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It used to feel perfect.
But not anymore.
“It feels weird, doesn’t it?” Stellan murmured, his eyes darting about our surroundings like he expected Sophia to appear on the sidewalk.
“Don’t you go home during breaks?” I asked, a pang shooting through me as we passed an ice cream shop that Sophia and I had gone to every chance we could.
“Not often.” He paused, the crooning voice of Dermot Kennedy filling the car. “My parents divorced about a year after Sophia disappeared. Which apparently is pretty common when you lose a child. But after Dad left, my mom...she just kind of faded away. She still sleeps in Sophia’s bed, even now. Like she expects Sophia to just pop in through her bedroom window any minute now.” He huffed out a sigh and leaned back in his seat. “It stopped feeling like home the second we realized she was gone. There’s no real reason to go back now.”
“Except for this.”
He glanced at me, his gaze darting over my features in that way he did sometimes, like he was trying to find Delilah in Aurora’s face. “Except for this,” he repeated.
A bead of sweat trickled down my spine as we turned into our old neighborhood. Stellan was saying something about people who’d moved across the street from where we’d lived, but his words were muffled…hard to understand.
Because I could see Sophia’s ghost all over this place…but I could also see the Demon’s.
My heart battered against my chest as we finally turned onto our street.
Our street. The words felt wrong in my head.
The first thing I noticed was that Stellan’s house wasn’t looking so good. Unlike the houses around us, the grass on the lawn was long, weeds sprouting up all over the place—a buffet of dandelions for all the wishes that would never come true.
“Fuck,” he muttered. “I’ve been paying for a lawn service, but she must have fired them. Again. Fucking bastards have just been taking the money every month.”
He pulled into the driveway and I purposely kept my eyes away from the house next door. I’d address that particular bogeyman tomorrow. Even without looking over at the house, I could feel it.
There was an imprint on that place, an evil energy that was tangible. I held in my shiver, feeling like the Demon’s eyes were on me and he’d be able to see if I showed a drop of fear.
It took me a second to realize Stellan had turned the car off and we were just sitting there, both of us staring off into space.
“Shall we?” I asked, dreading going inside but wanting a wall between myself and the house next door.
Stellan shook his head like he was coming out of a trance. He went to open his door and then paused. “Just be prepared. She's not going to be the same woman as back then.”
I frowned. I hadn’t really thought through coming face to face with his mom. This wasn’t going to go well.
Stellan slipped out of the car, and after taking a deep breath, I got out too. As we walked the sidewalk leading up to the front door, it was like eyes were slicing into the back of my head. I couldn’t help it then, I looked back, half expecting the Demon to be peering through the window at me, that manic smile on his face that haunted my dreams.
But there was nothing, no specters grinning out at me, just dark, still, drape-covered windows. Somehow, I still felt those eyes.
“Aurora?” Stellan asked, peering back at me from the entry to his house. I gave him a grim, fake smile and hustled up the steps towards him. He unlocked the door and then slowly opened it.
“Is she out running errands?” I murmured, noting how dark it was inside. And stale.
The air was musty like nothing living had been here for months.
“No,” he answered grimly, but he didn’t offer anything else.
I’d tried to imagine what it would be like, to come in here again. But I hadn’t realized how much it would hurt.
The second I walked in, I was assaulted by memories of Sophia. I’d heard her laugh in my head. Seeing it frozen in time like it had been the last time I saw her…it was torture.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, and instead of heading down the hallway to the master bedroom, he strode down the hallway which led to his room…and Sophia’s.
He disappeared from sight, and a second later, I heard the soft muttering of voices. I shifted uncomfortably. She must have been in Sophia’s room.
A minute later, Stellan reappeared, a tic in his cheek and weighted frustration in his gaze. I opened my mouth to ask how she was, but then I closed it without a word.
