Nightfall (Devil's Night 4)

I dropped my eyes to the floor, my heart sinking as I saw more wet footprints.

Only this time, they weren’t leaving the room. Following the trail around the desks, I walked toward the back of the room and stopped as they disappeared into the dark corner.

I tried to inhale a breath, but I couldn’t stop shaking.

Grabbing a pair of tongs off the tray on the table, I kept them in my fist before picking up a flask, rearing back, and launching it into the corner.

It shattered against the bookshelf, missing the corner by a mile, because I suck, and I picked up a beaker next, throwing it at him—whoever it was—and hitting the wall this time.

I kept going, picking up a cylinder and loading my arm, but then…

He stepped out, his dark form somehow much bigger than I was expecting.

I took a step back but released a breath, looking up.

Jeans, black hoodie, and a white paintball mask with a red stripe down the left side.

Will.

I almost relaxed. Until I dropped my eyes and noticed the gloves. Black leather. He balled his fists, making them grind and whine as he stretched the material that glinted in the moonlight.

I glanced at the door, but it was no use. Kai and Damon, I assumed, were out there somewhere still.

I glared at Will as he took a slow step toward me.

“I’m not scared,” I told him.

He cocked his head.

“I’m annoyed.” I clenched my weapons in my hands. “I have to walk home in the rain now.”

I threw the cylinder at him, damn-near hitting him, but he whipped out his arm and swatted it away before it hit his face.

It crashed to the floor, and I backed away, snatching another flask off a table as he stepped closer. “You got a problem with my brother, then you take it up with him. Don’t be a coward.”

He stalked toward me, and I launched the flask. It hit him in the chest, making him stumble, but it didn’t break, tumbling to the floor instead, the glass finally shattering.

He walked, the glass cracking under his boots, and I watched as he laid his gloved hand on the black lab table, gliding it over the top as he moved.

My heart pounded in my chest, my stomach swirling as the fear took root, and I looked up at his face, his eyes through the little holes in the mask barely visible in the darkness.

I stopped, suddenly lost in those voids for a moment.

He took another step, and a jolt hit my heart, my whole body warming.

Still, I didn’t move.

I couldn’t.

Another step. He was almost at me.

Why wasn’t I moving?

My pulse raced more by the second, and the feeling almost made me smile because I kind of liked it.

Something built inside me, stacking one brick on top of another until I was a wall, and every second more that I stood there, the more the room started to spin around us like a storm.

And he and I were the eye.