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TEN DEAD IN THE WATER
💀
ANITA YAWNED AS SHE SAT DOWN on the grass, cross-legged. She, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin were looking for stones for Lucas' wrist rocket in the schoolyard, but Anita was exhausted, her limbs felt heavier and heavier with every second, and she needed a break. She hadn't slept at all last night, and she felt it, she was fucking tired. It showed, too. The bags under her eyes were extremely dark, and she was pretty sure that her eyelids were swollen. Of course, the boys noticed that as well. And Anita noticed that they noticed — the unsure and worried glances they cast her every now and then weren't discreet.
Dustin did it right now. He looked at her like he wanted to say something but wasn't sure how he should say it. Anita tried to ignore it and started picking blades of grass, ripping them into tiny pieces to keep her busy.
"Are you OK?" Dustin finally asked.
Anita looked up at him. "Mm-hmm," she hummed, nodding. "Just tired, is all."
Lie.
That was not all...
Last night, every time Anita had closed her eyes, she was scared that the Midnight Man would show up and take her, that he was just waiting for her to relax, and then he would come out of the shadows and kidnap her like he kidnapped India. Over and over again, she had told herself that she was fearless and a fighter and that the Midnight Man couldn't appear, couldn't harm her, because she hadn't played the game — but all of those things were lies. First of all, Anita was scared shitless, she wanted to do nothing more than just crawl into bed and hide under the blanket; and second of all, the Midnight Man could show up and take her without the game — Will proved that.
India, too.
India wouldn't play the Midnight Game again. Not after what had happened last time. Anita was sure of that. But the Midnight Man still took her. And now she was gone, missing, hiding from the Midnight Man in a place far away, a place Anita couldn't get to. She had tried to figure out where India was by reaching out to her in a way that the sisters were able to do since the month they had been missing. (Well. Anita and India could do that. Esme didn't have it under control, just like her touch.) But she still couldn't find her; she could feel that India was there, but she couldn't feel where.
