Dark Descent: The Arondight Codex - Book One by R Nicole (best books to read all time TXT) 📗

I was saying, I was worried about you, Scar,” Jackson said, watching me as I picked up my phone.

“You know I don’t like it when people call me that,” I murmured, starting to feel terrible when I saw the twenty missed calls and fifteen text messages from the loveable geek in front of me. I groaned and drew my knees up so I could lean my head against them. “I don’t know what happened.”

“You blacked out? Were you drunk or something?”

“No, I don’t… I haven’t had a drink in a while,” I said, squeezing my eyes shut. Images swirled inside my eyelids, but I couldn’t focus on any of them. I raised my head. “Wait, what did you say about me acting weird? What did I do?”

Jackson squirmed and wrung his hands. It was how he occupied himself when he knew some juicy piece of gossip but was trying his hardest not to tell anyone. Usually, it was me he was avoiding because when it came to long-lasting friendships, we were two peas in a pod. Our circles were close in the up-close-and-personal kind of way.

“Jackson,” I prodded.

“You were talking to yourself,” he blurted.

“I was talking to myself?” My eyebrows rose. “Nuh-uh.”

“Scarlett… You were serving customers who weren’t even there,” he went on. “Then you shouted at something or someone that also wasn’t there, then rushed out onto the street. After that, who knows what happened because you didn’t come back. I tried to call and text, but you never picked up.”

I stared at him blankly, trying to recall my shift, but my head throbbed even worse.

“I was starting to think you’d been kidnapped or something.” He gestured wildly. “I almost called the police!”

Kidnapped… Black smoke… Black smoke swirling into the sky. My entire body stiffened as the image appeared in my mind, clear and sharp like a HD television channel. Black and thick… like ink swirling in water.

“Scarlett?”

Jackson was staring at me. His glasses were smudged with fingerprints, which annoyed me no end.

“I, uh… I’m sorry about ditching you,” I muttered. “I… I think I need to—”

“It’s okay,” he said, placing his hand on my knee, “I get it. Birthdays suck for you. Twenty-five is like a milestone, right?”

“Stop trying to make me feel better.”

“Of course I’m going to make you feel better,” he said with a smile I was sure had tinges of sadness around the edges. What did he have to be sad about? “We’re best friends, Scarlett. It’s what we do.”

I combed my fingers through my purple-esque hair and shrugged. “I suppose. I’ll still make it up to you.”

“Up to me?” He blew a raspberry at me. “It was your birthday.”

“Jackson… You know what I mean.”

He smiled and glanced out the window. “You want breakfast?”

On cue, my stomach groaned and squelched, signalling there was nothing in it. “I guess that’s a yes on my behalf.”

“C’mon then. Have a shower and we’ll go down to the café. My treat.”

“Your treat? I think it better be mine.” I crawled out of bed, not worried about the fact that I was only wearing an oversized T-shirt and boy short knickers. I hesitated at the door and turned back. “Jackson?”

His gaze flicked up, but I didn’t pay any attention to where he’d been looking.

“I really am sorry about last night.”

He nodded. “I know.”

I detoured past the kitchen, downing a glass or water and a pair of headache tablets before I locked myself inside the tiny bathroom. The flat wasn’t much to look at, and it was tinier than a shoebox, but it was home. The floor was uneven, I was sure the plumbing dated back to medieval times, and the kitchen was a hole in the wall with nowhere to sit and doubled as the laundry area, but that was the norm for semi-affordable flats in Camden.

Stripping, I stood in the tub and turned on the taps, waiting for the water to go from icy to warm. I pulled the curtain around and studied the vintage Pac-man pattern. Ghosts, cherries, and the man himself repeated over the plastic. It was familiar and very Jackson. The whole place was filled with video game decor. Even the cushions on the couch were printed with the Legend of Zelda characters.

As I let the hot water soak through my hair, I mulled over the one thing neither of us really wanted to acknowledge. Jackson had asked me about my meds, but it hadn’t gone any deeper than that. The real question should have been, ‘Do you want to go back to the doctor to make sure you haven’t reached breaking point?’ I snorted and grabbed the soap. The mysterious point of no return psych professionals had always threatened me with as a teenager. Anger had been my mission objective back then, but that was a long time ago. I was put together much better these days. The cracks had been repaired, even though some fragility remained. I was good, right?

Then why couldn’t I remember last night? I rubbed the soap over my lady bits. I’d had a flashback that much was clear, but what happened after that? I leaned my head against the tiles and circled the soap around and around. Invisible customers? Black inky smoke… Silver eyes.

A man stood before me and grasped my face, his silver eyes burning into mine. What are you? I gasped as I came on the bar of soap, my knees trembling. What the fu—

A fist bashed against the wall from the other side and I jumped, almost slipping in the tub.

“Scarlett!” Jackson bellowed. “Have you drowned in there?”

I swallowed hard. “No!”

“Then hurry up! I’m starving!”

Putting the soap back in the holder, I turned off the water and stepped out onto the bathmat. Dripping, I wiped the condensation off the mirror and stared at my reflection. A pair of brown eyes stared back at me, my wet hair black as ink.

“Where did you go last night?” I whispered.

* * *

“Did you have to bring that with