Page 66 of Phobia
I let out a breath, trying to give myself an internal pep talk before I ended up being the one to ruin Jamie’s day. “Let’s just forget about him, if possible.”
“Sounds good to me.” He slipped his arms around my waist and hugged me tightly. I buried my face in his neck and closed my eyes, letting the tension ease out of my body.
As the day wore on, we fell into our usual Halloween ritual by eating an assortment of snack foods that in no way should have gone together and watching a variety of movies from a pile of pillows and blankets on the floor. Jamie was safe, curled against me with his head on my shoulder. Inside his apartment, it wasn’t Halloween, it was just another day in October. The world outside, and all its monsters, ceased to exist.
Except, it didn’t.
The sun set outside the windows and the sound of Winslow children storming the streets in search of candy could be heard as they cut across campus to get from one neighborhood to another—the one downside of Tennebrose being smack-dab in the middle of Winslow. The perk of staying at Jamie’s, however, was getting out of the trick-or-treat headache. Kids might not have been banging on the frat house door, but plenty of Tennebrose coeds wandered over there in search of free alcohol and more. I didn’t know who was more obnoxious.
But at Jamie’s, it was all quiet on the Homefront. We were so unaccustomed to the little tyrants demanding candy tribute that we both jumped about a foot in the air when someone knocked on the door.
“I got it,” I said as Jamie slid his legs out of my lap, allowing me to stand.
Jamie paused the movie, glancing between me and the door warily. Ghosts didn’t knock, right? Maybe it was Dr. Corbin making a house call. Or the building’s security guard doing a headcount or something.
Steeling myself for whatever it was, I opened the door.
No one was there.
There was, however, another polaroid.
This one was newer and showed a different handwriting on the back.
Jamie, 22.
I flipped it over. My mouth ran dry despite the cold sweat breaking out across my skin.
ItwasJamie—myJamie—clothed and asleep in a bed. I squinted at the bedding he was laying on. It was mine. Someone took this inmyfucking room!
As soon as I heard Jamie get up and head in my direction, I hurried to hide the photo.
“What is that?” he asked, right as I slid it into my back pocket.
“Nothing. Just a prank or something.”
He leaned past me and took something off the door.
Another polaroid had been taped there and like a dumbass, I’d been too focused on the one on the ground. Thank fucking God the one in Jamie’s hand wasn’t another kid or Jamie himself. It was Grandma’s house, of all places, but the message on the back was clear.
YOU HAVE UNTIL MIDNIGHT
“Or what?” Jamie asked, his blue eyes wide.
“Or he’ll kill us both.”
We exchanged a long look, silently weighing our options before we acquiesced at the same time with matching sighs.
“I’ll drive,” I said, forcing the words out with a grimace.
Chapter 13
The drive to Sunderland was quiet and blessedly uneventful. Or maybe I was too distracted by the unknown situation we were heading into that I didn’t notice any real ghosts drifting along with the ghouls and goblins as they swarmed across quaint towns with their bags and pillowcases.
Even after the landscape changed from suburbia to rural towns, growing ever more remote, I still didn’t see any sign ofhim.
“Should we call Dr. Corbin?” Larkin asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t think he can help with this.”
