“So if this has never happened before, then…why is it happening now? Can you tell me?”
Flashes of memories flickered in my mind.
That horrible laugh.
The color blue.
Panic. Dread. Screaming. Me screaming. Crying. Begging.
Darkness.
Darker than dark.
I licked my lips and focused on Reese’s hands. “Everett locked me in the crawlspace in our basement a week after Albert and Evelyn adopted me. He didn’t tell anyone where I was, and for two days, I sat in the dark and screamed and cried and begged for someone to come let me out. The maid was the one who found me. Everyone thought I’d gone in there on my own and I was scolded.” I laughed bitterly. “Screamed so loud and long I permanently damaged my vocal cords. I had to ditch my singing career after that.”
Reese didn’t laugh at my poor attempt at a joke. There was a palpable silence, and in it, I could feel the horror pulsing from him in stark waves.
I shook my head and cleared my throat. “So…I just don’t like being in the dark.”
I hated being in the dark. And while there was still a small sliver of light coming through the gap beneath the door, it wasthe fact that we were in a closet—coupled with the darkness—that was setting me off.
A light suddenly flashed on, startling me, and Reese’s eyes were the first thing I found in the glow. They looked gold and amber, and the freckles in his left eye were visible.
Those eyes were filled with an appalled disbelief and a stunned anger as they searched mine.
“I’m not messing with you,” I said quietly. I knew that’s what he was thinking. He kept saying it, and I didn’t know how to make him believe that I wasn’t.
Okay, maybe Ihadmessed with him a few times, but not in a cruel way. Not in a mean way.
Right?
“That’s so fucked up I don’t even know what to say,” he whispered.
“Well, you don’t have to say anything. It wouldn’t change a thing anyway.”
His brows drew together as he frowned. “What do you mean?”
I shrugged. He still had his hand on me, and I wasn’t sure if he was consciously kneading my shoulder or not. Probably not.
Reese sighed when I didn’t answer. “I’m gonna call campus security and they’ll send someone to unlock the door. Okay?”
No.
Wait, yes.
“Okay.”
No.
“Damn it, you’re really shaking.” He stroked his hand over my shoulder, down my arm, then back up, and repeated the movement over and over again.
He was shaking, too.
When he moved his hand to get his phone, I wrapped my fingers around his arm. He didn’t say anything, and the lightfrom his phone screen glowed bright enough to illuminate his face. He looked like some kind of otherworldly creature, and when his eyes flashed to mine, my heart skipped a beat.
And then another.
His gold-green eyes were brimming with fear and confusion, his brows knitted tightly together. He was biting his bottom lip, pulling it between his teeth and letting go, then doing it again.
