Haunting-Adeline

As if that wasn’t fucking bad enough.
“I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’m not,” Daya mu ers, fidge ng with
the hoop in her nose. “So Zade killed Mark because of these rituals?”
“Not exactly, though it definitely played a part in it. Remember how we
saw him at Satan’s Affair?” When she nods, I con nue. “Apparently, Mark
targeted us that night and had made a call for someone to come… extract
us.”
I explain Zade’s role that night, and how he had made sure that Daya and
I never ended up in the back of a van. Even worse, how the Society has put
a target on my head, and that Mark was trying to fulfill that.
As I con nue telling her everything I know, Daya stares at me with a
somber expression on her face.
When I finish, she stays quiet. Halfway through the story, I poured us
both a shot of vodka. We both needed the liquid courage to hear about
just how fucked up this world can be.
“I’ll be keeping an eye on you as well,” Daya says a er a few moments.
Silence had se led in, and as it stretched on, I grew more and more
anxious that she was going to walk out.
I hurt her.
“You don’t have to do that,” I say, my voice small.
“It seems I do,” she sighs, a frown pulling her lips down.
“I’m sorry,” I apologize again. “Ever since he came into my life, shit has
been insane, and I’ve barely had me to come to terms with it all. Not to
men on that I s ll don’t know how to process… him. And I think I wanted
just to pretend that I was handling a stalker how I should be. Not by going
off and… well—”
“Fucking him?” Daya finishes, her voice stern.
I cringe, bi ng my lip against the s ng of her words. I deserved that.
“Yeah,” I whisper.
Daya’s shoulders drop. “I’m sorry, you didn’t deserve that,” she says, as if
reading my mind. “I’m not mad at you for your rela onship with Z, Addie. I
mean, I don’t understand it… I don’t understand how anyone could accept
that their lover is a stalker. I also don’t think it’s the makings of a healthy
rela onship. The dude obviously has issues.”
I nod, agreeing with her assessment. What she’s saying are the same
things that I have thought myself.