Chapter 11
SAGE
I feel light as a feather, the combination of the alcohol and the thrill of the night making my limbs tingle and my veins pulse.
The chill of the October air is almost erotic, making my heated skin feel exposed.
I leave my jacket on the bench when I stand up again, downing the rest of my beer before I click my tongue at Juliet. “Going to get another. You want one?”
She tips her can to me, signaling she’s not empty. “I’m good.”
My sneakers crunch the earth with every heavy step, and I do my best to avoid any grave markers—just in case.
When I finally reach the coolers, I flip open the top to the one we got drinks from before, but frown when I find the icy water empty. I hum between closed lips, flipping the lid to the next cooler, but that one’s empty, too. “Crap.”
“Need some help?”
My eyes flare at the voice—gravel and seduction laced with malice. I swallow hard as I stand up straight, my heart picking up pace as I turn to face the person standing too close for comfort behind me. His eyes are darker than the first time I saw him, his pupils blown out wide as he grins at me.
I stare at him, words escaping me, searching his face for answers to a multitude of questions that flit through my mind. He’s gorgeous. His bone structure is something you’d find in a magazine. As I admire his features, my mouth goes dry and my mind goes blank.
He was built for the sole purpose to lure women in; his thick and puffy lips are pillows of flesh that curve at the edges, asking to be traced with my fingertip. There’s something dark and vicious behind his eyes, though—pain or demons waiting to be released.
“Sage?” He chuckles, pushing past my thoughts. His lips spread into an amused grin, as if he knows I was drooling over him, and my gaze snaps to his.
“What?”
His eyebrows pull down, and he points behind me to the coolers. “I was asking if you needed some help?”
“Oh.” I blink, laughing at myself a little. “They’re empty.”
He walks around me and bends down to open one of the coolers I hadn’t checked yet. When he straightens again, he turns and holds out a little can of flavored hard seltzer. “Hope you like cherry.”
I take the can from his hand, opening it. “Thank you, Kaiden.”
His gaze is stuck on me as I grimace a little at the sugary flavor, the expression on his face unreadable. I swallow thickly, feeling a little spark of nerves making its way down my spine.
He grins. “Have you checked out the rest of the grounds yet?”
The question has me looking over his shoulder and past his head to study the graveyard. Nerves swim in my belly, and I don’t know if it’s from him or from the overall creepiness of this place.
I shake my head when I meet his gaze again. “Of the cemetery? No, I haven’t.”
He tilts his head a little, the gesture feeling almost intimidating in this setting. “Would you like me to show you?”
It’s deep into the night, shadows casting over every inch of the area.
The only thing illuminating the cemetery is the bonfire that’s sat at the back, and the rare moments that the clouds shift just right to let the moon shine through.
Groups of people have started to thicken as drinking games have started, and the spaces in between different clumps of people feel dim and empty.
Part of me screams to run as I study Kaiden’s darkening gaze, but the other part of me—the part that’s so curious about this guy that I feel crazy—wants to follow him into the darkness and discover what’s hiding.
I find myself considering the idea more when I imagine this monster of a boy ravaging my body in the thickness of the woods, and when courage and excitement take over my fear, I nod at him. “Sure.”
He holds a large hand toward me, and I grab it before I can change my mind, wrapping my fingers around his palm as he starts to lead me away from the crowd.
“The cemetery has been here since the 1800s,” he starts to tell me, walking me deeper into the clusters of headstones.
“It can be dated back to the town’s founders—the original Blackmores.
They built the university right in the center, the cemetery acting as a barrier to the outside world.
Some of us say that it’s like we’re always being guarded by our ancestors. ”
His voice is a low grumble, making my heart pick up pace. In the dark, his words seem more sinister, especially as we start passing headstones that are dirty and covered in moss.
“Most of the headstones you see here are from the 1900s, though.” He continues. “The older ones are about a mile out, and we don’t party out there.”
“Why not?” I find the courage to ask, turning to look at his shadowed face.
God, he’s beautiful. Like an angel who had his wings plucked for sinning.
He grins devilishly. “That’s where the crypts are. Super old, and super creepy. Most of our classmates are too frightened to go out that far.”
I bite onto my lip as I study the way his face moves as he speaks. “But you aren’t?”
