Breathe

Chapter 35

Lucie

Vinny went back to his own house, and oddly enough, I was feeling rather lonely—even if it wasn't his dwelling in particular, my house felt empty without him in it. The hallways seemed vacant and bleak, the rooms soundless, the windows shrouded in a darkness I knew was only my imagination, but nevertheless felt surreal. Perhaps it was an effect that even his revival hadn't taken away: the power to warp your reality, to see things and notice things other people didn't.

I passed the door to my bedroom, came to the one at the end of the hall. The doorknob was cold when my fingers brushed it, which made sense, as it hadn't been touched in ages.

It was Dempsey's bedroom.

I wasn't exactly sure why I was there, just knew that I couldn't fight the urge, couldn't stop my hands from tossing open the door, couldn't stop my feet from taking those few steps across the threshold.

I closed my eyes, took a long inhale. It felt wrong. It didn't smell like it used to: like his cologne, or that lavender air freshener that served as a futile attempt to cover up the musky scent of his dirty clothes. It smelled...sterile, like a distant and unfamiliar realm, worlds away from the Dempsey Monteith I'd known.

Not to mention, it was all too neat. I opened my eyes, surveyed the tucked-in sheets and comforter of his bed, the cleared desk, the perfectly hung posters. Dempsey's brilliant mind was too busy to focus on organizing everything. He'd always forget to do things like fold his clothes or fix his posters or dust his desk, but that was just because he was remembering the important things.

I sank to the floor, the carpet barren and scraped beneath my feet. I wanted to cry, but couldn't. I missed him at an insane amount, and seeing his room like this, his but not his, only twisted my grief more. I told myself I was over him, that even when I'd seen the light of Vinny's eyes flicker away, leaving Dempsey's own dead ones behind, I'd known he was already gone. I'd finished mourning a long time ago.

Some wounds took eternity to heal, however, and I had been lying to myself.

I knew my mother had touched it, trying to make herself feel better. A part of me was angry with her; Dempsey's items just weren't the kind of things you messed with. They liked to be left alone, not unlike him.

In my pocket, my phone buzzed.

Exhaling shakily, I pulled it out and glanced at the screen. The name Caprice flashed back at me, and startled, I picked up on around the fourth ring. "Hello?"

"Oh, thank goodness. Listen, is Lazarus with you?"

For Caprice, she sounded oddly urgent. Which either meant the situation was serious or she'd just ran out of Vodka. I couldn't be sure yet, but the goosebumps were already rising. "No...he just went home. Is everything okay?"

"You go to his house, make him pack what he needs—just what he needs—and then both of you need to get the heck out of here," Caprice ordered. Her voice was ragged, as if she were out of breath. "Go, now, before tomorrow gets here."

I got up, slipping out of Dempsey's room and into the hallway. Something told me this had nothing to do with Vodka. "Okay, what do you mean out of here? What the hell's going on?"

"Nick's moved up the date, Lucie," Caprice explained. "He's opening the demon world tomorrow. I've contacted the Order, but there's no telling if they'll be able to stop him before it's already open. Our best bet is to kill so many demons that the surviving ones don't want to stay. But—"