Page 274 of Let Me In

Just a blank mask beneath the hush of trees.

I scramble up on shaky hands, arms already reaching. My knees sting where they hit the ground, but I barely notice. My voice comes out fractured.

“I—I didn’t mean to—she ran—”

He steps forward.

Just one step.

And holds her out with both hands, carefully. Like she’s something fragile.

Our fingers brush as I take her back. His glove is cool. Steady. Not warm, but certain.

I clutch her tight. Feel her heart, calm and fluttering, against my own.

“Thank you,” I breathe, voice thinned by cold and shame and something like gratitude.

It’s all I can manage.

And still, I have to know.

“Are you going to tell him?”

The Watcher’s expression doesn’t change. Doesn’t flicker.

He stares at me for a long moment. Long enough that my breath starts to hitch again.

Then he speaks. Voice low and flat, the trees swallowing the ends of the words.

“Go inside.”

I don’t run back.

I can’t.

My feet sting with every step—scraped raw from the underbrush. There’s dirt on my calves, scratches on my arms.Something sharp must’ve caught me, because I feel a warm line of ache just below my knee.

But I don’t stop.

Not even when my breath catches.

Not even when the trees thin and the porch light finds me again.

Cleo is quiet in my arms. As if she was never in danger, and I wasn’t the one who broke every rule just to get her back.

The cabin door is still open, just barely.

Luca stands in the frame, tether clipped but slack, his ears forward.

He watches me the whole way back. Doesn’t move until I cross the threshold.

Then he follows me in.

I close the door.

Lock it.

Slide the bolt.

---