Ruin - By N.M. Martinez Page 0,77

once.

Inhaling the stale air proves to be a huge mistake. My eyes start to water, and I give a cough. I fight it, but I know I need out now. This is someone's past. Something bad happened, and I shouldn't be here.

I step out and shut the door to the child's room quietly. The door of the next room catches my eye. It would be easy to take a peek. My eyes jump down to the floor in front of the door and I catch the edge of a dark stain in the floorboards. That is enough for me.

The old white paint of the hall, cracking and chipping, is a refreshing sight after the haunted apartment. I take a deep breath of the fresher air and then turn around to shut the door. Something tells me that no one can know that I was here. I shouldn't even ask Alex about it.

"What are you doing?"

The voice is deep and familiar. I turn around quickly. Jimmy stands in the hall with his fists at his sides. His smooth face with its natural shadow smile is crumpled in anger.

I can still feel the dust on me as I stand there in front of him unsure what to say to him. This place means something to him. He knows something about it. "What is it?" I ask him, my voice scratchy from the need to cough. "What happened there?"

Jimmy looks down and his hair falls over his eyes. I bite my lip, suddenly able to imagine him as the boy he must have been once. Did he play with a toy truck? Did he wear a small red shirt?

Jimmy still can't look at me. He doesn't answer either of my questions. "Go home and stay there."

There is a warning in his voice that is sharper than if he had come at me and just hit me. My legs become weak, and I hurry past him back to Henri's apartment when what I really want to do is go outside and stand in the sunshine to let the traces of darkness evaporate from my vision.

Inside the apartment, I lean on the heavy door and listen for Jimmy's footsteps, but I don't hear them. The hall sounds completely quiet, and I'm too scared to open the door again.

I step away from the door and further into Henri's house, glancing back at the door as if Jimmy might change his mind and follow me. There would be nothing I could do. The door doesn't even lock, and I doubt a lock would keep him back if he really wanted in. The worst thing Henri would have to deal with would be a broken lock and possibly a stain on the floor.

There's a soft tap at the door, and I freeze. It can't be Jimmy. He would just walk in like he did last night. My voice is locked in my throat. It takes effort just to ask, "Who is it?" My voice fights its way through the silence and somehow is heard on the other side of the thick door.

"Alex."

I shove off the couch and over to the front door not too far away, happy to see someone with a friendly face. The door opens quickly and I peek out. When I confirm it's just Alex, I grab him by his forearm and pull him inside, quickly shutting the door behind me.

He stands surprised inside Henri's apartment with his brows drawn up in that thoughtful way of his that makes me want to hug him.

I don't. "Did you see Jimmy? Is he pissed? What did I do?"

Alex opens his mouth and shuts it again. His eyes never meeting my own. He glances down at the floor, his long hair in his face.

"He did say something, didn't he?" I duck down a little, trying to get Alex's eyes, but he turns his head again. "Alex, would you just tell me? What is going on?"

That does get his attention. He looks up at me and whispers, "I'm sorry."

My body goes limp just as blackness closes around my vision. Alex jumps forward, his arms wrapping around me, and then darkness.

Twenty-two

Something isn't right. I wake up on the cold floor of a darkened room. Cold air seeps in from an open window and chills my fingers and the tip of my nose. Grains of dirt roll under my fingertips against the wood flooring, and I brush a leaf which crinkles at my touch.

At the sound, there's movement. Not far away