Page 24 of Their Darkest Needs

My body feels heavy from the lack of sleep I’ve been getting. I don’t feel safe in my own house and I constantly have to check the cameras to see if Taylor is still okay.

I tried looking at what that thing was doing in the middle of the night, but every time it came into view, there were signal problems. It's like it’s only showing me what it wants me to see.

Felix will be here soon, so I’m just really hoping we’ll find something to make all of this go away. It’s not healthy for Taylor to bond with a corpse—because let’s face it, that’s exactly what it is—but she’s too naïve to realise that it’s not her friend. It doesn't talk, and it moves differently like it’s not fully comfortable in the body it took.

PING

I shake my head and walk over to the door. “Do we have visitors?” Taylor is standing over the stairs with Mara next to her.

Mara just stares at me with no emotion on her face. She shows that vile smile of hers only when Taylor isn’t looking, and it’s creeping me the hell out. But no matter what I say, she won’t listen to me. It’s so frustrating.

“Uh, yeah Felix is helping me with work,” I quickly lie to her. When it comes to my job, all I ever do is lie anyway, so what’s one more, right?

“He’s not going to hurt Mara, is he?” Her eyebrows shoot up and she’s fidgeting with her hands like she’s worried.

“Don’t be ridiculous, love. Besides, she started growing on me.”The only thing growing here is my hatred and anxiety.

She smiles back at me and walks Mara back into the room, while they hold each other's hands.What are they, twelve?

I barely open the door and Felix already starts to push his way in, making me almost lose my balance. “Dude, ever heard of patience?” I curse at him. Felix scoffs, raising one eyebrow.

“I thought it was killing you, based on the time you took to open the door,” he jokes.

Or maybe it wasn’t a joke. Well, at least he would've come to save me if it wasn’t, I guess. I give him a grateful look.

“Don’t get sentimental on me, dude,” he scoffs.. “Who else would keep track of Evy for me?” He laughs while walking to the kitchen.Jerk

“So, eh, is it here?” he asks, sitting down at the table with an apple he picked up from the fruit bowl.

“Yeah, they’re upstairs. I was thinking maybe we first go and check out that cemetery, and then see if we can find something on it. Unless you want to meet her first.” I grab the apple back from his hand and put it down on the table.

“No thanks, dude, I’ve seen enough in the last haunted house I was in. Let’s go!”

I guess I’d be the same. I always thought demons and ghosts weren't real, but now I don’t know what to believe anymore.

I lock the doors and take the key with me so I’m sure that thing doesn’t try to kidnap Taylor, holding my phone in my hand to keep an eye on the live feed of the house. The moment there’s the slightest blur on the screen, I’m running over.

Felix walks ahead of me, and I’m kind of relieved he is here too. You can say what you want, but I don’t think anyone else would be doing this for me.

He’s a good friend, and he’s changed a lot after the haunted house incident. He became less crude, less angry.

“Did you have similar issues with your demon?” I ask him, and he stops in his tracks and turns around. His mouth is in a tight line.

“No,” he tells me before turning and walking again. “Are we close by?” His immediate change of topic makes me feel that there are things he is hiding from me, and I don’t like that. Especially not now.

“Yeah, to the right, the trees look darker there.” Felix lets out a humourless laugh and shakes his head.

"Of course it does.” he mumbles out.

The air is turning colder, showing us we're going the right way. “Why don’t you talk about it?” I didn’t realise I had asked the question until Felix stops walking again and sighs with his head down.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it because it makes me feel things I don’t want to deal with. Do you really want to know, Ry?” He looks at me from the side, his eyes filled with untold trauma. I nod my head and answer a raspy “yes” to him.

“When I was a kid, I went in there once, the basement I mean. I saw some shit. I don’t know, something got attached to me, I guess. I don’t remember everything, I just—I remember a lot of anger. I remember Evy, I had this unwanted hate for her, but I don’t think it was really me who felt it, either way. She got hurt badly, and I lost my sister because it wanted our souls, and we almost let it win.” He wipes his hand over his cheek. Is he crying? This might be the most personal talk I’ve had with him since I’ve met him, and I don’t want to ruin the moment, so I don’t push further on it.

“Doesn’t matter, it’s dead and Evy survived. The past is the past, and sometimes it’s better to keep it like that than trying to bring back the demons that used to haunt you.”

He moves further and I follow him in silence. He’s right, but it doesn’t exactly help me with my current issue.

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