Page 89 of Molt

“No.”

“Anna.”

“No.”

“I come back.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I did last time.”

“And if you don’t?”

I look at her. “Then you live.”

She cries. “You think that’s living?”

I take the pistol.

She grabs it too.

For several seconds, we fight over it.

Then…a gunshot.

Silence.

I don’t know who pulled the trigger. I never have. I only remember waking. Again. And finding her dead beside me. The bullet had gone through both of us. Her first. Mine second.

I came back. She didn’t.

Until 1967.

The memories stop long enough for me to breathe.

I’m back in my apartment.

Darkness.

Lenora is gripping my shirt. “August?”

My entire body is shaking. I can barely see her. “Turn on your phone.”

“What?”

“Flashlight.”

She does.

The small white beam illuminates her face. She looks terrified. Not of whatever is in the apartment.

Of me.

“What did you see?”

I open my mouth but nothing comes out.

“August.”