Silence met my words. Great, now she was ignoring me.
“I’m coming in,” I warned and tried the door. Predictably, it was locked. So, plan B it was, then. I took a padlock out my pocket, fitted it through the loop on the door, and closed it.
“When you want to talk, let me know,” I called and then went back to my room.
I tried to study. I did try, but any noise from her room distracted me. How was she being so quiet in there? What was she doing?
My phone chimed continuously. Some asshole, probably Marcus, had shared my number with the team’s puck bunnies, and now I was invited to every single party on campus for the foreseeable future. I didn’t bother responding. There was nothing I’d like to do less than go and be around a bunch of drunk people, and have some girl who didn’t know me from Adam fawning over me because of my last name.
Then, I heard it: the sound of glass breaking. It was in the bathroom.
I looked over in that direction, and the picture frame holding a snap of me, Cal, and Emily, only weeks before she’d died, caught my eye. There was a crack in the glass. Somehow, the sight of the jagged shards splintered across Emily’s face had me on my feet.
I was up at the door before I could stop myself.
“What are you doing in there?” I demanded.
Silence.
“Tell me right now, or I’m coming in. I don’t care if you want me to or not.”
More silence.
“Fine. You asked for this,” I warned her and unlocked the Jack-and-Jill door from my side. To my relief, it opened. She hadn’t checked to see that my side was locked, probably unwilling to escape her room if it meant going through my bedroom.
Darkness met my eyes. It was early evening, but the bathroom didn’t get much light at the best of times, given that big trees blocked its windows. I pushed the door open, and it creaked slightly.
“Selena?” I called.
A sound came from the left side. It was a strange sound. Alien somehow. The only word I could think to describe it was an old Gaelic word.
A keening.
It sent cold rushing through me. My eyes adjusted to the murky light, and I followed the sound to her.
She was lying on her side, rolled in a ball, rocking back and forth. That horrible keening sound was coming out of her mouth, pulled open with some terrible emotion, one too horrible to keep inside. Her eyes were open and unseeing.
“Selena.” I crouched in front of her.
She didn’t see me.
“Selena, snap out of it!” I clicked my fingers in front of her face, but it had no effect.
There was a smell. One I knew well. Like hot copper.
Blood. Dark patches dotted the white tile beneath her hands, and panic surged through me.
“Where are you hurt?” I demanded, touching her hand.
As soon as my hand made contact with hers, the keening cut off, and she was slapping at me. Not just slapping, biting, and scratching. Coming alive like a wildcat, she attacked me. I wasn’t sure what the hell was happening, so it took a second to decide what the fuck to do. Her fingernails raked my cheek, scoring deep. I swore and grabbed her wrists, restraining her feral hits. She screamed, and my blood ran cold. This wasn’t the same kind of rivalry we’d been involved in up until now. This was something else.
She bucked and convulsed against me. I pulled her closer to my chest. The sound of broken glass crunching under my feet caught my attention. I had shoes on. She didn’t. With a muttered curse, I bent down and got her around the waist, hoisting her over my shoulder. She screamed, raining blows down across my back as I marched her out of the bathroom and into my bedroom.
I dropped her onto the bed, purposefully using the rough momentum to confuse her, so I could position myself to get a grip.
I lunged across her, straddling her waist, and pinned her arms above her head.
“What the fuck is going on?” I growled at her.
