Unmasked | Book 1 in "Dark Descendants" (Editing)

Chapter 30

I noticed I couldn't feel my heartbeat. Anyone witnessing this would be able to hear it pounding in their ears right about now. I felt frantically for my pulse on my neck and detected nothing. What the hell was going on?

I stared at her dazed expression, then at the boy who killed her. His gaze hadn't shifted from me once. Now he opened his mouth.

And hissed at me.

My eyes snapped open. The hell?

I sat up slowly—and cried out. I collapsed back onto the pillows as the pain crawled up my neck. Was it really just a dream? It felt so real...

I raised a hand to my skin and felt around. Nothing was there, except for two small parallel dots that showed the only reminder of Ken's bite. So what was the searing pain about?

I closed my eyes and sighed, composing myself before swinging out of the bed. My throat was dry, scratchy. As if I were screaming for a long time.

I needed water. I tiptoed down the stairs.

Thud.

I halted in mid step, my eyes trained on the kitchen. It came from there.

Thud. Thud.

SLAM.

I winced at the loud noise and crept towards the room again, grabbing the closest thing to me for a weapon. A baseball bat.

I looked at it in perplexity before shrugging it off. Shifting my hold on it, I continued closer. The sound was getting louder yet more sustained.

The second I stepped inside the kitchen, I screamed.

Another shocked scream mirrored mine. Someone's hand was held out in front of them upon seeing the defensive posture I had taken up, bat ready.

"Rose, calm the hell down!" A voice cried. "It's me."

I calmed down and looked on in confusion. My eyes adjusted to the lack of light. I could make out the silhouette of a female, long brown waves of hair draped around her face. I lowered the bat. "Callie?"

She was holding a milk carton, standing in front of the fridge. She stared at me in curiosity.

I blew out a breath I was holding. "You scared the life out of me," I told her. "What the hell are you doing?"

"What does it look like?" She gestured towards the milk carton. "I'm drinking milk."

"From the carton?"

"Again: what the hell does it look like?"

"Can't you use a cup?" I asked incredulously, walking towards a cabinet to get a glass. "It's bad manners to drink straight from the carton. Didn't anyone ever tell you that?"

She shrugged and purposely raised the carton to her mouth again.

"Ah tad tad tad!" I snatched it from her before she could drink again, resulting in a slight spill down her chin. She glared at me. I held the glass up emphatically. "Use a cup!"

I poured some milk out into the glass and held it out to her. She accepted it, giving me a look. "Thanks," she said bluntly. 

"Jeez." I put the carton back into the fridge. "What are you doing here so late?"

"Apparently my brothers don't keep milk in their house," she replied, sipping at the glass.

"So you broke into here?"

"It was closer than the supermarket."

I gave her a disbelieving look. She replied with a what? expression. "You are so damn lucky Joe didn't wake up and kill you first."