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She cocks her head as she sits down on the bed next to me, her eyes narrowing. “Do you think that thing is rooted here? Like, if we leave, it won’t follow us?”
I swallow. I know what she’s getting at, but there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to believe it. “I mean, I don’t know. It could be tied to Trine…that would certainly complicate things, since it’s not like we can just leave her behind.”
“Fuck,” Alana says under her breath. “We should leave, maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll just be part of this spooky fucking place.”
“But we’re not going to less haunted places,” I reply. “That’s the whole theme of the tour.”
Alana rubs her temple. “But it’s all…it’s all fake, right?”
“Al,” I say, turning my body to face her. “I don’t want to freak you out, but that wasn’t fake. Look at my neck.”
I tilt my head up so she can see the burn. She reaches out, her fingers inches away from my skin, but she doesn’t make contact with me. “That looks fucking gnarly,” she says. “You might wanna disinfect that.”
“Right. Yes,” I say. “I’m sure this place has a first aid kit somewhere. But that can wait.”
Alana nods in agreement, her eyes still wide with fear. “Okay. So what do we do now?”
I take a deep breath, thinking hard. I have to resist the urge to rub my hand against my wound, which is starting to sting. I think the adrenaline is slowly leaving my system and everything’s finally coming into sharp focus.
When I meet Alana’s gaze, she looks like she’s about to burst into tears, so I try to get control of the situation.
I’m supposed to be the expert here. Up until a few hours ago, Alana didn’t even believe in any of this shit.
“Okay, I think I have a plan,” I say. “We need to find out more about this place. We need to figure out if that thing is tied to Trine or if it’s something else entirely. And we need to find a way to protect ourselves if it comes after us again, whether that’s here or somewhere else.”
Alana nods. “Okay,” she says. “I’m with you.”
I give her a small smile, thankful she’s supporting me. “We should search the hotel and figure out if there are any clues about what’s going on here. And in the meantime, we should probably stick together.”
“Should we tell everyone else?” she asks softly.
I sigh. “I don’t know if we have another option. As soon as they see this,” I point toward my neck. “They’re going to ask questions. And if this is tied to Trine, then she deserves to know. So we should. Just give me a few minutes to wrap my head around it. I need to figure out how we’re going to tell them this.”
“You’re right,” she says. “Let’s tend to your wound first. That’ll give us some time to think.”
She tilts her head toward the bathroom and we head there together. I can feel her eyes on me, so I turn to her with a questioning look in my eyes. “What?” I ask her.
“Nothing,” she says, shaking her head. “I’m just…I don’t know. I don’t want to lose you, Dom.”
I’m taken aback by her words. We’ve only known each other a little while, but I can tell that she means it. I reach out and take her hand. “It’ll be okay. I won’t let anything happen to you, Al. I promise.”
She smiles at me. We continue to the bathroom. I grab a towel from the rack, wet it under the faucet, and press it gently against my neck. It feels good.
Alana watches me silently for a second before she speaks up. “You know, I didn’t believe in any of this before….Ghost, demons, all of that. Now…”
She trails off, lost in thought. “Here, let me do that,” she says. “Sit.”
I sit on the closed toilet lid as she grabs the towel. She dabs it softly against my skin, making me grimace. “Sorry. I have to make sure this doesn’t get infected. I have no idea what that was, so I’m being thorough.”
“It’s okay,” I say. “Thank you.”
I watch her as she continues to tend to my wound, her eyes focused and determined. Alana strikes me as someone who’s always been like that–when she puts her mind to something, she doesn’t give up until it’s done. She wouldn’t be here if she wasn’t.
“I just can’t believe this is happening,” she says softly, breaking the silence. “Does it hurt?”
“Yeah. But it’s not too deep. It’s not bleeding, is it?”
She inches her face forward, her eyes narrowing as she looks at me. “No. It’s not bleeding. I don’t think it’s too deep. It’s just a scratch, but it looked so bad when it was happening.”
