When I wake up, Theo's blue eyes are imprinted in my brain.
Aiko, one of my roommates, is sitting on her bed, scribbling in one of her notebooks. It's 8:00 pm, according to the clock above the door. Dinnertime.
Aiko never goes to dinner with the others. She takes her food and spends the rest of the night in the dorm, writing.
Aiko looks up from her notebook. "Are you okay, Diana?" she asks.
"I'm fine," I mumble. I am, though. My sister isn't here. I don't have to make spells for her anymore. I don't have to be afraid of her telling everyone about my secret: that I can control human emotions with flowers. I know. It sounds funny. You can laugh.
"You don't look fine," Aiko says.
"Well, I am!" I say, raising my voice.
We sit in silence for a little. I glare at her.
"You look like you need a distraction," Aiko says. I see a glint in her eyes. It's the glint of a bad, bad idea.
I scoff. "I don't need a distraction," I tell her.
"You're in denial," Aiko points out.
"Fine! What's the distraction?" I ask.
"Well... There's this shed by the woods..." Aiko says.
"Nope! No way! You can stop right there because I am not going with you into some creepy shed in the middle of the night!" I pull my covers over my head.
I hear Aiko walk over to me. She peels the blanket away from my face. She's holding a flashlight.
"Listen," she says, "I've written, like, fifteen short stories about going into that shed, and I can tell you that at least three of them end with us finding a really cute puppy in there."
I side-eye her.
"Please?" she says.
I groan and snatch the flashlight out of her hands.
"Fine," I say. "But I'm holding the flashlight."
***
Aiko and I walk down the trail that leads to the woods.
The crescent moon is bright, shining through the wispy clouds. I can see the shed in the distance.
"How did you even know about this?" I ask Aiko. I have never seen this shed in my life.
"I walk down this trail a lot when I'm thinking of story ideas," she says.
"Uh-huh..." I trail off. A shiver runs down my back.
The shed is made of sagging wood and peeling paint. The windows are so dusty you can't see through them. Black trees shoot mottled branches into the starless night sky.
"Aiko, I really don't want to do this," I plead.
"You don't have to," she says, taking the flashlight from my hand and stepping up to the shed. "I can do it alone, then."
"What? No!" I say, stepping up to the door to block her. "I just... Aiko, I really don't want to be killed right now!"
"Diana. Seriously?" Aiko says. "You really think there's, like, a murderer in there or something?"
"...yes," I say.
"Oh my gosh, Diana, move," Aiko says, reaching past me and opening the door to the shed.
The door makes an unnaturally loud creaking sound as it opens.
"Uh-uh," I say, and turn around to leave. Aiko grabs the back of my shirt and pulls me back to the shed's entrance.
"We have to know what's inside," Aiko says quietly, walking into the shed. I (hesitantly) follow.
The air is clogged with dust and spiders. Aiko moves the flashlight around, revealing the horrors around us.
Hatchets and knives of all kinds hang from the walls. Aisles of metal racks hold antlers and other severed animal parts: hooves, beaks, and snouts. Jars full of pickled eyes and rotting livers sit in rows.
I can hear my heart thumping in my ears. My mouth is dry and my palms are sweating. I want to throw up just looking at these bottled horrors, but Aiko is scratching every detail into her notebook.
"Aiko, what is wrong with you!? We have to get out of here before-" I stop. There, in front of me, on the wall of the shed, written in blood, are the words:
I'm watching you.
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