Page 31 of The Sins That Bleed
I watch the shadow of the door next to mine as it moves under the divide. Fear has me in a chokehold and I freeze, not daring to even breathe. My palms prickle with sweat and my body hair stands on end.
My cubicle is next; the seconds slow to a crawl as I wait for movement, for whoever is on the other side to burst in here. I wait to see shoes appearing from the gap under the door but they don’t, no feet underneath that I can see from this angle.
Impossible.
Blood rushes through my ears, and the urge to drag in oxygen is painful—my lungs are burning from holding my breath as pain lances through them. I fight it, hoping that whoever it is leavesme alone before I pass out, a tremor rolling through me as I await their next move.
Nothing happens.
Fight finally kicks in and I’m up, tucking myself away in record time as I rip the stall door open, ready to go down swinging. I brace myself for the confrontation, but it never comes. There’s nobody on the other side of the door.
I’m breathing heavily as I step out of the cubicle and sweep the room. Everything is as it was with the stall doors all shut like they had been when I first came in. Fear mutates into confusion; I could have sworn someone was in here with me.
That the same démon I’d seen before Valeska slithered into my life had come back for me.
“Who’s there?” My words echo off the white subway tiles with no response.
I’m alone.
I shudder, freaked out and confused as fuck. Did that happen or did I imagine it? Neither of the possibilities brings me any comfort. I dip back into the stall and hit the flusher, coming back out to wash my hands.
I see a figure in the mirror, “Fuck off!” I shout as I jump out of my skin.
“Woah, princess, it’s only me! Why you telling me to fuck off for?” Nico looks both confused and hurt at my outburst.
I grip the edge of the counter and dip my head, trying to calm my racing heart. Maybe all that caffeine wasn’t such a good idea. I’m one more scare away from a heart attack. I don’t respond until I can trust my voice not to tremble, he’d never let me live it down.
“Holy shit man, you scared the living daylights out of me. Why are you lurking in the corner, Nico?”
“I’m not lurking! I came in here to see what was taking you so long, even if you were having a shit, you don’t normallydisappear for nearly an hour.” He crosses his arms over his chest and frowns at me.
I’ve been gone for an hour, what the fuck?
“I was doing some thinking is all; you know how I like to use this time to connect the dots when we’re working a case.” I omit the part about hearing and seeing things.
“Well, did you come up with any answers?” He moves closer to me, intrigued about what I might have discovered.
I sigh and start washing my hands. “No, nothing.”
He slaps me on the shoulder in comfort, knowing it’s pissed me off to not come up with anything else we can use. I’m starting to accept that I’ll need Valeska more than I’d like. Nico hands me some paper towels to dry my hands.
“That sucks, but I’m sure something will come up soon. No asshole like that can hide all of the dirt on them.” He sounds so confident, but I’m struggling to muster the same energy.
“Yeah, it has to.” I don’t like lying, but there’s no point bringing him down with me.
“Let’s take another look at his family tree. I don’t think we investigated one of his cousins past their occupation. If we don’t find anything on him, then we’ll call it a night.”
“Okay, yeah let’s see what we can dig up.” I’ve got nothing to lose.
I throw my used paper towels in the empty bin and follow him out of the men’s room. I don’t look behind me for fear that whatever was in there with me before Nico came in is still lurking somewhere watching me.
Waiting.
It’s nearlymidnight by the time we head out, the last of the team had left hours before. Food had turned up at the office, the message with it showing it was from Valeska. I’d questioned how she’d known; my bet was Nico told her, but he denied it when I asked.
We hadn’t stopped with the cousin; we both agreed we should look into who they were dating, hoping that might open another avenue for us to explore.
It was looking promising when we stumbled upon an ex-girlfriend who had racked up a large tab at a bar we thought might be owned by Alaric, until we realised it was actually owned by Valeska under her pseudonym Lilith and the debt promptly settled.
