Page 137 of Sharing Silence

I freeze. I can see what I think is the girl’s door, still open, but then it slowly closes. Does that mean he’s done? Will he leave her alone?

“Uh … trick or treat.”

“Get the fuck off my property.” He slams the door in my face.

My heart rattles in my chest, and as I slink off the porch, I pull my mask off. My skin is sticky with sweat, and I go back to the girl’s window.

Did he call her Silence?

She’s curled up on the bed, arms wrapped around herself, and I don’t know if she’s moving.

What if she’s dead? Or dying?

What do I say to the police? That I was spying on a girl and watched her dad beat her?

“This is some Xavier shit,” I grumble as I grip the window. “This isn’t Yale activity.”

I shove the window up and put my leg through the gap, ducking until I’m inside.

This is so fucking illegal.

Creep and burglar in the same night.

The thought reminds me that I’ve taken my mask off, so I pull it back on. Every step closer to the bed feels like I’m securing a juvie record, but I’ll just check that she’s breathing, and then I’ll go home and forget she ever existed.

Once I reach the bed, I crouch. Her eyes are closed, tears clinging to her lashes, the start of a bruise across her cheek. One to join so many others.

She’s breathing.

I’m so relieved that I straighten up and sit in a chair in the corner. My mask is sticking to my face, my heart still beating too fast.

But she’s alive.

So I can go now.

Except, I don’t.

I watch her, worried that maybe her breathing might stop, or that her dad will come back. I don’t know what I’d do if he did, but I also don’t want to leave.

Terror spikes across my skin when she opens her eyes.

Brown. Her eyes are brown. Not the first thought I should have, though. I should be fucking launching myself through the window and running for my damn life, but I don’t move, and neither does she.

She closes her eyes and goes back to sleep.

My heart rate slows, but I still don’t stand. I don’t leave. I settle back into the chair and I watch her, promising myself to do this only once.

One night of Silence, whoever she is.