Page 99 of Haunted Prey

I glanced back at Emery who hadn’t moved. Quickly, I put on a shirt and sweatpants and left the room.

Strolling across the passage, I peeked my head into the study, expecting to find Micheal or even Leslie.

But there was nobody inside. The lamp in the corner was on, but the room was empty.

Cautiously, I entered the study and looked in the corners, tension already setting at each shadow, waiting to see my phantom’s face.

But he never appeared. Even when I opened the door on the other end and looked onto the balcony. The church below lay dark.

I closed the door and eyed the files and the bulletin board. Maybe Micheal had come up to check on things and had chosen not to wake us in a screaming fit. Though I doubted that.

I went to the desk and opened the file on top. I had only skimmed some of them the last time I was in here. I sifted through them, finding files on those children who had been lost as well as a few of the nurses and doctors who had been employed in the warehouse. Something told me Andrea had helped Micheal find them.

I sat down and began to read each file. Learning more about the other kids, where they had come from, while also learning about the staff under my father’s watch. Some of them, I discovered, were now employed at Severfalls.

I must have sat there reading for what felt like hours, piecing everything together. When I got to the files on my father, brother, uncle, and even a file on me, I had to pause several times so as not to have a minor breakdown.

It’s hard knowing what they did,came Emery’s voice over my shoulder. I caught his shadow passing by the light.Hard knowing those below will never accept you because of what happened, isn’t it? But you’re so close now, Eve. Soon, you’ll understand. And you’ll be like us.

I gripped the table.

You’ll be just like us.

Eve.

“Eve?”

I looked over at the door and saw Emery standing there. My heart flipped thinking he was my ghost until I saw him wearing the pants he’d worn earlier and saw the actual concern in his eyes, then I convinced myself it was really him.

“You alright?”

I placed my hands on my lap. “Yeah, I think so.”

He tilted his head. “It’s nearly morning. How long have you been in here?”

I glanced at the files spread over the desk. “I’m not sure, honestly.” I smiled back at him. “But it’s okay. I’ll be right there. I’ll just…clean this up.”

He relaxed a little. “I’ll make you something downstairs when you’re ready.”

“Okay.”

He let me be to reorganize. Calmly, I closed the files and started to restack them. When I found the file on Dom and Lez again, I hesitated, realizing that, of course, Micheal didn’t have a file of his own. His focus had been on looking for the others.

I put the twins’ file on the stack. I didn’t have my laptopagain,but maybe there was still a way to let their stories be told.

After cleaning the desk, I shut off the light, a chill creeping up my spine as the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. My ghost was watching me again, lingering in the dark. Shaking it off, I left the study and headed back to the bedroom.

The bed was empty. So was the couch.

Before I could call out for Emery, my attention caught on the light spilling from the bathroom. The door was ajar, just enough for me to see him standing at the sink with the water running. He leaned forward, hands gripping the edges of the sink, head bowed over the basin. On the counter beside him, an open pill bottle lay in plain view.

He looked like he was trying to not get sick. His eyes were closed as he took in slow breaths.

He took sips of water from the faucet before turning it off. He took a few more deep breaths before taking the bottle of pills and capping them.

When he turned, he saw me and froze. We locked eyes, and I found my voice.

“How long?” I said.

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