He shakes his head with a soft, maniacal laugh. “I’m not afraid of what’s hiding in the darkness, Sage. I welcome it with open arms.”
I press my mouth closed, unable to find anything to respond with.
He continues to lead me farther away from the party, the headstones becoming few and far between, most of them so old that you can barely read them, some of them even broken and missing pieces.
Trees pop up from the earth, creating an umbrella of leaves and branches above us that cut off any view of the moon. Darkness becomes blackness.
I squeeze tighter onto his hand as my senses go into overload, urging me to turn around and run.
My limbs turn from gelatin to smoke, and I’m tempted to pinch my eyes shut.
Like there’s nothing inside of me to hold me to the earth, my head feels like it’s floating, almost as if there’s no substance to my body and gravity is having to take over.
I’m light, the loss of my eyes making everything seem bigger, smaller, louder, quieter.
The dark is playing tricks on me, almost as if I could reach my arms out and find nothing to grasp onto for miles. Except him—Kaiden Thorne.
He chuckles when I grab onto him harder, probably making the flesh of his hand red with the force.
“Maybe we should turn back… I can’t really see anything.” My voice sounds different now, like a little girl afraid of the monsters under her bed.
“You haven’t seen the best part yet, Sage.” His gravelly voice scratches over my skin. But he doesn’t have a worry in the world. It’s like he’s at home here in the pitch black of the night.
I can barely hear the party anymore; the music is faint and far away, but it still gives me the reminder that I’m not alone. I focus on my legs and feet, counting silently in my mind every time I take a step, but the noises of leaves, twigs, and dry earth crunching keep startling me.
The insects and animals that accompany the summertime have long fallen silent for the autumn, making the atmosphere feel still and empty.
I let myself trust Kaiden not to let me walk into anything, hoping that he knows his way around well enough to keep me standing upright.
After another couple of quiet minutes, the party noise is gone completely, and the only thing filling the space is the sound of my heavy breathing. Nerves pump through me, and I feel moisture lick at the back of my eyes as the cold air kisses my skin.
“Where are we going, Kaiden?” I whisper, my voice almost echoing.
His hand releases mine, pulling from my hold the moment the last syllable of my question has passed my lips.
My palm feels cold and empty without his in mine, and I stop walking, my legs feeling weighed down as I whip my head around to find something to lay my gaze on.
There’s nothing, though; it’s so dark that I can’t even see my own hand when I hold it up in front of my face. “Kaiden?!”
I can’t hear him breathing anymore, and the presence of him is gone. I swing my arms out to my sides, hoping I will smack into him with the rotation, but I come up empty. Silence is the only thing that answers me, aloneness creeping into my lungs and strangling me. “Kaiden!”
My breathing fills the silence as panic snakes around my throat, fear consuming me entirely when I start imagining any and all scenarios that might fall upon me in the dark.
I don’t even know where I am anymore; we walked too far, and I won’t be able to find my way back to the party by myself.
My fight-or-flight kicks in, sobering me like a cold bucket of water over my head.
I don’t know if there’s anything to fight, so I flee.
Spinning around, I hope I’m facing the right direction and hold my arms out in front of me.
I start walking, focusing on the feeling of the cold air against my hands and the sounds of my sneakers along the ground. After twenty steps, my hands connect with something rough and cold, making me jump as a squeal slips from my lips.
I take a deep breath, blowing it out as I run my hands along the sharp and jagged edges of a tree, trying to let the feeling of the texture reroute my brain so I can breathe steadily again.
“Fuck me,” I whisper, sighing as my chest heaves.
I hear movement behind me, my entire body freezing in place as my pulse pounds in my ears, then a body is slamming into me from behind, making my front press against the tree. I scream at the top of my lungs as my face makes contact with the bark, the bite of pain making me wince.
“Are you scared?”
My stomach sinks, my throat constricting on the next scream, because the voice that’s just spoken doesn’t belong to Kaiden.
A face falls into my hair, breathing into my ear through the curtain of blonde as hands press into the sides of my waist so hard that it almost hurts. I cry out, unable to stop the noise.
“Are. You. Scared?” Another voice joins in, breathing against my opposite ear and making me jump the most I can with someone still pressing against my back.