Page 97 of Creep

How angry I was at him for leaving.

“Why did you leave me behind?” I whispered to the cool air. There was no reply. I hadn’t expected one, but how, fuck… how badly I wanted to hear his voice again.

I smiled a little when I pulled out a small stuffed panda. It had been mine growing up until Caden decided he wanted it, and thus started many battles between us to see who got to keep it.

I let him have it in the end, and yet it still ended up in my possession.

I placed it back down and took in all the stuff he had left here for me that I had forgotten about. The drawing we’d done together when we were little about a family of ninjas, and we promised each other that when we got older, we would write a story about it and become famous authors.

I laughed over the ridiculousness of it now. There would be no story written by the Whitlock siblings.

There never would be.

I shoved everything back in when all it did was hurt me, and I was about to close the floorboard again when something else caught my eye.

I frowned, reaching in and pulling out a little black book. It was leather-bound and obviously old, held together by black leather strings.

My heart thudded heavily in my chest as I took in the object, wondering what it was I was looking at.

I didn’t put it in here.

Caden did.

“What the hell is this?” I whispered in the quiet room.

* * *

I let outa small sigh when I felt the bed shift.

“How did you even find me here?” I asked when he wrapped his arms around me.

My childhood bed was much smaller than the queen-size bed I had back in my apartment. We barely fit, which meant he had to lie close to me, otherwise he would fall.

I hadn’t fallen asleep since I saw the little black book. I hadn’t seen the contents. Before I could read it, a note Caden had written to me had fallen out.

Lia, only read this when you think you can handle it.

Handle what?

What was in the book that he felt he needed to leave me a warning, telling me to be sure?

A part of me was curious enough to want to disregard the warning and just read it, consequences be damned. The other part didn’t want any more damage. Caden had always looked out for me. His note was set in place to protect me. I just knew it.

So now the book was back under the floorboards, and I had been twisting and turning all night in this bed until he showed up.

I should be surprised he was here.

I wasn’t.

“Do you really think there is a place you could go where I wouldn’t find you?”

I let out a small, tired sigh. I didn’t have the energy to fight him.

“What's wrong?” he asked, tightening his arms around me, burying his face in my hair, and taking in a deep whiff.

That move was so Mael-like that I felt my heart stall a bit before it took up speed.

“Everything.”

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