“Maeve? Are you—are you scared of me right now?” Phantom asks, studying my face and my body language.
I don’t respond. Because the truth is that I am. At this exact moment, I’m very much afraid of Phantom.
“I can see that,” Phantom says loudly to Echo. Thankfully I’m getting better at discerning when Echo is demanding their attention based on their tone of voice; it sharpens like a blade. “She’s afraid.”
They pace back and forth before me. “What do I do?” Phantom asks Echo.
They nod their head as Echo answers, and the fact that I have no idea what the hallucination is saying terrifies me.
“Phantom, I’m still here,” I remind them. “Talk to me, not to Echo.”
“Right,” they say, shaking their head. “So, what you’re saying is that you’ll be angry with me if I don’t go to the hospital with you right now?”
I think before speaking. I don’t know what the right answer is. Yes or no? Either way, the answer won’t get me the outcome I desire. There’s only one solution. I have to get out of here. If I can just grab my phone off Phantom’s nightstand and get back to my dorm room, I can call an ambulance for Phantom. Thatway I’m still helping them without being on the receiving end of their mood swings.
“No,” I lie. “I’m not angry. I’m just tired. I think I’ll go back to my dorm room and sleep a while longer.” I walk to the nightstand by Phantom’s bed and retrieve my phone, stuffing it in the pocket of Phantom’s sweatpants I’m wearing.
“But it’s such a beautiful, sunny day out, Maeve. Let’s go take advantage of it.” Their expression turns sad. “I really wanted to spend the day celebrating with you.”
“I’m sorry,” I say as I back toward the door. “Just give me a few extra hours of sleep and I’ll be ready to do something together.”
Phantom’s head twitches, like Echo is speaking too loudly in their ear.
I try to school my expression into a mask of drowsiness, but subconsciously, I fist the phone in my pocket. Phantom’s gaze tracks the movement.
“She wouldn’t do that,” Phantom tells Echo. “She wouldn’t betray me.”
I can imagine Echo’s response in their head:Of course she would, you fool. You poisoned her against you the second you lied to her, hurt her, and let her in. She’ll run far away, and laugh as she goes. All because of you.
“Don’t listen to them, Phantom,” I plead. “Whatever they’re saying to you, it’s not true. It’s a lie.”
“So, you won’t call the cops for an ambulance the second you leave this room?” Phantom asks, their eyes darkening.
I see it—the moment my face gives me away.
Whirling on the spot, I sprint to the door. I wrench it open and run barefoot down the hall. I chance one look behind me. The hall is empty but fear still tears through my veins like a raging wildfire. As I dash down the stairs, my breaths come in so hard and shallow I worry I might faint. My feet pound against thelobby floor, tossing up small clouds of dust as I reach for the door handle to the exit. Silently, I release a cry of victory.
If I can get on Phantom’s bike before they reach me, I’ll be in the clear.
But that was naive of me, and I knew it. Phantom’s faster than me.
The big metal door opens an inch before a dark cloth comes down over my head. I only have a moment to realize Phantom’s caught me before their arms wrap around my middle and tug me backward, yanking me off my feet.
31Echo
My stomach heaves from how hard I’ve been sobbing, and I only have a moment to turn my head before I vomit. Thankfully, they’d removed the cloth from my face a few minutes ago. I’m leaning off the side of Phantom’s bed, and it’s not until my hair falls into my face that I realize my hands are bound behind my back. I’d been crying so hard beneath the head cover initially that I hadn’t noticed Phantom do that. By the feel of the restraints, I think they might be shoelaces because they’re definitely softer than rope.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Phantom curses, running over to hold my hair and rub my back as I retch. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t think I’d scare you sick. It’s okay. Everything’s okay.”
When I’m finished, I spit bitter bile and Phantom wipes my mouth for me with a clean rag. When I look up to meet their gaze, mine is armed with daggers. They jump backward in surprise, losing their balance and landing hard on the concrete floor. At least I know I canlookmenacing, even if I don’t feel like it.
The studio is such a mess it’s almost unrecognizable. During my panic attack, I also hadn’t registered whatever Phantom had to have done to cause all this. Tubes of paint, spray cans, and paintbrushes litter the floor. Several new, unfinished canvases layrandomly scattered around the room as well. Paint is streaked and splattered all over the place, but especially on Phantom’s graffiti mural, ruining what was likely years’ worth of work, all in a single day. I want to ask what happened to the room, but there’s a more important question to ask right now.
“Why did you do that to me?” I ask Phantom, my voice hoarse.
Phantom’s forehead wrinkles with guilt. “I had to think of something fast. A way to keep you from leaving.”
“And the best solution you could think of was to put a sack over my head—and what?” I cry. “Abduct me?”
