Chapter 14
ESSENCE
ME:
Can you come back?
I’ve been chewing on the inside of my cheeks for the past two hours as I wait for his response.
Is that too desperate of me? Am I being clingy?
Sighing, I toss my phone onto my bed and lie down. Lunchbox whimpers from the floor, but I'm too tired to get up and get him.
My interaction with the masked man replays in my mind over and over no matter how hard I try to get him out of my head, which is why I texted him. My body still desperately craves him, and I need a reprieve. Also, I need him here with me to fill the void that Evan’s left.
I don’t want him to come home. I just want to be done with him, but every time the thought crosses my mind, I dismiss it.
I’m a coward—I'm afraid of what Evan might do to me when I do finally break up with him. At least I have my stalker to protect me.
Did I really just think that?
Now I know that I've officially lost my mind.
When my phone buzzes, I scramble to pick it up. I grin stupidly when I see that it’s a text from him, but it falls when I read what he’s written.
UNKNOWN:
I can’t.
It’s okay. Rejection is a natural part of life, or whatever it was that self-proclaimed “relationship guru” said in her latest video on social media.
That doesn’t stop the sinking feeling in my stomach or the embarrassed blush on my face.
My thumbs hover over my phone’s keyboard as my mind races with everything I want to say, but before I can type out a response, he beats me to it.
UNKNOWN:
I’m sorry, little flower. I’ll see you tomorrow.
ME:
When?
The three gray dots pop up and disappear several times before they finally stop altogether. What was he going to say? Did something happen tonight?
Now I’m worried, and I want to text him again, but I also don’t want to be pushy.
I sigh and turn my screen off, deciding to just leave him alone for the night. Lunchbox’s whines start to grate on my nerves, so I pick him up and let him lay next to me.
“You know Evan doesn’t like it when you sleep on the bed,” I warn him, but he just looks at me with those adorable eyes and licks my nose. I smile and snuggle him against me, settling in for the night.
The fire roars behind me as I run through the house in search of an exit.
This place isn’t familiar. The hallway I'm in is long and seems to go on forever with no end in sight. Every door is clear at first, but as soon as I run to them, they burst into flames.
“Evan!” I scream in panic as the thick smoke starts to burn my eyes. Where the hell is he?
Did he really leave me here to die?
“I think you already know the answer to that,” a dark, deep, familiar voice murmurs in my ear.
The flames reach up to the ceiling, and it suddenly collapses—
“Get up.”
I’m shaken awake roughly, leaving the fiery nightmare behind only to be thrust back into the cold darkness of the real world.
I clear my throat and sit up in bed, trying to fully wake up.
“Evan?”
“Why the hell is the dog in my bed?” he snaps, angrily grabbing Lunchbox by the scruff of his neck and tossing him to the floor. He cries and tries to run away, but now he has a very prominent limp and blood starts pouring from his paw.
“No!” I scream.
Fully awake now, I get out of bed and run to him, cradling him in my arms. I gently lift his little paw to assess the damage, but he only cries and pulls it away. What I can see, though, is that one of his nails is broken pretty badly; it must have gotten snagged on the carpet.
Furious tears blur my vision. “Why are you like this?” I ask Evan, my voice thick with emotion. “He’s an innocent little puppy—he didn’t do anything to you!”
Evan stumbles over to his side of the bed and starts pulling his work clothes off.
Great, he’s drunk. Again.
“I don’t want that nasty animal in my fucking bed,” he growls.
I take a step forward. “It’s my bed, too, Evan. And if I want to sleep next to my dog in my bed, I’m going to.”
His nostrils flare. “Just shut up, okay? I’ve had a long shift, and I don’t need to come home to you bitching.”
“I wouldn’t have been bitching if you had just left me alone,” I snap.
He just gets in the bed like he didn’t even hear a word I said and gets under the covers.
“So you don’t want Lunchbox in the bed but you’re perfectly content to sleep in the spot he was just in? Make that make fucking sense.”
He doesn’t respond, and not a full minute goes by before he’s sound asleep.
I’m shaking now. If he’d just taken his anger out on me, I would have put up with it. But to purposely harm an innocent animal to satisfy your abusive need to hurt everything and everyone around you isn’t okay.
“Come on, baby,” I say gently, holding Lunchbox tightly against me.
Grabbing my phone off the bed, I go downstairs to the kitchen to find something to wrap his paw in and soak up the blood, and then I search online for a twenty-four-hour emergency vet in the area.
After a few minutes, I find one about half an hour away.
Lunchbox protests when I set him down on the carpet, which breaks my heart even more.
“I’ll be right back,” I promise him before rushing back upstairs to get my wallet out of my purse and Evan’s keys out of his work bag. Thankfully, he’s already in such a heavy sleep that he doesn’t wake up. I sprint back down the stairs, scoop up Lunchbox, and run out to Evan’s car.