Chapter 8: A Favor Returned
297 Words
I went back to see Erin the next morning.
She opened the door with swollen eyes and a trembling lip. She looked like someone who’d been trying to forget and failing miserably.
“Cici,” she whispered.
I didn’t speak right away. I just stared at her.
“You look... different,” she said. “Like you’ve been somewhere else.”
“I have.”
“I’m sorry,” she said for the hundredth time.
“I know.”
I handed her the vial.
Her hands shook as she held it. “Is this—?”
“It’s what’s left of the curse. I broke it.”
She started crying again.
“I never meant to hurt you,” she sobbed. “I just—I was scared, and I didn’t think you’d open it. I thought maybe you’d throw it away.”
“But I didn’t.”
“No.”
I sat down on the edge of her couch.
“You need to know something,” I said. “The curse—it’s gone, but not forgotten. And the person who gave it to you? He’s not random. He’s hunting for hosts. People with guilt.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. But if he finds you again, or anyone you know, you don’t take anything. No gifts. No jars. No promises.”
She nodded furiously.
“I mean it, Erin. This wasn’t some ghost story. It was real.”
“I believe you.”
I looked at her for a long time.
“I’m not angry anymore,” I said. “But I don’t forgive you.”
She flinched.
“And I don’t hate you either,” I added. “But we’re done.”
Then I stood, turned, and left her apartment forever.
- Writer
