Indigo Sky

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

After I made sure Kate got home safely—even if my paranoia had made me look like a complete psychopath—I called Nate’s number for the first time in … well, years probably.

He answered immediately despite it being nearly three in the morning.

“Hey,” he said, his voice sounding exactly the way it always had when he was just waking up. “Rev, what’s—Jesus Christ, do you know what time it is?”

“Have you been home all night?” I hissed into the phone as I climbed the dark stairwell to my bedroom.

Mom and Dad were both sleeping. The last thing I wanted was to wake them up with my ridiculous worrying over what was likely nothing.

“Uh, yes?” he questioned. “Where else am I supposed to be?”

There were about a thousand explanations as to why there could’ve been a guy standing at that corner tonight. Maybe he had been waiting for someone to pick him up. Maybe he was in the middle of a drug deal. Maybe he was just hanging out. Maybe he’d gone for a late-night walk, ended up on that corner for a few minutes, and turned around to head back home. Logic told me this. Logic wasn’t stupid. But none of it sat right with me.

“Sorry,” I muttered as I walked quietly to my room and shut the door behind me. “Just wondering.”

“Everything okay?”

I sighed deeply and kicked my shoes off. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just fuckin’ tired.”

He didn’t respond immediately. He took a moment before saying, “You sure you’re good?”

My heart lurched with a strange tug at the genuine concern in his voice. Was it completely insane that I missed him? I knew the crazy shit the guy had done, I knew he’d cost me my job, I knew he was probably up to all that very same crap he’d always gotten up to—shit that would likely get me in trouble again too. But it didn’t erase the years we’d been friends, the years we’d spent as brothers , the stuff we had been through together. At one point, he’d been all I had. I couldn’t forget that, even when things were different now.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Sorry,” I said again, undoing my belt. “I’ll let you go.”

“All right.” He hesitated for a second, then said, “If you weren’t okay—"

“Nate, I’m fine. Seriously. I’m just tired as fuck, and I need to sleep,” I interrupted, untucking my shirt and undoing the buttons.

“Yeah, okay. Get some sleep. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“You too.”

I jabbed at the phone angrily and threw it on the bed before getting undressed. I knew I was being an idiot. I knew I needed to calm the fuck down. And that was exactly what I planned to do … just after I got some sleep.

***

When I woke up, I started thinking a little more clearly, and by the time I finished showering, I felt like a complete jackass for freaking out the way I had.

Honestly, the more I thought about it throughout the day, the more unconvinced I was that I'd even seen anyone across the street from Midnight Lotus. It was embarrassing, and I considered texting Kate to apologize for being such a moron, but every time I started to type out a message on my phone, humiliation got the best of me, and I'd delete everything I'd written.

That night, I went to the club with my stomach in knots, afraid Kate might mention the phantom across the street or how ridiculous I had been, making her talk to me until she was inside her house with the door locked. But she was off, and as much as I wanted to see her, I was also a little relieved.

My time at Midnight Lotus was otherwise uneventful. Ivy and Crystal waitressed and worked the stage, John—the other bartender, who I’d spoken all of two words to in the time I’d been bouncing at the club—was working the bar, and I stood out on the street, lifting the velvet rope for more people than I would've expected on a Wednesday. But it was quiet, and somehow, it passed quickly.

After work, I escorted Crystal to her car. She bustled along beside me like a woman on a mission, digging into her overflowing bag for her keys.

"God, you'd think I'd remember to take his shit out of here before work," she muttered, pulling out a small blue sweatshirt and four pairs of socks and putting them on top of her car.

I tucked my hands into my pockets and smiled as she pulled out a sippy cup and a baggie of toy cars. "How old is he?"

"Jagger?" She glanced at me, and I nodded in reply. "Three. He'll be four in a couple of months. I usually don't have this much stuff in here, but I was already late after going out, and I didn't have time to clean—oh, there they are."

She pulled out her keys and dangled them from her fingers before putting them on her car's roof. Then, she set to work, refilling her bag with her son's stuff.

"How was your date?" I asked, making conversation as I handed her the sippy cup and bag of cars.

She flattened her hand to her chest with a sigh. "Oh my God, it was amazing."

I smiled, tucking the last pair of socks into her bag. "I'm glad."

