✓ DYING MOURNINGS, original

twenty-six : visitors

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𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐒𝐈𝐗 : 𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐒

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When I returned home, exhausted but filled with more answers, I was greeted by both Ace and John sitting in my living room eating from to-go boxes that smelled like heaven. I froze in my doorway, hand on the frame as I gasped out, "How in the hell did you two get in?"

"You didn't lock the door when you ran out," Ace muttered in between bites of his burrito. I didn't have a clue how he could be eating at a time like this, when my own stomach was in knots.

"And why is he here with you?" I asked, motioning to John as I let the door shut behind me and I gave the pair a hesitant look. I wasn't sure if I could trust John, much less trust him enough to be in my home when I wasn't even there.

"You look like shit," John said, shoveling two forkfuls of rice and beans into his mouth. "Why does she look like shit?" he turned to Ace and the other boy gave me a sympathetic look, swallowing his own food before saying, "Blaire, I'm sorry but he knows–"

It was like the air had been sucked straight from my lungs as I choked out, "Knows what?"

John smiled, placing his fork down and folding his hands behind his head as he leaned back on the couch. "Everything."

It was like the world was spinning and I stumbled to the side and into the wall, my knees threatening to buckle. "You–you did what?" I fumbled with my jacket that was being gripped tightly in my hands, I couldn't get to the inside pocket as I stammered out, "How could you do this? H–how can you trust him?!"

"I'm on the run," John said, finally serious as he moved to sit on the edge of his cushion. I stopped moving, stopping clawing for my knife. "I left the Morticianers and I know you know what I am. Frankly, I feel like I should be the one freaking out since you've been killing demons all week," he finished with a laugh and I wanted to scream.

How could Ace break my trust like this? Go completely behind my back and tell one of the men in the very group that was trying to kill me, everything we've done and accomplished? I could ring his neck, shaking him until his face went red, I–

I forced myself to take a deep breath, in through the nose and out through the mouth. I repeated this small action two more times, my heart rate finally slowing.

"Tell me, John," I said finally, opening my closed eyes to stare him dead in his. "Did you have anything to do with my father's death? My mothers? And what about Gretchen, hmm? Your friend from school?"

He looked at Ace with a sigh, his head dropping as he wrung his hands in his lap. "No, of course not," he murmured, looking up at me slowly and adding, "I'm really sorry about them, Blaire, I really didn't have anything to do with them at all, I swear."

Don't trust him, the little voice in the back of my head chanted and I wasn't quite sure which man it was warding me from. "How do I even begin to trust you? You've allied yourself with the man who's trying to kill me and is going to actively murder Pandora in two days?"

"He–" He looked at Ace again, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. "–he's got Pandora?"

"Are you not listening to what I've been saying?" I scowled, pushing off from the wall to stare down at him from across the coffee table. If my arms weren't weak and sore, I'd flip the table in his face. "He took her from me," I scoffed, turning to Ace with just as much venom as I said, "Surprised you hadn't told him that since you've told him everything else already."