No, I wasn’t seeing anyone.
No, I couldn’t stay another night—tomorrow was my Saturday to work again.
Yes, I knew I’d be getting home late.
Yes, I’d be careful.
Yes, I promised.
Only when I arrived back in the city did I start missing my family all over again and wishing I’d taken an additional vacation day—or swapped Saturdays.
Because there was no telling when our latest “goodbye” would be our last…
Thankfully, traffic hadn’t been so bad, and it looked like I was going to get home before midnight.
Not that I had anything or anyone waiting for me.
Grim had vanished after that last kiss. Like he’d never existed.
And the fact that there hadn’t been any more balcony falls or elevator failures made me more worried than ever he’d done something rash.
It couldn’t be a coincidence that death, in all aspects and manifestations, had left me entirely alone.
But after that soul-altering night we’d spent together, Grim’s unceremonious—and gutting—exit from my life had to be owed tosomething.
For instance, Grim could have talked to Sir White after all—or one of the other “higher-ups.” He could have successfully bartered for an extension on my life.
I feared for him, too. If hehadasked, he could have gotten fired.
And what if the only reason I was still alive at all was because they were trying to fill Grim’s position?
It was slowly destroying me not knowing where he was, what had become of him. Even more unbearable was the thought that I mightneverknow.
I kept wishing Flora would show up, or even Johann. But no one came. No one called.
And life just… went on. Like none of this had ever happened. Like I hadn’t been irrevocably changed. Like I hadn’t fallen hopelessly—and perhaps pathetically—in love with a supernatural entity who might be, as the saying went, just not that into me.
Even after all those things he’d said.
Because if the world of dating had taught me one thing…
“If he wanted to, he would,” I whispered to myself as I flicked on the turn signal, slowing down to take a left.
That was the social media mantra we’d all been taught to recite, right?
And it had to be true in this situation, too. Unless it wasn’t—and Grim was somewhere horrible.
The longer I had his car, the more I was starting to thinkthatwas the truth.
Because if he really didn’t care, wouldn’t I wake up one day just to find The Judge missing?
But then, the idea of Grim being put away somewhere or punished assailed me with far more fear and grief than if he’d just… moved on.
Tears pricked my eyes as I took another turn on the deserted road, my vision going bleary as I checked for traffic even though there wasn’t any.
Everybody else in the world, it seemed, had stayed home regardless of annoying family members and invasive questions to sleep off their food comas. And now, story of my life, it was just me, myself, Helena, and, I supposed, The Judge as we ambled over a set of train tracks.
Except the car stalled out the moment I found myself in the center of said tracks, headlights flickering out before going dark, grumbly engine sputtering and then dying.
