I hang up.
And that’s when I see it.
The second photo.
I don’t know how it got there.
It’s resting against my dashboard, tucked under the windshield wiper.
It wasn’t there when I got in the car.
My blood runs cold.
I open it slowly.
Another Polaroid.
Me.
Sleeping.
In the same place I just left Raven in.
She’s curled beside me.
But I’m the focus.
And scrawled across the bottom, in the same red ink:
You watch her.
I watch you.
Tick tock.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
RAVEN
The silence is worse than the violence.
At least when Damien’s here, I know what kind of danger I’m in. I know how he’ll touch me, how he’ll fuck the air out of my lungs and then kiss me like I’m the only thing that ever mattered.
But now?
Now I’m alone.
And the air feels… wrong.
I sit on the edge of the bed wrapped in his sweatshirt, knees pulled to my chest. The clock on the wall ticks too loudly. Every creak in the building makes me flinch.
The door’s locked. The windows are latched. I haven’t moved in hours.
And still…
Still, I feel it.
That crawl at the base of my spine.
