Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
During that time, she ached. Ached for her Nol.
Her Nol who never showed.
Chapter Fourteen
Aria
I awoke the next morning, blinking through the perplexity of what had happened last night. Wondering if I’d had a true interaction with Valeen or if the trauma had made me start imagining things.
One thing I knew was that I was unendingly thankful for the day.
Thankful I had another to live, even though I felt the sharp sting of devastation that Pax had never shown.
It was hard, not knowing whether he was okay. Where he was. What had happened after I’d been awakened two nights ago.
It didn’t help that Ellis had been distraught when I asked for Pax.
But the only thing I could do was press on.
Today had been much like yesterday.
Structured.
Breakfast, recess, then art therapy.
The only difference was that today my mother had come to visit. She’d cried the entire time. Again and again, she’d told me she wished it didn’t have to be this way.
I’d told her I wished it didn’t, either.
I’d hugged her fiercely before I whispered goodbye, sorrow splitting me in two at the thought that it might be the last time I would see her.
Dr. Perry had picked around in the recesses of my mind for more information. Asking for details hidden in my drawings, as if all my secrets were concealed in the brushstrokes of my hand.
I’d cried openly when she informed me that they would be transferring me to the adult facilities tomorrow.
I would be held involuntarily, deemed a suicide risk.
I’d considered telling her of the man who’d sneaked into my room, my fear that he’d been sent to kill me, but I knew she would think it only a ploy.
A manipulation.
The only good thing to come of this was that Jenny would be discharged tomorrow.
She was happy and seemed well.
For a time, her demons were purged, and I prayed it would afford her time enough to build a new foundation. For her to fortify her spirit against the attacks, the war few knew was waged on their hearts and minds.
By evening, the hope of this morning had bled away, replaced by a suffocating despondency.
“What’s up with you tonight? Are you sad I’m leaving tomorrow?” Jenny gave me one of her overaffected pouts that were completely genuine from where she sat beside me at the long table as we ate dinner. “Tell me you’re going to miss me.”
“I am absolutely going to miss you,” I admitted. So much that the words cracked in my throat.
“What are you going to do without me?” She jostled her shoulder into mine, going for a tease as she tried to keep the emotion at bay. Torn between this friendship we’d found and her thrill that she was getting out of this place.
“Eat all your Snack Packs, I guess.” I forced a giant grin.
She cracked up.
It sounded like music.
“I’ll tell the kitchen they have your name on them. Deal?” She squeezed my hand.
“Deal,” I returned.
She tugged on my hand a little, her voice thickening. “I really hope we can keep in touch after this.”
“I do, too.” My words were soggy, unable to shake the melancholy that sank into my bones.
So heavy I wanted to weep.
I forced myself to take a few bites to appease the counselors observing the room, but I was barely able to swallow around the bile that kept rising in my throat.
Sickness grew, and a foreboding filled the space.
An omen that hung in the air.
It was then that I felt it—the corruption beating against me.
In me.
Through me.
The breath wheezed from my lungs in a bout of panic, and a shiver raced across my flesh and tumbled down my spine.
Freezing cold and smothering at the same time.
As if its presence had sucked the oxygen from the room.
Jenny chattered on, as if time hadn’t sped up and brought me closer to my end, immune to the obliterating wickedness that curled through the cafeteria.
Penetrating.
Bounding.
Infesting.
Gathering my courage, I turned to look over my shoulder.
Evil glared back.
It was the same man who’d been in my room two nights ago. Wearing blue scrubs, his frame squatty and thick, his dusty-blond hair sheared close to his head.
For a moment, we were locked, my gaze held prisoner by the man who was plotting my demise.
He finally jerked himself free of the bloodlust and forced himself to turn back to his work. He shook out a garbage liner and replaced it in the bin. He tied off the full trash bag he’d removed and slung it over his shoulder.
“Hello? What are you looking at?”
Jenny waved a hand in my face, and I whipped back around. “Nothing.”
“Nothing? You’ve been in some kind of trance for, like, the last five minutes.”
Her attention jumped around the cafeteria. Dawning bloomed in her features when she saw the monster who was already heading back through the swinging door that led to the kitchen.