Page 109 of Sacred Venom

The days slip past quietly with no word from Edwin. My phone sits untouched more often than not after I stopped checking it every five minutes. My heart feels safer that way. If I don’t reach for him, I can pretend he hasn’t already worked his way into every thought.

Frank is busy tending to whatever church business keeps him away. It’s only Tuesday, but his work is never done.

Better than the alternative, I suppose.

Evelyn moves through the house like a watchful spirit. If I sit in the living room, she appears in the doorway. If I stay in my room, she finds a reason to knock. Always gentle and smiling.

I catch her looking at the green stripe around my neck from time to time. She never comments on it, leaving me to conjure up interpretations of her judgments.

Calista barely speaks to me at all. Each morning she slips out before Evelyn can insist she take me with her. I don’t think I’m really the person she’s angry with, but I’m the easiest one to blame. I’m not sure why Evelyn treats us differently. I just wish I weren’t caught in the middle of it.

The house is tighter around me. It’s reminding me of home, and that thought is terrifying.

I tell Evelyn I’m going for a walk.

She nods with a look that says she already knows where I’ll end up.

“Don’t be out too late,” she calls after me. Another rule to abide by.

I wander farther than I mean to, letting the warm dusk sink into my skin. Shadow Bluff feels intimate and exposed in equal measure. There’s nowhere to hide.

At the edge of town, the line of houses stops abruptly, as though they were cut off mid-thought. Beyond them, the woods begin, following along the river and the road out of here.

It’s tempting. I could keep walking until this place disappears behind me. But Shadow Bluff has already sunk its hooks into my flesh, anchoring me with a connection deeper than I expected.

And Edwin…

His obsession infects me little by little, making me as crazy as he is. Why can’t I stop thinking about him… doing things to me? What’s more is that I crave his presence. To feel him near me is a blessing in a place I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to call home.

I shake the thought away. No use dwelling on him when he won’t even bother to text me hello.

The woods under the bluff put distance between us. Up there is his domain, where the Crotaveres live in their castle and haunt the grounds.

I leave the road and go into the trees, making my own path where no one will see me. Out here, the noise fades.

The bluff looks more like a mountain that blocks the evening sun and throws the land into early dusk, receding as I move farther from town. It leaves everything hidden, as if this place was built for disappearing.

I don’t hear anything until it’s too late.