"It's been a long time since I met a nice guy," she went on, a frown tugging at her lips. "I feel like the last few guys I went out with … all they wanted was to screw around for a while and leave. And I almost got married!" She scoffed as she pulled the car door open and threw her bag to the passenger side. "It's just bullshit, you know? Like, some people … they meet the person they're meant to be with when they're kids, and that's it. They're just in a happy, perfect relationship forever. Then, there's me, struggling to find someone to fucking stay ."

"You'll find him," I said, not wanting to cut her off, but also needing to go the hell to sleep. "Maybe you already have."

"I hope so!" she exclaimed with an abrupt laugh. "I mean, Jesus, I'm sick of bouncing from one asshole to another. But this guy …" Her voice trailed off as her eyes stared off toward nothing. She bit her bottom lip and sucked in a deep breath. "He seems like a good one. Kinda rough around the edges, but … good. So, I’m hoping.”

"Well, for your sake, I hope so too."

"Thanks, Rev," she said, smiling up at me. "And, hey, for the record, I didn't mean all guys. You seem like a good one, too, and if Indie didn't already have her eyes on you …”

She winked as she climbed into her car, and I responded with a light chuckle.

“Get home safe, okay?” I said, rapping my knuckles against the roof of her car.

She returned the smile. She was a pretty woman. Too young to look as old and tired as she did. I hoped she found someone to change that. Someone who could help take some of the load off.

“You too. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I nodded and stepped back from the car as she closed the door and started the engine. Then, as she pulled out, I turned toward my car and sighed, grateful that the night was just about over.

***

BOOM!

My eyes snap open to stare into my room, still black from the night.

My eyes. My right eye is back. It was gone for so long, but it’s back now.

I sit up in bed and look around. What was that noise? What woke me up?

I hear my parents in the hallway. They’re up late. Did they hear something too?

I jump out of bed and rush to the door. When I open it, they turn to stare at me, startled.

“Did you hear that?” I ask.

“Revan, go back to sleep,” Mom says, her voice sweet and kind. “I’m sure it’s—“

Her voice is cut off by sirens in the distance. With each passing second, they come closer.

“What is—“

BANG! BANG! BANG!

A loud knock on the front door makes the three of us jump, frightened by the noise. The knocking doesn’t stop. It just gets louder, more frantic. Dad leads the way down the stairs, and Mom feebly shields me with an arm. We approach the door carefully, shaken by the incessant banging. Over and over and over, they knock, never stopping.

“Who is it?!” Dad calls.

The knocking stops.

What the fuck? I think, my heart beating too fast for my body to handle.

“Rev!” Nate’s voice comes through the door. “Rev!”

Dad gasps. “Oh my God, it’s Nathan.” He lurches forward and throws the door open.

Nate stands on the other side, covered in blood. The battered body of a pink-haired woman is cradled in his arms. I notice her face right away.

It’s Kate.

She’s dead.

He killed her.

“We can be brothers again now, Rev,” Nate says, looking at me, his eyes cold and unfeeling. “We can be brothers.”

I jolted awake with a gulping gasp for air. My hands scrape at my throat; my legs kick at the blanket and sheet until they were off my body.

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” I chanted repeatedly, catching my breath more every time.

I glanced at the clock and saw that I’d only been asleep for an hour. Then, with a groan, I flopped back onto my pillow, both hands gripping my hair while waiting for my heart to settle.

It was a dream , I reminded myself. A fucking nightmare .

“Obviously,” I grumbled to no one, swallowing at my dry throat.

Fuck, of course it was a nightmare. A horrible one, yeah, but a nightmare nonetheless, and it didn’t take a damn genius to figure out what it meant either.

I—or at least my subconscious—was freaked out that Nate felt like he’d been replaced. And my subconscious was worried he’d do something insane to take care of it, just like he’d done insane shit in the past. But the thought of that alone seemed insane in itself. He might have done some questionable shit before, but it had never been intentionally directed at me—well, to the best of my knowledge anyway. I just needed to cool it. I needed to take a deep breath and get back to sleep. The alarm would be going off before I knew it, and I was in for another long day … even longer if I didn’t sleep for another hour or two.

But every time I tried to doze off, I saw her lifeless stare. And every time, I heard her voice.

"Why didn't you save me, Rev? You were supposed to save me."