Page 255 of Hide and Keep

All I can do is stand here, chewing on my own fucking hypocrisy. Edwin may take out my garbage as well. And the maid? She’s a very insistent woman. So, she’s been cleaning my room and bathroom, too.

“Looks like someone’s acclimating to this lap of luxury nicely.”

If we were in our abditory, I’d tell Ever her lap is the only one I’m acclimating to, and yeah, it’s luxurious.

“Ithink we should sleep in separate rooms tonight,” I tell Ever at her door.

“Why?”

“Because you need some sleep and I still don’t feel very good. I don’t want to keep you up again if I get sick.” I haven’t puked all day. Since Ever and I showered and my humanity was restored, I’ve actually felt fairly decent. I even got some food in me for dinner. A dinner I cooked for us since nobody else was around. I don’t know if Arthur’s waiting until Ryan leaves his room to fire him, or if he already kicked the chef out, but we didn’t see him once today.

Edwin must’ve ventured out at least once because the bags Ever set outside my door this morning were gone by the time we left it earlier.

Ever’s eyebrows nearly collide, but she says, “Okay.”

“Goodnight,” I say before heading to my own room and doing the same thing I did last night, shoving the desk chair under the doorknob at a 45-degree angle.

Ever should stay in her bed and get the sleep she missed out on last night. After staying up with me, she spent the day with me in my room, wide awake, so she’s gotta be tired.

She won’t though. She’s going to sneak in here later. I know it. I know her. And when she does, she’s going to find herself blocked once again. Since she refuses to tell me how she got past the chair I put in place specifically to keep her out, I want to see it for myself…assuming she can do it a second time. I’ll let her in either way, but it should be interesting to watch her in action. She’s so fucking tiny, she probably only needs a small crack to slip through. Just like a goddamn bat.

I settle into the armchair by the window and wait for the stirrings of my favorite nocturnal creature.

I don’t expect hours to go by but go by they do. Slowly. Agonizingly. Three, then four, then five. Is she going to come? Or not?

It’s somewhere around three o’clock in the morning and I’m just about to lift myself up when something moves in my periphery. My gaze locked on the door, I’m not expecting my motherfucking wall to open up…yet that’sexactlywhat it does. Holy shit.

Not only is it opening, but there’s a fucking figure coming through it. Every muscle in my body freezes. Is that a ghost? Ever warned me the manor was haunted but I didn’t heed it whatsoever. She talked a lot of shit back then. Also, I didn’t think ghosts were scary at the time. Probably because I’d never had one come right up to me and—

It’s not coming up to me at all. It’s not even paying me any attention. It’s…going to my bed?

After closing the portal it just came through, the petite ghost leans over my bed. Is it looking for me? Does it do this every night?

Oh, shit. Is it looking for Ever? What if it’s her mom’s ghost? She doesn’t come in here when we’re fucking…right? That’d be weird. That’d be really—

The ghost glances toward the bathroom, revealing the face of my favorite nocturnal creature.

God, what a creep.

And me, for liking it.

At least now I know why the sensor on her door wasn’t going off. She’s been using some sort of secret wall-door between our rooms to get in and out of here undetected. That’s how she got in here last night, too. She couldn’t tell me how she got past the chair, because she didn’t.

While she’s still staring at the bathroom, I stand from the chair, causing her to let out a gasp.

“Goddess, Crue, what are you doing over there?”

“Are you scared, little bat?” I ask as I approach her.

She spins to face me, propping her ass on the bed.

“No.”

Liar. I can practically hear her heart thundering inside her chest.

“How often do you use that?” I nod at the wall I obviously didn’t inspect close enough but will first thing in the morning along with all the other walls in this room because what kind of rich-people shit is that.

Unashamed, she shrugs. “Not as much now.” Now that I walk her into my room every night, keeping her in here for my own selfish reasons.

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