Page 10 of Shadowman
Take a breath, you knob, and tell him your news.
I’m actually jittering with eagerness, anticipation brimming for any way he could react to what I’m about to say.
Just as my lips are parting, he speaks, “That’s good to hear. Because I have some news.”
My lashes flutter, everything inside me going still, as if someone pressed pause.
Hehas news? He’s never shared anything with me before…
“Oh…?” My brows lift, and I find myself shivering in wait.
“I’ve accepted a job offer,” Dr. Love says, far too casually when I’m not even breathing. “In New York.”
He folds his hands in his lap, justlookingat me while my insides crumble.
Blasé. Unaffected.Careless.
“This will be our last session, Trevel.”
Raindrops…
Quivers seize my body.
I’m on the outside, looking in. Peering through the glass, between plump, wet beads that are falling all around me. One tumbles over my trembling lips…
“P-please…”
Moisture is soaking through my clothes, and my hair, in the chill of a saturated spring evening in Manhattan.
“Please… s-stop…”
My eyes, fixed on firm hands gripping her thighs, fall shut, and I exhale. The breath that leaves me is shaky. From the cold…
I’m sure that’s it.
“God, gorgeous, you’re everything…” I groan.
“N-no…”
My hands glide up long arms, to the wrists held together by plastic.
“You… feel… so… good…”
Frantic movements jerk me awake. Lids springing open, I gasp. And like an instinct, my hand flies to my chest, pawingdesperately at the ache behind my ribs, amplified by the aggressive banging of my heart.
“Fook yeh!” Belligerent words roar from above me. The thrashing is really rocking the bed around, as it does. But if that hadn’t woken me up, his screams would’ve done the trick.
Puffing out a breath of hopeless irritation, attempting to steady myself after myownfucked-up dream, I slam my pillow over my head. It doesn’t help much with anything, since he’s flailing like he’s drowning up there.
That’s the magic of bunk beds… When one moves, they both move.
Good times.
“Timmy! What’re yeh doing?!”
“Yo… bro!” I whip my pillow away and bark at him. “Mellow. It’s just a dream—”
“Fook ’em all! Yer all gonna pay!” O’Malley wails, something clearly fucked up happening in his unconscious mind.
