Page 43 of Inbetweeners
“I’m not a figment of your imagination. I’m inside you.”
“Go away.”
For a moment, Vin’s features morphed into something terrible, his pupils narrowing like a goat’s, his cheeks bulging because there were too many teeth in his mouth, before everything changed back to the face of a guy Nix would ordinarily have found appealing.
“Get up,” Vin growled.
Nix didn’t move.I don’t want to get up. I’m not doing anything you say.
“Stop fighting me. Get up. Now.”
Nix tried not to, but he found himself climbing out of bed.
“Walk over to the window and open it.”
No.Nix’s vision flickered and the scene he was in lost focus. “Stop it.”
“Listen to me!” Vin snapped. “Open the window and jump out.”
“What the fuck! I won’t. Leave me alone!”
But he found himself opening the window and climbing up onto the sill. He looked out at the city far below.So high.“Oh Christ.”
“You think he’ll help a demon? You need to learn to do as I tell you, to accept who’s in control. This is your lesson. Throw yourself out. Now!”
Nix fought the compulsion, but he had one leg over the frame and was lifting the other, his head out of the window when hands yanked him back to reality, back to sanity, back into the flat in Greenwich.
“What the fuck?” Emmett gasped as he clung to him.
Nix swallowed hard. Vin and the room had gone.
“What were you trying to do?” Emmett pushed him back, then pulled the window closed and flicked the catch in place.
“I was sleepwalking.”
“What idiot sleepwalks out of a third-floor window? That makes no sense.”
Nix slumped on the bed before his shaking legs gave way. “Leave me alone.”
“Gladly. I’ll let you fall next time, shall I? Then we’ll be even on the lives lost.”
“I don’t care.”
He’d expected Emmett to stomp back to his bed, but he didn’t. He sat down beside him. Nix’s heart was pounding so hard it hurt. Vin was real. A powerful demon was hitchhiking inside him.Oh fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Have you always walked in your sleep?”
“How would I know?”
“Well, how many times have you broken your leg jumping out of a window or burnt your fingers making a cup of tea in the middle of the night?”
“Sarcasm is really helping. In case I need to make it clear, I’m freaked out.”
Emmett went quiet. Nix could feel the heat from Emmett’s bare thigh less than an inch from his. He wanted to lay his hand there. The comfort he’d draw from that…
“As far as I know, I’ve never done it before,” Nix muttered.
“Is… Is there anything I can do to help?”
