No.
No. I’m going crazy.
If he is back, why is he doing this? Does he hate me?
I wouldn’t blame him if he did.
I move back into the kitchen, narrowing my eyes as I look around. Nothing’s changed, but it feels different.
Or I’m losing my mind.
I go to Ellie’s door and knock.
‘Ellie.’
A groan drifts from under the duvet.
‘Ellie, wake up.’
‘I’m sleeping.’
‘I know. Wake up.’
The duvet shifts, and one eye appears.
‘Kat, it’s barely even morning. Go back to bed.’
‘I think someone was in the flat.’
Ellie sits up and looks at me like I’ve grown two heads.
‘Like who?’
I can’t answer that. My head pounds as I already regret mentioning it.
‘I don’t know. But I woke up with a stone in my hand, and it wasn’t there when I went to sleep.’
Ellie scrubs at her eyes. ‘A stone?’
‘Yeah. A little heart-shaped one.’
‘God, Kat, how much wine did you drink last night?’ Ellie flops back into her bed. ‘Were the locks broken?’
‘Well… no.’
‘Anything taken?’
I pause, feeling stupid. ‘Also no.’
‘So this mysterious person broke in, not to hurt you or me. Not to steal anything. Not to break anything. Just to give you a rock?’
Well, when she puts it like that, I begin to doubt myself all over again. I did have a bottle of wine. What if I found the rock somewhere and picked it up?
That’s more likely than a ghost from fourteen years ago resurfacing.
‘Maybe you’re right,’ I say, sagging against her doorframe.
‘It’s probably just the stress from uni, and Darren pestering you to commit, and your parents. Come here.’ She lifts the duvet.
