✓ DYING MOURNINGS, original

twenty-two : Jeb Reed

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𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐖𝐎 : 𝐉𝐄𝐁 𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐃

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Jeb Reed was exactly like his description and pictures, maybe even worse so up close. His eyes were small and narrowed, so incredibly bird-like it was hard to look away. He held up a knife, waving it in my mirror like he was afraid I'd forget about his weapon but I didn't. The threat was so close to me that I could nearly feel it's breath down my neck as I gripped my steering wheel and kept my eyes forward.

His breath smelled like rot, his teeth a dirty yellow, his front tooth chipped. He licked his chapped lips and snarled, "Don't turn until I say you do."

I nodded stiffly, feeling droplets of rainwater fall from the loose strands of my hair, sneaking their way down my skin. I felt nauseous, so sick with fear that I hardly registered his voice when he said turn and I swerved.

I jerked the car to the right and Reed swore, hitting his fist against the back of my seat as he hissed, "Watch it!" I noticed him straighten out in his seat, running a hand through his sandy hair before using the knife to point as he reached past my shoulder so I could see. "Pull off there."

"The woods?" I gulped, pressing my lips together. How am I supposed to get out of this? How am I supposed to get away if I'm stranded somewhere in the forest? I tried to forget that I had just seen one of my classmates get crushed by an oncoming semi and that I hadn't just seen her broken body sprawled out in the streets like a scene from a horror film. I tried to forget that I saw not one ghost, but two, crawling its way out of her body like a cicada coming out of its shell.

He nodded, wiping at his mouth with a dirty thumb. "They won't hear you out here."

I averted my eyes from his and kept them focused on my windshield and the rain still coming down hard, drowning out my chance of a clean escape. It was as if a static was building up in my ears, the panic. Cage's whispers and warnings echoing through my head like a drum, my mother's own warnings snipping and cutting at my skin, leaving me on fire. You're going to burn with all this knowledge, with all this pain. I hadn't anticipated all of this to happen at once, so early on.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked in a whisper, blinking back the onset of tears. I needed to be braver, to be stronger, like I was earlier. Like I was when the blood geata opened up and nearly swallowed me whole. "Why me?"

"Oh, is the sweet, little necromancer scared?" he cooed with a silencing smile.

"No," I shot back, praying he didn't notice me falter. "I just want answers, you know, before you kill me." You are not going to die tonight. You will not be dying. You're stronger than he is, he doesn't know what you can do. Show mom how right she was, don't let her down.

He tapped the tip of the blade to his cheek in thought as he purred, "Now, why would I spill all of our secrets to you? You're just a scared, pathetic, little girl trying to find anything to prolong our sweet, sweet time together."

I needed to get out of the car. He could strike way too easily from behind. In an instant, he would have me by the neck and my blood would spray like a fountain. Blood likes rubies. Blood like disease. My throat tightened at the thought and it was difficult to swallow as I shook off the feeling and gripped the steering wheel tighter as my car threatened to hydroplane.