Page 262 of Let Me In

And the place behind my ear—the one that always stills me, every time. The one he never forgets.

“I love you,” he murmurs.

It lands like a tether. Like gravity.

“I’ll be back.”

I nod, my fingers curling into the back of his shirt.

“I’ll be waiting,” I whisper. “Always.”

He exhales. Long. Slow.

His body presses closer. Arms wrapped all the way around me now, as if he could climb inside this moment and stay there forever.

And just as I feel his lips brush mine—

A knock.

Low. Measured. One beat only.

We don’t move at first.

We just breathe, holding that moment like glass.

Then Cal draws back, just enough for our eyes to meet.

They’re steady. So full of something I don’t have words for.

He kisses my forehead once more.

And then he stands.

Then—

A knock.

Just one.

Low. Steady.

Not rushed.

I don’t flinch. But something in me goes still.

The knock is still echoing through the wood when Cal steps to the door.

He doesn’t rush.

Just reaches for the handle, turning it with quiet purpose. Like he already knows who stands on the other side.

The firelight flickers near the threshold, faint shadows stretching across the porch but never quite reaching him.

And then—

There he is.

The man Cal called The Watcher.

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