Evanescent - By Addison Moore Page 0,18
had some lame excuse that he was installing something in Grayson’s hard drive.” She rolls her eyes. “There’s no way he’s knocking her up on my watch.”
Should have known Jen was responsible in some small way. As the official Austen House cock-blocker she’s pretty much on the scent of any testosterone carrying team member.
“I’ll be staying downstairs tonight,” she says without breaking her frenetic rhythm. “I checked out the old den mother’s room, and didn’t find a leak—so I changed the sheets, and I’m good to go. Your new roommate, Hattie, should be here in less than ten.” She slams the drawer shut. “Be nice to her, would you?”
“I’ll be a saint.” Just knowing Hattie Tobias will be sawing Z’s less than six feet away is already robbing me of a good night’s sleep. But she wouldn’t hurt me, right? I mean we have the same goals. She wants to help her family, and I want to help mine.
Maybe this is a good thing? But I’m betting not.
I shoot a quick text to Coop while Jen deep sixes everything she can into her plethora of duffle bags.
My new roomie is on her way.
There’s a soft knock at the door, and Jen lets Hattie in with her fresh from the fifties hair style, her dark cesspools for eyes, and that candy-coated smile that tells you she would just as soon strangle you in your sleep as she would lend you her best wool sweater.
My phone buzzes, but I ignore it momentarily as Jen and I meet with the newly resurrected.
“I’ve got most of my things,” Jen announces, saddling herself with excess baggage. “I should clear out by tomorrow. If you have any questions, Laken will be more than happy to help you. Don’t stay up too late, that’s my only rule.” She hedges her way out the door and blows me a kiss. “No boys!” She shouts as the door shuts behind her.
“No boys?” Hattie growls it out with the undertones of a laugh. “We know better don’t we, Laken.”
There’s something concerning about the deep octave of her voice just took. She held a tenor usually reserved for a man, and that more than slightly creeps me out. But, then again, she’s not exactly naturally engineered, so I can’t really blame her.
“So how’d you do it?” I ask, hopping onto my mattress. “How’d you score a ride on the flesh express?”
She glides over to my bed as if she were a poltergeist. “Wouldn’t you like to know.” She narrows a hostile gaze in my direction. “Let’s get started on finding my family, shall we?”
“Like now? Good luck with that. Rumor has it Flynn might be up for a stroll through the haunted forest, but I’ll be the last one you get out in those woods without the false security of daylight. Let’s get some sleep and recharge those borrowed batteries of yours, first.”
She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t move. Hattie Tobias has no clue how to act like a human. I guess sixty years without practice will do that to a disembodied person.
“Are you just going to stand there, staring at me all night? I gawk up at her, more than slightly freaked out by her resurrected presence.
My phone buzzes from under my leg, and I reach for it. It’s a text from Coop.
Your new roommate isn’t Hattie Tobias. It’s a Fem.
I snatch my backpack off the floor and run like hell out of Austen House.
Cooper
Laken barrels into the road just as my truck rounds out the driveway above Austen House.
She jumps in and slams the door behind her, manually punching down the lock.
“Drive.” She pants with enough fear pulsating out of her chest to fuel a generator.
“Are you okay?” Obviously, she’s not okay. Obviously, I’m an idiot for thinking it was all right to text her vital information that had the potential to scare the living shit out of her and send her running in my direction. And, unfortunately for Laken, I’m an ass because deep down inside, this is exactly what I wanted.
“Jen moved out of the room, and Hattie—that thing—showed up. She has these soulless eyes, and she just kept staring at me. There’s no way in hell I’m going back there.”
“Laken,” I push her name out with grief as I pull in behind the cedars just beyond the granite Ephemeral Academy sign. “I don’t think it’s going to hurt you.”
“What the hell are you talking about? You want to send me back there?” Her chest heaves out