Page 99 of Nocturne

“Are you, Devlin?”

Something is off about the kid. His eyes are blank, not the ones that should be on a kid who is being raised by someone like Ara. Eero said he was a shy, lively kid, nothing like the hollow-eyed boy in front of me now. His eyes remind me of my own at that age, stripped of innocence, already well-versed in the cruelty of the world. I keep silent, watching, but he steps forward, unfazed.

There isn’t a flicker of fear on his chubby face, tilting his head to the other side in curiosity.

“He said you were here.”

Every hair on my body stands on edge.

“Who?”

“The man outside my balcony,”

Cold anger surges through me, and I make for the stairs.

“He is gone.” The kid says softly, stopping me in my tracks.

I turn back to him; my face must be reflecting the anger that I felt. I do not hide it when I stomp towards him and fix him with a glare. He flinches slightly, but he holds his ground. He looks at me as if he is sizing me up.

“Did you see him?”

He shakes his head and rubs his eyes. He looks up, his eyes fixed on the space where Ara’s room is. The thought of her sleeping, unprotected and in the deep haze of pills while some fucker wandered around her house snaps something inside me.

“He comes sometimes,” he says in a detached tone. “Says he’s my friend. But I don’t think he is.”

“Why?” I frown.

The kid’s lips press into a thin line.

“Because he thinks I’m a stupid kid who’ll believe a man outside my window is harmless.”

“Does Ara know?”

He shakes his head. Something similar to warmth comes into his otherwise unexpressive eyes as he looks back up towards her room.

“She’d worry. She is easily scared and highly emotional. I don’t like it when she cries. That is why I came down to you. I’ve heard her talking about you.”

I raise my brows. He is no kid. He speaks like an adult, and he has smarts that most lack. He also has the backbone to look me in the eye and not flinch. Grown men aren’t able to do that.

“Go sleep. I’ll check outside.”

As he turns towards the stairs, his voice stops me. “He said he left you a gift.”

The kid disappears with that.

I walk to the back patio of her house, and immediately, I feel eyes on me. Years of living in the shadows until I owned them made me aware of every shift in my surroundings. And that is how I know in my bones that there is someone, hidden in the canopy of the thicket, watching. I lean on one of the wooden pillars, cutting my eyes throughout the perimeter, daring the fucker to step out and face me.

But like a coward, no one steps out. A glint of metal snaps my attention towards the covered box in front of the steps. Those eyes are still on me, and I take my time climbing down the stairs while I fish out my cigarette and light it. Being followed isn’t anything new to me. Some did it out of curiosity, and some did it to see if they could try attacking me. But no one was brave enough to step out of the dark, and I let them revel in their stupid notion that they could approach me.

Cowards did not receive my attention.

I stand in front of the box, covered with a black cover with hints of silver stripes. It looks like someone took a great deal of attention into wrapping the box.

I want to sneer, but that means showing I care. The care in its presentation is an insult.

I light my smoke, taking in a lungful of smoke, irked at myself and everything else, when I feel the remnants of Ara’s addictive taste leave me and fill it with tobacco.

Fuck

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