Page 55 of Monster Girl Awakened

Anna. “No, no, no, please,” I whisper, blinking rapidly as my stomach churned dangerously. Blood. So much blood. It painted the room like someone had taken a can of red paint, dipped the tip of a brush in and flicked it everywhere. When my eyes landed on Anna’s body, my brain went blank. Everything but her faded away, and as though unable to stop it, my brain began cataloguing everything that I could see. The way her throat, wrists and ankles were tied, so she was strung up against the wall. Her eyes stared past me lifelessly, head tilted at an odd angle, face sliced.

I swallowed, ears ringing. Her clothing was in tatters, wounds and blood coating almost all of her.

I stood there like that until Lexi found me. Apparently her father had changed his mind and said she could come hangout with us. She dragged me away from the macabre scene and called her dad, and mine. Lexi was scared over what had happened to Anna and worried about my lack of response. They called the police and the rest is a blur. It’s honestly like a nightmare.

I’ve asked Lexi what she remembers before, in the early days when I wanted to try and write down every detail that could possibly be a clue, but Lexi insisted that she barely saw it. She saw a flash of it and focused on dragging me away. I spent so many hours pouring over everything I could find out about what happened to Anna. So many hours thinking about that day, reliving what I saw. I let out a shaky breath. None of it could have prepared me for this though.

A child-sized realistic doll is strung up across from me against the library’s back wall. Ropes wrapped around its throat, wrists, and ankles. It’s a mirror image of Anna when I found her. Right down to the torn clothing and blood splattered on and around it. That’s not what has chills rolling over me though—or at least that’s not the only reason. The life-like doll is me. It’s identical to eleven year old me. The age I was when Anna died.

Suddenly everything clicks together in my head. Ethan’s presents. How each one of them had a trait or object that hinted at this. The ankle bracelet, the nail polish, the child’s torso.Goddess.

I step back, barely noticing that Aurora is beside me, and slide down the bookshelf until I’m sitting on the ground, knees drawn up to my chest. This has me rattled. It’s brought every bit of trauma from that night, and the guilt from the weeks that followed, to the surface. I stare blankly at the wall for I’m not sure how long, until a hand touches my shoulder. “Nessa?”

I jolt back to the present, eyes jerking up to meet pale green ones. Ridge. Thank the gods, I’m not sure how I’d react right now if one of the guys found me. I’m not in the headspace to field those sorts of questions. My eyes dart around the space, noting that Aurora is gone, before my gaze returns to Ridge. “Yeah?” I croak, giving the man a weak smile.

He studies me intently, probably puzzling over my emotional reaction. I’m usually rather impersonal and outwardly neutral with my emotions around my contacts so I can understand why he’d be a little confused. I get a hint of his clean lemony scent and my nose crinkles slightly. It’s a nice scent, but it doesn’t inspire any attraction inside me unlike Dylan, Oscar and Corin’s do. It merely offers me a sense of comfort and familiarity.

Scanning the room he steps back from me, straightening up to his full height. He’s around the same height as Corin—roughly 7 feet tall—but he has a swimmer's build. He’s helped me with quite a few things over the years and I’d consider him a friend of sorts. I’m not quite sure what he thinks of me though. Probably an irritation. The thought draws a smile from me and he blinks at me slowly before gesturing to the macabre scene. “It’s not a real person, but would you like me to deal with this as well? It’s an interesting move on his part.”

I nod. “Please.”

He shrugs then steps back, already presuming that I’m going to want to take some photos before he starts cleaning up. I take them then let him get to work, offering my thanks.

Scrubbing a still shaking hand over my face as I leave Ridge to clean up, I pull up Diarmuid's number and hit facetime, now walking across campus. I’m not worried about running into anyone as they’re parting around me like the red sea. Good. I might just make them scream if they get in my way right now. My magic hums in response, only to be smothered by the new magic inside me. Goddess that’s getting fucking annoying. Good thing Lexi’s going to help me figure out what the hell is going on with that this afternoon.

His smiling face fills the screen as he answers and I instantly soundproof my barriers and solidify them so I’m essentially walking around in a giant bubble. Fuckers get in the way now and they’ll get a zap and shoved out of the way. Usually that would be amusing but I’m too focused on the issue that is motherfucking Ethan.

