6

Dev

The figure standing several yards ahead of me looks human until I focus on it. Its arms hang too low, and its shoulders sit strangely beneath a head I can’t make sense of no matter how hard I stare. The space around us is empty, with only dark ground beneath my feet and this thing watching me like it has been waiting.

Monster is the only word that fits.

It raises one hand and curls its fingers toward itself. I understand what it wants. Come closer. I stay where I am, so the creature waits and makes the same gesture again with slow patience.

“No.”

I step backward. My foot lands, and I take another step, then another, but the distance between us stays exactly the same. My throat tightens. I turn as if I can run and somehow I am still facing it, still the same few yards away, still being watched. Its hand comes up again, beckoning me closer.

I jerk awake so hard my shoulder slams into the headboard. For a few seconds, I have no idea where I am. My breath comes fast while I stare around my bedroom, taking in the closed curtains and the clothes on the chair before my eyes land on the door across from my bed. Victor stood there last night, and everything I managed to forget for the length of a nightmare comes rushing back.

Julian’s eyes changed first. Nico’s changed after he kissed me. Victor’s changed after I kissed him. Three fucking times, and Mom had been right about what would happen.

I press both palms over my face and sit there until my breathing settles. The monster can be the pill or stress, maybe both. I don’t need another supernatural problem when the three I already have are enough. I decide I’m staying in my room today. One day. I’ll sleep, let whatever Maya gave me finish leaving my system, and figure out what to do tomorrow when my brain works again.

My phone is waiting beside me with Julian’s name all over the screen. He has asked if I got home okay, whether I’m feeling better, and if he did something wrong. There is a missed call between the messages, and while I’m staring at them, another appears. Dev? Can you just tell me you’re okay?

My thumb rests over the keyboard. He has a reason to be worried. I ran out after he kissed me and barely explained anything. A normal person would text after that. A normal person might call too. I almost convince myself until I picture his eyes going red again, and I lock the screen without answering.

Staying inside for a day turns out to be disturbingly easy. Mom leaves early for work and usually isn’t back until late. Victor is gone soon after. Nico is harder to track, so I keep my door locked and listen before I use the bathroom. When I hear footsteps outside, I wait. I have half a case of bottled water beside my desk and enough junk food in a drawer to avoid the kitchen.

Tomorrow, I’ll deal with Julian. Tomorrow, I’ll figure out what the hell I’m supposed to say to Nico and Victor. Today, I want everybody to stay away from my door.

Maya calls before noon. I consider ignoring her, then answer because Maya treats prolonged silence like an invitation to investigate.

“Hey.”

“You sound awful. What’s wrong with you?”

“I’m sick.”

“What kind of sick?”

“The kind where I feel like shit and want to sleep.”

She pauses. “Does this have anything to do with last night?”

My stomach tightens. “No. I’m fine.”

“You just said you were sick.”

“You know what I mean.”

She clearly doesn’t, but she lets me go after making me promise to text her later. I agree because it gets her off the phone, then toss it beside me and close my eyes. When I wake again, I still haven’t texted her.

Gideon’s catches up with me that afternoon. I wake to two missed calls from my manager and a message asking if I’m coming in. My shift at the bookstore-café started almost three hours ago.

Shit.

I type, Sorry. I’m sick, and send it before I can think about how pathetic that looks. The response comes fast. You needed to call before your shift, Dev. We’re short today. A second message follows a few minutes later asking if I’ll be there for my next one, and I leave that unanswered too.

By the next day, I have created a routine without meaning to. I sleep at stupid hours, wake long enough to check the hallway, use the bathroom when nobody is nearby, then lock myself back in. Julian keeps messaging. Maya checks on me again. Gideon’s sends another message asking me to call as soon as I’m awake.

I keep telling myself I’ll answer everyone once I know what I’m going to say. In the meantime, I learn the house. I know when Mom’s car leaves in the morning and when Victor usually leaves after her. I can tell Nico’s footsteps from Victor’s now, which is information I never wanted but apparently need for survival. If either of them is moving around upstairs, I stay put. Each time I avoid one of them successfully, staying locked in feels a little easier.

Late that night, hunger finally ruins the arrangement. I finish the last crushed crackers from the bottom of a packet and drain what is left in my water bottle. My stomach has been complaining for hours, and there is nothing else in the room unless I want to start chewing paper.

I stand at the door and listen for a full minute. The house has been quiet for a while, long enough that everyone should be asleep. I can sneak down, grab enough food and water for tomorrow, and come straight back. As long as I don’t bump into Victor or Nico, I’ll be fine.

I unlock the door and slip into the hallway. The kitchen run goes better than it has any right to. I fill two bottles, grab bread and whatever else I can carry quietly, and stack everything against my chest. The house stays silent, and by the time I leave the kitchen, relief has started to loosen the tightness between my shoulders.

I actually did it. Nobody saw me. All I need to do is get upstairs, lock the door again, and keep avoiding Victor and Nico until I figure out how the hell I’m supposed to fix this.

I turn the corner and walk straight into a bare chest. I jerk backward so hard one of the bottles slips from my arms, and I catch it against my stomach before it hits the floor, nearly dropping the food instead. My heart is beating so hard it hurts as I look up and find Victor standing directly in front of me, shirtless and close enough that I can still feel where I hit him. He watches me scramble to keep hold of everything, his expression calm.

“A little jumpy there, Dev?”

I feel a cold wave crash over me.

Fuck.