Verum (The Nocte Trilogy 2)

Her eyes are so knowing and I close my eyes,

Because the screams are deadening.

I my head, I see Dare and he’s so small.

He stands above a bed, hovering above two sleeping people.

Something is shiny in his hand, something flashes in the night,

And I try to tell him no, to warn him not to move,

But of course he can’t hear.

Then there’s screaming and blood.

My uncle is bloody in the bed, and a dark-haired woman is screaming.

I see the alcove in the crypts and his name is carved in the stone.

Richard William Savage II.

Dare’s eyes are wide and dark,

Haunted,

Haunted,

Haunted.

I gasp and open my eyes and my reality isn’t any better.

I’m not in an abandoned clinic any longer, and I probably never was.

I’m in a small but well-appointed room,

A room in a facility.

A room frozen in time.

The room is lined with pictures of Dare.

Ranging from toddlerhood, to primary school, to secondary school, to University, Dare smiles at me from the walls. When he was small, he smiled, but over time,

More and more,

He became haunted and sad.

The change in his eyes is startling.

And then,

Suddenly,

A woman is in front of me, dark-haired. She has Dare’s eyes, and I know who she is.

Olivia Savage.

I hesitate, and she smiles.