Page 95 of Fallen Thorns
“Oh yes, don’t forget. We are three.”
“Who is…”
“Ah ah ah.” He waggled a bony finger in my face, and swooped around me, prancing like a court jester. “All in due course. I want to see how this story plays out first.”
What do you mean?
I thought I was finally in control.
Where am I going?
Where is my mind?
“I’ll let you keep this memory this time. I trust you won’t go divulging this information. You’ve done a marvellous job so far.” His cold smirk brushed my skin.
“Enjoy Christmas.” He was so inexplicably close to me, and I wanted to scream. I could not move an inch. Paralysed. The light buzzed above us, sounding seconds away from exploding. His phantom claws squeezed and dug in so tightly into my mind. Arlo flickering in and out of reach. Then the toilet door swung open with a careless bang and two men walked in, eyes widening in embarrassment, thinking they had walked in on something else. Our connection dropped then, and Michael turned swiftly on his heels, pushing his way between the two men. “Apologies, gentlemen,” he said as he disappeared out of the door, releasing me in the process.
Let’s go.
I wiped away Arlo’s final tears.
ChapterTwenty-Two
My first term ended on a questionably sunny day. All signs of frost had melted away while the rainfall earlier that day allowed a faint rainbow to appear above my accommodation.
Lecturers sent out their generic ‘stay safe and enjoy the holidays’ emails, undoubtably grinning at themselves with relief knowing they were student-free for a handful of weeks.
Yet it seemed many students were staying, with a lot of international travellers electing to remain in the city.
I’d planned well in advance that I would be returning home. I owed my mum that much.
Rani promised she would help me stay ‘normal’ so my poor mother wouldn’t suspect her child had been murdered in a back alley during his third week of term.
In my first few weeks of my new life, if I let myself linger too much on the reality of the matter, I would make myself spiral, so whenever the topic arose in conversation, Mars and the others would always keep it light and positive. Now though, my mind forbade itself to wonder.
When I was still most myself, late at night, I would cry myself to sleep. But then I’d awaken and judge my older self for being so pathetic. I’d never felt more alive now thanks to Michael. Though I knew that was not his real name, it never had been.
I straightened my collar in my mirror, tousled my hair and adjusted my silver ring which oddly felt more a part of me now than it ever had done before. I’d never taken it off since my mum gave it to me. Yet now I wore it with pride, for whatever reason.
Time to put on a show.
“You don’t mind if I possibly follow you out in a day or two, do you?” Mars appeared at my doorway — I had forgotten I’d left it propped open.
I turned away from my mirror as if it was never there. “What, come to the Lakes?”
“Unless you were planning onnotvisiting your wonderful mother and instead had a secret rendezvous planned that none of us knew about.” They crossed their arms and leaned sardonically against the door frame.
“You want to come home with me?”
“Just for a few days. To, you know… keep an eye out.”
I brushed my chin, pondering the proposal. I had considered asking them before, after my incident. But I was more than content with my routine now. I was taking blood morning and night, and they should have known by now that I told them everything.Almost everything.I shook it off with a smile.
“That’s a no then? Or was that just a twitch?” Their tone held a hint of humour.
“No, no. Yes.” I rubbed the hairs on the back of my neck. “Yes, I’m sure that would be fine.”
“Yeah?” Their brows rose.
