“They tell you they love you, but all they do is demand things from you, making themselves so loud that you have to make yourself small.”She pauses.“You’d know a thing or two about men lying to you, wouldn’t you, dear?”
“I actually wouldn’t.”
“This boy is lying right to your face.”
“We’re not here to discuss me,” Nico says, but his words come out breathy.
“Eden, you must stay away from him.”Marianne rises to her feet, gripping the back of the seat in front of her. “He’s Billy’s pet. Not to be trusted.”
What?
“Do you know how much danger you’re in, sitting so close to him?”Marianne asks.“Donald shouldneverleave him alone with such a pretty thing like you.”
My concentration wobbles. “Nico, what is she talking about?”
“Helies!” she exclaims, and the sudden volume in my head makes me flinch. Her voice climbs to a hysterical volume, herwords tumbling out in a rush as if she wants to get them out as fast as she can.“Everything he tells you is alie!”
I hear Nico move. Marianne’s form drops through the floor of my theater like she’s being sucked down a drain, her screaming face disappearing into nothing.
My eyes fly open in the containment vault. The viewing chamber is empty. Swirling mist is being drawn back into the metal box through tubes and valves.
I rip the goggles off my face, mind racing. “Nico, what was she talking about?”
“She was baiting me.” Nico’s shutting down the containment system. “Trying to get through my walls.”
“By calling you Billy’s pet?” The words taste wrong.
“Ghosts say all kinds of shit when they want to get a rise out of you.” He keeps flipping switches. “You have to get used to it.”
I knowthat’strue. Marianne murdered and ate nine men. Of course she’d lie. But the panic that was in her voice is giving me a creeping feeling like something’s not right.
Nico’s jaw is locked so tightly I can see the muscle bulging under his skin. His hands are pressed flat against his thighs, fingers spread wide, and he clenches them into fists so hard his knuckles go white.
“Why was she surprised that Donny leaves you alone with me?” I ask.
Nico keeps working the controls.
“Why would she say I’m in danger?”
Still nothing. The containment system whirs as it cools. Nico flips switches harder than he should.
I push off the chair, stepping closer to him. “Nico, please. Why won’t you answer my questions?”
“Will you give it a rest?” he snaps.
“I’m just trying to understand why she got so?—”
He slams his palm against the control panel hard enough to make the whole thing rattle. I take an involuntary step back.
“Stop asking questions about things that are none of yourfuckingbusiness,” he yells.
His eyes drop to where his hand is still pressed against the control panel. When he pulls his hand away, it’s shaking. He staggers back a step, then bolts up the stairs, slamming the door behind him.
What the hell just happened?
I fumble under my hoodie sleeve until my fingers find the hair tie on my wrist, snapping it against my skin. The sting barely registers against the white noise filling my head.
I’ve had this feeling before. When I was sixteen, Tori started acting more tired than usual. I knew she was on drugs—she’d dabbled in painkillers before, and I’d even joined her once or twice—but she’d never been this lethargic. I had a bad feeling, but when I asked her straight up if she was doing heroin, she swore she wasn’t, but then dropped weight like crazy and stopped hanging out with me at all.
