Chapter 22
I woke from a dream about morality and death. After flicking on a nightstand’s light my bedroom was empty except for a wisp and spiral of gray smoke, which rose to the bedroom’s ceiling and vanished. A red rose, a small piece of black velvet, and a square of lush moss the color of clover lay next to my bed, all of which I hadn’t placed there the night before. The room felt freezing cold. Ice covered the two windows that overlooked Lake Erie. Goosebumps covered my arms and legs. A whisper echoed in my ears…Don’t find me. It’s unnecessary. I’m not lost. Go back where you came from, intruder.
A spell had been placed over me, I knew. I didn’t know how, or by whom, and nor did I know exactly what the hex entailed, but the three items left for me on the nightstand were meant to be found, valid clues that I had been visited the previous night and my sleep had been tampered with, perhaps chaotically.