Page 111 of Inevitable Endings

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But I snap it open and the screen flickers.

A single green bar. One. Somehow,Godor theDevilwants this call to happen.

The numbers stick under my fingers, like the keys don’t want me to do it. My hands shakes so bad I can’t press them right. I hit the wrong one. Again. Again. Then finally, I get it.

Hernumber.

It’s the only number I remember.

I press “Call.”

It rings.

I drop the phone.

Like it’s burning me.

I scramble after it like a madman and press it to my ear. Nothing. No answer.

I call again.

And again.

Seven times.

On the seventh, I don’t hang up when it goes to voicemail.

I listen.

To her voice.

I press the phone to my chest and slide down the wall.

I curl into myself like a dying man and whisper her name into the dark.

I see her face when I close my eyes. And I hate it. Because it reminds me I’m still a man. And being a man hurts more than being a monster.

Because men feel guilt.

Monsters just eat.

And I’m not sure which one I’ll be if she picks up that phone.

Chapter 49

Seven Times

Isabella

By the time we get home, it’s well past midnight.

The streets are empty and smeared with fog, streetlights flickering like they’re thinking about dying. Sawyer doesn’t say a word on the drive back, and neither do we. Ada stares blankly out the window, arms crossed, her knee bouncing. My thoughts are too loud to speak over. Everything Dominik said is still sinking in, shifting inside me like broken glass in water, almost clear, almost settled, but still dangerous if you move too fast.

We have answers now. Some, at least. Pieces of great worth.

But the biggest one still roars inside the silence, louder than ever.

Where is he?

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