Annabel Lee ─ emily prentiss

twenty

BEL WAS in a good mood. She got a job yesterday, at a pizzeria just a couple blocks away from Emily's place. She managed a 92 on her first math quiz. She'd finally been befriended by a group of other freshmen and a couple upperclassmen, and she sat with them at lunch today. Things were going well until she got out of school and saw that Emily left a voicemail on her cell.

"Hey, it's Em," the voicemail started. "We got called in on a case in Nevada, so I'm probably going to be gone for a few days. I'll try to check in when I can. Kaira should be at home when you get there. If you need anything, call me...I love you."

Kaira Kapoor was the sitter they chose. She was in her early twenties and a master's student in something, Bel didn't know what, which gave her the flexibility necessary to be available on a moment's notice to watch Bel for a few nights. She seemed nice enough when Bel met her, but a.) a lot of people seemed perfectly nice and normal before killing you in your sleep, and b.) even if Kaira wasn't an ax murderer, needing to have a sitter as a teenager was humiliating for Bel. Bel was not excited.

She still felt a swell of warmth inside her at the words "I love you" in Emily's voice. The only other person to say that to her since her parents died was Evelyn, which mostly stopped after Bel left because they had almost no contact. It meant more to Bel than she could ever possibly articulate, not only because it was nice to be loved, but because it meant she was allowed to love someone back. If she told the Howells she loved them, they would have laughed at her.

Stay safe, Bel texted Emily. Love you too.

She shut her phone and slipped it into the pocket of her jeans before starting her walk home. Walking alone still freaked her out, but she wanted to be hopeful that her new therapist would help. They met for the first time last week. Her therapist, Dr. Valerae "Call me Val" Malbrough, had never worked with a kid who'd been kidnapped by a serial killer before but appeared otherwise qualified and undaunted by Bel's many, many issues. They would work on techniques to control the anxiety. Ideally, Kaira would drive Bel to and from school on the days Emily was away eventually, but not yet. She had to prove herself first.

The walk home was only about fifteen minutes and took Bel through a very nice part of D.C. She had a hunch that Emily came from money, because there was no way Emily could afford to live in this nice apartment in this nice area by herself on a government salary. When she arrived at Emily's place—she could never decide whether it was okay to think of it as "home"—and went inside, she found Kaira on the couch with a laptop on her lap and papers and a book on the coffee table. Kaira put the laptop down and jumped to her feet.

"Uh. Hi." Bel waved like a fool. Kaira smiled.

"Hey. Good to see you again."

"You too." Bel felt like she should say something more, but she didn't know what. She didn't know what to do, period. Normally, when she got back from school, she did homework either on the floor of her room or at the kitchen counter. Locking herself in her room and leaving Kaira unattended felt wrong, but she didn't want to make herself vulnerable by sitting at the counter and turning her back. She also didn't really want to sit in the living room. However, the awkwardness of sharing the living room beat being strangled from behind or robbed because she was hiding upstairs. "Mind if I, uh..."

She gestured to the part of the sectional currently unoccupied by Kaira and her things.

"Oh, of course." Kaira scrambled to move all her stuff as far away as possible so she wouldn't be too close to Bel. The most important thing for her to do, Emily had said, was to give Bel space. Kaira assumed it was because Bel was a teenager, and no teenager wanted to have a sitter. She had no idea it was because of deep trauma from abuse and a run-in with a serial killer.