2: 2
My skin prickled cold all over.
Before I could do anything, a message came through from Clive.
I cupped my hand around the phone, put some distance between me and Olivia, and tapped play on mute.
Bang! !!
The video was short, but I screamed the instant it started.
Because it was school security footage.
The whole thing, Olivia going off the roof, exported and looping in front of me, frame by frame.
I stared at that spreading pool of blood on the ground and couldn't hold back the sound of gagging.
Cold sweat soaked through the back of my shirt. I didn't dare lift my head to look at the person in front of me.
The real Olivia was already a smear of pulp on the pavement.
So this thing in front of me, what was it...
My mind raced, spinning through every way to get out.
That was when Clive messaged again.
"Bells, the thing beside you is a powerful, filthy thing. She'll keep feeding on your life force until you die without ever noticing!"
"There's only one way to break it. Don't believe a single thing she says, and get completely away from her!"
"She's set your home as her anchor. She can't leave its range. If you just run outside, you're saved!"
"But you have to do it quietly. Whatever you do, don't alert it!"
"If she realizes you already know the truth, she'll kill you on the spot!"
I stepped back without thinking, twice.
I quickly messaged Clive: "Okay, are you outside the door?"
"I'm coming right now. Meet me at the door!"
Clive sent me a photo.
He was standing right at my front door, holding up a wooden warding sword and a ring of garlic.
I glanced at Olivia, who hadn't moved.
Little steps, edging sideways, counting the distance to the door in my head.
Then, fast, so fast I forgot to breathe, I spun and ran and threw the door open.
But outside was empty.
Pitch black. Not a sliver of light.
I looked, on instinct, to the spot in the photo where Clive had been standing, and the stairwell there was simply gone!
The elevator light was dead.
The staircase broke off into nothing.
Across the hall there was no Clive's front door either, just a black wall.
My whole body locked up.
I messaged Clive over and over.
But it just kept spinning, sending, failing to send.
Footsteps rose behind me.
One step. One step. Closer and closer.
Stiffly, I turned my head.
And saw Olivia's furious face.
She yanked me back inside and slammed the door shut hard.
The door boomed heavy in its frame, and my heart shuddered with it.
I stood by the door, not daring to speak, not daring to look at her.
Terrified that the next second she'd turn into some horrible thing and lunge at me and eat me.
Instinct made me shrink back, my heartbeat going faster and faster.
Thud, thud.
Until a voice broke the silence of the room.
"You want to die, Bella?"
My heart pounded like it couldn't take any more, and I couldn't hold on. I dropped to the floor and gasped for air.
My hands flew up over my head on their own: "Don't kill me, don't kill me!"
But what I heard was Olivia's annoyed voice: "Bella, you've lost your mind!"
"Bolting out the door in the middle of the night, do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"
"You come back inside and now you're saying don't kill you? You drank something bad, didn't you, you're not making any sense!"
I lifted my head, confused.
The person in front of me stood under the light, scolding me with a face full of irritation, her shadow stretched long.
All at once the air went out of me, and then I broke down sobbing.
"Olivia, you're not dead!"
"Ah, hu hu hu hu, Clive said you were dead, said you were a filthy thing that was going to kill me. I was so scared just now, hu hu hu..."
But Olivia got angry.
She flung my hands off and said, "Clive, Clive, Clive, all day long it's just Clive with you!"
"He's about to get you killed and you still trust him this much. You're going to be the death of me!"
