Page 40 of Devil Inside

“Says you.”

“Says me. I fucked that one up pretty royally.”

I first met Jenn nearly clipping her at the corner of Cary and Auburn. She was set to cross the street when I zipped through the intersection.Hey, she shouted. There was barely an inch between us. Her auburn hair whipped up around her face and I just had to pump the brakes. Turn around. Apologize. The rage that seethed out from her clenched jaw seared its way into my mind. Blue eyes that could rearrange traffic patterns. The kind of woman you want to wreck into.

Look where you’re going next time, yeah?

Whereyou heading?I asked.Just tell me where you’ll be, and I’ll look out for you.

She looked at me like I was crazy, clearly not impressed. Maybe alittleimpressed, but not by much. It worked. For a little while, at least, until I fucked it all up and had to die.

“She was asking about you.” Deak drags me back to our convo.

“...Jenn? Asking who?”

“Me,”Deak says.

“Where?”

“Where do you think?Betsy’s.”

“What’re you doing there?”

“The crew still meets up for coffee in the mornings. She’s a bleeding heart. You know how it goes. She’s always asking one of us how you are. If you’re ever coming back.”

“Doubtful.”

“That’s the way you’re going to play it?” Deak asks. “You’re just gonna sit on the sidelines for the rest of your life?”

“Living it day by day, you know?” I shrug, take a sip from my beer, even flatter than before. Does anything possess flavor anymore? Are all my senses completely fricasseed?

The conversation diminishes, hitting a lull, leading me back to Lilith. She’s a song. A tune I can’t stop hearing in my head, like it’s trying to escape. Be sung. I can’t stop thinking about her, even now. “There is this one girl...”

“Who?” Deak asks between sips of his beer. “Your one-night stand with a unicorn?”

“I’m telling you. She’s real.”

“Sure she is.”

“I’m serious.”

“Does this unicorn have a phone number? Did she leave a note? Something, anything, that proves her existence? Because at this point, I think you fucked Bigfoot.”

“I’m not making her up.”

“Then where is she?”

Good question. Where is she?

“Hell if I know—” The words die right in my throat.

Something’s seized my attention.

Someone.

There.Right fucking there.

There she is.