I stared at the glow in the dark stars behind him. I should have known this place was fake. Even the stars were fake.
A single hot tear escaped my eye.
When I grew up,I wanted real stars.
He wiped the tears away, and his gray eyes came into view. “Good girl.”
I wake up with a gasp. Something bothered me about the dream, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I was missing something.
All those memories were stuffed away a long time ago. What was my mind trying to show me now?
I couldn’t even remember his name or face. Did it even happen?
My eyes went to where Rot slept last night, only to find him missing in the dim morning light. But the fire cackled enough that someone recently fed the fire.
He’ll be back.The thought hit me sideways. I didn’t know that, and it was dangerous to believe in such a thing.
I made myself a crude cup of coffee and breakfast over the fire. Sitting on the ground by the flames, I enjoyed my meal in peace.
The frogs' singing irritated me. I wanted silence on this otherwise perfect morning. I shook the thought from my head. Now that the other students and professors were gone, I should have been reveling in the sounds of nature.
My agitation increased, making it impossible to appreciate my eggs and coffee. My fingers itched to kill something.
What the fuck was wrong with me?
Grumbling came into the clearing, but I recognized the heavy steps immediately.
See, he did come back.I squashed that expectation immediately before it could hurt me.
“Of course I came back.” He snarled, sitting beside me. Blood coated him from head to toe, and he had a human arm in his hand. “One of the students managed to escape me.”
“I’m glad.”
He rolled his eyes. “The only one you care about is the girl, and I’m not after her. I don’t even think she is here. At least not in the immediate area.”
“How are the others still in the area?”
He took a big bite out of the arm he brought with him, making me spit my egg out. Humans were never as far removed from the food chain as we thought, but my stomach didn’t care about that. After he swallowed, he finally answered, “They are village idiots. What kind of students are they?”
“They are a mixed bag. Surveyors for land development, lawyers, businessmen, architects. Basically, people who want to profit off the land.”
“And you and the girl?”
“I was going to be a wildlife biologist. Shannon is going to be an ecologist,” I answered, but felt the confusion in his thoughts. “Shannon studied how plants, animals, and the land interact with each other. I study the behaviors and habitats of animals.”
“The weird teacher obsessed with you?” I recognized the annoyed edge in his voice.
“He teaches various conservation classes. From 101 to mastery.”
“Is he married? If I recall, teachers find mates easily.”
I paused at the random question and found I had to think hard about the answer. It hadn’t come up much over the years. “Divorced. I think.”
“I wonder why.” He growled softly. His lip curled in a way that made me think Gale wouldn’t get out of here intact. Who was I kidding? He taught me everything I knew. Gale was long gone.
He held out the arm to me. “Do you want some?”
I popped my lips. “No, thank you.”
