Revelations

Now

Where are you?

Nina? Mom wants you home now.

Are you okay?


I blinked at the screen. It had been over an hour since my last text with Kayla, and I was still sitting in my car, in the parking lot of the precinct. I glanced at the building, my heart shuddering inside my chest. My hands were clammy as cracked the window open, allowing some air in.

I took a breath: one, two, three. In and out. In and out.

And closed my eyes.

The memory played on the edges of my mind, and I was angry that I'd forgotten it. Because it could have ended things a lot sooner.

Isaac knew, and he had been trying to tell me that I did, too.

Blood coated my hands as I looked around the kitchen.

The darkness nearly swallowed every part of the room, but the light outside from the moon sent a sliver across the floor.

I looked into the blackness because I couldn't look at him.

A shadow moved along the far wall, near the backdoor. Then his voice filled the quiet.

"Pull the knife out, Nina."

"What?" I whispered. "No, I can't. If I do, he'll die."

"Isn't that what you wanted?"

"Isaac." My stomach twisted, bile creeping up into my throat. "What did you do?"

"You know exactly what I did," he answered. "You wanted this. I told you to leave, but you wouldn't. You wanted to stay."

"No," I said, shaking my head. "You're lying."

Isaac crouched next to me, his presence heavy around my body. He wrapped his arms around me, and they felt like weights.

"Let's go," he said. "Nina, come on."

I stood on shaky legs and let him lead me out of the house as the sirens came closer.


"Nina, what are you doing here?"

I glanced up. I was standing in the lobby of the station. I wasn't sure how I'd gotten there. I didn't remember leaving my car.

The detective touched my shoulder, and I recoiled.

Finally, I found my voice.

"I was there when Isaac killed my dad," I said.