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Fuck, I needed this. A ride to calm all the shit running through my head, and if I wasn’t such a pussy, maybe I wouldn’t be trying to chase away the strange ache running through my chest.
FOURTEEN
calliope
Days off gaveme too much time to think, and with the whole Viper thing? Well, the drama Ripple had started and Xander had ended? Things were far too volatile for me to venture out and feel safe.
Ripple had come pounding on my door twice in less than one day. I’d been more than happy to have the Spectors to walk me to and from my apartment, and that had kept the creeps at bay. But now? I was off and therefore locked behind mini Fort Knox.
And here I sat, far too afraid of seeing Ripple. A very angry Ripple. He wasn’t yelling though, so something told me Xander had done some damage to his vocal cords. The visible bruises were a physical reminder, and I was positive Ripple hated it.
I’d missed baby goat yoga in the park already, so now what?
The alarm chimed as motion tripped it again. So far, the only thing this system was protecting me from was my drunk neighbor and a moth, and yet I jumped every time.
“Calliope you are big girl. Nothing is out there,” I said to myself. Was it bad I was already talking to myself?
Part of me was actually terrified a smarter Viper would show up and question the lack of bugs in my place. The other side of me kept hoping it was Xander. What if he’d died from the knifewound? Except Rylee said he hadn’t. She mentioned she was going to kill him.
I started pacing, trying to decide whether I checked the camera or not. Maybe I would just kill him myself if he showed up.
Blowing me off was a dick move. Even if he’d tried to push me away and I just wouldn’t let him.
No. That was a pile. He’d willingly fucked me. It hadn’t been all one sided. Not that last time. Hell. My body was still recovering from the first twenty-four hours of Xander.
“One, two, three.” I counted each inhale and stopped in front of the small screen and looked out. Nothing. No. Wait.
I saw what looked like a long tail out of the corner of the screen, and then it disappeared just to circle back.
It was a cat.
“Shoo, kitty. Go home.”
Okay, so now this little system had protected me from a cat. Right. Well, at least it was something different. I stood there and watched the cat pace back and forth. So odd. What was it looking for?
“Go home, kitty,” I said to myself, again. Of course he didn’t hear me, and I doubted he would do what I said anyway.
I laughed. “How do I even know you’re a him?”
No one was around to hear me question any of this. I’m sure my psychologist would probably love to know that there were no voices answering me back. But also, maybe she’d be concerned I hadn’t exactly answered myself but was close to doing so.
Being alone did things to a mind. I could have been at the library right now if I wasn’t freaked out about Ripple. Or worse yet, whatever Ripple had reported. Would he report back about the Viper that was never going back home?
The cat was still there, pacing and setting off the motion sensors over and over.
My lip ached as I nibbled on it. Why wasn’t it leaving?
Maybe he was hungry? “I feel you cat, I feel you.”
Instead of going back to my shitty chair and ignoring the mangy little thing, I did what anyone would do who was terrified of being hunted and murdered. I unlocked all the extra locks and cracked the door. The cat came right up to the crack between the door jam and the wood. With a quick glance on either side of the opening, I looked and listened, but still, it was just the cat.
“Hey, Mr. Kitty.”
He meowed in response.
“You hungry?”
He meowed again. I looked up and down the hallway, and there was still no one there.
