What the fuck makesherso special?
My plan had been to torment her until she had no choice but to leave. But Haven stubborn-as-a-motherfucking-mule Lee has made it clear she isn’t going anywhere, no matter what any of us throws at her.
I was all set to ride it out. Fuck knows, I’ve been through worse. But I was holding on by a thread, and the only thing keeping that thread from snapping was the promise of that fucking job in the city.
If I’d known Ezra had lied to me before the Rain Dance, no fucking way he’d still be alive. Even now, all I can think about is heading to the hospital and putting an end to that lying, cantankerous cunt.
But that would snuff out any hope I have of ever leaving this shithole of a town. I could graduate fucking cum laude and it wouldn’t make a difference, not with a criminal record.
Unless I made it look like an accident.
It’s not the first time I’ve thought about killing him. The fantasy has played through my head hundreds of times since I was a kid. I’d lie awake at night, too bruised to sleep, planning exactly how I’d do it.
But this doesn’t feel like just another fantasy.
It feels inevitable.
The sobs wracking my body subside. I sniff, dragging my hand down my face like wipers on a windshield.
A single moment of clarity as I see through the rain before it stings my face again.
I could sneak into the hospital during visiting hours tomorrow and?—
A twig snaps, close enough that I hear it clearly through the drumming rain. I push away from the tree, my legs shaking as they struggle to take my full weight.
Eyes narrowed, I scan each gap in the trees around me. The smell of wet earth and leaves fills my nose. That almost-putridsweetness of decay lurking under the layer of decomposing foliage and moss that carpets the forest floor.
It’s pitch black out there. Hard to see much but the odd glimmer of light from a wet leaf. Even the campus security lights are barely visible through the dense trees.
At first, that’s frustrating as fuck. But then I realize it works in my favor.
If I can’t see whoever’s out here with me, they can’t see me, either.
I slip behind a tree trunk, slowing my breath, straining to hear the slightest sound through the rain.
A rustle.
Another snap of a twig.
Labored breathing that I recognize the instant I hear it.
Haven.
Something primal stirs inside me, a feeling more visceral than rage, more consuming than possessiveness. It’s hunger—raw and feral, like my body recognizes its prey moving through the darkness.
She’s little more than a shadow picking its way through the trees, but my eyes latch onto her. Every cell in my body feels her presence, tracking her movements with an instinct that bypasses conscious thought.
The rain slows.
Even my racing heart syncs with her cautious footsteps.
I’ve never felt more alive than now as I watch her, unseen. As she searches for something.
Someone.
For me.
Has she ever felt it? This invisible thread that’s always connected us? Or was I just a distraction?
