Page 52 of Like A Moth To A Flame

“There were more notes, and they all ended the same way.”

“Moth?” Amelia asked, shrugging. “I dunno, dude. Stupid little nickname?”

“I mean, yeah, obviously. But then someone started breaking into the house, and watching me through the windows.”

That got to her. She stopped, her mouth full of food, and when her jaw dropped open, she nearly lost her lunch back onto her plate.

“Wait,” she said, her blue eyes wide. “You’re kidding?!”

“Not kidding,” I said, sighing. “I wish I was kidding.”

“This is some full-blown Michael Myers shit?!” she cried, and I could have sworn I heard excitement in her voice.

She fuckingwould.

“It gets worse,” I said, my voice dropping lower. I chanced a glance around the room towards the other patrons, namely Tommy and Sheriff Banner. I especially didn’t need a cop or a firefighter hearing about this.

“Worse how?” she asked, swallowing. She seemed to have remembered she was eating, finally.

“Well, I mean,” I stopped. I could feel my cheeks burning hot so high up that it nearly reached my hairline. Amelia saw it because, of course, she did. She saw everything.

“What?!” she hissed, her eyes growing even wider.

“I was asleep,” I started, my voice dropping lower until she had to lean across the table to hear me, her sandwich forgotten on the plate. I leaned closer, whispering. “And then when I woke up, I heard a noise, and—”

“Staying out of trouble, girls?”

I yelped, dropping down into my seat and looking around. Sheriff Banner chuckled as he moved past us. He knew exactly what he was doing, scaring the shit out of me like that. He flashed me a wink as he continued across the diner and out the door.

Snorting, Amelia dropped down into her seat and rolled her eyes.

“Hold up,” she said, picking up her sandwich again. “Lemme scarf this, then we can go out in the car and you can give me the deets.”

“Or I could just show you,” I whispered. Part of me hadn’t expected her to hear me, but she clearly had, judging by the high-pitched hyena cackle that erupted from her.

“Wait, show me what?!” she asked. I knew that look. She was looking for juicy gossip. Amelia was terrible.

“Not here,” I said, glancing around. At some point in the conversation, Tommy had left too, leaving us mostly alone save for Mae and the kitchen crew. Still, I wasn’t gonna chance whipping out that video here, in public.

“Okay, okay,” she sighed, taking a bite.

We sat in relative silence while I waited for her to finish, and when she’d finally stuffed the last bite into her mouth, she practically sprinted to the counter to pay, still chewing.

She was shameless.

Stepping out of the diner and into the fresh air, I pulled in a deep, shaking breath. I couldn’t believe I was about to talk about this.

I had to be stupid, or maybe desperate for someone to hear me.

She hurried me toward her Escalade, and we hopped in. Once she’d gotten the key in and the air conditioning on, she turned tome with an excited expression. Jesus, she was practically foaming at the mouth.

“Okay, spill it,” she said, looking at me with a serious smile and her arms crossed over her chest.

“So, I was asleep.”

“Right, asleep. Then you heard a noise. And…?”

With shaking hands, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. I was stupid, that was it. Dumb and desperate and stupid… did I mention dumb?

---