“And me,” Travis said in a quiet voice, not turning away from the computer.
I stopped breathing.
His fingers paused, hovering above the laptop. “If you want me to stay,that is.”
The bubble growing in my chest was so big, it made it hard to breathe.
Say youneedhim to stay.
Say youwanthim to leave.
Inside me, a war raged between what I wanted and what was best for him. In the end, I pushed my shoulder more firmly against him so that my whole side leaned into him.
With a flicker of a smile, Travis’s shouldersrelaxed,andhe resumed pulling up the surveillance footage.
“Here we go,” Travis said, pulling up threeblack and whiteviews of the outside of the house. There were twocamerason the front of the house and one on the back. The fence was so narrow on either side of thehouse there wasn’t a good place to put a camera and nothing could sneak by either side without cominginfrom the front or the back.
Travis typed in the timestamp for when we left for the concert and then put the recording on fast forward.
My heart pounded in my throat as I watched carefully for anything to show up on screen. Something I could hunt. Something I could make pay for whathappened. Something I could pour all my rage and anguish into until it was a bloody, remorsefulpulp.
The black and white screens showed rapidly moving tree branches as they were tossed by light winds all evening until...
“Sonofabitch,” Travis breathed. “Is that who I think it is?”
I blinked and continued to watch the screen focused on the back of the house. When I’d seen enough, I threw the van door openand jumped out. Running through the house, Icouldn'teven glance around the kitchen as Ismackedopen the back door, bodily slamming into theglassstorm door. I was vaguely surprised I didn’titshatter. My entire being was a tornado of rage, confusion, and abject terror and I barely had sense of my limbs anymore.
Travis was two minutes behind me, needingto put the computer down and lock the van. I was on my hands and knees. When I found thebootimprints, rage boiled in my blood. “I’ll kill her.”
“Krystan, she didn’t enter the house. She looked like she was aboutto,but she backed away. It can’t have been her.”
My head jerked up. “She watched it happen. She could have stopped it, whatever happened in that kitchen, she let my gran die. That is if she wasn’t alreadyresponsiblefor controlling whatever it was that killed gran.Something fell out of her pocket as she left. I’m going to find it. I’m going to find her and I’m going to make her pay.”
I stared at him with steely resolve. I didn't care that I needed sleep, that I was out of my mind with grief. I needed to do this, right now.
Travis nodded and fell to his knees and helped me search the backyard.The yard was beyond wild, overtaken by dead weeds and unkempt bushes.
“Please gran, help me,” I begged quietly.
My fingerswent under an overgrown bush and metcold metal. Ipulled out the object.A single key on around metal keychain with a tag that said#106, on the back.“Gotcha bitch.”
“Looks like a hotel key,” Travis said from behind my shoulder.
“Let’s test that theory,” I said, my voice low and gruff.
The woman who’d slunk into the backyard was the same one who I’d chased down outside of thesuicide house yesterday. I would find her and drag out everything I could, and then rip her heart out like she’d ripped out mine.
After changing into mottospanx, a tank top,and heavy combat boots, I was ready to huntbut first I had tostop by Susan’s house where Sophie and Noah were staying.I put on my heavy leather duster jacket that kept the frozen air from penetrating.
When the cops first came, I’dnumbly pushed them out of the house,keeping them far away from the kitchen. People on the block hademerged fromhomes toinvestigatewhat was going on.
My neighbor, Susan,who’d recently lost her daughter, Jessica,the same wayI lost gran, jumped on the chance totake the kids. Her big sad brown eyes told me I would break her heart if I didn’t let her. She’d said watching the little darlings would be good for hersoul. Sophie instantly ran into her arms and gave her a big hug. Big tears slid down Susan’s face as she picked up Sophie and took Noah by the handbefore headingback to her house next door.
In the middle of the night,Susan answered the door clutching her robe shut.She said the little dears had watched movies until their eyes couldn’tstay open anymore. They were in the guest room fast asleep andshewas more than happy to watch them until morning. She eyed my outfit with a wary eye. I knew she wanted to ask butrefrained.
As I walked back to Travis, heclosed the van door on the rest of our weapons. Who knew who this bitch was and what she was doing to all these poorpeople?The more Iconsideredwhat she was doing outsideboth homes with the mysterious sudden suicides, the more convinced I became that she was responsible for what had happened. Whether she was some evil thing that slithered out of the Stygianthatcould take human form, orif she was controlling something else that had brought down such horrific violence.
Despite my newfound conviction, I didn’t have enough of the facts.I so desperately wanted to tell Susan that I would get justice for gran and Jessica, but Icouldn'tget her hopes upjust yet.
