Chapter 240

My father locks the door from the outside that morning, and I hear it happen, the specific mechanical click that tells me exactly what he’s just done before he even bothers explaining himself through the wood.

“This isn’t a punishment,” he says through the wood, his voice muffled but clear enough. “Until we know how deep Ghost’s reach into this household actually goes, I can’t have you unaccounted for right now.”

I don’t answer him. I lie there listening to his footsteps retreat down the hallway, and something hot and useless flares up in my chest, the specific fury of being managed, contained, decided for, and for a while I let it have me completely.

I get up and test the handle anyway, on principle, twisting it back and forth several times like the lock might somehow reconsider its position if I’m sufficiently annoyed about it. It doesn’t. I press my forehead against the door and stand there for a long moment, breathing hard, furious at a piece of wood that h