Page 2 of Shadows of Nightshade
He inspired me to be more independent, which is why I decided to earn my own money by house-sitting for my biology professor. I wanted to prove that I wasn’t afraid of people anymore.
That I could be like everyone else.
Maybe if he saw me being brave, he’d finally ask me to be his girlfriend.
Sure, he might have been uncomfortable with the idea of mestaying off-campus at first. But in the end, he’d relented. He’d assumed my goal was unfettered access to Professor Hamway’s award-winning conservatory.
He wasn’t entirely wrong about that.
However, there was something less than great about this job, and that was the unexpected houseguest who came with it.
“Finn,” I began, desperation tightening my chest. I couldn’t do this alone. “My chest was hurting when I woke up last night. It felt like something was sitting on me. I couldn’t even move! I thought I was going to suffocate.”
He paused, hovering his hands over his keyboard, and frowned.
That gave me hope.
“Please believe me,” I begged. Hopefully, that would be enough evidence. I couldn’t tell him I could sense spirits and sometimes even feel their emotions. But he should trust my judgment.
Finn closed his laptop with a sigh, then removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose—a clear sign he was annoyed. “Bianca, you know I’m bad at mind reading. But you need to talk to your doctor if you’re having anxiety attacks during the night again.”
“It wasn’t an anxiety attack!” My throat was closing with the pressure of unshed tears. Why was he arguing with me about this? I was terrified to go back to that house, but I had no choice. I had made a commitment, and I always kept my promises.
And I really needed the money.
Besides, I didn’t expect him to do any work—it wasn’t like he’d be useful in any sort of paranormal emergency. That wasn’t his thing.
I needed his help for something else entirely.
My plan involved his older brother. Whom, incidentally, I’d never met.
“Damen is into supernatural stuff, right?” I asked. “You said he’s teaching this semester, so maybe he could help. Maybe if you introduce us—”
“You don’t need to talk to Damen yet,” Finn said, opening his eyes and reaching for my hand. “Can’t you just trust that nothing’s wrong?”
His touch was a temporary balm to my fear. My attention strayed and my heart was beating so quickly that it felt as though it would fly right out of my chest.
Nothing else existed outside of the two of us.
His mouth quirked, and his eyes softened. It was during times like this that I suspected Finn had feelings for me too.
But then he spoke, and the warm feeling vanished.
“Have you been taking your medication?”
I breathed in and clenched my fists in my lap. How dare he ask that. How dare he assume.
I did not need pharmaceutical intervention to deal with my nightmares. No matter how dedicated I was to my routine, the terrifying shadows never strayed from my peripheral vision. The suffocating sensations choking me never released, and I was perpetually tipping toward the edge of a cliff.
I was always being hunted, never safe.
I did not need more medication. I had to work through this on my own. I had to get better.
But he’d made his bias quite clear with that one statement: he was going to think that this was paranoia.
He didn’t understand… and I couldn’t explain it to him again.
My chest felt heavy. It wasn’t often that I became genuinely angry with Finn, but this topic was a sensitive one. Why did he have to ruin everything? “Why do you do that?”
