Worked in the past, didn’t it?
The bottle clinks against my keys as I slip out of the car. Now the cold drizzle feels good on my skin, waking me up from the dreary depths of my memories and nightmares.
Just got to get to the trees. Then I can decide what comes next.
It takes me fifteen minutes to reach the woods beside the campus, mostly because I keep pausing to swig at the tequila, and once because I heard a group of college kids pass and I had to take cover behind a tree in case they spotted me.
After that, my paranoia goes haywire.
I keep hearing sounds behind me.
Footsteps splashing through the puddles. The crunch of shoes on the gritty sidewalk.
But every time I turn to look, the path behind me is deserted.
It happens again, just before I slip between the trees.
I turn to study the strip of grass I cut through, the sidewalk on the other side, the section of car park barely visible through the drizzle past that.
“You want a piece of me?” I yell, waving my bottle of tequila like a weapon. “Then come get me, motherfucker!”
I let out a half-giggle, half-scream as I dash between the trees, mud and rain water splashing up to soak my leggings.
Fuck everyone.
Haven Lee isn’t going to heaven yet.
The snap of a twig behind me cuts my giggles short.
This time, I don’t turn around.
I plow forward, my drunken steps staggering left to right, my hands barely coming up in time to push me away from the trees I keep veering into.
My heart begins to pound. Then to race.
Someone’s behind me.
Following me.
Driving me deeper into the woods.
A smile flickers onto my lips.
Let them.
Chapter 36
Kai
Something wet patters against my cheek, forcing my eyelids open.
My neck screams in protest as I lift my head from its awkward angle against the windowsill.
It’s dark outside.
Jesus, how long have I been out? Minutes? Hours?
The joint jammed between my fingers burned itself out, leaving a trail of ash across my jeans. Empty beer bottles form a semi-circle on the floor by the window, like some half-assed séance where the ghost refused to show.
