My security team will realize I’m missing soon, and I’m well aware they’ll track my phone and find me here, but what I don’t know iswhere the hell is Cooper?
Is it normal for him to be out this late after a game?
It’s definitely not normal for him to have not texted or called me back.
And—fuck.
Seriously?
I have no cell signal.
Why do I have no cell signal?
I—dammit.
My phone is still on airplane mode.
I toggle the switch to turn it back on, and that’s when I hear it.
There’s someone in the house.
Hashtag’s ears go flat. He lifts his head, then lumbers to his feet, still on top of me.
I cradle him while I sit up. “Cooper?” I whisper.
There’s no answer.
No noise either.
Hashtag growls.
The hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
And that’s all the warning I get before a gigantic, massivethingappears that has to duck and twist to get through the eight-foot doorway from the kitchen area into the living room.
I scream and reach blindly for anything I can find.
Hashtag yowls, hisses, puffs up his fur so he’s three times his normal size, and darts for the stairs.
Thethingfreezes in the doorway, like it’s stuck, then shoves all the way through.
I have no idea what I’m throwing, but it’s hard and heavy and I fling it at thething.
My heart is racing. My mouth is dry. My lungs are too small and my legs are frozen and I can’t get off this couch and I’m trapped in a blanket that was complete comfort three seconds ago and now is going to be the reason I die.
I scream and throw something else.
Maybe my phone.
I don’t know.
“Waverly?”
“Get out before I kill you!” I yell.
“Fuck! Waverly! It’s me!”
I fling something else at thething, beaning it in the head before the voice registers.
