Chapter 22 #4
I reached around the corner and flicked the light switch, but the light just flickered once and went out.
“Elijah.” Oh, fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, why had I just opened the door like that without thinking?
And where the hell was Enyo, anyway? I tried to call out for Mason, but my voice just caught in my throat.
With no permission of my own, my feet carried me forward into the hallway and I turned toward the living room.
I wasn’t one to walk around my house naked under normal circumstances, let alone when some weird being seemed to be summoning me.
I really wished I’d have put on some shorts.
I ended up in the middle of my living room, and even though I couldn’t make out so much as an out-of-place shadow in the darkness, I was acutely aware that I wasn’t alone.
“Enyo?” I croaked. I needed to see her. I wanted to see her reaction to figure out if I was in danger.
Barely awake in the middle of the night, I couldn’t tell what was in the room with me.
There was a noise in the kitchen, but looking that way didn’t help. I could vaguely make out the sink in the moonlight coming around the blinds above it, but everything else was pitch black. A sound that would have been embarrassing in any other situation slipped from my throat.
“You can’t stop fate. Death is coming. The breath of life will be snuffed out, but run to the place that loves you.”
I was really getting sick of it. “What?” I managed to get out. “I don’t understand.”
“They were sent to you. You will both die if you don’t listen. Run from the one who’s trying to help you. It can only be this way.”
“I don’t understand you!” I yelled it this time, desperate, angry tears pricking the corners of my eyes.
Suddenly the hall light flicked on. I almost screamed when a hand landed on my shoulder, but it was Mason’s voice I heard next.
“Elijah? What are you doing? Are you sleepwalking?” I gasped in a breath and whirled around, reaching for him.
He caught me in a hug. “Hey. Hey, you’re okay. What’s wrong?”
I heard a soft trill as Enyo jumped off the couch she’d apparently been sleeping on the entire time, and she came over to rub against my legs.
They were both trying to comfort me. Why she hadn’t woken when that damn voice was speaking to me was beyond me.
Was it all just in my head? Was I losing my mind?
“I don’t know,” I said into Mason’s shoulder.
“I think I might be losing it.” I lifted my head and looked into the hallway.
“How did you get the light to come on?” I hadn’t turned the switch off after the light flickered out, I was sure of it.
“What do you mean?” he asked me. “I just turned it on. I think you were asleep when you came out here. I’m starting to think you have night terrors.
Maybe it feels like you’re awake, but you aren’t.
” He looked so relieved at the thought, like he’d just solved all my problems. Like I wasn’t actually being warned of my impending doom, just worried about it and working through it in my sleep.
Night terrors might explain the light and Enyo’s non-reaction, but she had reacted the last time.
I was sure she’d seen it. And Mason couldn’t just ignore the things that were really happening, or that there seemed to be only one logical end to it.
People were being murdered, I was being framed, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t a jail cell they wanted me in.
I fell back onto his shoulder and we stood there hugging, naked in my living room.
I wanted to feel him, I wanted to feel his safety and his body.
If the voice was real, what did it mean?
It kept telling me I was going to die, but to run.
Where? The place that loved me? What did that even mean?
My childhood home, maybe, although it felt like I put more work into it than got love out of it.
My mom loved me in it, but she wasn’t there.
My new home? I loved it, but did it love me?
And run from the person who was trying to help me?
Was it talking about Mason? So he didn’t die with me because we would both die if I didn’t listen? Mason was definitely trying to help me.
He was trying to lead me back to my bedroom, but I paused in his arms as another thought struck me. So was Chris. Chris had been trying to help me all along, even before Mason got back to town. Was that who I was supposed to run from?
I allowed Mason to usher me back to bed and cover us up, but my mind was reeling.
Chris had never doubted me, not even in the beginning when so many had and I was the best suspect.
He’d been trying to help me the whole time, but why had he been so adamant about me seeing things?
Was he testing me to see if I could figure it out?
He would have all the access he needed being a detective.
He probably could’ve even made it into my account on the app.
I turned away from Mason, trying to go over everything in my head.
Chris had the means and the weird trust in me, but why would he do that?
He seemed like a good guy, and he couldn’t possibly have a motive.
There was nothing I could think of that would remotely connect him to all of it.
I was going off the deep end. I had nothing.
All I had was the wild ramblings of a disembodied voice that may or may not be my own mind.
Mason scooted up behind me even though I’d turned away, and wrapped his arms around me. Enyo hopped up onto the bed and curled up at my belly almost protectively. “I don’t know what’s going on,” I said aloud, voicing the weakness and confusion I felt.
Mason seemed to understand. He pulled me closer.
“Shh,” he said. “It’s going to be okay. I’m going to make sure of it.
” It didn’t make me feel that much better, but I really liked being in his arms. I wasn’t sure about anything at the moment, but I tried to block it all out just to get a little more rest. He rubbed my arms and held me tight until I managed to go back to sleep.