Chapter 28 #2
“Maeve.” My name is a plea, their palms raised in submission. “I only got the wheels turning in your favor, you did the rest. You made the art. You did it all on your own.”
“You’re lying,” I cry, my voice growing hoarse, choked with emotion. “You’ve been lying this whole time!” Hot tears cascade down my cheeks. “Who even are you?” I ask, yelling now. “You’ve never even told me your name.”
“I’m Phantom, just Phantom.”
“How can I trust you now?” I demand.
“I—” Their gaze shifts again, moving to somewhere behind me. “Shut up,” Phantom yells. “Shut up, shut up, shut up!”
Without another word, they stalk toward me, the promise of death in their eyes.
I back up until my calves knock into my bed frame.
Fully expecting them to come at me, I flinch and close my eyes, but after a moment, I don’t feel their touch.
When I open my eyes again, I find Phantom fisting the air, as if they were grabbing someone by the shirt and shaking them.
“You’re wrong,” they desperately bellow at the empty air before them.
“She just said she loves me. We’ll get through this.
She’ll teach me how to do it. How to love.
She knows how.” I watch in horror as they yell and scream at nothing.
“I’ll destroy you if I have to! I swear!
I won’t let you take this away from me!”
My tears flow faster, caused by heartbreak and fear in equal measure.
“Phantom,” I whisper, my voice shaky and unstable. “Wh—who are you talking to?”
They blink then. And, as if my voice drew them from a stupor, they turn their head slowly toward me. They release their grip on the air and begin to tremble.
“Echo,” they say softly. “It’s just Echo.”
“Who’s Echo?” I ask, even though I’m terrified of the answer.
“The ghost of someone I wronged.”
My belly feels hollow, like all my insides have been scooped out.
“A ghost?” I ask, my voice still quivering.
“It’s nothing. Nothing.” But I’ve heard that line too many times now for it to be true. This is not nothing.
They close their eyes and shake their head as if they could banish the last few minutes from existence, but they can’t. I can’t unsee what I’ve seen.
Phantom is hallucinating. They have been this entire time.
It explains so much. All the times they spoke under their breath to someone no one else could hear. Every time their gaze traveled to someone invisible. And I don’t know if I’m in danger because of it.
Phantom’s gaze is imploring, and I know I only have a split second to decide. Just one. I take a deep breath.
And I run.
I make it halfway to the door before Phantom catches my wrist and pulls me back to their chest.
“Maeve,” they mutter as they crush me to them. “Shush, it’s okay. I know Echo is scary, but I’ll take care of it. I promise. I won’t let my demons get to you.”
Those words trigger a memory of my dream, from when Phantom spent the night. So, it wasn’t something my subconscious made up after all. I overheard them speaking to their hallucination and my tired mind merged it with my dream.
“Phantom,” I plead, wiping snot and tears from my face. “Please, just let me go. Let me go and I won’t tell a soul, I swear it. All your secrets will be safe with me. Please.”
They pull me back enough to look at my face, and theirs crumples at what they find. “You really don’t trust me anymore.” They let go of me and I instinctively look toward the door.
“Fuck!”
I jump, glancing back at Phantom. Their hands are woven in their hair, a tortured expression on their face.
“This is all your fault!” they rage, grabbing a stapler off Iris’s desk and throwing it at the wall. It breaks into pieces before it hits the floor.
I dash for the door again, but Phantom is quicker, cutting me off from escape. “No, Maeve. You can’t. You can’t leave. Without you I won’t have enough left.”
The only way out of this room is through that door.
I charge at them, pounding my fists as hard and fast as I can against their chest.
“Let me go,” I scream.
“Maeve,” Phantom cries, taking my blows like they’re as soft as the beats of a butterfly’s wing. “I’m so sorry. I don’t want to, but I can’t lose you. I don’t know how to love yet, but I will, I promise. I’ll learn to love you the way you deserve.”
Before I can land another blow, they push me away from them and I stumble over my feet, catching myself on Iris’s desk. By the time I’m steady, Phantom is shutting the dorm door. The lock clicks into place before a loud bang shakes the door. Something hits the floor with a clunk on the other side.
Their voice drifts in through the gap beneath the door. “I’m sorry, Maeve.”
I shake the door handle with trembling hands. It’s locked.
“You locked me in,” I whisper.
I whirl around, searching the room for the key and my phone. But they’re both gone. Not that it even matters, anyway. Phantom broke off the other side of the doorknob. There’s no way I’m getting out of this room. Not without help—Phantom’s help.
I’m trapped.
The sound of Phantom’s sobs doesn’t reach my ears over the sound of my screams.