BITE BACK

eel like home without

ever lived here. Except they missed the drawer in the hallway - second one down, where

soap and peppermints and something faintly e

wanted to do something with my ha

pockets. No name on the front, just a deep cre

utines. "Thursday – pick up wine." Then the handwr

mb

page was nothing but a spiral, drawn over and over until the paper almost t

to the l

it had been struck by lightning. And at the base of it, a ring o

en tha

emetery. Behind the

oud. My heart felt wrong in my chest - like it w

d it was

n, grabbed my coat, an

-

loomed like it remembered something I didn't. Cold air bit at my cheek

dip. Shadows stretched l

and sit on that moss-covered log he always swore had "the best a

aw the f

lines like it had been branded. I reached out to touch i

't norm

hisp

ght. Like it moved around me

d my ha

around," a

fr

my pulse spike - not like a threat, but like somethin

ned a

d like it had claw marks across the sleeve. His face was half in shadow, but I saw the scar tha

weren't

of gold burning

new me. Like I was famili

pposed to be h

ay the sam

alking abou

didn't ask. My hands curl

knew

uestion. He d

funeral," I sai

lt. No fear. Like bein

hy

p forward. I

killed him will come

fore I understood t

noticed it," he said. "The

what you're

ust haven't ad

ot lik

t kind. Not cr

t you w

y or pulled out my phone and called Jez, even if it

said, "Then tell me what th

is head, ey

d to stop pretending the worl

show

deeper into the tre

foll