Page 36 of Little Nightmare

I just wanted to hear her version of the story.

"She was right handed, so in using her left, she wanted to hurt you, not kill you. Had she wanted to kill you, she would have used her dominant hand,” Raven said cryptically. “She was angry, she wanted to scar you, to humiliate you, she wanted you to feel the warm blood ooze down her fingers and see it spread across your chest. She wanted to maim you—so you’d always look in the mirror and think of her. I imagine, knowing that, you wish she would have used the right hand. I wonder, knowing that, if you wish, you would have died.”

I nearly stopped breathing. “I’d cut the scars from my body if I could, then.”

"I’d help you if I didn’t get queasy,” she said in an honest voice while my stomach sank to the ground. Would I never get rid of her? Of the memories. “There’s always tattoos, Ace.”

I almost laughed. “Yes, I’ll just get a giant De Lange crest across my chest like everyone else in my family to cover up the scars from the person who promised me forever.”

I’d said too much.

I couldn’t take it back.

I tried to turn away but Raven stopped me, not with her hand, or her face, but with her words. “Nobody has the power to promise forever.”

Instantly, I felt stupid. “Right.”

"But a moment?” Raven sighed. “That’s a promise kept.”

“How so?”

She turned onto her back and looked up at the ceiling. A tear ran down her cheek colliding with the pillow. “Try it.”

“Try what?”

"Promising me a moment.”

I turned onto my back and stared up at the ceiling with her then reached across the mattress and gripped her hand. “I’ll hold your hand for five seconds and try to stay awake so you can sleep.”

"See?” She squeezed my hand. “Was it that hard?”

This moment? Yes.

Because for a brief second, she tempted me…

To promise her more.

12

RAVEN

The one with the annoying noise machine or lack thereof.

Ifell asleep pretty fast, only to wake up around five a.m. with Ace still sleeping, and me wide awake. I went to make coffee and because the bed was so warm, I came back and turned on Friends.

For a person who said they had trouble sleeping with noise he was sleeping pretty damn hard.

I thought back to the night before.

He’d been almost…nice.

Tame.

Maybe seeing me on the ground nearly knocked out did something to him, or maybe he was faking it. Either way, I had a good night’s sleep where I didn’t spend the time crying over Louis, my birthday, or my upcoming appointment, so things were at least looking kind of up.

I’d been born to deal with death.

I wasn’t prepared for it to happen so soon.

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