I’m not sure what he takes from my facial expression, but Diarmuid’s smile drops the moment he sees me and a dangerous glint enters his eyes. “Who do I need to kill?”

That—despite everything—draws a laugh from me and some of the tension in my shoulders releases. “No one that I don’t already have on my list.” I sigh and scrub a hand over my face.

“What’s going on, Ness?” he asks, then over his shoulder, “Azure, Morrigan, get your asses in here.” I snort. Goddess, I miss them.

In under thirty seconds, I have three concerned faces peering at me through my phone screen. “So?” Diarmuid prompts.

“Well, first, hi,” I say with a forced grin, making my eyebrows jump to try and lighten the mood. Azure just quirks a brow at me and my shoulders droop. “I have sort of a tiny problem—well, two actually.” Everyone’s faces grow serious and I groan. Goddamn, I really was hoping to avoid this. When I told my fathers about a ton of stuff that went down in the first term, one of the things I conveniently left out—or more accurately talked down—was my powers. I made it seem like they weren’t anything to crow about, but me needing a balancing stone is going to give away that fact. Puffing out a breath, I focus on the path in front of me rather than look at them—I’m almost to my dorm.

“My potions have been exploding. Somehow I ended up with potions as one of my classes for this term—probably because I excelled at the theory side of it. As you guys know though, I always fail at putting it into practice when I try to imbue my magic into it.” I clear my throat, pausing. Gods, I really hope that Foster and the books I looked into are right and that I really do need a balance stone. “It’s been brought to my attention that I’m failing because I don’t have a balance stone.” I swear I can hear crickets and my eyes flit to the screen. They’re all watching me with furrowed brows, more confused than anything else. “Any chance you know what that is and where I can get one?” That gets a reaction. They all start to talk over each other.

I just wait and they get the hint quickly. “Are you sure? We didn’t press you about your magic and you haven’t said a ton about it. I mean we trained with you but I,we, didn’t realise you were holding back…” Azure trails off and I grimace. Reaching my dorm door, I quickly open it and settle on the couch after setting down my backpack. Lex isn’t here yet so I let down my magic barriers.

“I’m not sure what class I am, but if I had to guess I’d say I’m a strong A-class,” I finally admit, though a thought niggles at me in the back of my head.I can do so many things that others can’t, what if I’m more? What if I’m an O-class?But that would be impossible, right? I bite my lip.Right.I rub my hand on my thigh and set my phone down on my coffee table, propped up on a coffee cup from this morning. “I did some research after someone mentioned it to me, and it seems like something I need to check out.” I shrug to make out like it’s not a big deal, but their concerned expressions lead me to believe that it’s a bigger deal than I realised.

Thankfully they don’t press, and instead Morrigan clears his throat. “I know where to get one, I’ll have it shipped to your dorm. Okay?”

I bite the inside of my cheek and focus out the window for a moment before letting out a breath. “Thank you, dad.”

A beaming smile curls his lips and it draws a tiny one out of me, too. “What’s the second problem?” Diarmuid rumbles, and I thread my fingers together and set them on my lap.

“Ethan is stalking me.”

I groan, thumping my head against the table repeatedly to shake the last twenty minutes out of my head. They were understandably pissed off, worried, and wanted me to come home. I love them so much, but they don’t know all of me. Well, I think Diarmuid suspects, but he’s still really overprotective too. Me revealing that Ethan’s been stalking me since the start of the term went down as expected—like a lead fart.

I needed to let them know though, I did tell them I’d keep them more in the loop and this is me trying. Although I did put it off as long as possible. I’m pretty sure it’s time to loop the guys and Lexi in as well. She turned up five minutes ago and shot me a wink before ducking into the bathroom so I could finish my conversation in private. She’s a dear, like that.

The bathroom door clicks open. “Is the coast clear or do you need me to hide out for a little longer?” Lexi asks, a playful lilt to her voice and I look up at her. She’s got her head sticking out the bathroom but nothing else.

I snort. “You can come out now.”

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