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“I have to talk to the police again,” I said. “They thought I imagined it because of the acid, but it wasn’t the acid.” I shook my head. “I know what happened. I remember it, everything.” I nodded quickly, even though talking about it made my chest tight. The heart monitor had begun to beep more rapidly. “They’ll believe me this time. They will.”
Marcus was biting his lip. He wasn’t looking at me. My heart sunk. “You...you believe me...don’t you?”
His foot was tapping anxiously against the floor. “I don’t know, Juni. It’s...you know...everyone says…”
“Who’s everyone?” I snapped. “Who the hell iseveryone,and why do you believe them instead of me?”
He looked stricken. He fumbled for a moment, and pulled out his phone. When he held up the screen for me, a video from the local news was playing. The heart monitor sped up even more. It was Victoria, speaking into the microphone held up to her face.
“She just ran off into the forest,” she said. Her eyes were wide, innocently confused. Her makeup was pristine. She was wearing a goddamn blazer. “We just wanted to experiment, you know? I thought it would be chill, but she started acting like things were chasing her. She was screaming at me to get away from her, saying I was trying to kill her. Then she started cutting herself, it was — God.” She choked up, covering her mouth with her hand. Fake. Fuckingfaketears. “It was so awful. I just want her to be okay.”
I clenched my jaw as the video ended. Marcus still wasn’t looking at me.
“I didn’t do this to myself, Marcus,” I said softly. “Please. Please believe me. I didn’t.” He got up, his phone shoved back into his pocket. He walked fast, his head down, back toward the door. “Marcus, please! Don’t…don’t leave!”
He stopped. The fluorescent light above my bed was flickering, giving off an annoying buzz of electricity. Marcus sighed heavily. “It’s too late, Juni.”
I shook my head. “No...What are you talking about? It’s not too late, I —”
The light went out. I stared up at it, utterly confused as I watched the faint, lingering glow of the fluorescent bulb behind its thin plastic cover. The room was quiet. Way too quiet.
My heart monitor had stopped.
I stared at its blank, empty screen. Beyond the monitor, rain was no longer falling against the window. Instead, condensation was rapidly growing across the glass. The water dripped down, collecting along the sill, beginning to leak to the floor.
I could smell seawater. Mold. Wet dirt. I looked back at Marcus, and he wasn’t facing away from me anymore. He was looking directly at me, and his eyes were white...his jaw was slack. I screamed as I looked down and realized that thick gray tentacles were coiling up his legs, around his chest, engulfing him —
“No!” I tried to tear the IVs out of my arms. I tried to get up from the bed to help him, but I was strapped down. My arms, my legs. I couldn’t reach him. “Marcus, run!”
“It’s too late, Juni.” The voice didn’t even come from his own mouth. It echoed all around me as the tentacles pushed into his open mouth, into his eyes. “It’s too late.”
I jolted awake, panting, sweat chilling my skin. It was just before dawn, the wide-open sky colored pale yellow and cold blue. My back ached from having slept in the Jeep, but I was too tense to stretch. My heart was pounding. I was freezing.
I turned on the engine and cranked up the heater, leaning my head against the steering wheel. I’d slept early the night before instead of putting it off as long as possible like I usually did. But I’d been hungry and the money I had left covered my gas, but not food. Sleeping seemed like the only good way to stave off the hunger, but it meant I had more hours to dream.
God, I hated the dreams.
My hunger was back with a vengeance too. My stomach felt like it was trying to consume itself, but after that nightmare, the thought of food was nauseating. It would be better if I just started driving. Maybe after a few hours, my stomach would settle.
I glanced over at my phone, sitting on the passenger seat. A text notification greeted me on the screen and I picked it up with a frown. Probably some stupid spam message…
It was Mom.
My mouth went dry. I’d honestly thought she’d lost my number a long time ago. She never texted. She never called. I could have died years ago, and she wouldn’t have known or cared. I think, in her mind, I died the night I went missing in the woods.
Part of me didn’t even want to read her text. Part of me just wanted to ignore it.
Part of me really, desperately, hoped that maybe my own mother still cared about me.
I unlocked the screen and read.
I don’t know if this is even your number anymore.
Marcus is dead.
If you care.
Funeral is Sunday. Don’t cause any fucking problems if you show up.
