“Dragged into what?”

“Damien is…” She sighed. “He’s a troubled person. And I certainly was not expecting to see him today.”

“So you’re not going to listen to him?” I asked. “Help him?”

“Damien doesn’t want my help,” she said cryptically. “But I hope you won’t hold this strange encounter against me. I’d still like to see you for your session next week.”

“I…” I was surprised by that, that she just wanted to move forward like everything was totally normal, but continuing therapy with her might be the only way to dig into all of this more, so I just nodded and agreed.

Is Dr. Bright involved with all of this somehow? Was Damien lying to me? How, exactly, do they know each other? I had started today thinking that Dr. Bright and Damien might be able to put their information together and yield some answers but all I have are more questions.

FEBRUARY 3RD, 2017

Well, I have some answers now.

I’m still trying to piece everything together—both how I got to here and what I’ve been told. Because it doesn’t feel …

I don’t know. I get that the past six months have been … a lot and maybe I don’t have the best judgment in the world at the moment, or ever, but what they told me about Damien doesn’t feel real. God, I hope it’s not real.

It all started this morning when I got a phone call from an unlisted number.

“Um … hello?” I answered.

“Is this Rose Atkinson?” a woman’s voice said on the other end of the phone.

“Yes…?”

“My name is Sam Barnes,” she said, “and I heard that you had a run-in with Damien yesterday.”

“Oh, um…” This had not been what I was expecting. “I’m sorry, who is this?”

“I’m like you,” she said. “And Dr. Bright is a friend. I know that she told you Damien was troubled but I think—I think you deserve to know the whole truth. She made it sound like the two of you were friends.”

“We are,” I said, feeling weirdly defensive of a man I’d only known for a few weeks. But who the hell was this woman? Why did she think she could just call me up and act like we were already in the middle of a conversation?

“Then I think you need to know who he really is. What are you doing today?”

And that was how I ended up at a house somewhere on the outskirts of the city, talking to a whole bunch of strangers. Sam gave me an address and I got right on a bus.

Remember what I said about not having great judgment?