Chapter 75 Kiera
KIERA
I’d shut the lights off hours ago, but I couldn’t quiet my racing thoughts.
When I’d asked Leo to walk me back, I hadn’t been planning on kissing her. I just wanted to spend another minute in her company, and like always, I acted faster than I could think.
But that kiss… that kiss was everything and then some. I couldn’t stop picturing her cute furrowed brow, the shock on her face, the gentle way her hand tightened around mine as our lips met. The thought of her played in my head on a loop as I tossed and turned like a lovedrunk teenager.
But that wasn’t the only thing that had me tossing and turning.
A few weeks ago, I’d been thoroughly convinced I was straight. And now… I had no clue who I was. On the one hand, it didn’t matter — I could just explore how things felt and not worry about defining it.
But Spencer was supposed to be the experiment. Leo…
I scrunched my nose, burying my face into the pillow.
When I thought of her sweet face, I couldn’t stomach the thought of hurting her. And as much as I’d enjoyed that kiss, I couldn’t make her any promises about the next one, or the one after that.
I had no fucking clue what to tell her. And every minute closer to dawn was a minute closer to having to explain myself anyway.
Rolling over, I grabbed my phone off the nightstand with a grimace. It was already three.
No fucking way I get any sleep.
So instead of rotting in bed feeling sorry for myself, I pulled on a big t-shirt and thick socks before heading for the door. I just need to move. Clear my head.
Cracking open the door slowly, I waited and listened for any signs of my captors. But even the night owls were asleep by now.
Pacing the big hallway, I kept to the sides where the floorboards were less creaky. Something about the feeling of my socks on the old panels of hardwood felt nostalgic.
I’d never been a great sleeper — not since my dad died, at least. And my mom wasn’t the kind who comforted when it came to nightmares. Which meant I’d spent many sleepless hours pacing hallways just like this as a kid.
When I was really little, there were nights I was so scared of the shadows that I couldn’t even get out of the bed. But then this girl told me that the trick was to let the monsters think I was one of them. If I pretended to be a ghost, none of the other monsters would be able to touch me.
Even now, I caught myself repeating that as I drifted down the halls. I am a ghost, and you can’t hurt me.
It had been ages since I thought about that story though.
Most of my childhood memories were pretty foggy — snippets of images scattered through time, tied together with deep currents feeling.
I couldn’t even picture that girl’s face at all, but the memories of her felt warm.
I had no idea when or how I’d met her, but I could still hear a woman’s sing-songy voice calling for Madeline.
I wonder how she’s doing now.
Something about that thought made the skin on my neck prickle. I looked over my shoulder down the hall, and somehow the shadows felt deeper. I’m a ghost, and you can’t hurt me.
Even in the spooky dark of night, the mansion was beautiful. Moonlight glanced through the windows, dancing over the hardwood floors like it lived here too. It was quiet and still — a sharp contrast to the rancor that my roommates carried in every step.
The stillness felt so much like it had on the first night they’d brought me here, before this place was my home. So much had changed since then. Myself included.
Like a ghost, I drifted through the halls searching, though I wasn’t sure for what. I let instinct guide each footstep, until the rustle of a plastic tarp broke my focus.
The South Wing.
It was one of the few parts of the mansion I hadn’t seen.
And for good reason. I like my head attached.
But as I stood in front of it, watching the moonlight pass through the doorway, I couldn’t help feeling drawn toward it.
It’s not like Dom would know…
I shouldn’t. I wouldn’t. And yet my hand drifted ever closer to the tarp.
Just a peek?
But as the plastic grazed my fingertips, I felt the air knock loose from my lungs. A hand clamped over my mouth, muffling my scream as the other hand grabbed my hip, wrenched me away from the door and pinned me against the wall.
Terror thrummed through my veins as I tried to squirm away and get a look at whatever had caught me.
I wasn’t a ghost. And these monsters could very much hurt me.