in the sand box trying to form a castle. A perfect fortress against the evil tyrannosaurus rex that wanted to wreak havoc on my kingdom. My brother had promised to help defend my little city, but as I looked around, he was nowhere to be found, not even in the treehouse nearby. It got so lonely sometimes playing by myself in our playground, he hardly ever came any more.

As I attempted to make a moat around my city, I thought I heard the sound of a child’s laughter. When I looked up, I saw someone swinging on the swings nearby. A young girl around my age with a patch over her eye.

She glared at me even as I said “Hello,” gripping the chain of the swing tight. As I went to greet her again, two twin boys came running out of the forest.

“Not fair, Dom,” said one boy, gripping a nerf gun in his hand, looking back at the other with a similar nerf gun aimed at his head. “I got you first!”

Dom grinned and shot out a little foam bullet that just grazed passed Leslie’s head.

“Guys, wait up!” Another boy, older than the others, came out of the forest next. Micheal. With his blond-white hair curling over his ears. He glanced at me and nodded as he passed. “Nice castle.”

My heart swelled with pride at his compliment. He went to the swing next to Cassidy and sat by her, swinging slowly.

I knew their names even if they were kids I’d never seen in my neck of the woods, which should have been odd, but I didn’t think anything of it. I was just happy to not be alone.

“Can we help?” came a voice behind me. I looked around and saw Emery, his face bright with excitement, and Nina next to him, sucking on her thumb. She wore a cute little dress while Emery wore a T-shirt with a dinosaur and shorts.

“Yeah!” I said happily.

They started to help create the moat around my castle. Micheal and Cassidy watched, swinging nearby, while Dom and Lez continued to shoot at each other, laughing and chasing each other around the firepit.

We talked as we worked, talking about school and what we planned to do when summer finally came.

“I want to go camping and then swimming,” Emery stated. “And catch Nina a snake because she likes them.”

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