Chapter 7
My bed is empty when I wake up the next morning. “Mio?” I call, voice raspy with sleep. “I mean…Mattis?”
No answer.
It’s pitch-black outside—5:12 AM says the clock radio, and not even the moon is out—and I should try to catch a couple more hours of sleep. I close my eyes, but the lack of a tiny furry body snuggled up next to me unsettles my stomach.
This is the first time I’ve woken up without him. He’s always extra cuddly in the mornings and reluctant to get out of bed, so his absence concerns me.
What if he left?
The thought propels me out of bed, and I grab a pair of sweats and jump into them as I rush to the en suite bathroom to see if he’s there.
He isn’t.
I make my way downstairs, worry niggling my stomach, but I shove away the ever-present questions of “why?” As I
