Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
“I need to get dressed for work, but have a good day today,” I croaked.
I wasn’t fooling anybody.
“Byeee,” I called out before hopscotching across the gravel.
“Bye,” the kid replied, sounding confused.
I couldn’t blame him for being suspicious.
And I hoped he didn’t tell his dad, because I didn’t want him to change his mind. Oh well.
And like I’d been traumatized, my heart started beating faster as I unlocked the door and slowly climbed the stairs, flipping on all the lights and looking at every wall and every section of ceiling like the damn bat was going to fly out and attack me. My heart raced, and I wasn’t proud of that either, but I knew I had to come up with a plan; I just didn’t know what.
Part of me had expected to see my archnemesis clinging onto something upside down, but there wasn’t a single sign of him.
Oh fuck me, please don’t be under the bed, I pleaded before getting to my hands and knees and checking under there too. I hadn’t thought about that spot until now.
Nothing.
And even though I had started sweating again, and I was cursing the fact that I hadn’t applied deodorant before I’d gone to bed, I checked just about everywhere I could think of where my friend could have hidden. Again.
Under the table.
Under the sink in the bathroom—because I’d been dumb and left the door open when I’d fled for my life.
Under every chair.
In the closet, even though the door was closed.
But he was nowhere.
Because I was paranoid, I looked everywhere again, fingers trembling, heart galloping and everything.
And still nothing.
Son of a bitch.
Despite having only slept a solid two hours, when nighttime rolled around, I was on fucking guard.
I’d thought about buying a net, but we’d sold out at the shop and I checked Walmart and they were out too, so I’d grabbed a plastic trash bag, ready.
Ten o’clock hit, and it was all clear.
Damn it.
Even Clara had noted how tired I looked that morning. I’d been too embarrassed to tell her why I’d stayed up. I had to deal with this on my own.
I wasn’t even sure when I passed out, but I did, sitting upright on the mattress with my mom’s notebook open, back against the headboard.
What I did know was that when my neck started hurting at some point, the lights still on, I woke up.
And I yelled again because the son of a bitch was back.
And he was flying around erratically, like he was drunk; he could’ve been six feet wide, terrorizing me and the home I was living in.
Actually, it wasn’t a he. This one knew what it was doing—raising hell—and only a woman would be that intuitive and ready to fuck with someone for the hell of it.
She swooped, and I screamed, flying off the bed and running down the stairs, screaming again, and out the damn door.
As fate would have it, the moon was bright and high in the sky, illuminating another bat flying around what felt like right over my head but was really more like twenty feet above ground.
And again, I screamed. This time “Fuck!” at the top of my lungs.
I’d left my keys! Upstairs! With her! And my blanket!
Okay, Ora, all right, think.
I could do this. I could—
A loud voice boomed, “What is going on?” straight from the darkness.
I kind of knew that voice.
It was Mr. Rhodes, and from the crunching gravel, he was coming over. Probably pissed. I’d woken him up.
Later on, I would be disappointed in myself again for jabbing my finger toward the garage apartment and saying, “Bat!”
I couldn’t see him. I wasn’t sure if he made a face or rolled his eyes or what, but I knew he was getting closer and closer. But I could hear it in his voice. I could hear him rolling his eyes just from the way he spat, “What?” in the same voice he’d used the day I’d shown up.
“There’s a bat in the room!”
Finally, I could see the silhouette of his body stopping a couple feet away, and I heard his annoyance as he asked, “What? You’re bellowing over a bat?”
Bellowing over a bat? Did he have to ask it like that? Like it was no big deal?
Was he shitting me?
And like the one outside knew we were talking about its kind, the bat swooped back down toward the light mounted above the garage door, and I pulled my tank top up over my head and ducked, trying to make myself as small as possible so it couldn’t get me.
Okay, more like Mr. Rhodes would be bigger, so if one of us was targeted it would be him since he had more mass.
I was pretty sure I heard “Goddamn it” being grumbled right before it sounded like he was walking again.
Leaving me to fend for myself.