sakura
I screamed and tossed the box away from me, the head rolling out and onto my carpet. A streak of sanguine blood stained the rug, dripping out from the gaping hole where his head had been attached to his neck.
“Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!” I shouted, scrambling back until my back hit the headboard.
My hands trembled uncontrollably. I reached for my phone in the center of the bed to text Callan.
Me: Callan?! What the hell is this???
Me: What the fuck is wrong with you???
“Sakura,” Dad called from downstairs. “Is everything okay?”
“Y-yes!” I shouted, heart pounding.
“What’s going on up there?” he asked.
“It’s, um … just a spider!” I yelled, shuffling to my feet, picking up the head with my bare hands, and hurling it into a black duffel bag that I hadn’t used since the seventh grade. With my hands soaked in blood, I tore the blankets off my bed and laid it over the stain to cover it. “Just a goddamn spider.”
“Want me to come kill it for you?”
“N-no! I’m pretty sure it’s already dead.” I dropped to my knees and zippered up the bag, bile rising in my throat as I caught a glimpse of my bloodied hands. “What the fuck? What the fuck? What the fuck is wrong with him?!”
Dad ascended the stairs, his footsteps loud and quick.
I sprinted to the door and locked it, my chest rising and falling quickly and sweat forming at the base of my neck. If he fucking saw me with a head in my bedroom, he would have a heart attack. A straight-up fucking heart attack.
“Are you okay, Sakura?” he asked, knocking.
“I’m having really bad girl problems right now, Dad!” I shouted, back plastered against the door. “Can you, um, get me a pad from the bathroom and slide it underneath the door? I, um …”
Quick, Sakura, think of something a guy would find gross.
“I leaked through my pants! There are huge globs of blood everywhere. Please!”
“Okay, okay,” he said, footsteps hurrying away from my bedroom door.
After I took a couple of deep breaths, he returned and slid three different-sized pads underneath the door.
“I left a towel outside your bedroom too. Do you want me to make you tea?”
Fuck, I hate lying to him like this.
“No,” I said quickly, pushing away a tear. “I just want to be left alone for tonight.”
“Okay, sweetheart. I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”
Once he finally left, I blew out a deep breath and stood. That was close. I pulled out my phone to see if Callan had answered my texts and found my messages completely empty. For a moment, I thought about texting Ichika to help me.
But she’d think Callan was nuts. Absolutely crazy.
And he was.
Me: Callan, please answer me.
Me: I don’t know what to do.
Me: Please.
When he didn’t answer me in a tenth of a second, I called him. Voice mail.
I called him again. Voice mail.
And again. Voice mail.
Callan wasn’t answering his damn phone, but I needed to get rid of this head as soon as possible. Kai had to know how to make people disappear, right? He was part of Poison and did those kinds of things on the daily. If I found him, maybe I could convince him to help me.
He has been hanging out with Imani Abara lately, I thought.
I glanced down at my phone and gnawed on the inside of my cheek. Maybe I could ask her if she had his number, but if they were a thing, I didn’t want her thinking I was hitting on him or something.
Hell, I shouldn’t care about that right now. I had a damn head sitting in my bedroom!
So, I wiped my bloody hands on an old tshirt, grabbed the duffel bag, pulled on a black sweatshirt, and hurried to the door. After opening it, I tiptoed out of my room and walked down the stairs to the back door, careful not to alert Dad that I was leaving.
Once I made it to my car, I threw the duffel bag into the trunk and slipped into the driver’s seat. I sped out of the driveway, then the neighborhood, heading straight for Callan’s house.
What the hell was that asshole doing that he couldn’t answer my calls or texts?
When I reached his house, no lights were on. No cars were in the driveway.
Everything was dark, desolate.
My stomach twisted into knots as I walked up to the front door anyway and banged on it. Nothing. I walked around the back to the pool, nervously glancing at the water. Still … nobody. I stared into the windows, hoping to find any sign of life. But there wasn’t any.
“Callan,” I whisper-yelled so his neighbors wouldn’t hear me. “Please, come out!”
Suddenly, a light turned on in the bathroom connected to his bedroom, and his wife appeared near the window.
“Oh shit!” I whispered, pressing my back against the house and ducking. “She’s home?!”
Fuck this. I need to get out of here.
I waited until she stripped her clothes and stepped into the shower, and then I ran back to my car and sped out of the driveway as fast as I fucking could without her knowing that I was ever here. Callan had security cameras around his house, but I sure hoped he had turned them off.
Or at least, he hadn’t given her access to them.
Otherwise, she would know—would see—everything that had happened between Callan and me. She would know that Callan had been sleeping with one of his own students. And she would be out to get me.
I shook the thought away. I couldn’t think like that right now.
I needed to find Kai to get rid of this damn head.