Page 404 of Evil Hearts

Suzie stops in the middle of pulling her socks on. She lets out a big sigh as she sits on the edge of the bed and gives me an incredulous look. “They didn’t haveyou.” She smirks.

“True, but I’m not all powerful. If we get overrun by entities, good or bad—I can’t protect you from all of them. Especially if we split up.”

“This isn’t my first time in a haunted house.” Her voice sounds defensive and it makes me wince.

“Look, I know it’s not, and I know you’re fully capable. I just have a bad feeling about this house. I can’t put my finger on it…”

“You’ve never even been there.”

“The photos…” I start, but shake my head. “It’s just better if we go in, check it out, and leave. No need to stay any longer than we need to.”

“I didn’t see anything in those photos besides an old house with lots of possibilities–” She stops, cutting her gaze to mine. “Did you see something?”

I nod. “I think so, but I can’t be sure.”

Suzie whips out her phone and punches away at the screen. “Show me, which photos?”

I take her phone and flip through the images, stopping on one specific picture titled ‘Basement.’ “What do you see here?”

Suzie leans in and blinks a few times. “A basement. That’s it. A clean basement with bricks, wood, wires, and outlets–”

“It’s black.”

“What?” She furrows her brows at me.

“The photo. It’s black to me. Pitch black.” I let out a breathy sigh. “I thought so. You see all that, but all I see is a blank photo. I didn’t think they would put a black photo on their website…”

“That’s… spooky.” She stares at me. “Why is it black to you?”

“Because that whole basement is shrouded by something that doesn’t want me to see it.”

Suzie shivers visibly. “That…” She bares her teeth at me and sharply sucks air between them. “That’s so scary. So whatever is down there is strong enough to shield itself, even from you?”

I nod. “This thing is strong.” I shrug. “It could be more than one, but however many there are, they definitely don’t want psychic types seeing them.”

“Do you still want to go?”

Nodding once more, I hand her phone back and start packing a few things for the trip. “Maybe I can help them.”

“Oh, Amelia… You’re too good for this world. Too good for the living, and too good for the dead.”

I smirk at her. “I’ll still charge you full rent if things don’t work out between you and… Mark, was it?”

She snags a pillow from her bed and pulls it back to throw it, but stops herself. “Jerry.” She frowns. “I’ve been with this one for two months. It’s officially my longest relationship. You didn’t approve of the others, so I kicked them to the curb.”

A grin splits my face. “I’m not your mom, you know. You can sleep with whoever you want.”

The pillow finally hits me before dropping to the carpet. “You make it sound like I’m a whore…”

“You took it that way, it wasn’t my intention. But my point still stands. You can be with whomever you want, Sooze. If they hit you though, I’ll send them to hell.”

Suzie rolls her eyes and laughs. “Yeah, right.” She grabs her purse. “Ready?”

I nod, snatching my wallet off my dresser and making sure to grab a bag of graphite dust as well. “Yup. Let’s go say hello.”

Chapter 2

Pulling up atthe property, I get a tingling sensation zipping down my spine and I know we’re definitely at the right place. Once parked, I hear my phone buzz and quickly pull it out of my pocket, letting out a breathy sigh as I read the text.

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