Page 28 of Little Nightmare

He seemed to actually think about it, like weighing if it was actually a possibility before he sat and pulled a protein bar out of his pocket along with a bag of fruit snacks—the one without dye because of course they would be dye-free. They probably lacked sugar aka any sort of joy as well.

He followed it all up with a vitamin shot.

Wow. Wonders never ceased.

"Easy there killer, you might get a cavity.” I tapped his protein bar with my Twizzler. He snatched the bar away so fast I nearly fell backwards off the bench. “What the hell!”

"Food shouldn’t touch.” He scooted the protein bar over to the opposite side of the table and did the same with the rest of the packaged food. “Ever.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I muttered. “It’s fucking packaged, Ace. It can touch.”

He ignored me and started opening up the vitamin shot.

I made a face when he chugged half of it and wiped his mouth. Part of it spilled onto the table.

It was green.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a napkin, quickly wiped up the mess then folded the napkin six times and put it back in his pocket.

"Why six?” I asked.

“What?” He finished the shot. “Six what?”

“Folds.” I pointed to his pocket. “You folded it six times. You have a thing with even numbers and you hate messes and things that touch. Are you OCD or something?”

He reached for his protein bar and tore the wrapper open with his perfectly straight white teeth. Why hadn’t I noticed how strong they looked? How his full lips pressed against them. God, if he didn’t use his mouth for evil he might actually be more attractive than I’d care to admit. His deep voice interrupted my thoughts. “If I was OCD I’d be counting everything and I’d probably be on medication or it would be more apparent. I just hate odd numbers. They seem unfinished. Even numbers make sense.”

He said it like I was the dumb one for not seeing the logic in it. “God forbid something be confusing.”

"Confusion leads to mistakes,” he pointed out.

Mistakes like murder.

Like the death of someone who was never supposed to die in the first place. The food settles like a rock in my stomach, not that I had high expectations, what with the way I’d been feeling recently.

Happy birthday to me—more puking.

I knew it was only a matter of time before I had to say something to my dad and to Ace, but it was the last part of Louis I had—and something I selfishly wanted to keep to myself—for as long as I could.

Ace reached for his phone. “Yeah, I’m on campus.”

I leaned in to eavesdrop.

“No.” He barked, his eyes immediately started scanning the area. “Alright, I’ll be on the lookout, glad you let me know. I didn’t expect it to be today. Yeah. Bye.”

I pretended not to be interested and started toying with the wrapper on my water bottle. “Anything wrong?”

“Nope.” He shoved the phone back into his pocket and reached for a tasteless fruit snack. “They did a cleansing of Louis’s line this afternoon. They found some incriminatingevidence, and the last two family members were working for the Russians. That doesn’t implicate Louis, but it does look bad.”

“Cleansing.” I repeated the word with a harsh whisper. “So had he been alive would he have?—”

Ace slowly rose to his feet. “You know what it entails, he would have either been killed or he would have had to prove his loyalty and worth along with everyone and everything else related to him.”

Me included.

Me.

And his unborn child.

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