Page 34 of Haunted Prey

“You might wanna still see a doctor,” she commented as she stood by me. “But it looks like a minor sprain. I brought a sling just in case. Ice the arm and try to not move it.”

As a favor to Lena, she promised not to say a word to anyone, but I caught her side-eyeing me several times, and knew she had to have recognized me in some way. She didn’t ask how I got the sprain and I didn’t mention it.

The day after had been a blur. I mostly slept, and when I didn’t, I was icing my arm. Lena was kind enough to have food and spare clothes dropped off before she and Marcus headed to her class.

I should have been thinking about what I needed to do next, where I was gonna go. Instead, I took to wandering the empty house when the others were gone or sitting in my room and staring out the window like I had at Severfalls. Some habits were hard to kill.

I started to have minor headaches and stomach cramps and I assumed it was from the withdrawal of the pill. I took to napping when they sprung up.

The next time I woke, the sun was setting again and I had missed several calls from Jamie.

It took me another hour to finally bring myself to call him back.

“Why didn’t you call me?” I could hear the concern in his voice.

“Sorry. A lot went down, I just needed…time.”

“Eve, I love you, but what the hell were you thinking? Why didn’t you wait to get out the normal way? We could have talked it through with your uncle and got you signed out.”

I didn’t know how to tell him yet about everything I’d experienced. “They weren’t looking to let me out. Uncle Wes wanted me locked up there.”

“Locked up? Eve, that’s not what they were doing.”

“You don’t know,” I whispered. “I couldn’t stay there another moment, okay? Something was seriously fucked there and I just needed to go.”

I knew he thought I was just being crazy but I wasn’t.

“You understand they’ll probably send people after you now?”

“I know,” I said.

“Lena told me you're safe but won’t even tell me where.”

I had a feeling he was hoping I’d tell him, but all I could say again was, “Sorry”.

“I won’t rat on you. I just don’t want you to get deeper in shit than you already are. If they find you now, it’ll only take longer and…I just want you to be okay.”

“I know.”

He was silent for a moment then added. “Liam called me too. He’s still recovering but doing better. He was hoping to talk to you…”

I squeezed the phone and swallowed. “About what exactly?”

“I’m not sure. I told him now wasn’t a good time.”

“Good answer,” I said.

“I’ll let him know you’re not ready.”

“Thank you.”

I knew he wanted to say more, based on the pause, but he decided against it. “I’ll text you later to see how you're doing,” he said instead. “Maybe I’ll see you soon if that’s okay?”

“Yeah. That’s okay.”

That night, after I hung up with Jamie, Lena returned with Marcus and we hung out in his room to watch a movie. In a way, it felt like I was going back to normal for once, even if it was a lie.

When they went to bed, I went upstairs but I didn’t sleep much. Every shadow made me do a double take as I expected to find Emery’s phantom waiting, afraid but also certain he had followed me out of Severfalls.

---