Tears prick my eyes. “How long do you think he’ll be away?”
“For life.” She picks up her fork. “He’s a monster, Autumn. He’ll feel right at home, though, so don’t waste your time worrying about him.”
“What about Adele?”
“Who?”
I bite my tongue.
“Did you say Adele?” She laughs. “We are a bit too late to go to her residency, but you can make it up to me somehow later. I think you’re officially the random one between us now.”
I nod, grateful she didn’t press any further.
“You can find someone far better,” she says. “And you will. You already made the first step—the best step—in deciding to get the hell away from him.”
He’s not a monster…
I pick up my fork and force a few bites of waffle down my throat.
“Here,” she says, handing me a glittering keychain. “It’s pepper spray.”
“For what?”
She shrugs. “You just never know these days. You don’t have a gun or any other weapon for protection, so…”
I sigh.
“I hate to end this so soon, but I’m really tired, Kylie,” I say, knowing I won’t be able to fake being okay for too much longer. “Raincheck for breakfast another day?”
“Oh, sure. Sure.” She smiles and signals for the waiter. “I should probably get back to my actual job before they realize I’m a bad employee.”
I laugh for the first time in weeks.
After paying for our food, she drives me back home, and I return to my bed.
That night,I try to sleep.
But something’s off.
I can feel it…
A faint sound begins to thread through the quiet—an irregular buzz, like interference from an old radio, soft but insistent. I freeze beneath my covers, holding my breath as it surges again, sharper this time.
It’s not coming from outside. Not the hallway. Not my phone.
I sit up and scan my room. The sound vanishes for a moment, then returns—higher-pitched now, tingling at the edge of my nerves like a mosquito I can’t swat away.
It pulses again.
Then… something inside my purse pulses in return.
I get up slowly, every movement deliberate. My heart is already pounding, but I try to ground myself. It’s probably nothing. Some app glitch. Maybe a forgotten portable charger losing power.
Except when I open the purse, I see the pink and coral keychain Kylie gave me weeks ago blinking. Faint white light. Irregular hum.
I fish it out and lay it on my desk, then dig out the second one—the one she gave me this morning. That one’s blinking, too. Syncing in rhythm.
Neither have buttons. No off switch. Just that pale flash and that quiet, almost living sound.
