❝Sometimes you need to run away just to see who will come after you. But it's the monsters you ran from who come.❞
☒
In which an accidental murder leads to accidental discoveries that should've stayed in the dark.
The small town of East Vienna is h...
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STARING AT THE ceiling for hours couldn't lead her thoughts into the beyond. Oxygen went in and out, but every time Kiera exhaled, she felt more empty than before. The sunlight streaming through her thin curtains could do nothing to brighten her from the inside.
It was an extreme version of what she feared when it came to watching horror movies. She once even declined Aiden's offer to watch Annabelle at the movie drive-in even though it was fifty percent off tickets, or so he claimed. A restless sixth sense harassed her: something will happen, but nothing was happening. There was nothing left to do but fear the fear.
Last night, after the shock had settled in, Taedyn took her by the arms to make sure she wouldn't fall from shaking knees and a sudden drainage of effort. Finding out a dead body disappeared in the dark was not supporting for an already crushed soul. They didn't check for any trampled grass or blood trails because no one enjoys hunting a possible ghost unless it was for a show that was obviously fake. And this was not fake.
Kiera wanted to resist when he had led her to the car, but when he opened the back door and held his hand out toward the seats free of broken glass and blood, she hesitantly stepped in. He made no complaint in driving a car that had come back from hell. An appropriate silence stepped in before unanswered questions and sheer panic could explode.
Kiera liked only one type of silence, where it was more than just the absence of words; it was a breeze creeping through an open window, blanketing her stress and ceasing the craving for company.
The wind had howled outside and Taedyn had taken her to the mechanic's shop he worked at. He claimed his boss didn't care if he came after hours, but she took notice of him lifting a finger to his lips when he was opening up the garage door with his hands.
"You don't have to stay here. I'll have it fixed and in normal condition—or the next best thing–by tomorrow morning," he had reassured, either detecting she would soon dissolve into tears again or being uncomfortable with a possible killer watching him while he worked.
Everything at this point needed the precautionary adjective of possible attached to it. The unpredictable didn't believe in the impossible.
She had walked home, occasionally glancing behind her and folding her arms close to her chest despite it being the hottest month of the year.
When she got back, she had climbed the tree from the neighbor's backyard, ignoring years of practice and almost falling a couple of times, and hopped through the open window of her bedroom. Landing ungracefully with a sprained ankle, Kiera had thrown the clothes she had been wearing in the trash and exchanged them for whatever she wore the day before.
A rapid spitfire of profanity followed when she closed her bedroom light and jumped underneath the blankets. She had been shaking and squeezing her eyes until they might've become permanently like that, frightened by the plausibility of the woman being in her room.
