"Raquel, I-"
"I'll see you at eight!" The line went silent and left me staring numbly at the communicator.
Two hours later I was still on my bed, glaring at the ceiling. Not even the familiar contours of Tasey clutched in my hand made me feel better.
I'd have to tell Raquel the deal was off. There was no way I was going back there. As soon as I could get my fingers to punch in her connection, I'd do it. But I couldn't stand to hear the disappointment in her voice. She'd been excited, genuinely happy about working together again. Happy wasn't something she did very often. And now I'd have to tell her that I wasn't coming because I was too freaked out.
Lame.
I turned onto my side. The pendant Lend gave me sparkled on the nightstand and I reached out to it, running my finger along the side of the heart.
Why didn't things ever get easier? Sometimes I wanted to take a memory-one perfect memory-curl up in it, and go to sleep. Like my first kiss with Lend. I could live in that memory forever. Just us and our lips and figuring out how well they fit together. If things always felt like that, life would be better.
"Honestly, Evie," I huffed, flopping back to the center of my bed and glaring at the ceiling. "Why don't you whine some more instead of actually doing anything?"
"Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness," Arianna volunteered, leaning on the frame of my open door.
"Yeah, so's seeing things no one else can, but people seem to like that about me. "
"Good point. Odds are, you've been crazy for years now. I'm probably nothing more than a figment of your imagination. "
"If that were true, I'd imagine you as less of a slob. "
She sighed. "Isn't it sad that you hate yourself so much you can't even dream up a pleasant roommate?"
"Not as sad as the fact that you admit how bad you suck as one. "
Flashing a wicked grin, she narrowed her eyes. "I'd use the term 'suck' sparingly around me. Don't want to go planting ideas in my pretty, dead head. "
I threw a pillow at her.
"Anyway," she said, fixing her spiky red and black hair (far nicer than the strands that clung to her shriveled head under her glamour-don't look, I reminded myself yet again), "It's dark out. Let's go to a movie. I'm so bored I could die. "
"Too late. "
She threw the pillow back and went out into the main room. I sat up on the side of my bed and heaved a sigh. The communicator radiated waves of guilt from its position next to my pillow, but I couldn't call Raquel. She'd figure out I wasn't coming in about-I glanced at the clock-ten minutes.
It was probably for the best.
Oh, bleep, like I knew what was for the best anymore. Shaking my head, I picked up Tasey and walked to my dresser, opening the sock drawer.
"Sorry, friend," I whispered. "Maybe another time. "
I heard the front door open, and Arianna shouted. "I'm leaving now. Meet me there if you want to come. "
"Yeah, let me get my-"
A light flashed as a hand reached through the wall, grabbed my arm, and pulled me into the infinite darkness.
Chapter Eleven
Old Haunts
I screamed as the tiny rectangle holding the door to my room-my life-winked shut, leaving me in the darkness so thick and complete I could feel it on my skin.
"Whoa, calm-"
I whipped around, slapping my palm flat against the chest of-Jack. Again. Seriously, one of these times I was going to kill him by accident. Or on purpose. And I wasn't going to be sorry. "What's wrong with you! Let go of me!"