Page 44 of Blood Lust

I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know why I keep writing back to him. Maybe because he doesn’t ask anything of me. Or maybe because he’s the only one who doesn’t look away when I hint at the truth.

A stranger in the dark, whispering back the parts of me I’ve tried to bury.

I reach for the mouse, scroll up, reread more of our thread. And for a moment, I forget that I’m supposed to be someone’s wife, someone’s mother.

I’m just me.

And I’m not as alone as I thought.

Epilogue Two: Fang

Later That Night

I walk home long after the city’s gone to sleep.

The streetlights hum overhead like a warning.

I take the long way. Past the park. Past the shuttered bookstore. Past the glowing red neon of the dueling piano bar, now dark and still.

I could’ve spoken to her tonight. She was there. Close enough to touch even.

But I didn’t.

I can’t.

Not yet.

High above, the moon stares down, silver and full, watching me like it knows something I don’t.

Maybe I’m chasing her. Maybe I’m just running from myself.

But I know I need to keep showing up in that little blinking window on her screen.

And if that’s all I ever get...

Then maybe that’s enough.

For now.

Final Epilogue:

One Week Later

The bar is quiet tonight, too quiet.

She hasn’t come in.

She hasn’t logged on.

And still, I wait.

Not just at Heroes. Not just on AIM. But in that space just outside her orbit, the way a moon hangs around a planet it can never quite touch.

Something’s happening to her.

Something big.

I can feel it in my bones.

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