Soft footsteps pad down the hallway behind me.
Monroe comes up and puts her arms around me. She’s pulled on her robe and slid on her slippers, her bonnet still firmly covering her curls.
“Jin, tell me,” she says gently. “What is it? Please don’t say nothing, because this is definitely something.”
I run a hand through my sweat-damp hair, struggling to find a way to explain. The nightmare still clings to me like a film I can’t wash off. Every time I blink, I see it—the blood, the bodies, the masked man standing over them.
“A bad dream,” I manage finally. My voice sounds rougher than usual. “A very bad dream. It felt... tooreal.”
“What kind of bad dream?”
“You and the baby,” I say. “You were...”
I trail off, unable to finish. But Monroe seems to understand. She squeezes me from behind, pressing her face into my back and placing a warm, soft kiss against my cool skin.
She’s perhaps the biggest thing that calms my nerves since waking up. Her arms wrapped around me. Her lips on my skin and the feel of her heart beating against my back.
“I’m safe,” she murmurs into me. “I’m right here, Jin. The babyandme are here with you.”
I nod along, allowing her reassurances to truly sink in. For my mind to chase away the fiction that was my nightmare.
“And for the record,” she adds, her tone lighter, “I was having a really good dream about Philly cheesesteaks. Turns out my mom rubbed off on me after all.”
It’s a joke she’s hoping will ease the mood. Her small attempt to pull me back from the edge.
I try to smile for her. I would like to, in order to offer my own reassurance.
But my face won’t cooperate. Even though I’ve calmed down, a part of me is still on edge.
Monroe seems to understand. She lets go of me and offers tea. “I can make some of the chamomile. It really helps you relax.”
I shake my head. “No. Just... let’s go back to bed.”
I take her hand in mine and lead her back down the hallway. We slip under the covers together, and she curls into my side, her head resting on my chest, her arm draped across my stomach.
Her breathing slows down as she drifts back to sleep, trusting and unguarded.
But I don’t sleep. I remain fully awake.
I lie in the darkness staring at the ceiling, one arm wrappedprotectively around her while my mind churns with the threats on the horizon.
Black Shell is out there. He’s waiting and watching. Playing a game with rules I don’t yet understand.
But I know one thing with perfect clarity.
He will come for the people I love. Just like someone came for my family all those years ago.
I won’t let that happen.
I will find him first and crush him with no mercy to be found.
This I vow in the silence, with Monroe’s heartbeat steady against my chest and our child growing safe inside her.
Black Shell will die by my hand. Before heevertouches what’s mine.
10.Monroe
Weeks pass,taking me from my first trimester into my second.
