Fallen Angel

☾CHAPTER THREE

☽ Luke

I CRACKED THE DOOR OPEN and scanned the kitchen for not-dead children. The coast was clear. Sadly, the little girls weren't asleep yet, but they were enthralled by something playing on a screen. We should've been able to sneak by unnoticed. In other words, the coast was clear enough.

I jutted my chin towards the door, and JT got the message. Her edge had come back, and she was ready for revenge. I had a feeling she wouldn't want to talk about anything personal for the rest of the night, which was fine by me. I cared about her, but ironically enough, I still felt like I wasn't the best person to be giving her advice. She was pretty much the female version of me: hot, talented, and royally fucked up — aka, the whole package. But if we were as similar as I thought, then I knew I shouldn't push her when she was feeling fragile. It only takes one push to shatter glass.

Just as I was about to open the door completely, a crinkle sounded from behind me, and I whirled around. What I saw was probably only funny because it was so late that it was early, and because we were supposed to be silent lest we get caught and arrested (or worse). But it was because we were supposed to be quiet that I couldn't suppress the laughs that bubbled up my throat at the sight of JT with one hand in a package of cookies.

"Want one?" she whispered, eyes wide like she'd gotten caught with one hand in the cookie jar— oh wait, she had.

I managed to stifle my laughter, and shook my head at her. "Come on," I whispered, but I was happy to see her smiling again. There was so much about her that I didn't know. JT was a mystery, and I wanted to know everything about her.

She nodded, stuffing the rest of the cookie in her mouth and attempting to chew it all at once. This did nothing to quiet my laughter. I couldn't even look at her without feeling tears of laughter prick my eyes, so I forced myself to turn around.

"JT, we need to go," I urged, facing the shelves with my fists pressed against my eyes.

"I'm done, I'm done," she answered, and when I faced her again, I could tell she was trying hard to keep her laughter inside.

I shook my head at her. "Never again," I whispered, then pushed gently on the door.

Even though all the lights were off, the risk of getting caught was higher because of the light coming from the screen. We tiptoed through the kitchen, slower than snails and quiet as lost little mice. The wild beating of my heart had returned, and I heard it pounding in my ears. I think it was excited to finally be living.

We had almost cleared the kitchen when I stepped on a loose floorboard, and the resounding squeeaak that followed was loud enough for the little girls to pause their video and whisper, "did you hear that?" and "what was that?" I whipped my head around to look at JT, whose eyes were wide enough to convince me to go go get up those stairs run fast now.

I could hear the sound of five pairs of feet heading for the stairs, and I did my best to make my footfalls soft as I ran like the wind. I had just pulled JT around the corner at the top of the stairs when a voice spoke at the bottom.

"I think I saw a shadow!" one of the girls whisper-yelled. "It was going upstairs."

"Do you think it was a ghost?" another asked, her voice laced with fear.

"Do you think it was a murderer?" another suggested wickedly, eliciting terrified wails from the others.

Murderer? No. God, no.

I gripped JT's arms tighter, pressing her against me in case the girls decided to get adventurous and peer up the stairs. She didn't fight me, and instead let her body melt into mine. We kind of looked like one of those couples at a party who won't stop making out in the corner (minus the kissing, of course). If the little girls suddenly decided to investigate past the top of the stairs, we'd be screwed, but until then, I wasn't in a hurry to move. Like I said, the girl was hot.