In The Middle Of The Night.

Micah shouldn't be feeling this way. 

 He isn't hers for her to be feeling like this. But she didn't know what she felt or should be feeling when she saw that omega straddling Severo like that. They both look ecstatic, laughing without a care in the world. 

 Micah can't help but wonder who he is to Severo. Maybe he could be his friend…or something more than that. But there's no retreat from the way her heart drops into her stomach or the jealousy crawls onto her skin like a creepy insect. Micah didn't know it would pain her so much to see Severo with someone who isn't her. 

 God, she almost rejected him. There's no reason for her to be feeling this way. Yet all she sees behind her closed lids as she lay here in her bed, trying to catch the sleep that had abandoned her a long time ago, are them sitting in the garden. laughing, touching.

 Micah shovels away all the images of them arising in her thoughts as she tries to catch the butterflies of sleep that keep flying away from her. 

 A screeching voice makes her flinch in the dark. A light slithers through the slight gap in the door to her bedroom and a shiver spider-walk down her spine. 

 Micah clutches the blanket to her chest as she stares at the rising glow. What on earth is it?

 A knock. Two. Then three. The knocks keep raining on the door but she feels too paralyzed to move a muscle. Micah gulps around the growing lump around her throat and tries hard to hide the quiver in her voice as she asks, "Who is it?" 

 The knock is the only thing she gets as an answer. Micah feels sweat breaking into her skin as she asks again, "Tell me who you are!" 

 The knocking halts. Silence buzzes in between the walls. She sat up from the bed, still covered in the blanket. 

 Micah is about to open the door and see if anyone is still there when she sees the light emerge again. Whoever is on the other side isn't knocking like they did moments ago and it terrifies her not knowing what is going to come next. 

 Her heart is beating so fast that she's scared it will break out of her ribcage. "Open the door, Miss." A woman's voice seeps through the door and reaches Micah. 

 Fanney? What is she doing here in the middle of the night? 

 "Fanney? Is that you?" Micah's voice bounces through the walls, shattering the chilling silence. 

 "Yes, Miss. It is me. Could you please open the door?" The maid asks, her voice rushed as if she too is scared that she knocks at Micah's door at this hour of the night. 

 "Why?" Something in Micah tells her that this is for no good. Why would Fanney have to be here instead of sleeping? 

 "Miss, please open the door. I'll tell you once you are out here." Her voice is more strained now as if someone is choking her. Micah feels fear stream through her veins as she finally removes the blanket around her body. 

 "Tell me what it is, Fanney. Only then do I open the door." She says, her voice barely above a whisper yet it is enough to reach Fanney's ears. 

 "Miss, I need your help. Please… please open the door." 

 Mycah walks to the door with measured steps, clutching her nightgown as if it will ease her rippling anxiety somehow. 

 "Miss?" Fanney calls out to her when she won't respond to her. Micah feels like screaming for help already because a voice inside her head tells her that it's a demon outside the door luring her to its deadly arms as it voices like Fanney. 

 Her fingers shake as she grips the door knob, debating with herself if she could open it or lay back in bed, and acts as if she couldn't hear Fanney's strained voice calling out for her. 

 "Miss, please…I'm begging you." She is almost crying. Crying? Why is she crying? 

 Micah calls out for all the Gods she knew the name of and begs them not to take her back as she twists the doorknob, pulling the door open. 

 The blood in her veins turns into ice as she sees her standing in front of Micah, a blade pressing to her neck. 

 "Erin?" Micah doesn't even know if her name slips out of her tongue was loud enough to be heard or a shaky breath. 

 Erin's lips curve into a vicious grin as she stares down at Micah, her grip on Fanney tightening when she tries to squirm away, the blade pressing further into her neck. 

 Micah wants to scream. But her voice is stuck in her throat and she can barely breathe. 

 "Wasn't expecting me, right, Sweetheart?"