Chapter 60

Chapter 60

JASPER

J asper awoke to the sound of someone ransacking his kitchen.

It had been so long since anyone had been stupid enough to break into his home, the sounds didn’t fully rouse him, not right away. For a moment he just lay in his bed, lost in the fog that exists between sleep and consciousness.

Then something shattered, and that fog dissipated in an instant. Jasper was awake, snarling as he barreled out of his bedroom and into the kitchen.

But it wasn’t a thief who awaited him there. It wasn’t a thief who had ransacked the place, upending drawers and digging through his cupboards.

It was Vivian.

“Viv?” Jasper asked, looking around at the mess. His floor was covered in a hodgepodge of junk. Tools and kitchen utensils. He tried to step around it all, pushing aside a ladle with his foot to make room.

Vivian was buried in a lower cabinet, on her hands and knees. She whipped her head out to scream, “Don’t turn off that light!” before immediately diving back in, digging through his emergency supplies. She tossed items out behind her, leaving them in a pile on the ground.

“She can move through the dark,” Vivian was muttering, her voice so low Jasper could barely hear her. “I don’t know how, but she can. Dark and shadows. She controls them, somehow.”

“Who are you talking about?” Jasper asked, pushing more junk out of the way to take another step forward.

Vivian didn’t answer. With a squeal, she scrambled backward, back onto the kitchen floor, an emergency lantern clasped victoriously in her hands. It was a crank operated light, something he only kept in case the electricity went out.

Vee ignored him as she began to charge the lantern, cranking the lever so fast Jasper worried she might dislocate her arm.

“Hey, slow down,” Jasper said. “Here, I can help you with that?—”

He reached out, but Vivian scrambled away from him, frantic.

There was an organization to the chaos in his kitchen, Jasper suddenly realized, looking around. Sure, the kitchen floor was covered in junk, but…

On the counters were every flashlight and candle he owned, carefully set aside. Matches. Lighters.

“Viv… what’s going on?”

She didn’t answer.

“Vivian, whatever is happening, I can help you, I can?—”

The emergency lantern flared to life when Vivian flipped the switch, and in the soft glow of the kitchen lamp it blazed like a small sun. Jasper quickly looked away, blinking.

“You can’t help me,” Vivian told him. She sounded a little sad. But she didn’t look at him as she stood and clipped the lantern to her waist. Didn’t even glance his way as she scooped batteries and flashlights off his counter, shoving some into her pockets and securing others to her arms and legs with rubber bands.

“Please. Viv?—”

She stopped. Staring down at the mess on the floor, she frowned, as though only now noticing what she had done.

“Hey, Uncle Jas?” Vivian asked softly. “Can you tell Nan I’m sorry?”

“Stay right there, Viv,” Jasper told her, heart sinking. He ducked back into his room, grabbing a pair of pants and pulling them on. Shirt, where was his shirt? “Whatever this is, you can talk to me. We can deal with it together.”

There—a shirt, not clean, but clean enough. He grabbed it, rushing back to the kitchen. “Sit down, and just tell me what?—”

“ Sleep ,” Vee said, the word echoing through Jasper’s skull like a bell.

He was unconscious before his body hit the ground.