Page 116 of Haunted Prey

He was going to be okay. He had to be.

I squirmed in my seat, forcing myself not to get up and pace, to not look at the clock and count down each second.

Just a couple of hours.

“You’re really freaked about all this, aren’t you?” Lena said beside me.

“About what?” I asked without taking my eyes off the screen.

“What they plan to do. I wouldn’t blame you. Now that they're starting to take action, it didn’t seem real until now.”

I rolled my shoulders. “I’ve been through so much crazy shit it’s kind of numbed me out to be honest.”

“Yeah, no doubt.” Out of the corner of my eye, I caught her shaking her head. She paused, then added, “You didn’t deserveany of that. I’m still not feeling Emery—I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to understand him, let alone trust him. Not after what he did. And the others? They’re completely bonkers, bananas, fucked in the head. But somehow, all of this feels… I don’t know… right? Like, after everything they’ve been through, they deserve this.”

I looked over at her and felt a pang of guilt at not telling her that Emery wouldn’t be a part of it, and we were leaving them behind. But I was too afraid of anyone finding out. Something told me she’d understand in the end.

Leaning into her, I put my head on her shoulder. “I need to tell you. I plan on keeping it. The baby.”

She stiffened. I’d confessed to her sometime after I took the test that I was expecting, wanting at least one of my friends to know. She stiffened the same way then too. And I knew she was more than worried about me. “You’re not just doing it because Emery pressured you, are you?”

“No. He didn’t. It was my decision.”

“Are you sure you're ready for that?”

I laughed. “No. But I want us to have something normal, something bright, you know?”

“You really think a kid can do that?”

I frowned. “I don’t know. Not for sure. But I’m willing to try. I know Emery will be there every step of the way to help. And maybe we can make something good out of all this…ugly…ugly shit.”

“Just promise you won’t change. I hate to see you throw your life away.”

“I’ll still be me, I promise. It will be a fresh start for the both of us, a new life.”

Her shoulder lifted slightly, then sank back down. She rested her head against mine. “Jamie’s going to hate that you're staying with Emery, let alone having his kid. But if you're happy, andyou'resafe, which is just as important, then who am I to stop you?”

“You think he’d unfriend me?” I asked, trying to keep the worry out of my voice.

She snorted. “Nah. He’ll be pissed for sure. But he gets you’re kind of…well…fucked in the head too. He’ll just want you safe. Jamie knows you need him and me both.”

I smiled. “Thank you. I promise to stay in contact when we…”

“We what?”

“When we go away for a little while.”

She huffed. “You better call.”

We sat cuddled together, hardly watching the movie, and I calmed down enough in the moment to feel myself start to doze off.

Only a few hours…

I let myself sink a little deeper, let myself drift, hearing only the bangs and pops of the movie. Let myself feel Lena’s warmth against me.

Soon.

I heard Lena’s soft hiss of breath, which brought me out of half sleep. “Um, Lez, what are you doing?” she said.

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