Page 68 of Hollow

“You took my innocence,” she decrees, jabbing her finger into my chest. “You took it, and you left me. You used me and discarded me. I spent four years thinking your disappearance was all my fault!”

I reach up and grab her finger, gripping it hard. “I was lost for four years! I don’t know what happened. You think this is all about you?” I squeeze her finger harder, feeling darkness flood my veins. “And fuck your innocence. It seems like you’ve thrown that away like a dirty rag. I know you’re screwing your professor.”

“Ow!” she cries out, trying to pull her finger away, but I won’t let her go. I can’t.

“Go to Hell, Brom!” she yells, kicking at my shin.

“I’ve already been to Hell,” I sneer at her, the darkness bubbling up and up now. It wants to take over. It wants me to claim her. “And Hell isn’t done with me.”

“I’ll scream,” she says as my grip goes to her wrist. Fury and panic flood her eyes. “I’ll scream if you don’t let go of me.”

“Do you think anyone will care? This is what they want, don’t you see?”

And at that realization, the darkness fades enough for me to see clearly.

What I’m doing to her. What I’m saying.

I drop her hand and step back.

“I’m sorry,” I say, but my voice is shaking, and the words sound empty.

She stares at me with pure venom.

Venom and sadness.

Betrayal.

“I didn’t mean to…I didn’t mean what I said,” I add. “About your innocence.”

She glares at me. “Perhaps I’m not so innocent. Maybe you did lead me down that path. There wasn’t just you. There was that farmhand. Joshua Meeks.”

I picture him in my head. Stocky, blond, always smiling. She was with him too? “You’re just trying to hurt me now.”

The darkness starts to come in again like the tide.

“So what if I am!” she snaps. “And yes, now there is the professor, but it’s not…” Her lip curls. “You have no right to be angry about me and Professor Crane. About anyone. You were gone. And Crane is a good man, more than you’ll ever know. He wants to help you. He, he—” She cuts herself off, slamming her lips shut, her nostrils flaring. “I think you should leave.”

The darkness wants me to stay.

But I am better than that.

“Alright,” I say to her with a nod. “I’ll go.”

I turn and walk out of the stall, then look at her over my shoulder. “Daffodil,” I say. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t call me that.” She glowers. “Don’t call me anything.”

I swallow that down. The rejection.

I walk away into the night.

I know the darkness will come before I get home.

Chapter 21

Crane

I can’t sleep.