Page 38 of Boys Who Taint

“I miss you already, Mavis. I hope you’re talking with your ghostly friends up there,” Melody mutters. Then she goes to her knees and gently places an actual painting she made these last few days onto the wood. It’s Mavis, surrounded by the stars.

“Beautiful,” Alistair, her father, says as he thumbs away a tear.

“Thank you,” my mom says, smiling at her, before looking at me. “Aspen …”

I scatter some petals on the wood beneath the earth, but I wish I could’ve painted them black just so Mavis would be surrounded by her favorite color.

I should’ve told Mom.

I look up at the dark forest surrounding this cemetery, wondering if she’s floating nearby. Instead, I spot two bright red eyes glaring right back at me.

I sit up straight in bed, panting like crazy, sweat dripping down my body.

It was just a nightmare. A reminder of a memory I can’t seem to shake.

I focus on my room, with its blue butterfly wallpaper, and all the objects on my desk, such as my lamp and laptop covered in stickers, and all my study books, to ground me in the moment.

But a sudden knock on my window makes me stop breathing.

I wait and listen to the howling of the wind outside.

PANG!

Something just flitted against my window.

Was it a branch from the nearby tree?

I push the blanket off and approach the window, barely pushing aside the curtains. In the middle of the night, I can barely see a thing outside, except for the small streetlight up ahead.

The cold makes me shiver.

Or maybe it’s the set of eyes blinking behind an eerie white mask.

I release the curtain and take one step away, my heart skipping a beat.

PANG!

It’s the same sound as before.

Something—no, someone is throwing rocks at my window.

Even though I know I shouldn’t, I can’t help opening the curtain to look again.

The masked man is right there beside the streetlight, staring right at me from underneath a black hoodie.

This time one step closer.

One blink.

And he’s closer again.

Penetrating eyes still home in on my window.

And the first thought in my mind is to jump right at him.

I bolt out the door and race down the stairs to the common room, ripping open the front door, unafraid. Despite the fact that it’s cold and dark outside, I grab the bat propped next to the door and head outside on my bare feet.

But the masked man is nowhere to be seen.

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