The Secret Keeper

I didn’t have any Nightmares later that night. I slept through it.

Of course, that might’ve been because I was so thoroughly exhausted from being chased by a wolf and a bunch of zombie-Creatures, but I like to think that it was because of Bo. Wishful thinking.

“Morning, Eve,” a voice whispered softly in my ear, arousing me from my sleep.

I groaned and turned over, willing the noise to go away. I wasn’t ready to get up yet.

“Eve.” I knew the voice.

My eyes shot open to see that I was not sleeping on my bed, like I thought I was, but rather on Bo’s chest. His arms were wrapped around my waist lazily, and when I looked up at him he was grinning slyly. I smiled back.

“Morning.”

And then I snuggled back into his chest and begged him to let me sleep longer.

He chuckled, his torso rumbling beneath me. “Upsie Daisy, Eve. As comfortable as this is, I can think of a much better one.” The last part was almost a whisper, low and husky. I shivered.

I didn’t have time to protest before he had somehow flipped me over on my back, and was propping himself up with his hands. It didn’t take long to notice that he was still in only his boxers. My face heated up.

“Um…”

Bo smiled, and I could see that his face was practically on fire. Awww. He’s blushing!

“What are you-“

I didn’t finish my sentence. My mind groggily registered the fact that his mouth was now connected to mine, his tongue asking for entrance. Whoa.

I pushed him away reluctantly. “It’s too early for that. Talk to me in an hour,” I mumbled, and turned onto my side.

I heard him sigh, but then his voice was right next my ear. “Are you sure about that?”

I peeked up at him. “What’s gotten into you?”

His face pulled back. “Nothing. I just-“

“Bo! Eve! We’re back!” my mom’s voice called as I heard the door open.

Thank God.

“And we have more information to tell you about,” my dad added.

I raised an eyebrow while pushing Bo farther away from me. “Like…what?”

My mom glanced at Bo suspiciously, no doubt eyeing the fact that it looked like something… bad happened. Bo was, of course, shirtless, and from her perspective my off-the-shoulder sweater I’d worn last night –

I bit back the urge to throw up.

“It’s not what it looks like, Ivy,” Bo said quickly, scrambling to get off of me. I saw, out of the corner of my eye, my dad’s face go from confused, to surprised, to angry, and back again. He may have only been my foster dad, but he was just as protective as a biological one. He didn’t particularly like the fact that Bo was living with us anyway, but now… Well, now he had something to blackmail him with. He’d just walked in on Bo trying to get me to… ahem. I shuddered at the thought.

He sat up on the couch, wrapping the blanket around his lower half so that we didn’t see something we weren’t meant to see. I was still in my clothes from yesterday, so I didn’t, at least, have that problem.

My parents took their seats on the sofa across from us, their hands intertwined and their faces grim. Something was wrong; I had no doubt about it.

“We’ve done some… research about these circumstances,” my dad began. sounding nervous. I wondered what he meant. “I’ve never heard of those Creatures coming so close to a human dwelling, like Witch Hazel. All of the other Creature Outbreaks have been in the middle of wide-open areas, spread to the cities by pure chance. But the number of Creatures we saw today in the forest made me think otherwise.

“We also saw something else that disturbed us: they all seemed to be following a leader, something unheard-of for the Creatures. All previous accounts of them have stated clearly that they were nomadic, and their attacks indiscriminate. But these Creatures seemed particularly focused on one target specifically: Eve.”

My blood ran cold. The Creatures had banded together because of me? What did I have to do with this?

Seemingly having read my thoughts – or literally, I wasn’t quite sure – Ivy replied, “Eve can see the future. She can’t really control her Visions, but the Creatures don’t know that. At least, the Leader doesn’t. He seems to be counting on the element of surprise, catching you when you’re away from Bo, the only time you’re vulnerable. So Eve’s Nightmares could very well be the nightmare of the Creatures. It could mean their death.”

I didn’t have anything to say to that. What was I supposed to say? “Great, now lead me to the beasties?”

“What are those… things… doing here, anyway?” Bo asked hesitantly, almost like he didn’t want to know the answer.

My parents exchanged glances. “That’s what we’re not sure about. At first, we thought that they were after you two, in order to discover the Secret. But now… now that we think about this, we realize that they might…” My mom paused, like she was trying to figure out how to phrase it properly. “They might not be looking for the Secret, but trying to get away from it.”

The room was silent.

What could be so horrible that Creatures would want to get away from it? I sat back slightly and digested this. Maybe we weren’t dealing with just a secret. A fact. Maybe… Were we dealing… Were we dealing with a living thing?

Ivy’s head snapped toward me, her eyes wide. She gasped. “Eve. I think you’ve got it.”

The guys looked at her funny. I wished desperately that I was wrong about this, but something in the pit of my stomach told me fiercely that I wasn’t.

“Got what?”

Ivy cleared her throat nervously. “I think Eve’s right about this… I don’t think We’re dealing with a secret, so much as… as…” She trailed off, staring into space. It was almost like she couldn’t find the words, yet again.

“As?” Arkarian prodded, sitting on the edge of his seat. I was more or less dreading hearing the words come out of her mouth. It felt like… That if she said it out loud, it might actually be true.

“A Creature. And not a humanoid Creature… One that could possibly be so dangerous that the others would try to escape it.”