Fading Into Darkness: The Under Series Book 2 (36 page)

“Voicemail.” he said.
“Well try again.”
“It's still going to be voicemail. He's turned it off or he's out of reach.”
“Well go find him, bring him back. I need to speak to him. I need to explain what he saw.”
“What did he see?”
“Nothing.” I said looking away from him glaring eyes.
“Look if you want to talk about it...”
“I don't.” I snapped.
“Good. I was going to say if you wanted to talk about it find somebody else to listen to you. Now
scram you're trespassing.”
“I have a key.” I held up the key Senka had given me which I hadn't needed to use because he'd left
the door open.
“Ill have that.” Alex said snatching it away.
“Hey,” I tried to reach for it but he moved it out of the way and into his back pocket.
“Now scram.”
“Will you let me know when you get a hold of him? He will come back won't he? He's probably
booked himself into a motel for a few nights right?”
“How should I know, what did you do to him?”
“I didn't.....it's complicated.”
“Everything with you is complicated.” he said shoving me out the door. “You have no reason to
come up here anymore so stay downstairs.”
He pulled Senka's door shut and scowled at me, waiting for me to leave.
“I hate you.” I said practically shouting at him.
“The feelings mutual. You little hussy.”
I hurried back downstairs and hid in my room. I barricaded myself in wedging a chair up against the
door handle. I sat on my balcony listening to the party downstairs. I felt emotionally drained and my
body ached. The idea of never leaving my bedroom again appealed to me. Maybe if I stayed in here
I wouldn't hurt anyone else and I could live forever out on my own, confined to the solitary of my
own bedroom. The music carried on into the night and I finally fell asleep on my sun lounger with a
heavy heart.

I felt hollow and empty inside. Six days of emptiness trapped in Under with Cam. I felt as though I
could fade away from the numbness.
I was doomed to spend an eternity in Under with Cam. Not knowing if I would ever see Senka or
Jessie again. Alex still hadn't been able to get a hold of Senka. If he had, he wasn't telling me about
it. The thing that made it worse was I didn't know who I missed more. The thought of not seeing
Jessie again was agony. I still couldn't remember our past together, even though it was only a few
brief encounters I knew it was special. I remembered everything else about him. The way his mouth
curved up into a smile to every beautiful defined muscle in his body, he looked as though he'd been
sculpted to perfection. His delicious earthy pine scent to the feel of his rough skin when he touched
me. It had to have been real. It was the reason I was aching inside for him. Some days I woke up
wondering if I'd dreamt him up. And now Senka was gone and I felt as though I couldn't function
without him, like I needed him to survive. I had grown close to Senka over time but with Jessie it
had always been instinctive, I couldn't explain it. I would spend everyday for the rest of my life
thinking about the things I could have done differently. The
what if
..... But what was done was done
and in the past. Now I had to carry on my life and appear to function but it seemed pointless. I
hadn't even bothered to wash my hair for a week and I was running out of clean pyjamas. (which
was all I lived in at the moment) Nothing felt worth the trouble of getting out of bed for.
My door opened and I pulled the covers over my head.
“Are you not up yet?” Emmett asked coming round to my side of the bed.
He flipped the covers back and I gave him the best
get out of my room
death stare. But it didn't
work. He grabbed my foot and dragged me out of bed. I landed on the floor with a bump.
He picked up the suitcase that had been left for me to pack.
“It's empty.” he said unzipping it and looking over at me.
I shrugged and went into the bathroom and sat on the toilet seat.
“Ruby you need to pack.”
“I already told Cam I'm not going.”
“Fine I'll do it for you. You know he wasn't joking about throwing you over his shoulder and
carrying you out. So get dressed.”
I ignored him and played with the toilet roll unravelling it to the floor until all the paper looked like
a white mountain. Then I started spinning the roll the other way winding it back up, waiting for him
to leave. He walked into the bathroom and opened the mirror cabinet above the sink.
He pulled out various products and stuffed them in a wash bag. He held out a box of birth control in
front of my face.
“Will you be needing this?”
I took the box from him and chucked it over his shoulder.
“Ruby,” he said chasing me out of the bathroom.
“Emmett,” I said mimicking him.
Emmett put the wash bag down and sat on the bed.
“Have you seen Jessie?” I asked.
I knew I shouldn't ask, but my mouth blurted it out without me even having to think about it.
“No I haven't seen him and he hasn't come back to the cottage. If Cam found out that Jessie knew
how to get down here he would deal with it in a blink of an eye. Jessie would do well to stay away.”
“Why did you do it? Why did you bring him down here?”
“I dunno. You looked sad. I wanted to do something nice for you. I thought it would help to gain
your trust and get you to like me.”
“Well you made the situation ten times worse. And because of it Senka's gone.”
“I'm sorry.”
“How am I supposed to stay down here forever? I know Senka wasn't happy with any of this or the
idea of me never leaving Under, but he'd told me he wasn't going anywhere. I thought we'd be down
here together. I can't do this without him. Then you go and bring Jessie down here and confuse the
hell out of me. You ruined everything and you put Jessie's life at risk.”
“I'm sorry.”
“Stop saying sorry. Sorry doesn't fix anything.” I snapped at him.
“What can I do to fix it? Ruby I'm trying to win your trust here, tell me what I can do to fix this?”
“There's nothing you can do. I'm a prisoner of the Underworld. I might as well be chained up in
Hell, it can't be any worse than having to sit at dinner with Cam every night. Every time I see him I
get the sudden urge to stab him with my fork.”
“Cam never wanted you to feel like a hostage, he wanted you to feel like you were home. All he
ever wanted to do was bring you home.”
“It did feel like home for a split second before Senka vanished. Have you tried his cellphone
today?”
“Still goes straight to voicemail. And I checked everywhere, I even drove to Copeland last night
looking for him. But he's gone. No one's seen him.”
“Has he done this before taken off without warning?”
“No. Not like this. He has come and gone before, but not like this.”
“I blame you.”
“Well how was I supposed to know Senka was going to show up at the party and walk in on you
and Jessie smooching.”
“Grrr!” I smacked my head with my hand.
“Come on we're running out of time. You need to pack. I can't pack for you.”
“Looks like you've already done it for me.” I said looking at the suitcase that was full of neatly
folded clothes and a few books.
“Fine be stubborn. Anything I've missed Cam will have to buy for you when you're there.”
“I don't want anything from him.”
Emmett rolled his eyes and picked up the suitcase. “Hurry up. You're going to love it.”
“I doubt it. Just being around Cam makes me sick to my stomach.”
“That's not true. You don't hate him. You don't gawk at people you hate.” he said smiling.
“I don't gawk.”
“So what do you call it when you can't keep your eyes off of him during dinner each night?”
“Shut up. Do you ever stop talking?” I had no idea what he was talking about. I did not gawk at
Cam.
“You wearing those?” he asked eyeing my pyjama shorts and vest top.
“Why not?” I replied dryly.
He opened the door and waited outside in the corridor.
“Ruby,” he called. “Or would you like Cam to come and get you?”
“I'm coming.” I shouted. I took one last look at my unmade bed that called to me.
I pulled the door shut and gritted my teeth at the very thought of being alone with Cam. I was not
going to enjoy this one little bit.