Page 139 of A Smile Full of Lies
Knox was gone. He was overseas. Which meant if the mask was here, ifhewas here, then I was alone. I was vulnerable.
Fuck.
I bolted for the door, heart hammering, and slammed it behind me, twisting the locks with hands that shook so violently I was sure he’d wrench the door open and grab me before it finally clicked into place.
The silence pressed in, broken only by the frantic thud of my heartbeat. I dropped the bar across the back door, tugged curtains shut, killed the porch light. Shadows folded tighter around the cabin until I could hardly breathe. My phone was in my pocket, slick in my sweaty hand. I hit Knox’s number. It rang once, then went straight to voicemail.
“Goddammit,” I hissed.
He’d said he’d be unreachable, overseas, meetings stacked for days, but some stupid part of me still expected him to pick up. I wanted to hear his voice telling me to calm down, that I was safe. Instead, all I got was silence and the echo of my own panic. I pressed my forehead to the wall, eyes shut tight.
Get a grip, Ros. Get a grip.
I opened my laptop on the kitchen table, the screen casting pale light across the wood. My fingers flew, typing into the forum, a desperate DM to StrayDog777. He always answered. He had to.
Please… please answer me,I prayed.
The forum looked the same as always — anonymous avatars, threads sprawling in the digital dark. Except tonight it felt hostile. My DM sat there unanswered, my plea hanging like a confession in the void.
GraveyardGirl93
Are you there? Please. I think Nox Obscura followed me to my boyfriend’s river house, and I’m here all alone. I don’t have a car. I can’t get away. Please tell me I’m not alone.
I refreshed. Nothing. Refreshed again. Still nothing. My throat burned. The internet was supposed to make me feel less alone, but right now it only made the silence heavier. The cabin creaked under the strain of wind off the storm front I’d spotted rolling in from the other side of the river. Every sound felt amplified, the tick of the wall clock, the hum of the fridge, the occasional shiver of branches against the roof.
And then came the ping. Not in the anonymous forum. Not StrayDog777 like I hoped it would be. My chest squeezed tight as a DM slid across my phone’s screen, from a screen name that made my stomach turn.
Nox Obscura
You look good when you’re scared.
I swore and almost threw my phone across the room, but I already knew it wouldn’t matter. He always found another way in.
The phone rang, screen black except for the two words: Unknown Number. My stomach dropped. I let it ring once, twice, then snatched it up before I lost my nerve.
“What the hell do you want?”
My voice cracked.
A low chuckle spilled through the speaker, deep and distorted.
“That panic in your throat… I can almost taste it, even from out here. Did you miss me, baby?”
Heat curled low in my belly, treacherous and shameful. I clenched my teeth.
“Fuck off. I chose Knox. IloveKnox.”
His laugh dragged through the line, slow and cruel.
“Love him all you want, little writer. You’re still wet for me, and we both know it.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, bile rising in my throat. He wasn’t wrong. Fear and want twisted too close together until I couldn’t untangle them from each other. My free hand pressed hard against the table edge. I was trying so hard to ground myself.
“You don’t get to come in here and rewrite my choices,” I snapped. “I almost died for Knox. That should tell you everything you need to know.”
Silence stretched, thick and choking, until he finally breathed, “And yet you picked up when I called. Good girl.”
I stifled the urge to flip the table and scream my rage loud enough for him to hear me all the way from where he lurked in the woods.
