Page 22 of Noctis

The shadows comprising his body scattered before I could finish, dissolving so completely that within a second, there was no evidence he’d ever been there.

I spent a long time lying awake and trying to work out exactly what Caligo’s game was before I finally snatched a couple of hours’ sleep.

Chapter Nine

Rowan

Morning brought a strange sense of detachment, as though everything that had happened the previous night might have been a particularly vivid dream. With the impending meeting with the psychiatrist pressing down on me, I forced myself to snap out of it. Nothing would do more damage than appearing to doubt my sanity in front of a medical professional. When Laura sat opposite me for breakfast, I vowed to say nothing about our mutual ‘friend.’

Still, one question continued to nag at me. What would happen when I went home? Would Caligo switch his attention back to her?

“What happened last night?” she eventually whispered, having waited until she was sure nobody was listening.

“Nothing.”

Her eyebrows rose. “What? You didn’t see him at all?”

Thankfully, someone else joined our table, saving me from having to lie. I tried Tyler again after breakfast, but still got no answer. I was beginning to worry that something might have happened to him.

The meeting with the psychiatrist went well, or at least that was my interpretation when it ended. I’d made a deliberate effort to be open and truthful about everything, figuring that if he suspected I was concealing something, he might assume I was lying about everything else as well.

He finished by informing me he needed to speak with Dr. Collins, but promised they’d do that within the next couple of hours. When I asked if that meant I’d have their blessing to go home before the end of the day, he simply smiled and told me to be patient.

That afternoon presented me with an unexpected temptation. There were only three of us in the common room when a nurse walked out without noticing that her phone had slipped out of her pocket. A quick glance at the other two patients confirmed that neither of them had seen it.

I stared at the phone like… well, ironically enough, like an addict presented with the promise of their next fix.

It was probably locked.

But what if it wasn’t?

I strolled across the room and casually nudged it beneath a chair with my heel, hiding it from view. Once I was sure no one was looking, I bent down and tucked the phone into my sleeve. Then I headed toward my room with what I hoped was convincing nonchalance.

Luck smiled on me. The nurse had used the phone recently enough that it wasn’t locked. I internally tutted at the nurse checking her phone while she was working. Mind, I could hardly take the moral high ground when I’d essentially just stolen it.

Borrowed, I corrected myself. It wasn’t as though I intended to keep it.

Worried the screen might lock at any moment, I quickly pressed buttons while deciding what I wanted to do. Checking on Tyler’s well-being took priority, so I opened Instagram and navigated to his profile.

He’d posted several times since dropping me off. Interesting that he could find enough time to document what he’d been up to but not enough to answer any of my calls.

Unless it was only my calls he was ignoring.

Apparently, there had been a party at a nightclub the previous night. I flicked through the photos Tyler had posted, frowning when I spotted Remy in several of them. Call me self-centered, but I didn’t like the idea of my boyfriend and my best friend partying together while I was stuck in rehab. Nor was the irony of Tyler accusing me of partying too much and then immediately doing the same thing himself lost on me.

I navigated to Remy’s Instagram next and found more pictures from the same party. None were that interesting. One comment from a mutual friend, Benny, was though.

BGBrown1286: You two are going to be in deep shit.

Deep shit, for what? And which two?

I clicked through to Benny’s Instagram and began scrolling through the photographs from the party. It was more of the same: dancing, shots, and drunken photobombing.

Until it wasn’t.

I stared at the photo on the screen.

Tyler and Remy were dancing together. Far too close together.