The boy leads me to an old house in a completely different part of town. The place looks like something you would see in a horror movie. "Come inside," He tells me. We walk into the house. It's dark inside, meaning whoever lives here must be asleep—if someone even lives here. The boy takes me to the attic. Inside, there is a mattress, lamp, and some drawings on the wall. I take a closer look at them and shudder. One of the images contains a dismembered person. Another depicts a skinned man, smiling eerily as if someone had pinned his mouth that way. "This is my room," The boy tells me. "I'm Damian. I've been watching you and your friends for a while and you guys seem really amazing." Damian looks at me with an admiration I'd never seen directed towards me. I shake it off and ask him a question. "So, basically, you've been stalking us?" Damian responds, flustered. "W-when you put it like that, it makes me seem a lot worse! I don't bite!" "Yeah, okay, Damian. What do you want with us?" I ask. I don't really want to have to worry about a creepy little kid watching me. Or what he even wants from us. "Friends," Damian answers. "I want friends."
I want friends. Damian's been stalking us for who knows how long, doing who knows what! I have so many questions. How did he find us? Why does he want to be our friend? Should I even keep talking to him? Is he even okay? My mind goes back to all the drawings on his walls. I don't know what happened to him when he was younger, but there's something very wrong with Damian. He seems like he could be a good kid. I don't wanna mess him up.
Matthias and I meet up later to talk about the plan now that Vance is gone. After my encounter with Damian and his confession, I'm not entirely sure whether he's listening to us as we talk. Jiara came with us that day. I hadn't seen her in a few weeks, and she's twice as beautiful as I remember. I can feel my heart flutter in my chest and my face go hot as she touches my arm, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Alexei?" Jiara asks me. Damn. Her voice is so sweet. I could listen to it all day. "You zoned out for a second! I got worried there," "I'm fine," I lie. No, I'm not fine. Not when I'm around you, Jiara. Even if it was just for a second, she was worried about me, I think. She cares about me.