“You need a buddy. It’s too dark to go alone.” She leaned back and pointed across the parking lot. Logan’s light was off and the Neon was missing from the lot, though Gracia didn’t seem to notice. “Ask your prima.”
Elexis grimaced. “She’s not there. Not like she’d come out of her room, anyway.”
“If you ask nicely she would.”
Elexis rolled his eyes. He pulled on his sweatshirt and sighed. “Okay, okay. I’ll ask her.”
He had no plans to ask Logan anything. He grabbed the trash bag from Gracia’s room, then gathered up the empty chip bags and frozen food boxes from his floor. The Bates Motel dumpster was only a few feet from his room. It’d be a longer walk to Logan’s door than it was to take out the trash. It was ridiculous to think he couldn’t handle walking even that far on his own.
He stepped into the night and closed the door behind him. Without the rambling of the TV or the groaning air conditioner, the air was quiet. The silence was like a cool balm to Elexis’s racing brain, smoothing the nerves that the motel room made jagged. Without Nick, he’d spent the last month playing video games until it felt like his eyes were going to cave in.
The truth was, since Nick, it felt like the world was moving too fast. Elexis had stayed upright for now, but Nick was the one person in Snakebite he’d been able to call anytime without worrying that he was being annoying. Nick was the only person who made him feel less lonely.
Nick made Snakebite feel like home.
He’d died alone, and now Elexis was alive alone. It wasn’t fair to be mad, but sometimes Elexis wasn’t sure where to put the hurt in his chest. On nights like this, he took a moment to lay his head against the motel door and just breathe.
He made it all the way to the dumpster before he heard it.
Boots echoed hard and fast off the pavement.
Elexis turned, but the stranger grabbed him before he could scream and clapped a hand over his mouth. He pushed Elexis hard against the dumpster, crushing his cheek into the sticky metal. He was bigger than Elexis, but not by much. When he finally spoke, his voice was hoarse.
“Calm down,” the man muttered. “You’re not gonna die.”
Elexis writhed against the stranger. He wanted to scream, but the sound died in his throat. His heart beat so fast he thought a heart attack might kill him before the stranger ever got a chance.
This was how Nick had died.
This was how Elexis was going to die.
“Hold still,” the man said.
Something crawled over Elexis’s back, cool and slick as oil. He kicked at the dumpster, searching the parking lot frantically for someone who could help him, but no one came. No one could hear him. The substance at his neck snaked along his collarbone and then, slowly, seeped into his skin.
He shuddered, but the urge to scream stopped.
Everything stopped.
Do not be afraid, a voice whispered to him. The voice had the timbre and depth of a great ocean. It lured Elexis into its waters, and before he understood it, he was submerged. It continued, I only want to help you. Don’t you want to fix your lonely heart?
He did. He wanted nothing else.
He wasn’t sure why.
You want a place for your hurt. I know whose fault it is that you’re alone, the voice breathed as though it were coming from the dark itself. You want this town to feel what you feel. You want them to feel alone. You want them to feel like the last people alive.
“I … do,” Elexis murmured.
Good. The dark wrapped around Elexis’s chest, and then poured itself into his heart. It was thicker than blood and it pumped through him like tar. It was all he could feel. Overhead, the stormy sky was streaked with gray and pinpricks of lightning, but Elexis only saw dark. You’re going to help me, Elexis Carrillo. But right now, you’re going to sleep.