I drink more.
“Saint.” Tillie squeezes my leg. “You’re my half-sister.”
Champagne sprays from between my lips.
I cover my mouth with my hand. “What?” both Madison and I scream. Ice spills through my blood as chills break out on my flesh. What? I don’t know what it is that fills my body, but the feeling is foreign, not something I have felt before.
“And Bishop’s half-sister.”
My brows knit together, and my mouth involuntarily closes. I can’t. I have no words that are willing to come out.
“I—um.”
“Wait! What do you mean? How?” Madison is yapping in the background.
Tillie tosses a pillow in front of the phone, muting her whining before turning to face me. She obviously notices the panic that’s displayed all over my face. “Listen, I don’t know when they were planning to tell you about this, but I didn’t want you to be kept in the dark any longer, and I hate secrets.”
My mind is spinning so fast that stars prick behind the backs of my eyes. “I don’t understand how that could happen. Before I was a Vitiosis, I lived in Switzerland.”
“Well,” Tillie says, pulling the pillow back from the phone, bringing Madison back into the conversation. “Anything you have been told about your life pre-Vitiosis, I would take with a grain of salt.”
My brows knit, pulled in by my obvious confusion. “That makes no sense.”
“Listen, I don’t know why, and I don’t want to speculate either. In short, my mother and Bishop’s father, Hector, had an affair and you were the product of that.”
I curl my legs under my butt, leaning forward to place my drink onto one of my bedside tables. My mind is chasing clarity, and mixing that with alcohol isn’t ideal. “I need to talk to Brantley.”
“Nah uh.” Tillie shakes her head. “Not a good idea.”
I’ve come to like Tillie. She’s clearly loyal when it comes to her friends, or why would she be talking to Madison behind Bishop’s back. The only thing I am worried about is why she wants us to keep this from the guys.
Madison exhales. “Okay, Tillie is right. We need to figure out why they haven’t told you yet. Speaking from experience, they do everything for a reason. You don’t know yet because they don’t want you to know yet. This is the first time we’ve ever been a step ahead of them.”
“You need to come home, Mads,” Tillie whispers, and the sadness that drips off each syllable is enough to make my heart hurt. “You just need to come home.”
“I can’t,” Madison snaps. “He—I can’t.”
“Ever?” Tillie asks, and I hold my breath while I wait for Madison to answer. As if I’ve been waiting for the answer for as long as Tillie has.
She shakes her head. “Just for now.”
My phone vibrates in my pocket and I reach for it aimlessly, watching the question mark flash over the screen. Tillie and Madison are still chatting in the background as my thumb hovers over the swipe to answer button. Could it be Eli? Or Bishop? Or any of the other guys that I’ve seen hanging around Brantley?
Unsure.
Just as I make contact with my screen to answer, my ringtone is cut off and the call disappears.
“Who was that?” Tillie asks, hanging up on Madison and putting her phone in her pocket.
“Ah, I actually don’t know.” It’s not a lie, because I don’t know who it is.
Tillie pops a Cheeto into her mouth and chews. “Telemarketers are relentless around this time of year.”
“October?” I ask, confused. I think my confusion is more from the news she just dropped on me moments ago and less on the current season.
“Mmmmhmmm, that leads up to Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, et cetera.”
I don’t think much into what she starts talking about next because my mind clings to one word.
Halloween.
Past
There was a chill in the air that bit every part of my exposed flesh and left bruises well after its departure. My teeth chattered so loudly I was sure they would crack. It was dark. So dark. Mud curled around my toes as I sunk them deeper and deeper into the mushy soil. My hair hung low, covering the corners of my eyes. The sound of a twig snapping had me spinning around as panic rose in my throat. What was happening? The tombstone that led into the TEKC cave was the only thing I could see that let me know I was in the Vitiosis graveyard. The strong block letters embossed into the ancient stone somehow felt brighter this night. So vivid, begging to be seen.
A hand wrapped around my arm and a scream tore out of my throat just before the same hand was over my lips.
“What the fuck are you doing down here?” His voice had changed over the years. It wasn’t the world that hardened him; it was simply too soft for him. Too demure. His soul was haunted, he walked this earth as an empty vessel. His eyes were the entrance to Hell, and every time he looked at you, he would draw you in closer to the burning iron gates. I sometimes wondered when the day would come that he would completely shut me inside. He wouldn’t be an empty vessel anymore; he would carry me.