Page 58 of A Brush with Love
Lizzie and Indira barreled through the crowd toward them, giant glasses of wine sloshing as they went. Dan barely had time to brace for impact before Lizzie launched herself into a violent group hug with all of them.
“It’s about time!” Lizzie squealed, letting them go.
“Dan! Thank you for finally getting our Harper to one of these!” Indira said, grabbing him by the hand and tugging him farther into the apartment. “Let’s give you a tour.”
Lizzie moved next to them, sweeping a hand across the room. “This, my friend, is the Bone Zone. Please, make yourself at home.”
“Bone Zone?” Dan repeated with a laugh.
Lizzie nodded. “The zone in which we bone. Kitchen is that way,” she said, pointing to the back right corner where a wall cutout showed more people lingering by the fridge.
“Bathrooms are down the hall,” Indira added, doing a game show hostess gesture to a hallway on their left. “Shall you be in need of a bedroom, please use Lizzie’s, not mine.”
Dan shot Lizzie a disbelieving look, but she nodded seriously. “I lost a bet,” she offered as an explanation.
He let out a deep laugh and turned to look for Harper.
Thu and Alex leaned against the wall near the door, eyes only for each other, no Harper in sight.
He scanned across the room, no trace of her glossy black hair or the green of her dress.
His heart kicked into gear.
She was gone. And something in his gut told him she wasn’t okay.
CHAPTER 18
HARPER
Dying.
I’m dying.
The thought repeated itself on loop through Harper’s mind.
Bees stung through her veins while fire ants bit along her screaming skin. She wanted to run, but her legs were cemented to the floor. The panic was going to kill her.
Somehow, she managed to put one foot in front of the other and moved down the hall, trying to escape it.
Black crept in at the edges as she collapsed against the bathroom door. She pressed the burning skin of her cheek into the cool wood, trying to focus her swimming vision on the doorknob. Her sweaty palm slipped off it over and over again.
Harper squeezed her eyes shut, trying to think past the high-pitched ringing in her ears. With a raw, shaking breath, she opened her eyes, forcing her trembling fingers to the knob with what little control she had left. She latched onto it and turned, using the last of her strength to push it open.
She fell to her knees as the door swung open, and she knew she’d never get up again. Her fingers unclamped from the knob and she slumped against the back of the door, shutting it in the process.
Harper tried to gulp in air through her closing throat and dragged shaking hands through her hair, tugging at the roots, trying to come back from the edge of anxiety. It was useless. The monster had already pushed her off the cliff and was now cutting her open with a scalpel. It laughed at the chaos in her body, dumping adrenaline on her fragile nerves.
Cold sweat turned the silk of her dress into a heavy rope that clung around her body, suffocating her. A wave of nausea lurched her forward onto her hands and knees, and she dry heaved over the floor.
She dragged herself to the bathtub, twisting to rest her back against it. Her head lolled forward between her knees while blood pumped viciously through her body. The monster draped a heavy, pulsing blanket over her senses, and she felt herself begin to fade.
Somewhere, far away, there was a knock on a door. “Harper?” a muffled voice called, the sound traveling to her underwater.
The monster dragged its long, jagged nails down her spine, making her teeth rattle.
“Harper, I’m coming in.”
She tried to lift her head, but the monster gripped the back of her skull, pushing it down.
