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There was about five minutes left of our lunch period when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I went for it immediately, thinking it was Rick or Alistair or something, but when I glanced down at the screen, I saw the wordrestrictedflashing across the glass.
Who the hell would be calling me using a restricted number? If it was a spam call, it usually said spam or listed the spoofed local number, but this… this was different. And with everything that had happened recently, I knew I couldn’t ignore it.
“Sorry, it’s my mom,” I said as I held the phone against my chest to hide the fact that it was a restricted number and not my mom calling.
I got up and hurried away, to the outskirts of the cafeteria, and I glanced around. Gareth didn’t have my same lunch period, so he wasn’t here to see this, which was the only reason I didn’t go all the way to the bathroom and lock myself in a stall to answer.
My heart pounded away in my chest, for whatever stupid reason, and I answered the call with an unsure voice, “Hello?”
“You must be Brianna Montgomery,” a low, masculine voice spoke, one I didn’t recognize.
“Dent,” I corrected the stranger. “I’m not a Montgomery.”
“You aren’t? Funny, I thought your mother married Alistair Montgomery. That makes you one, whether you like it or not, especially to people around Eastcreek.” It wasn’t the first time someone had told me that, but for whatever reason, this time it bothered me greatly.
I turned my back to the rest of the cafeteria, snapping, “Who is this? Who are you? How do you know who I am?”
“All of that will come in time. This isn’t really a conversation I want to have over the phone. Meet me at the field track behind the school. Come now. I don’t like being kept waiting.” He said nothing else after that, hanging up and leaving me to wonder just who the hell he was.
Once the call ended, I lowered my phone, staring at the screen. He wanted me to meet him right now? Lunch was almost over. I couldn’t just stroll out of the school, could I?
That was a stupid question. This was Eastcreek High, not my old school. It didn’t have any security guards or an array of cameras at every exit and entrance. I could slip out and slip back in, and the only thing I’d get would be a tardy slip from my next class.
Assuming I didn’t die, but I didn’t think someone would want to meet on school grounds to kill me.
Goddamn it. I shouldn’t go, but… I had to.
I stuffed my phone in my pocket and hurried away, my legs taking me to the nearest hall. I wasn’t going to leave through the main front entrance; there was an exit near the school’s library. It opened up into the back parking lot, where the teachers parked their cars. I didn’t know where the track was, but how hard could it be to find?
The halls were empty, so it was odd to be walking around. I wasn’t worried about any teachers stumbling across me, mostly because I didn’t care. The only thing I cared about was finding out who called… and why.
The doors next to the library said emergency exit only, but I pushed through them anyway. No alarms sounded. I walked as fast as I could, zigzagging through the parking lot, and once I passed the entire lot, I could see the track field in the distance.
I walked across the grass, taking a worn pathway to it. The track had a small set of bleachers next to it, and I spotted a figure sitting at the top, their arms leaning back against the railing, a blond head staring off into the distance. My caller.
Rounding the base of the old metal bleachers, I made it to the bottommost step and stopped. I angled my head up and stared at the man’s face, and for a moment, I couldn’t move. I was thrown back into that house, to where I was so weak and drugged up I could hardly speak.
I stared atNeo.
“Brianna,” Neo called out to me, “don’t be shy. Come on up.”
My head spun. The world around me suddenly felt uneven, disjointed. I glanced down at my hands, and for a split second, I swore I saw blood on them. So much blood. So… so much blood.
But then I was thrown back into reality, and my legs moved mechanically, taking me up the steps of the bleachers, to Neo. He scooted down and patted the spot beside him, gesturing for me to take a seat right there with him. So that’s what I did. What other choice did I have? I was already here, so it was way too late to turn around and leave.
I stared straight ahead as I sat down, running my hands along my knees. I wore a long-sleeved shirt, as I always did at school now, to hide the scar on my wrist, but right now, that scar itched something fierce.
This wasn’t real. Neo was dead. He couldn’t be next to me. He couldn’t. This had to be some kind of bizarre dream, right? There was just no way. No freaking way.
Swallowing hard, I was measured in turning my head and meeting Neo’s eyes—and that’s when I realized it wasn’t Neo. The face was more mature, the mouth a little thinner, the jaw squarer. The yellow hair on his head was cut a bit shorter than Neo’s had been, and he wasn’t as wide and as strong. At least, he didn’t seem like it from here.
It wasn’t Neo next to me, but it was someone who looked just like him, only quite a few years older. The resemblance was uncanny, and I couldn’t stop my mouth from falling open when I met his eyes.
“Hi,” he spoke, his mouth curling into a sly smile. “It’s good to meet you, Brianna.” He flashed me a set of pearly white teeth, perfectly straight. “What’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
A foot rested between us, but it was nowhere near enough. I wanted to crawl away from this man who looked so much like Neo. Age Neo by ten, twelve years, and you’d get him. He was what the boy next door grew up to look like, a handsome man indeed—but there was something off about him, something unsettling, and it wasn’t just because he looked like Neo.
“How do you know who I am?” My heart beat fast for a whole different reason. I was alone out here with him. Why, oh why did I stupidly come? I shouldn’t have. I should’ve told him to fuck off and told Gareth about the call. “Who are you?”
