Page 26 of Their Darkest Needs

I need to solve this so she can finally get the help she needs, and none of this is helping me.

The feeling of Felix's hand on my shoulder makes me turn to him. “Hey, we’ll figure it out,” he tells me. I feel like it’s the only thing he keeps saying. He’s being very optimistic about it, which surprises me because he’s usually the pessimistic one of the two. Maybe it’s because he has previous experience with the subject, but that doesn’t mean this time it will go well.

There’s a buzz on my phone from my camera notification, and I look to see that Taylor is downstairs with that thing on the couch. I frown at it—why is it giving intruder alerts when it’s just them there?

“What the fu—” Felix grabs my phone out of nowhere and zooms in on the window reflection.

My eyes widen in surprise. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like this before. I can see Taylor clearly in the reflection, but next to her, instead of it being Mara, sits an ugly, tall, pale-skinned woman with long straight black hair and eyes open like she has no eyelids. Her nose is small and her mouth big, with sharp teeth. It’s staring at Taylor like it wants to eat her. I quickly make a screenshot of it and run out of there, notchecking if Felix is following. I need to get to Taylor and get her out of there.

I look in my pocket for the keys, but then my car peeps, and I see Felix had grabbed them and followed me. We both jump into the car and drive off as fast as we can while he keeps an eye on the phone.

“Is it doing anything?” I ask with panic in my voice. Felix gives a quick no but keeps checking on it through the reflection on the mirror. “I guess that because it’s not Mara’s soul in there, the reflection doesn’t show her,” he states.

He grabs his own phone and starts to type something out.

“What are you doing?” Felix doesn’t respond immediately to my question, so I repeat it because I really don’t have the time for this.

“I’m messaging Evy. I just had an answer from a friend about what we need to get from the store to trap it.”

Who is this friend, and how does he know it would work and what to get? One does not simply walk into a store and go: Oh hello, got any anti-demon repellent here?

“How do we know that the stuff will help?” Felix sighs at my question, like I’m being an annoying toddler asking stupid questions.

“Got any better ideas? I know what I’m doing,” he says. Well, I guess he’s had a demonic issue before too, but as far as I know, they were locked in a house and didn’t have anything useful but an old knife in the basement. I guess I really shouldn’t be picky in a situation like this.

The car hasn’t even fully stopped yet, and I’m already flying out, hearing a shouting Felix behind me, cursing.

The door flies open and I run to the living room, but there’s no one there. Where the hell is she? Panic rises, and I can feel my heart beating so hard it might break through my chest. What if I’m too late and it’s eating her or something?

I check all the downstairs rooms, and every single one of them is empty. My head is getting dizzy, and my body is shaking like a leaf in the wind.

At this point, I’m not thinking clearly anymore and start to shout her name while running upstairs. I can hear someone behind me shouting something too, but I can’t fully take in what it is. I just need to see her and be sure she’s okay. I won’t be able to calm down until then.

“Babe? What’s going on?” I see Taylor walking out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, and I finally feel like I can breathe again. She seems okay, but just to make sure, I double-check by patting her down while she tries to swat me away with her hands.

I keep asking her the same question over and over again, and I know she keeps saying she’s okay, but I don’t believe it until I am absolutely sure by checking it myself.

Someone is clearing his throat, making Taylor look up and shriek, holding her towel up with her hands. I don’t worry about Felix seeing her like this; he’s watched me following her for years, and he’s too obsessed over Evelyn to even think about other women.

“I uh, I’m just gonna go home and let you two figure this out,” he says awkwardly while returning to the stairs. I nod at him and mouth a thank you before he goes.

“What’s going on, Ryan?” Taylor asks me with a stern voice while crossing her arms.

She's so adorable like this.

I look around us to make sure that thing isn’t anywhere near us, and take Taylor into the bedroom, locking the door.

“It’s not Mara, love, I saw its reflection,” I tell her quietly, hoping it doesn’t have some kind of super demonic hearing powers. Taylor frowns at me and shakes her head.

“No, no! It is her. She asked me to bring her back. It was her.” I knew she wouldn’t believe me so I grab my phone showing her the screenshot I took earlier.

“Just look, okay? Why would Mara even ask you to do something like that? She would never let you do anything that could remotely bring you in trouble. She’s too kind for that.” Taylor grabs the phone out of my hands. She opens her mouth a few times but doesn’t say anything. Does this mean she’ll finally believe me?

“But, I—I saw her ghost, she told me.” A tear escapes the corner of her eye, and I move to wipe it away, but she beats me to it while sniffing.

“It wasn’t her. It wanted you to think that so you could give it a body to use. So it could walk on this earth. It saw you were hurt and used that.” She shakes her head and crouches down onto the floor while she holds her head with her hands.

“No, I just got her back, this isn’t real.” She slams my phone on the floor—good thing I had bought two new phones—and tries to leave the room. I grab her arm and stop her before she’s able to. Does she really think I would make something like this up? Why can’t she just see that this is wrong?

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