My face flushes at how obvious my disappointment is, but I am grateful nonetheless for her affections and affirmations. “Thank you,” I murmur.
She grins brightly, her presence flashing in and out. She tucks a hair behind my ear and kisses my lips with such softness, I melt into her.
She disappears for a moment, leaving me to kiss the air as I open my eyes in confusion, when she suddenly appears again.
“I have exhausted too much of myself in holding this form. It is fareasier to remain an apparition, but even that asks more than I can give. I must rest in the veil that keeps me. I shall find you again when I have strength.” She glances around nervously. “You must go at once, and carefully, my shadow.”
She leans forward and presses a kiss on my lips one final time until all that’s left is the emptiness my soul feels in her absence.
I glance up at the chalkboard and stand up, pulling my pants up and tying the laces. I pull the sleeve of my sweatshirt over my hand to wipe the written words between Milly and me off the chalkboard and hide the fear we shared.
I hear a creak behind me and freeze instantly. My shoulders tense as I swallow and slowly turn to glance behind me. I see nothing, but my skin pebbles in the gaze of something unknown, a sensation far from the one that I receive in Milly’s presence. But this unknown stare brings dread upon my spirit, the room dropping degrees as I stand here.
I quickly finish wiping away our words and run as quietly as possible to the window I entered, but realize I can’t climb up the way I jumped in.
Dread enters my body. I know I’m in more danger than I initially thought when I went hunting for Milly. I rush to the wall near the door and place my body flat against it, trying to control my breath. I might not have been worried about the loss of my life, but that was because I didn’t have anything worth living for. Or at least that’s what I thought. If I don’t care about my life, I have to try to for her and the one she lost. If I died here, would I be able to be with Milly? Would I cross into the veil, or would I be trapped in Hell or Heaven? My father always reiterated the consequences of my choices—a wide road to a torturous Hell. He instilled that fear and pushed for a dedication to a religion I was only beginning to truly question. I shake off the thoughts. It’s not fair to think of death when Milly has been dwelling in hers for so long.
I hear subtle whispers and place my hand over my mouth to muffle my panicked breathing. I wonder if Milly can see me inthe veil or if she’s fully resting, unconscious and unaware that I might be meeting her there sooner than she’d like.Shit.
I peek my head around the corner when, suddenly, a man rushes toward me and presses his hand over my mouth. He’s wearing a mask—one covered in bones, shaped around his jaw, leaving it visible. His eyes are white, with no iris or pupil. It’s jarring next to the bleach of the bones on his face.
“Do not speak, do not scream, do not run. I’m not going to hurt you, but you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
I try to mumble underneath his hold to ask who he is, but he glares at me with pinched brows of fury. I swallow and nod, biting my tongue.
He pushes me further back into the room as the sound of footsteps approaches. “If I move my hand, promise to be quiet?”
I nod, and he drops his hand slowly. It takes everything in me not to ask ‘what is happening’, ‘who are you’, ‘what do you know?’. The adrenaline is pounding the questions through me in confusion and curiosity.
I cross my arms over my chest and wait as he observes my terse compliance. He nods and heads toward the doorway, glancing over his shoulder before finally nodding his head to follow. I squint my eyes at him skeptically, but I realize quickly that I don’t have a better idea. Milly is going to love hearing that I followed a mysterious man with a mask of bones through the basement of a haunted campus—totally safe.
Chapter 12
Grace
September 12th
The mysterious man saunters smoothly along the side of the hallway in front of me, stopping occasionally to listen to the sounds of whispers and footsteps. I watch him with confusion, wondering if he’s relying simply on sound because his eyes have no visible pupil, but I follow him in the hope that he’s not leading me to a potential sacrifice.
We approach a boarded-up tunnel, with no apparent entrance. I start to ask him why he led us to a dead end when he shifts his thumb into a hole and pushes the wood into the wall. I raise my eyes in surprise.
He whispers, “It’s just a unique door. No magic, but I’m sure you doubt that after your encounter with that ghost.”
My stomach twists at the mention of Milly. I rush up next to him as he bends through the small opening. He doesn’t look back or wait for me.
I quickly follow after him, tripping slightly over my feet. “How do you know about that?”
He waits for me to squeeze through the hole and pulls the wood panels shut. He stares at me with no expression, minus a slight cock of his head. The silence becomes uncomfortable as he observes me. He says nothing in response before turning and continuing down the hallway, ignoring me. I bite my tongue and inwardly groan.
I open my mouth to ask another question, when I hear a loud voice at the opposite end of the tunnel we are wandering through. The man stops in front of me and whispers with alarm, “Shit.”
He turns back and abruptly leans over my body with both his arms surrounding my head. His form gently pushes me into the shadows of a doorway within the tunnel until my back hits a corner.
“Whatever you do, don’t let him see your face.” He raises my hood over my head, pulling it as far as possible over my eyes. “Keep your head down.”
The voice grows louder as I recognize it as Priest Warren’s. “We are quickly approaching the ritual. There are no excuses for not having the necessary materials for this. We cannot skip another.” He chokes on a merciless hacking cough for a moment in between his rants.
“But, sir, we’ve been doing exactly what God wants us to. The community has been pure. There hasn’t been any sin on this campus, and hardly any in the city. Everyone has been holy and following through with their cleanses and attending your sermons?—”
