Page 195 of A Love Like Venom

Blinking my eyes I try to focus on something. Anything to help keep me conscious but I can feel myself slipping.

Squeezing my eyes shut I open them again and I can make out Slater. He’s managed to crawl his way closer towards me.

Hoping that he can hear me I say to him, “Alice. Tell Alice I’m not breaking my promise.”

I will come home to her.

I will.

Her face is the last thing I see before everything fades to black.

Alice

Ihave been trying to stay occupied but I’m failing.

I’m helplessly bound by my dark thoughts. The horrible scenarios playing in my head.

They torment me. As if I’m watching a horror film. And I refuse to see how it ends because Iknowhow it will end.

With Reed and I dead.

I release a shaky breath that does nothing to calm me.

And as I glance down at my phone, desperately hoping to see a text or call from Reed I am granted with nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

At the pit of my stomach it feels hollow. In my gut I know,I know,that something isn’t right.

Thirty minutes has passed since I have sent him my last text. Thirty minutes of torturous silence.

He had told me that he wouldn’t be long. No longer than an hour. He assured me that he would come back to me.

So, tell me why it’s been an hour and half and he hasn’t returned?

Tell me why he never returned my text after asking where he was.

And tell me why when I called him twice,twice,each call went to voicemail.

No, this isn’t like him. This isn’t like him at all. And I’m bound to my dark thoughts. The dreadful thoughts that have me believing the worst.

Because what is the other possible explanation?

“You squeeze that phone any tighter and it’s going to break in your hand,” Rosa comments, her face sympathetic.

I didn’t even realize how tight I was holding it until I loosen my grip. My knuckles are stark white. They ache as I flex my fingers, trying to relax the muscles.

“He hasn’t responded,” I say dejectedly. The hollow feeling in my stomach hasn’t passed. With each passing second my worry grows.

“Oh, honey,” she sighs and brings me into her arms. I allow myself to be comforted by her. “Give him some time. I’m sure all is okay. After all we are talking about Snake.” She tries to assure me but I don’t know if I her.

It’s just a feeling. A terrible horrible feeling that has stayed with me ever since he walked out of our bedroom. It bloomed and spread throughout my entire body.

Call it crazy or paranoia or insane but I know right down to my very core that something is gravelly wrong.

And I can’t pretend that it’s not.

“It’s been too long, Rosa,” I disagree with her. Disentangling myself from her arms I look at her worriedly. “He should’ve been back by now.”

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