Page 13 of Ravaging Red
“She’ll be fine. She’s been muttering nonsense as usual. But she wasn’t hurt, thank the Gods.”
I slipped past my mother and fell to my knees beside the porch where they’d set my grandmother up. She looked even smaller than I remembered, but her hands were steady and her eyes clear as glass. I lay my head in her lap and broke, the tearscoming fast and hot, my fingers gripping the fabric of her skirt like I used to, when I was a little girl terrified of thunderstorms.
“I thought you were gone,” I choked out. “I thought the woods took you.”
She stroked my hair with slow, familiar movements. Her fingers smelled like wildflowers and lavender soap. Her touch was always gentle and always grounded me. “I was almost gone,” she said softly. “But I found what I needed.”
Her voice was stronger than I remembered. It didn’t shake with confusion or forgetfulness. There was no slurred edge, no faraway look. It washer. Fully her. And that scared me more than anything else.
I pulled back and looked up at her.
Her eyes… theysawme.
“Did you…” I swallowed, heart hammering. “Did you seehim?”
Her smile curled with something I couldn’t name, something between joy and warning, and then, she nodded.
“He wanted to meet you.”
The air turned still, and I could hear my heartbeat in my ears.
“Who, Nana?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer. Even though my skin was already prickling with the echo of his name.
Her smile faded, just a touch. “Rael.”
The sound of his name curled in my belly like a red-hot brand. It wasn’t just a name anymore. It meant ownership. It was what my body called out to.My monster.
From behind us, my mother’s voice cut in, tight and suspicious. “What are you two talking about?”
I glanced up at her, heart thudding. “Nothing,” I said too quickly. “Just… dreams. She’s just tired, Mom. She’s muttering nonsensical things again.
But I knew she wasn’t. My grandmother looked at me, dead in the eye, and I could tell that she was clear and finallylucid.
“He’s been watching you since the first time I wandered past the wall,” she said, her voice low, meant only for me. “He could have taken me. But he didn’t. He waited. For you.”
My blood ran cold.
My mother stepped closer, arms crossed. “Waited? What the hell are you two talking about?”
I stood up, brushing dirt from my legs, heart racing so fast I thought I might faint.
“She’s just confused,” I said quickly, glancing over my shoulder. “It’s nothing. She’s fine. We’re all fine.”
But my grandmother didn’t look confused. Not even a little. Her expression was calm. Knowing. And full of something far older than madness.
“Be careful of him, darling,” she said gently. “He is aneedymonster.”
I froze.
For a moment, the entire world narrowed to those words. My mother’s voice blurred behind them, muffled, asking more questions, trying to piece together something she wasn’t ready to understand. But I understood it all too well, because that monster had left his mark on me.
“Ma’am?” a voice called from behind me, low and polite, but tight with authority.
I turned my head slowly, to find a uniformed officer standing a few feet away, hands clasped at his belt, another taller and younger one standing behind him, a notepad and pen in hand. Their faces were hard to read but their eyes gave them away. They looked at me as if they didn’t believe what they were seeing.
“Can we speak with you for a moment?” The older one asked.
I sat up, wiping my face quickly with the back of my hand. I didn’t look at my mother. I didn’t look at the neighbors. I didn’tlook at the hollow space between the trees in the distance. I simply stared down at the ground as I followed them.
