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"Will you be able to sleep?"

"Don’t worry about me, Ava This is a nor back I sat down on the bed and took a deep breath The bed was coht even have appreciated the charht then I was too busy trying to make sense out of the craziness that had completely taken over et cohed heavily on my shoulders and I felt like there was a beach’s worth of sand undera white flag There would be ti If Owen decided to bail onIf he decided to kill me…well, there probably wasn’t much I could do to stop hiher on my shoulders Deep down, I didn’t feel threatened by Owen He’d had his opportunity to ditch me and hadn’t done it, but I still wasn’t sure about his ht be British, but he wasn’t exactly James Bond He did his job for money, not out of duty to Crown and Country He wasn’t Toh I had a feeling he lived in a world that was cold and lonely much like those two characters

My eyes drifted shut as I conte armor Even in my dreams I couldn’t escape un with the foa me down the block with a knife, but the worst were the ones about Mr Song He alking through the building where I used to answer phones and the lights were flickering I chased hiiveness, but he never stopped, never looked back Instead he stopped at the door to the engineering wing, his shoes drenched in blood, and knocked

"Please forgive me!" My fists clenched There was blood on my hands, caked under my nails

"Ava"

"I didn’t mean to kill you"

"Ava"

"Please!" I reached out to touch Song

A hand closed onOwen looked down at me with sad eyes

"Shh You’re okay It was just a dreaful of cool air and choked Bile rose inpast Owen I ran to the bathroo to the cool porcelain and wept as quietly as I could I tried to choke backthem My eyes burned and every muscle in my body felt as if I had just co away froainst the bathtub and rubbed the back of my hand across my nose

Owen knelt down next to me and held out a ash cloth "Finished?"

"Think so" I took the wet rag from him and pressed it to ize" He sat down on the floor and leaned against the tub next to ht I would break down and toss uts yesterday?" I leaned my head back and looked at hi isn’t easy The first time is always the worst"

"Did you throw up after your first… kill?" Hit? Mark? Murder? I didn’t know the lingo

He let his head fall back and closed his eyes I watched as he sed and wondered if he was reliving it in his head