Nightfall (Devil's Night 4)

What was I doing? What if this wasn’t a joke?

Just another second. Just one more second. I wanted to push it.

With every moment that passed, my lungs worked faster to take in air, and I just wanted him to take another step—one more step—to be closer to me. Until…

Until he was there, two inches from my body and looking down at me—so close that if I spun around to bolt, there was no way I’d get away.

My stomach swirled, and my knees shook.

I tried to swallow, but I couldn’t. “Is this the part where I giggle?” I said, trying to sound tough but failing. “Or beg?”

He cocked his head to the side again, like he was studying me.

I forced a smirk despite my hands shaking with fear. “Stop it, you’re scaring me,” I whimpered, imitating one of his Barbie dolls. “Oh, no. Whatever will I do? Don’t be too hard on me, Daddy.” I bat my eyelashes. “But I admit, I like it when you’re hard on me. Sooooo hard.” And then I moaned for good measure.

Then I dropped the smirk and cocked an eyebrow. Is that what he expected from me?

“You… don’t scare me,” I repeated.

Shooting out my hand, I grabbed a set of test tubes and reared my arm back, throwing them through one of the windows. I growled as it crashed through, all the glass hopefully falling on top of the skylight of the gym below and alerting someone I was up here.

The sound of rain filled the room even more, and cool air rushed in, the wind blowing my hair. I looked up, glaring into his eyes, hoping that that did it and he’d stop now.

But he just stared down at me.

And then, as if accepting a challenge, he reached out and swiped an entire stand of beakers, flasks, and funnels off the countertop and onto the floor.

The crash ached in my ears, but I didn’t flinch. Reaching out, I grabbed hold of another stand and pulled it onto the floor, every empty vial and container shattering between us as I backed away and he advanced.

Passing the next student worktable, he reached for the left and pulled the chemistry set onto the floor, and I reached right, yanking another between us as he continued walking, the glass crackling under his feet.

We moved faster, him reaching left and me reaching to the right, metal stands clanking to the floor between us as glass crashed and filled the room with chaos after chaos.

Again. Left, right, left, right. We kept going, his getting faster and me stumbling back to grab the next table’s stand as something filled up in my stomach, my muscles charged, and I started to smile.

He moved into me, and I stumbled back, tripping on my foot and losing my balance. I fell backward, but he followed, his arm circling my waist just in time as his other grabbed the table for support.

I looked over my shoulder, seeing bits of glass on the floor where I would’ve landed.

Turning back to him, I stared up into his eyes as my fingers clutched his shoulders.

And then I felt it. The smile still on my face.

I was smiling. A little.

Shit.

Slowly, I let it fall, but I couldn’t take my eyes off his. Guilt washed over me at the mess we made, knowing I couldn’t pay for it, but the worry left as quickly as it came, because all I could feel was the here and now.

The rain and wind blew through the room, and I reached up, my hands shaking as I lifted his mask off his face and dropped it to the floor.

He just held me as I slipped the hood off his head and looked up into dark green eyes.

“I was never trying to scare you,” Will said, rain glistening on his face and wet hair. “I just wanted to see something.”

I stared at him, because I couldn’t speak no matter how hard I tried. I didn’t know what was wrong with me, I...

I wanted to go, but…